Wrath replaced my shock, and a snarl worked up my throat. I gripped the dagger at my waist and took a few steps toward Scarven. “Youbast?—”
He disappeared. I stopped short, spinning in a circle to find him. Hischuckle burned my ears. I whirled again, but he was gone.
I could still hear the fight raging around me, could still see my comrades locked in battle, but all I could focus on washim. This was my chance. I was so close, I could taste it.
There was a flash of his dark hair, and I lunged.
My dagger fell through thin air. I let out a growl of frustration.
“Looking for me?” Scarven asked, reappearing several feet away. He cocked his head and stared at me as I pounced. I wrapped my hands around his throat, but all he did was smirk.
“I thought you were the mighty dragon Shifter, slayer of enemies and lord of the skies,” he taunted. “Where’s thatfire?”
I squeezed his neck harder, feeling his muscles work to draw breath and watching his veins bulge from the pressure. With a roar, my dragon fire climbed up my throat in an intense wave.
This was it.Finally.
But someone was shouting. With a gasp, a familiar voice spluttered from Scarven’s mouth.
“Nox, it’s me!” the voice said. “What are you—Nox?—”
Scarven’s face flickered, and suddenly, I was staring into Kieran’s eyes. His face turned purple beneath my hold, his fingers clawing at my arm as I crushed the life out of him.
I instantly dropped him.
Disgust poured into me. I almostkilledhim. My best friend.
He fell to his knees, and I caught his back, my hands shaking. “Kieran, I—I’m so sorry. I thought you were Scarven. He’s here. He’s?—”
“Are you sure, brother?” Scarven whispered behind me. I set Kieran down as he recovered his breath, hunting for the disembodied voice. “Are you sure I’m truly there? I could be anywhere. Anyone.”
There was a mass of dark curls and full red lips, and suddenly, Sage was standing before me. She swished the skirt of her dress and flashed me a smile. “Did you miss me, love?” she crooned. “Or have I been replaced so easily?”
The image wavered and shifted to Devora, red hair tangled down her back. She was bound and gagged, that horrid fatesprig collar back around her throat. Tears streaked down her dirty cheeks as she stumbled to her knees. Iknewit wasn’t real, and yet I couldn’t stop myself from reaching for her, the fear so visceral, I thought it would eat me alive.
Her body vanished. In its place was a single, rolling head. It came to a stop, the gaping mouth and vacant eyes of my father staring back at me.
“Get out of myhead!” I roared, gripping my hair.
“What does it feel like to have everyone you have ever loved leave you?” Scarven’s voice echoed across the space. The vision of my father’s head was quickly replaced by a younger version of my sister and me holding hands. My breath faltered.
“Even your ownsisterdoesn’t know who you are.” In the span of several seconds, the younger Vera changed, aging by a decade as her features hardened. She glared back at me with those bright golden eyes full of venom.
“She’s dead,” I choked out. “Vera’s dead. I saw her at—at the forge. I couldn’t save her.”
Scarven’s deep hum rumbled the earth. “Did you, now? Did it look like this?”
The world tilted. I was back in the tunnels of the Guardian Forge, staring at my sister down the hall. She looked back at me for a split second before the caves erupted.
Was all of it an illusion? Had she truly not been in those caves, or wasthisthe lie?
My head spun. My dragon half ached inside my chest, begging to be free and carry me away from this. I didn’t know what to believe. I couldn’t trust my own sight, my own mind. The pressure built in my chest as my stomach tightened.
More and more visions slipped by, each of them more gruesome than the last. Memories of the past mingled with my present—Kieran, Tessa, Devora, the Order, all of them ripped from me ina haze.
He was trying to make me crazy. He was trying to make mesnap. My people needed me, and here I was, captive to my own mind. Useless. Helpless.
In the blink of an eye, the visions stopped. I gasped at the abrupt change.
