“Will you calm down?”I snapped back down our bond.
Bloodwitch glanced down, smoothing the folds of her dress. “Bold words from someone who has little idea what I’m capable of.”
“Kill me or don’t.” I shrugged. “Either way, why should I listen to you babble?”
“Isara—”
“Shut. Up. I can’t focus with you in my head like this.”
Kaelen obeyed.
The tip of the woman’s sabre stilled against the ground, the delight in her features giving way to a cold calculation. “Interesting. Little pet, did you happen to cross the Veil recently? Say, a few months ago?” Her eyes gleamed with vicious delight. “Did you perhaps make a rather...dramaticentrance?”
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, but the words came out too flat, too controlled. The lie that screamed truth to anyone with half a brain.
“Don’t you?” She took a step closer, and the air around her seemed to thicken, torot. “Because my husband felt something very interesting that night. A resonance. A signal.”
Lincatheron took a half-step forward. “She’s not who you’re looking for.”
“Isn’t she?” Bloodwitch’s attention swung to him, amused. “How sweet. You’ve adopted a little stray, haven’t you? Does Varyth know you’re collecting lost causes with forbidden magic?”
“Whatever you think she is—” Lincatheron started.
“Ashterion would beveryinterested to meet you.” She didn’t so much as glance at Lincatheron as she cut him off.
“Well, he can get in line,” I said, letting all my exhaustion bleed into the words. “Apparently everyone wants a piece of me these days. It’s getting tedious.”
Bloodwitch laughed, a sound like crystal shattering on marble. “Oh, I like you. Stupid, but entertaining.” Her magic surged, tendrils of crimson reaching toward me like grasping fingers. “I think I’ll take you with me. Ashterion does so love his surprises.”
“No.” Lincatheron’s glaive came up, water already gathering around the blade in a swirling vortex. “You’re not touching her.”
“Stay behind me, you injured idiot,” I snarled, shoving him backward with one hand.
He stumbled, nearly falling, fury and disbelief warring across his features. “What the fuck are you?—”
“I’m the one she wants,” I snapped. “Sostay down.”
Bloodwitch’s smile turned feral. “How noble. How utterly pointless.” Her hand rose, magic coalescing into something sharp and lethal.
The earthshattered.
Kaelen slammed into the ground between us with the force of a meteor wrapped in emerald fury. The impact sent soldiers flying, tents collapsing, the very air compressing with the violence of his landing. He was massive, scales gleaming like cut gems, amber eyes blazing with an emotion beyond rage.
“Touch her and I will scatter your entrails across three realms.”His voice was diamond-edged murder in my skull, but I knew Bloodwitch heard it too. Dragons didn’t need words to communicate threat.
A second dragon landed beside him. Lincatheron’s twilight beast, purple scales darker than night, bristling with protective fury as it positioned itself between its rider and danger.
Both dragons had wings spread wide, claws digging furrows in the blood-soaked earth, mouths open to reveal teeth like swords. The air around them crackled with violence, with the promise of devastation that would level everything within reach.
Bloodwitch paused.
“Well, well.” She lowered her blade casually, as if two murderous dragons hadn’t just positioned themselves to tear her apart. “How protective. Howinconvenient.”
Kaelen snarled, the sound reverberating through my bones.
