A dragon approaches from my left, his stealth not enough to save him from my wrath. With a single burst of golden flame, I torch his wings. He screeches as he falls, his body landing in the woods far below.
The Usurper’s Aerie is dark. They were already alerted to my presence, perhaps even expected it. Sela stole my mortal, and for that she’ll expect my ire. But she doesn’t know she stole my mate. For that transgression, I’ll burn her and her followers out of every hiding spot they’ve dug into the side of this old fortress.
More dragons take flight, their silhouettes in each flash of lightning. Six by my count so far, which means there are likely more. The DaySilver Clan has hidden its numbers ever since the fall of the DragonLands, but I know they teem like termites. I’ll end them like the insects they are. I’ll make them suffer for daring to touch Larellin. My cheek tingles, fear pulsing down thethin weak bond between my mate and me. Sela is hurting her. Hurting my treasure.
With a roar that rivals the thunder, I shoot a blast of golden flame in a swinging arc, lighting the sky and catching at least three unwary DaySilvers in the onslaught. Shrieks paint the night, the stars hiding behind the rumbling clouds as I bring my vengeance to bear.
A stream of purple flame shoots across my path, and I pull up, streaking through the dark higher and higher until I roll forward, my gaze homing in on the DaySilver following me. Another stream of purple flame glances off my wing, singeing the edge as I dive. I slam into the dragon, my teeth sinking into its neck as a flash of lightning brightens the tempestuous sky. The DragonKin screams, his back claws seeking purchase on my stomach. I bring up my own claws, catching his in my grasp, then wrestling back and forth until my left leg is free. I drive it into his belly, then rake my claws down and through, his entrails wet and pulsing as they flow across my talons.
He goes limp. I bite down one more time for good measure, then let him go, his body falling to ruin below.
“There are too many!” Faraday has caught up.
I see him to my right as another DaySilver falls, crystals embedded in its eyes and snout.
“I’ve summoned Fyan and Rivon, but they won’t get here before—” He careens to the side as a stream of acid catches him in the wing.
“Sela!” I hiss her cursed name and turn, my wing catching an updraft and spinning me quickly. With ferocious speed, I follow her.
Her laugh cackles through my mind, the DragonKin bond open for all who share our blood, even her. “Your mortal is quite fine. She’s going to be an excellent treat for me once I’ve finished you off.”
“You will never touch her again, Usurper.”
She disappears ahead of me, fading into the high thunderhead that now towers over the Aerie. Electricity tingles along my scales, the winds in here unpredictable.
“She’s leading you into a trap,” Faraday calls from somewhere below.
“I know.” And I don’t care. Not when she’s harmed my mate. Sela has violated my family for the last time.
A barrage of flame comes from below, the wind taking it and dissipating it into the storm.
“I’ve got this one,” Faraday growls, his roar making it to me despite the distance between us. I keep my eyes ahead, searching through the darkness for Sela. The enemy I never should’ve let live. The one myfathernever should’ve let live.
After the war, the losses were too great—the DragonLands passing their judgment on our spilled blood by enacting the curse. I vowed to never again take the life of a DragonKin lightly, to never again allow the fog of war and pride to cost my family and friends their lives. That oath is no more. Sela sealed her own fate when she took my mate, and I’ll kill as many of her warriors as I have to if that means getting Larellin back safely.
I rise into a hail shaft, the thick pellets pounding against my hide.
Her tail whips out, the end a spiked club that narrowly misses my snout. I breathe out a burst of fire, blasting everything in front of me.
She laughs viciously, her green scales disappearing into the maelstrom again. “Missed me,” she taunts. “Your little one didn’t even know about you. The real you. How you let me slaughter your family while you stood by and did nothing. She seemed surprised. Then, once I got to know her a bit better, she seemed … wet.”
I flap harder, riding the updraft and floating higher and higher into the spinning storm. Lightning streaks and crackles around me, and I catch sight of Sela, her body mid-turn. She’s setting me up, aiming for me with her poison breath.
Maneuvering to the side, I inhale to end her once and for all.
That’s when a crystal shard embeds in my side, right where my scales are missing, the ones I gave the pixies to protect Larellin. The pain is immediate, searing between my ribs where the crystals with barbed edges have embedded themselves.
“You remember Alestes?” Sela whips through the clouds, her tail slamming down onto my back. My scales are impenetrable, but that doesn’t mean she can’t hurt me. The impact sends me spinning, and I tuck in my wings to dive lower.
“Running away so soon?”
Alestes fires off another burst of crystal shards, one of them cutting across one of my nostrils, the others bouncing off or flying into the storm.
I roar, my rage blasting forth in a golden rain of death. The flames catch Alestes on one of his silver wings, and he falters butkeeps flying. Sela darts around the fire and opens her mouth, a fog of poison streaming out.
At the last moment, I spread my wings, the updraft lifting me again, more quickly this time, and spinning me away from both of them. The pain in my side is constant, an agony that I can’t shake. But I can’t focus on it. Not now, not when I have to keep my wits about me to get Larellin safely away from this nest of traitors.
They follow, floating behind me and hedging me in on either side.
