Dorion whooped, his voice echoing off the walls. Laphiraclapped her hands, tears streaming down her cheeks. Even Farris bounded in a circle, his movements light and free.
“The curse is broken,” I breathed against Lore's neck. “You're safe. We're all safe.”
For the first time in so long, hope felt real instead of desperate.
“Is it really over?” Laphira asked.
Lore and I exchanged a glance. Shouldn’t lightning be blasting across the sky or stars falling to show the curse had been broken?
Wind shot through the cave, and we spun toward the entrance.
The queen dragon stepped inside, her scales as black as night. Her wings glistened with starlight.
When she spoke, her voice echoed in my bones. My mind.The elder scales, the crown’s first claim, together bled, bound flame to name. Through kin of sky and earth combined, a kingdom renewed. A fate aligned.She bowed her massive head.The bond is restored.
Lore stepped forward, awe on his face. “You're free.”
The Dragon Queen's ancient eyes fixed on him.As are you, descendant of the one who bound me. The curse that tethered your soul to Aricor's sin has been severed.
My heart lurched. “The curse is truly broken?”
The elder scales,she said again, her voice gentler now,the crown's first claim. Your bloodlines, dragon, fae, and human, have restored what was torn apart.She turned toward me.The Iskar Cor chose you because you understood what love truly means. Not possession, but the freedom to give everything with a willing heart.
With a spin, her wings unfurled, so wide they nearly touched both sides of the cavern. She leapt, her scaled body cutting the wind as she soared out through the entrance and into the sky.
Silence filled the cavern. Then Lore grabbed my shoulders, his eyes full of disbelief and hope.
“It's over,” he whispered. “Wildfire, it's actuallyover.”
It felt like a huge weight had slid off my back and the world had shifted back into proper alignment.
Dorion laughed, the sound echoing off the walls. “We did it. We?—”
A shriek ripped through the cavern.
Lore moved in front of me. Dorion reached for Laphira. Farris’s ears flattened.
The cavern floor cracked as something enormous struck the stone. Fire and shadow exploded outward, and from the biting wave, Prager emerged.
Prager had transformed into something beyond fae. Her elongated limbs and wax-stretched skin revealed what magic had once concealed, veins glowing bronze red beneath the surface.
She tipped her head back and roared, the sound echoing within the cavern. “What was broken was not meant to break.”
“What was sealed cannot hold forever,” I shouted. “Our love has restored the bond and the world.”
“But what of your pretty little king? Have you restored him as well?”
“We fused the talisman. The curse has ended.”
“Has it?” Her slick grin grew. “Only I get to decide that.”
Lore growled, his body bracing to leap at her, but I held the talisman and pure love in my heart. Whatever was going to happen, I would face it.
“Nothing can fix what was destroyed.” Lifting her arms, she blasted bolts of power our way.
I whipped up my hand and crafted the fastest nullification spell I could squeeze from the threads swirling around me. The bolts slammed against the invisible wall that shimmered into place with my spell, and her magic fizzled.
Together, Wildfire, Lore said as he called the elements to obey his command.
