Words burned in Serenna’s throat, some indignant part of her stirring. Whether beastblood or pride, it made no difference as defiance rose sharp and reckless. She wanted to snarl that Skylash owedher, that she’d risked everything to set the dragon free.
But the impulse soured even as it formed. Serenna swallowed it down, knowing gratitude wasn’t a language this dragon spoke. Something deep in her blood warned that Skylash would sooner tear her apart than endure the reminder.
“What more do you want, beyond your freedom?” Serenna asked, her aching wings fighting to hold the sky. “Whatever it is, I’ll see it done. We can’t win this war without you.”
“I care nothing for your war,”Skylash spat, her tail swiping through the rain.“You stormless things—with your starlight and steel—ripped the sky from its roots. And that molten whelp Cinderax is storm-blind and ash-minded for flinging power at your kind like embers into wind.”
Serenna clenched her jaw, forcing her voice steady. “Without Cinderax’s gift, we would’ve never survived the storm that guarded your prison.”
A low rumble spilled from Skylash’s throat.“And do you think that fire will save you now?”Her violet gaze narrowed, slicing beneath Serenna’s skin like a blade.“I’ve devoured stars brighter than you. I could swallow your bones and pick my fangs with your screams.”
Yet Skylash didn’t strike. Crackling and coiled, she hung in the air, sparks whipping across her scales. Whether the dragonwas considering or simply waiting for dread to ripen, Serenna couldn’t tell.
But if her judgment hadn’t fallen yet, perhaps she could still be swayed.
“There’s more at stake than you see,” Serenna said, her own conviction a storm rising to meet the dragon’s. “The king’s power grows every time he steals starlight from someone like me or shackles the might of a dragon like you.” She exhaled slowly. “You may be free today. But what about tomorrow? If we fall to him, you won’t be safe in any sky.”
A silence settled, more menacing than the breath before thunder. When Skylash spoke again, her voice came colder. Deadlier.
“If you can do more than spit words then listen.”The clouds thickened behind her, sparks veining the dark.“I want Veyrix unleashed—Breath of the Tempest. My mate. He’s shackled in the floating isles of the Aetherveil, his own domain poisoned by your star-rotted chains.”
Even as hope swelled in Serenna’s chest, her answer caught, choked by foreboding. Another dragon. Perhaps even more volatile than Skylash.
But there was no turning back now. Theyneededthe dragons—their strength reclaimed, not bent for the king. Even if it meant waking another storm.
“We’ll free him,” Serenna said. “Once we find another Heart, we can—”
“I want more than his freedom!”
Lightning detonated from Skylash’s jaws, a wave of fury hissing through the rain.
“You will bind yourself to the Stormstrikes!”she thundered, every word a blow to the air itself.“You will serve the ancient scalebond oath. As it was meant to be.”
Her wings unfurled in a violent sweep, sparks crowning her in a burning halo.
“There is a clutch of eggs buried in that mountain below. The Unbound. I did not lay them, but I claim them now—every one a Stormstrike. You will tend them. And you will mark each in my name.”
Shock jolted through Serenna. The mountain held eggs? She and Jassyn had barely escaped the chamber alive, let alone had time to search it. But the dragon raging before her allowed no room for questions.
Rain coursed down Serenna’s cheeks as she fought through unsteady wingbeats. She didn’t fully understand what Skylash demanded—or the price buried beneath the vow—but she had no choice.
“I’ll do it,” she breathed. Whatever it took.
Skylash circled her, slow and predatory, the storm folding inward like a jaw made of lightning.
“Then hear this,”she hissed, voice slithering in Serenna’s skull.“You will bear no other boon. Only mine. Forever. And if you ever scorn my gift”—her jaws opened, throat lit with sparks—“I’ll shred your wings from your spine.”
Serenna’s breath thinned as the pressure around her tightened. Agreeing meant surrendering Cinderax’s fire, the druid gift that had first lifted her into the sky. He’d trusted her as the First Keeper of the Cradle Flame, and now she stood on the edge of trading his favor for the storm.
Worry slipped free before Serenna could cage it, quiet but threaded with everything she wasn’t ready to relinquish. “Forever? But Cinderax—”
“One does not make a bargain with dragons!”
Skylash struck. Lightning speared down, a blade of wrath hurled straight into Serenna’s heart.
The bolt exploded through her. Sparks ripped along her spine, lashing her ribs, scalding limbs and scales in molten threads. The charge should have flayed her from the sky—she’d seen it before, bodies ripped apart—but something ancient in her veins caught the blow, her shaman blood bracing when she should’ve been turned to ash.
Baring her teeth, Serenna surged into motion. She looped wide around the dragon, spooling the lightning in her palms.
