“She’s been taken,” he gasped.
Vornokh’s roar ripped across the sky, flames pouring from his jaws.
Garric swerved close. “Taken? Bywhom?”
Thorne’s eyes were wild. “I don’t know, but she’s gone. I can’t feel her. I can’tfindher pull.” The squad fell into formation and dove back toward the Asgar Training Academy. Thaelyn was already slipping into silence.
Thaelyn awoke to cold stone beneath her cheek. She recalled falling in and out of consciousness. She blinked, disoriented. A dull throb echoed behind her eyes, her limbs heavy and sore. She vaguely could recall being dragged for what seemed like miles. Her thoughts moved sluggishly. Something had struck her, too. No,someone. Her eyes felt swollen, and she felt as ifher nose might be broken from the immense pain she felt. Her mind fumbled with recalling memories. The cave. The shadows. Fingers clawing at her arms. The sharp snap of a ward flaring around her like a collar. Then, nothing.
She rolled onto her back, breath hitching as metal clinked. Shackles. Her wrists and ankles were bound in cuffs that shimmered faintly with anti-magic glyphs. Her wrists ached from the shackles that had worn through her skin, nearly to the bone, and she was bleeding. How long had she been down here, she thought to herself. She tested whether she could summon her magic. Aether didn’t answer. Her pulse spiked. Nyxariel? Nothing. The silence that met her call was absolute.
“No,” she whispered. “No, no, no.” She tried to scramble to her knees, straining against the magic-choked room and the shackles that bound her. She tried to summon her magic again, but it was like shouting into a void. She couldn’tfeelNyxariel. Her bond, heranchor, had been severed.
A sob clawed up her throat, but she forced it down. Panic would serve nothing. She had to think of a plan to get out of here. She had to try to move. The ancient door groaned open. Thaelyn twisted sharply. Three figures entered, faces obscured by cowls. The tallest held a sigil stone, still glowing with the same sickly light as her cuffs.
“I want to see who’s behind this,” she hissed.
The figure stepped forward. He did not speak. He raised the sigil stone, pressed a rune, and flooded the chamber with a pulse of suppressive energy. Thaelyn collapsed back, gasping. Her magic tried to surface. Aether coiling like lightning in a storm, but the cuffs crushed it. She was powerless to fight against the wards they were using.
Thorne staggered from Vornokh’s saddle as his flying squad landed in the Asgar Training Academy’s upper field. Smoke curled from a scorched wall. Professors and guards swarmed around the various areas of the fields. Commander Dareth was already striding toward him, grim-faced.
“She’s gone,” Thorne said, raw. “They took her. We were patrolling, and we felt the fury of Nyxariel’s scream, and then the bond went still. I try to reach for her through the bond, and there is nothing. Vornokh can’t feel her through Nyxariel either. It’s just vanished between us all, there’s nothing.”
Commander Dareth’s mouth tightened. “We saw the wards flicker even back here. They put a strain on our own wards. What magic the dark ones released wasn’t meant for a dragon. They were so powerful it was meant to sever a bond.”
Thorne rasped. “I can’t feel her. Does that mean she’s dead?”
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions until we find her.” Commander Dareth’s voice hardened. “We will destroy whoever touches her. You have the full support of this academy, and your father will support you as well. We haven’t asked for his help yet because we suspect an inside betrayal or leak. Asking for his help so soon could jeopardize our finding out who actually has her. The first several hours or even a day are critical.”
Thorne didn’t speak. He only turned and headed back to Vornokh, jaw clenched. He mounted Vornokh again. "My squad will ride and investigate around the general area to see if there are any clues that may help us find her. Garric, you stay here and see if you can help Kieran. The rest of the squad, back into the air!”
Storm and flame,Vornokh growled.They will regret this.
Chapter
Forty-Three
Thorne landed hard, boots slamming into the stone ground as Vornokh folded his wings with a rasp of agitation. The flight field was still chaotic. Cadets were rushing to and from the stables, and professors were shouting orders. The dragons were lined up on the field and snarling. Their wings rippling with restless fury. When a dragon loses its rider, it is not only like a death for the dragon, but it also impacts the whole dragon empire. Thorne was already sprinting across the field, shadows dragging at his heels.
“Iri!” he bellowed; his voice hoarse. “Is there any word?”
Iri met him halfway, stumbling in her run, wide-eyed and pale. Her hands were trembling. “No, they took her,” she said, barely above a whisper. “We were in the sky with Brynnek’s unit; they came out of the clouds. Dark forces, necromancers, and mages ambushed us. Several landed on Nyxariel’s back and ambushed her. Brynnek was fearless. He did everything he could. He’s with the healers. We all fought, but we were no match against the kind of magic they were using. It blocked Thaelyn’s Aether.”
Thorne didn’t wait for the rest. “Where’s Garric?” he demanded.
Iri pointed toward the eastern field, where Tarken was crouched, wings flared. Garric was already moving, dark coat unfastened, his hands glowing faint blue with residual frost. His eyes met Thorne’s, grim and cold.
“She was taken either in the north or northwest area,” Garricsaid before Thorne could ask. “I can still feel the pull. It’s faint, but there, like a fracture in the Aether stream.”
“You can track her?”
“Not her directly,” Garric replied, voice clipped. “But the way the air twisted when she screamed. The energy didn’t vanish; itbent. Someone’s cloaking her. Hard.”
Thorne nodded. “Vornokh, ”
Already ahead of him, the black dragon reared his head, sniffing the wind, wings twitching. His eyes narrowed like twin coals.“Something unnatural lingers where the sky cracked,”Vornokh growled in Thorne’s mind. “Vaelion is circling above. He sensed it too. The tear hasn’t sealed yet.”
Commander Dareth strode toward them, eyes sharp beneath his hood. “I think I know what kind of wards they’re using,” he said without preamble, his voice low. “Old binding circles, reinforced by shadow coils. Not something the academy uses anymore. They were found to be too dangerous and unstable.”
