Lykor could only stare. They’d done it. Jassyn and Serenna had freed her.
Pride ignited in his chest, burning bright, only to gutter a moment later. Jassyn was still inside the mountain the dragon had just sundered, and Lykor had no idea if he’d survived.
As the sky split wider, the dragon’s rage ignited unchecked. Skylash’s magic thrummed through the Maw, every bolt of lightning bending to her call.
Lykor’s gaze snapped to the summit, where all of the druids’ fire died. Figures tumbled from the rim. Those with wings dove to catch Daeryn’s warriors mid-fall. Portals flared. Wraith warped. Those still standing braced against the gale, their ranks splintering beneath the tempest of Skylash’s ascent.
Rimeclaw tracked her rise into the clouds. His crystalline eyes pinned, scales tightening in a ripple that shuddered down his spine. Ice cracked beneath his weight when he lowered his head, claws gouging deep.
Then he charged.
An onslaught, each step thundered across the frozen water, geysers erupting in his wake. Ice shattered beneath him as his wings exploded open. Membranes flared like ragged sails with enough force to send Lykor stumbling.
Rimeclaw surged skyward in a brutal bound. Ice peeled from the shore. Great slabs sheared away as he rose, his wake twisting the clouds into a vortex of mist and frost. Titanic wingbeats hurled hail and rain into orbit, sculpting the storm.
Lykor’s heart hammered in time, snared between awe and horror. If Rimeclaw delivered Skylash to the king, Galaeryn would hold both storms, binding lightning and rain. The war would end in ice, the sky turned into a weapon. And it would be Lykor’s hand that had orchestrated the dragons’ fall.
Above, Skylash veered into a spiral, violet wings slicing the updrafts like twin blades. Sparks danced across her scales as she turned in a vicious arc, shooting toward Rimeclaw.
Their eyes locked across the churning sky. For one terrible beat the world went still.
Until Skylashroaredwith challenge.
Lightning speared from her jaws, jagged brilliance flung across the void. It struck Rimeclaw’s chest in a burst of blinding light. She wheeled hard, racing around him, slipping past before he could turn.
Rimeclaw snarled, wings thrashing in pursuit. But she was already behind him. Younger. Sleeker. Barely two-thirds his size, yet she flew like wrath unbound. Sparks streamed from her wings as she twisted through the clouds, faster than any predator had a right to be.
Another bolt fired from her throat—a taunt—slicing past Rimeclaw’s snout in a hiss of heat.
He bellowed in answer, ice erupting from his maw in a volley of frozen spears. But Skylash was gone before the shards could land, a dark blur swallowed by the clouds.
In the space between blinks, she plunged from above, a thunderbolt unleashed. Wings folded tight, body sheathed in crackling arcs. Faster than sound itself, she dove straight for Rimeclaw.
He pivoted too late.
Skylash struck, the talons at her wing tips slicing deep into his flank. Lightning detonated on impact, shockwaves rippling outward. The sky buckled as the storm shattered around them, ice raining down in razored sheets.
The blast of wind carved across Lykor’s face. His magic lurched in his chest like a beast straining to break free to join the battle. Dread seeped into him, cold as the surrounding ice. He wanted Rimeclaw to live, to taste freedom in the sky.
But the dragon was shackled to the fight, forced to war against Skylash even as she turned the storm against him. AllLykor could do was stand beneath them, a powerless witness to the ruin he’d released.
Though not everything slipped out of his control. There were those he could still protect. Jassyn came first, but he could at least ensure Cinderax escaped alive if Kaedryn hadn’t had the sense to flee with him. That whelp wouldn’t survive a minute if either dragon turned their wrath his way. And Lykor refused to grant the king further victories.
Baring his fangs, Lykor snapped his wings open and vaulted into the storm, racing toward the mountain.
CHAPTER 35
SERENNA
Serenna burst from the summit’s fractured crown, wings shuddering with exhaustion as she hurled herself into the unraveling sky. Jassyn rose beside her, both of them surging above the mountain’s rim as blades of ice screamed down.
Daeryn’s forces had abandoned the peak, scattering through portals that collapsed one by one. She didn’t know where Fenn had flown, his presence still muted through the bond. But she sensed Vesryn above the Blackreach, skimming over the burning waters.
Rain slashed sideways, soaking her armor and scales until heat and numbness bled together. Serenna thought she caught a glimpse of Cinderax—possibly with Kaedryn—before he vanished through a rift. Two magus followed fast in flight, clutching a wounded wraith between them as they fled the unchained storm.
Vengeance on wings, Skylash tore through the sky, lightning wreathed along her spine. Obsidian scales flashed violet with every twist, amethyst wings shearing through sleet and frost.
Before they’d taken flight, Vesryn had warned that Rimeclaw had entered the Maw. Seeing the titan now stole the breathfrom Serenna’s lungs. His vast wings beat the air like glaciers breaking, each stroke slow and heavy.
