Together.
We race toward the dam. Toward Caspian. Toward the battle that will decide whether the valley drowns or survives.
But for the first time since Mira died, I’m not afraid of what comes next.
Because I’m not alone. Because love gave me strength instead of weakness. Because the woman I chose chose me back,and together we became something greater than the sum of our parts.
I’m not drowning anymore.
16
ZARA
I’ve never flown like this. With someone beside me who matches my pace. With purpose burning like lightning.
The moment I launch from the lake’s edge, something in my chest unlocks. Not the bond—that’s already complete, permanent, unbreakable. This is something else. Something I’ve kept caged my whole life under layers of diplomatic control and careful responsibility.
My wild nature. The storm I was born to be.
My wings catch the air, and I’m flying. Really flying. Not the controlled, measured flight of a diplomat traveling between settlements. Not the cautious glide of someone afraid to show too much power. This is the flight I dreamed about as a fledgling—pure, untamed, gloriously free.
I spiral upward, testing my transformed wing. No pain. No weakness. Just strength and the bone-deep certainty that I’m stronger than I’ve ever been. The feathers that were tawny-gold are now storm-gray with iridescent blue, and they catch the light like they were made for this. Made for the storm building overhead.
Because there is a storm building. I can feel it responding to me—to us—gathering in the distance like it’s been waiting for permission to exist. Dark clouds rolling in from the west. Lightning flickering in their depths. The sky recognizing its own and preparing for what’s coming.
Below me, Torin cuts through the river like liquid lightning given form.
I feel him through the bond—not just his presence but his joy. The pure exhilaration of moving faster than he ever has before, electricity crackling along his scales with each powerful stroke. He’s in his element, transformed and transcendent, and the river parts for him like it knows what he’s become.
We’re racing. Playing. Finding delight in our new forms even as we hurtle toward potential genocide. It should feel wrong—this joy in the face of such stakes. But it doesn’t. It feels like being alive. Like being exactly who we were meant to be.
I dive, pulling my wings tight, dropping toward the river in a controlled fall. The wind screams past my feathers. The world blurs. And just before I would hit the water, I pull up hard, skimming the surface so close that spray kisses my wingtips.
Through the bond, I feel Torin’s laughter. Feel his challenge. Feel him surge forward, racing me, daring me to keep up.
I climb again, wings working hard, and the storm overhead responds. Thunder rolls. Not threatening. Welcoming. Like the sky is cheering me on.
This is what I gave up. What I buried. What I thought I had to sacrifice to be worthy of respect.
But Torin was right. The wild version of me isn’t separate from the diplomat. They’re the same person. I can be fierce and careful. Untamed and strategic. The storm and the negotiator. I don’t have to choose.
I just have to be brave enough to be both.
The bond pulses with Torin’s approval, his love, his absolute certainty that I’m magnificent exactly as I am. It steadies me. Grounds me even as I’m hundreds of feet in the air.
Two halves of the same storm, he sends through the bond. You in the sky. Me in the water. Together.
Together, I send back. Always.
The river bends ahead, following the valley north toward the dam. I can see it now—a dark line on the horizon where the geography changes. Where ancient Deep Runners carved stone and magic into a structure meant to last forever.
Where Caspian intends to destroy everything.
The joyof flight fades as reality crashes back in.
If Caspian succeeds—if the dam breaks—the entire valley floods. Every settlement downstream. Every farm. Every Storm Eagle aerie built into the cliffs. Thousands dead in the first hour. Tens of thousands displaced. Food supplies destroyed. Homes washed away.
And the Integration Alliance would retaliate. How could they not? One faction of Deep Runners commits genocide, and the response would be total. Hunt down every water-dweller. Destroy the Sunken Citadel. Make extinction certain instead of just probable.
