Major Ledor raised a hand to halt the fight. Several Iron Fang members groaned on the ground, others stood stunned, and Perin peeked out from behind the statue with soot across his cheek and a scowl carved deep into his face.
I met the major’s gaze, breath steady, wind curling around my boots like a living thing.
Major Ledor’s hand swept outward. “Crownwatch, you’re next.”
The movement was clean. Commanding.
He turned his head slightly, eyes flicking to Zander like a hammer finding its nail. “Except you, Prince Rayne. Your dragon is compromised. He will sit this one out.”
Zander’s jaw flexed, tension straining through his shoulders as he stood motionless. But I felt the heat in his stare, the frustration simmering behind his silence. Hein, who had been pacing restlessly behind him, let out a huff that stirred dust across the stone.
The rest of Crownwatch stepped forward. Not as many as Iron Fang, but gods, they were sharper, colder. These weren’t brutes. These were tacticians. Magicians with battlefield precision.
“Call your dragons,” Major Ledor ordered.
Kaelith was already crouched behind me, her claws digging subtle grooves into the stone. Her wings unfurled like twin banners of violet fire, casting a shimmering hue across the grounds. Her magic was already thrumming, crackling under my skin like a heartbeat made of storm.
The Crownwatch riders formed a loose circle around me. Cade took a position directly across, his gaze thundercloud dark. I could feel his fury. Not at the trial, but at the major. At what this trial represented.
He wasn’t the only one who looked uncertain. A few of the others exchanged glances, as if unsure if this was still a test or something else entirely.
Kaelith, stay alert,I told her.
I’m always alert,she murmured, fire coiling in her chest.
One of the Crownwatch riders summoned a wall of mist. Another called down a fine rain that hissed when it hit the ground—acid, maybe.
I let the wind build again, swirling around my legs and dancing through my hair. Kaelith’s power surged beneath me, blending with mine.
They’re stronger,I warned.
Then burn brighter,she answered, her tail slamming into the earth like thunder.
“Begin,” Ledor called.
The world exploded into light and smoke.
The air was alive, hot, loud. I braced as Crownwatch closed in, my fingers curling to pull the wind to me. A shield first. Something to hold them back. But the moment I summoned it, Kaelith’s magic surged through the bond like a living storm.
It didn’t blend.
It devoured.
My breath hitched as her power latched onto mine, not to support, but to feed. Like she needed it to evolve. Likeshewas evolving.
“No,” I breathed, but the wind in my lungs tasted scorched. “Kaelith, stop?—”
Too late.
I spun, desperate to refocus, but a cadet from Crownwatch sent a shadow ribbon slicing toward me. I dropped, rolled, then whipped a gust of air toward him. It knocked him back, but not far enough. Two more Crownwatch members were already closing in, casting binding sigils between their hands.
I tried to reach for more wind, but my control slipped and my magic buckled beneath the weight of Kaelith’s. A shimmer pulsed from her scales, violet light bleeding gold around her tail as she lifted her head and let out a sound like thunder breaking through glass.
Kaelith—don’t do this.
But she didn’t hear me.
Or maybe she did, and didn’t care.
