This stillness, this strange peace, belonged to him. Or rather, the hands that had given it.
Lykor released a slow exhale before reaching for the flame in his chest, plunging into the shift.
In a rush of heat, wings flared from the slits in his armor, membranes snapping taut. Just like before, his spine didn’t scream and no joints buckled in protest. His throat tightened as every motion flowed smooth. Seamless. Painless.
Shoving the feeling down, he folded his wings with a soft rustle and angled toward the jungle. The new weight tugged at his shoulders, tilting his balance. His body adjusted, muscle and instinct finding their rhythm until his stride steadied.
He barely made it twenty aimless paces before spotting Fenn, trussed to a tree. Shadows coiled around the captain’s limbs, writhing around his jaw, clamping his mouth shut.
For once, Lykor grudgingly thought Vesryn had the right idea.
He sighed, muttered a curse at his own mercy, and flicked his wrist, slicing through the bindings with a sliver of rending.
Fenn straightened with a chuckle and rubbed his throat, his grin already returning—amused as though the whole ordeal had been a private joke. His gaze swept over Lykor, irises flaring.
“So Jassyn’s magics worked,” he said, stepping closer. “Care for a first flight?” He reached for one of Lykor’s wing claws—too curious for his own safety.
With a low growl, Lykor dispelled his wings before the touch could land. Lip curling, he glanced up at the canopy. “Yes, let me just launch myself through a mile of jungle and find out whether it’s my wings or the branches that snap first.”
Fenn’s fangs flashed. “So that’s a yes?”
Lykor didn’t bother answering. A rustle behind them hauled his attention back toward the tree. Steps clipped, Jassyn burst through the vines, mouth pressed tight. Grinning like a jackal, Vesryn trailed on his heels, already gnawing at whatever answer he wanted next.
Lykor turned away before the questions could curdle into conversation. He reached for his Well, ready to spin a portal back to Asharyn and leave this mess behind. If they were done fucking around, he was beyond ready to go.
The world shuddered.
A gust slammed into him, cold enough to feel stolen from the frozen peaks beyond this pocket of jungle. Moss stiffened beneath his boots as frost laced ferns in shivering spirals. In a blink, the air crystallized, all warmth gutted from the forest’s lungs.
Scales rippled up Lykor’s arms at the same moment as his wings tore free from his spine. Unsummoned. Reflex. But he wasn’t alone—the others had shifted too.
Before he could open the portal, the world convulsed again and a primal instinct he couldn’t control locked his body in place. A distant thudding rose above them, slow at first, then pounding.
Wingbeats.
The canopy shattered. The jungle bowed, the ground trembling with every echoing pulse. A shape ripped across the patch of sky, vast wings churning snow.
Lykor’s breath seized as a guttural sound invaded his mind. The words weren’t heard so much as felt, sliding between thoughts.
“Found you.”
He didn’t need to ask what had found them.
A dragon.
CHAPTER 17
SERENNA
Not long after the others had portaled to the jungle, Serenna received a summons from Kaedryn—no reason given, only an insistence to meet beyond the city walls.
Now, wings taut against the rising thermals, Serenna flew a wide circle over Asharyn’s outskirts, heat shimmering off the dunes beyond. A pavilion had risen overnight where there’d been nothing but sand, its sailcloth canopy pulled tight beneath the desert sun.
A ring of druid warriors stood as sentinels around it, scaled bodies glinting in the light. Serenna’s wing claws clenched as she banked lower. What would it be this time?
Another test, no doubt. A demonstration of bending wind, drawing water from parched earth, coaxing roots from dust, or stealing summoned fire from another druid’s fist. Another quiet demand dressed as devotion. She’d worn that mantle all week—the dutiful child of earth and starlight, paraded as Kaedryn’s chosen.
Serenna folded her wings and dove, wind rushing past her face. At the last moment, she flared her wings wide, bleeding off speed before she touched down in a crouch, knees bending to take the shock.
