Then Hein moved—silent, intentional.
He stepped beside her, and lowered his neck beneath hers, cradling it like a vow. His scales brushed hers, silver meeting violet, and for a heartbeat, she didn’t move. Then, she let her full weight lean into him.
Her jaw rested just above his shoulder ridge, her breath warming his neck, and Hein closed his eyes as if the world had finally righted itself.As if this was the moment he’d been waiting for his whole life.
A sound slipped from him, not quite a purr, not quite a sigh, but something between reverence and peace.
Zander’s voice was soft, almost reverent.Hein loves her.
My heart clenched. I’d noticed it too—the way he always lingered when Kaelith took flight, the way his eyes tracked her like the stars themselves bowed to her movements. But this? This was different. This was devotion. This was longing realized.
He has waited a long time for his mate,Siergen answered, gaze soft but unblinking as he watched the dragons.
I stepped closer, brushing my fingers against Kaelith’s trembling side. She was warm. Alive. My wild, impossible girl. “Is it over?” I asked, voice hushed. “Her transformation, I mean?”
Siergen’s lip twitched at the corner, the ghost of a smile.Not at all.
The words landed like a stone in my gut.
Your Shiftling has a long and dangerous road ahead of her,he said.They develop differently than the other dragons. They are more erratic. And take far longer to mature.
My throat tightened. “What does that mean?”
He turned to me, his gaze keen and ancient.It means Kaelith will grow in ways that will terrify the guild. She will not just choose her path… she will become it. And so will you.
“But she is okay, right?”
She’ll be unstable for a while,Siergen said quietly, like he didn’t want to startle the wind. He stood beside me, his eyes on the dragons wrapped together like a storm easing back into the sea.
My gaze flicked to Kaelith. Her flanks rose and fell slowly, too slowly. Her eyes were closed now, her massive body resting fully against Hein.
“What do you mean unstable?” I asked, even though I already knew. Ifeltit—that wild lurching magic that surged and sputtered like lightning caught in a jar too small to hold it.
Shiftlings are rare for a reason,he said.Their bodies transform faster than their minds can adapt. Their magic becomes... unpredictable. Violent one moment. Dormant the next. Kaelith is no exception.He looked at me then, his expression unreadable.But when she stabilizes, she will have highly developed magic. Far more than most dragons ever achieve.
A swell of emotion tightened in my chest—pride, fear, everything in between. “And me?”
You’ll grow with her. Whether you want to or not. Her power will echo in you—twist yours into something new. Something greater. Dangerous.
I swallowed hard. The way he said it… like it was inevitable. Like I’d already begun to change.Hadn’t I?
She’ll also gain the ability to alter her color,he continued, watching my reaction,and her subspecies. Striker. Clubtail. Swordtail. She may shift between them at will—adapt to threats, to terrain, to her needs.
I blinked. “What about her size?”
Siergen’s mouth pressed into a thin line.She will not have that gift,he said gently.Her form will remain as it is now. And that may be her only limitation.
My heart clenched. I looked back at Kaelith, my fierce, impossible dragon, and for the first time, I saw her as vulnerable. Asmortal.That weight in her limbs, the way her wings drooped, how Hein kept her upright like she might fall if he moved even a breath away.
Kaelith?I reached for her through the bond, not demanding—just...there.
The answer came slow and faint, like a whisper through glass.I’m here, little storm.Her voice was strained, thinner than usual.Just tired. I did not expect it to take so much.
You scared me,I thought, kneeling beside her and brushing my palm along her jaw.You still do.
A huff of warm breath shivered across my fingers.Good.
Kaelith?I reached for her again, slower this time, cautious. Her magic still pulsed erratically beneath my skin, like a heartbeat out of rhythm. But she answered with a twitch of her tail, now whole again but marked by subtle glowing lines where it had once split in two.
