“They target you,”she warned. “They seek the Stormblood.”
“Down!” Brynnek roared, his dragon diving, but the command came too late.
The necromancer’s hand moved, and a spiral of green fire erupted outward. The blast struck Tieren mid-wing. The dragon bellowed in pain, spinning out of control. Brynnek barely stayed mounted.
“Brynnek!” Thaelyn cried, pulling on the reins. Nyxariel surged after him, wings slicing through the smoke.
But Maelor had already turned his gaze to her.Found you,the voice slithered through her mind, cold and alien. Thaelyn froze. The words weren’t spoken aloud; they crawled into her skull. The necromancer smiled, his eyes burning bright as emerald coals. “The Aether-born,” he hissed, voice carrying across the wind. “At last.”
Nyxariel roared, her scales flaring silver. “Hold fast!”
But it was a distraction. Two mages in shadow-stitched armor leapt from their mounts, landing on Nyxariel’s back with bone-sickening thuds. One struck her wing with a necrotic chain, the other slashed into Thaelyn’s armor with a barbed blade.
“I’m coming!” Brynnek bellowed, his dragon charging at them from beside her.
Orion followed and threw out a veil of poisonous powder at the mages, but their magic resisted its effects.
Thaelyn fought back, letting out a tornado-like blast of whirling wind into the air. She reached again for her power. Aether roaring from her hands, but the mage behind her pulled a dark veil from his belt, a summoning sigil. He threw it over her and slammed it against her chest. Thaelyn screamed.
Nyxariel wheeled violently, her roar shattering the clouds. Smoke curled from her flanks. Feyra’s dragon dove beneath a black streak of shadow magic. Two rogue dragons, marked with bone armor and red-crusted sigils, broke formation and dove toward Thaelyn.
"Down! Break!" Brynnek’s voice thundered. He fired several arrows, one after the other, at the dark mages. He stood up and got ready to leap onto Nyxariel's back with his sword ready for a battle. He used his magic to send up a shielding cover of rock around them as he jumped.
But it was too late. A dark mage leapt from one of the rogue dragons midair, landing on Nyxariel’s back first in a whirl of black robes. Another followed. Thaelyn cried out, trying to twist free, but the mage’s hands bound her in coils of red energy. Nyxariel shrieked, veering hard left.
Maelor’s drake dove. Shadows poured from its mouth like liquid night. They swarmed upward, twisting around Nyxariel’s wings, dragging at the air, thickening it like tar. Thaelyn felt the bond strain, the magic between them stretching thin.
“I can’t—” she gasped. “I can’t break it!”
Fight it!
She reached deep for her power, but it slipped away like water through broken glass. Her hands trembled, light flickering at her fingertips and dying. The shadows coiled tighter. Nyxariel’s wing clipped a ridge; the dragon staggered mid-flight.
“Thaelyn!” Brynnek’s voice cut through the chaos. He was close now, Tieren injured but climbing. “I’m almost there!” Another blast struck. Brynnek’s dragon shrieked, spiraling downward, vanishing into the fog.
Rhys dove after them, blade drawn, but the second rogue dragon intercepted him. Screams echoed.
Thaelyn’s scream tore from her throat. “No!”
The necromancer’s laughter echoed through the clouds. “You burn too bright, little heir. Let us see what your light becomes when broken.” He raised his hand, and the chains of shadow snapped taut. Nyxariel shrieked, a sound that shook the clouds, and the bond between them blazed white for a heartbeat. Pain lanced through Thaelyn’s chest. She clutched the harness, gasping as light poured from her eyes, her mouth, her hands. The Aether surged, desperate, wild. She let out a boom of air blasting through the sky. But it wasn’t enough.
Nyxariel rolled midair, crushing one mage beneath her massive wing joint. He disintegrated in a burst of withered magic. Brynnek leapt onto Nyxariel’s back and swung his sword at the mages, but they were quicker and stronger with the dark magic present in them. The mage drove a dark blade that was glowing red and powerful, full of dark magic, against Thaelyn’s side. The flash of red light swallowed her, and her body crumpled.
“Thaelyn!”
Nyxariel’s scream was no longer a sound but a storm. Lightning surged across her scales. The force knocked off Brynnek. Another mage tried to wrench Thaelyn from the dragon’s back, but the ancient beast twisted, bit clean through his arm, and sent him spiraling. Kors’ necromantic chains were thrown on top of her and constricted, dragging her from the saddle. She felt herself being ripped backward, through cold air and darkness.
Nyxariel roared, thrashing, clawing at the sky.Thaelyn!
“I’m sorry,” Thaelyn whispered. The last thing she saw was her dragon’s wings folding inward, her roar echoing through the storm as the world turned black.
“Bring her,Maelor’s voice commanded. His skeletal drake sailed through the air. “The Sovereign will be pleased.”
Then silence. Only the whisper of the Rift remained. The sky sealed behind them, leaving nothing but drifting ash where the patrol had been.
Above the Asgar Training Academy, the skies exploded. A deafening scream echoed first, a dragon’s cry, followed by the unmistakable hiss of magic ripping through the air. Fire streaked across the blue sky, curling smoke and ash in its wake. The sound of clashing spells and roars of battle thundered like war drums.
In the council room, Commander Dareth and Kaen froze.
