No.No, no, no.
Cami.
All four of us pivoted, sprinting toward the library. Dragons flew low overhead, wings slicing through the smoke as they plucked civilians from rooftops, lifting them to safety. From the east, Drithan spotted Shayde running with us and let out a piercing trill as he swept a family into his talons.
We rounded a corner—
Boom.
An explosion tore through the library, hurling us back like rag dolls. I hit the ground hard. My visionblinked out.
“Up!” Lakota roared from above.
I groaned, pushing to my elbows, the world spinning. My ears rang.
“Ma!” Shayde’s voice cracked like lightning.
I turned, heart plummeting.
Rhodes had both hands on Shayde’s arms, holding him back—barely. The brothers were locked in a silent war of grief and panic.
Doryan appeared in the library’s shattered doorway, smoke curling behind him. He carried Cami over his shoulders, her body limp but intact. He made it to us and gently laid her down in the grass. We rushed to her side as she coughed—covered head to toe in soot, but, miraculously, no burns.
Footsteps pounded behind us. Elias Wylder pushed through the crowd, dropping to his knees beside her. His hands swept over her arms, her legs, her face—searching for injuries.
Cami swatted him away, scooting toward Shayde and Rhodes, who knelt just behind her. Her breaths came sharp and fast, but her eyes—her eyes were locked on me.
Her voice was hoarse, barely louder than the crackle of flame behind her. But I heard every word.
“The prophecy is gone.”
Tyria waited until Cami Wylder was locked inside the secret cellar to set the library ablaze. Their forces were waiting in the main cellarbelowground, watching for her to recognize the signs of fire and reveal the door to make her escape.
That was when they knocked her unconscious, raided her archives, and left her for dead.
The four of us stayed with Cami until she scolded us for hovering and ordered us out. A dozen questions pressed against my tongue, but only one slipped free.
Shayde was holding his mother’s hand in the infirmary when I asked, “Why didn’t you use your element against the Tyrians?”
Cami’s mouth curved into a wolfish grin as she accepted a glass of water from Rhodes. Shayde dragged a hand down his soot-streaked face, only smearing it darker.
“I’m a mundane,” Cami said—proudly.
Rhodes dropped onto the stool beside her bed. “You remember what I told you about mundanes in this war? They’re outcast. Dismissed. Considered worthless. Why waste time on someone who can’t summon more than a flicker of power?” He scoffed.
Cami reached for his hand, her grip firm. “When Elias graduated from Mageia, he came back to the Glade and built me the library. So, knowledge became my power.” She lifted a shoulder almost carelessly.
And that was the end of our time with her. With the flames in the Shadow Glade finally contained, its forces turned toward Mageia. Joined with the Hollow’s, the Glade’s fire elementals filled the now-clear sky—dragons of every color and size soaring in formation. At the front flew General Wylder, astride his massive blue dragon.
Mageia War College emerged through the thinning clouds, a familiar silhouette bathed in daylight for the first time since theAll Hallows’ Eve Ball. But the once-comforting stone walls now felt distant—like a memory left out in the rain.
Tyrian and Aryan forces clashed across the battlefield—Tyria holding only the ground just outside the front entrance while Aryan fighters were scattered everywhere: swooping through the skies on dragon-back, lining the parapets, and battling fiercely below with elemental force.
I watched as the Tyrians fought with both weapons and elemental magic, while the Aryans wielded only their elements. The scene was chaos and artistry all at once—the four elements of the Mareki colliding in brilliant, brutal harmony.
Lakota barrel-rolled hard to the right, stealing the breath from my lungs. As he leveled out, I caught sight of a gray dragon crashing into his underbelly. With a roar, Lakota unleashed a torrent of flame—not to kill, but to distract. Then he struck, clamping his jaws around the gray’s throat and thrashing it side to side.
He released it midair, and we climbed sharply as its lifeless body plummeted—right into the very dwelling where I’d been interrogated last season.
