Stop,I begged.Kairos, you’ll die.
Then I die.
The threads blurred, a screaming knot of ancient power, and then I felt it. The core, buried deep where everything converged.
I lunged for it.
My fingers fastened around something that wasn’t quite solid, and the ground buckled. Somewhere far away, Vaeris shouted. I gripped the core with everything I had left—every ounce of love for the sister waiting for me—and I wrenched myself sideways.
Blinding light seared against my closed lids. The threads I’d been gripping disintegrated like spider silk, and a blast lifted me off my feet and threw me across the Square.
59
A DRAGON’S DEBT
Pain. Everywhere.
I tried to push myself up, but my arms wouldn’t work. A coppery tang filled my mouth. I lay on my side, half-buried in a mound of rubble. Dust coated my tongue, my eyes, the inside of my throat. Every breath scraped like swallowing glass.
The Square was gone. Where cobblestones and market stalls and the executioner’s platform had stood, there was a crater of stones. Smoke curled from a dozen small fires, and the buildings that had framed the Square leaned inward, their facades sheared away.
I coughed wetly, blood spattering the dust.
Kairos.
I called through our connection.
Kairos, where are you?
I forced myself to breathe. In. Out. In.
The sky was blue. I blinked. The vortex that had hung over Skalgard for days, spitting red lightning and screaming wind, had vanished. The clouds had scattered and sunlight poured down, painting the ruins in soft colors.
Stones erupted, and a scaled snout pushed through the ground. It buckled as the dragon tore free, its black scales glistening.
Massive wings unfurled, wide enough to blot out the sun, and with a thunderous crack, the dragon launched into the air. More came—silver, purple, iridescent. Some were lean and long as ships, others short-necked and armored. Dozens of dragons, flying into the sky, their roars shaking the city.
A giant one broke from the rest. It was enormous—midnight scales slick with iridescence. It banked low and landed hard.
The impact shook my body. I threw an arm over my face, bracing myself, and when I lowered it, the dragon stood twenty paces away.
Its head was taller than a house. Golden eyes fixed on me, its pupils contracting slowly.
“Runebreaker.”
Tazurel’s fierce voice rumbled the earth.
I opened my mouth to respond, coughing blood.
His massive snout hovered inches from my face. Heat wafted off him in suffocating waves, thick with sulfur.
“You are broken,” he observed. “Your clay is too weak.”
He drew in a breath.
I flinched as his jaws yawned wide, showing rows of very sharp teeth, and light poured from his throat, spilling over me like a bath. It soaked into my bones, and the pain vanished almost instantly. My darkening vision cleared.
When I pushed myself upright, my arms didn’t shake. I was whole. Not a scratch on my skin, even the fabric on my dress restored. I turned, boots crunching over rubble, stunned by the absence of pain.
