A bolt of silver lightning split the air inches from my face, the heat of it singeing my hair. I twisted in the saddle, trying to get a better look at our attackers, and my heart stopped.
They weren’t just flying. They werehunting. Moving with coordination that spoke of centuries of practice, of battles fought and won in skies just like this one.
Ashterion led the formation, his dark wings spread wide, and even from here I could see the cold calculation in those midnight eyes. He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t even particularly interested. He was just... efficient. A predator doing what predators do.
Elowyn flanked him to the left, her smaller form cutting through the air like a silver blade. The chains and jewellery adorning her face caught the lightning, throwing fractured light in all directions. She looked like a fallen star, beautiful and deadly and utterly merciless.
And Merrick...
Merrick was smiling.
Even from this distance, even through the chaos of wind and shadow and screaming dragons, I could see that lazy, taunting smile. The one that said he knew exactly how this was going to end, and he was going to enjoy every second of it.
Another blast of shadow magic tore past us, and this time it found its mark. Cindrissian’s dragon—a sleek thing built for speed—shrieked as the darkness wrapped around its left wing. They spiralled downward, out of control, crashing toward the forest below.
“Cindrissian!” Shaelith’s shout was pure fury, Ballaris already diving after them.
“No!” Brynelle’s scream shattered over the storm as her dragon tried to follow. “It’s a trap.”
She was right. The moment Shaelith broke formation, Elowyn was there, purple energy crackling from her fingertips. The blast caught Ballaris in the chest, and they plummeted after Cindrissian in a tangle of wings and blood.
Two down. Just like that.
The calculated brutality of it made something cold and vicious unfurl in my chest. The same deadly calm that had settled over me in the tower, when Xyliria’s words had pushed me past the point of caring about consequences.
They wanted to hunt us? Fine.
Let them see how they liked being prey.
“Kaelen,” I said, and my voice was steady despite the chaos. Despite the way my heart was trying to beat its way out of my chest. “Get me close to Ashterion.”
“That’s suicide, wildfire.”
“No,” I said, black fire already beginning to coil around my fingers. “That’s war.”
Kaelen didn’t argue. He never did, not when it mattered. His wings folded tight against his sides and we dove straight down through the howling wind, straight toward the High Lord of Nyxaria like a gods-damned comet.
“ISARA!” Varyth’s roar tore through the storm, raw with panic and fury. I could feel him trying to follow, Thessarian’s silver form cutting through the chaos behind us.
But I was already past listening. Past caring about anything except the cold fire building in my chest and the target directly ahead.
Ashterion saw us coming. Of course he did. He tracked our descent, no surprise, no fear. Just... interest. Like we were an equation he was solving in real time.
I unleashed everything.
Black flames erupted from me in a torrent of hungry darkness, streaking toward him like spears forged from shadow and starlight. The air between us ignited, crackling with the raw force of magic that shouldn’t exist.
Ashterion moved. His wings swept forward and shadows poured from them like liquid night, meeting my fire in an explosion that lit up the storm clouds. The collision sentshockwaves rippling through the air, and I felt Kaelen shudder beneath me as we rode the blast.
But we weren’t done.
The shadows lashed out at us like living whips, cutting through the air with vicious intent. Kaelen banked hard to the right, then left, his massive form twisting through the sky in impossible spirals. One tendril of darkness missed us by inches, close enough that I could feel the lash of it against my cheek.
“He’s fast,” Kaelen snarled through our bond.
“So are we,” I growled back, already gathering more fire.
We dove again, this time coming at Ashterion from below. I could see him now—really see him. The planes of his face set in concentration, the way his wings moved. Beautiful and terrible and utterly, completely focused on me.
