I inhaled sharply and moved closer to Kass. He didn’t snap or pull away; instead, he nudged his head toward me, eyes burning with desperate intelligence.
“Okay,” I whispered, sinking to my knees beside him. “Show me.”
I pressed my palm to Kass’ scaled forehead and let my magic slip forward, not forcing it, not summoning a storm, but letting itlisten.
And it was there.
A shimmer in the air. A pulse of something faint and frantic. Like a heartbeat carried on a distant wind. Not Cordelle exactly, but the absence of him. The hollow where he should have been. The tether that had stretched too far and snapped taut with longing.
There,Kaelith said.Follow it.
“I can feel him,” I breathed, standing. “It’s like a current…pulling me east.”
Zander met my gaze. “Then let’s move.”
I vaulted onto Kaelith’s back, the wind already whipping around us in tight, anxious spirals. Zander mounted Hein beside me, his jaw set, eyes dark with fury. The others followed without question. Remy astride Katama and Riven atop Zola, rippling with anticipation. Kass flapped fiercely behind them, fueled by raw, aching desperation.
There,Kaelith whispered, her voice threading through my mind.Do you feel it?
I did. That same thrum, like a pulse through the bones of the realm. I let it pull me, not outward as I expected, but quickly left.
They’re not fleeing to the outpost,I messaged Zander,They’re headed toward the edge of the village.
He responded instantly.You’re sure?
I can feel him,I whispered back.Cordelle’s close.
The thrum pulled tighter, and I guided Kaelith in a dive. A long, slate-roofed building came into view—too large to be a home, too isolated for coincidence. It appeared to be a large storage house.
I angled Kaelith into a sharp descent and landed behind it, wings tucked tight. The others followed in a thunder of claws and wind. We hadn’t even gotten our boots on the ground when the shouting reached us.
A side door burst open, and a dozen men surged from the building, all wearing crimson sashes twisted around their arms or painted across their chests. Crimson Sigil.
“AMBUSH!” I shouted.
Zander already had Dark Fire coiling over his fists. Remy vanished into mist. Riven’s eyes crackled like fireflies in the night.
Kaelith growled, a sound that shook the earth beneath us. But I held her back with a thought.
Not yet. We need to find Cordelle first.
But that didn’t mean we wouldn’t burn our way through to him.
The clash of steel rang through the air as the Crimson Sigil surged toward us. Kaelith’s wings flared behind me, her growl reverberating through the earth like a war drum. I ducked under a swing of a curved blade, spun, and drove my elbow into the attacker’s temple. He crumpled without a sound.
Kass let out a piercing roar as he launched into the air, wings catching the light of his glowing emerald fire. With a single breath, he scorched the roof of the building, it exploded into flame and smoke curling upward like a beacon of vengeance.
A crimson-cloaked man charged at me. I raised my hand and wind exploded around my fingers, lifting him off his feet and flinging him backward into the wall with a bone-snapping crunch.
There was a popping sound and a shimmer of movement beside Kaelith. Remy stepped from the mist, cradling Cordelle in his arms. Cordy’s head lolled to the side, groggy and pale, but alive.
Remy set him down gently beside Kaelith and turned to rejoin the battle. “Did you Phantom Step to get him?” I shouted over the clamor.
“Yeah,” Remy grunted, driving a dagger into the thigh of a Sigil guard before twisting it free and pivoting to strike again.
“But don’t you need to see where you’re going?”
He smirked as he parried another blow. “Kass gave Katama the layout of the place after he took the roof off. Dragons are handy like that.”
