All I could do was stare back in awe. Awe at everything.
I bit back a smile. "I don't think anyone back home would believe me if I told them this."
Garrik grinned. “Welcome to the part of your life that makes normal sound boring.”
I couldn’t agree more.
“Let’s prep the spell,” Alaric suggested, waving a hand toward the thicket of trees across from us. “That’s where it all happened.”
When I looked over, a knot formed in the pit of my stomach. I imagined what took place and the panic I must have felt.
We moved toward the area, weaving through the trees. And then I saw the devastation.
Debris littered the ground, scattered in violent arcs as if the land itself had been flung apart. Splintered branches lay twisted across the earth. Stones, shattered beams, fragments of what had once been walls were —everywhere.
The house ahead was barely recognizable. Its roof had been smashed in, gaping open to the sky. Glass crunched beneath our boots, windows blown out, frames hanging crooked and broken. Trees had been torn from the ground, their roots exposed like open wounds.
It looked less like a storm had passed through… and more like something had tried to erase the place entirely.
Blessed Mother. I brought my hands to my cheeks, my eyes widening as I took in the wreckage around me.
A cold realization slid through my chest. This was just the kind of fucked-up thing I could imagine Thayden calling arescue.
“This is awful.” I shook my head.
“It is,” Alaric agreed. “You can see they came for blood.”
I wonder what went through Thayden’s mind when he came here. Did he see me with Wolfe?
It felt like he had.
There was a nasty streak of spitefulness clinging to the air.
“Everyone take their places,” Bastian announced.
The Bloodsworn formed a protective circle around us. Grim determination was on their faces, but I caught the flicker of unease in more than one set of eyes as they took their positions.
Then the dragons stepped forward. The temperature spiked instantly, waves of heat rolling off their massive forms as they closed the distance.
“I’ll stand with you in the center,” Arielle said, guiding me with her arm around my shoulders.
Alaric walked up to us and pulled out one of his blades. “We’ll use dragon magic to steady the spell, but I’ll need some of your blood, my Lady.”
I offered my hand, palm up.
He used the tip of the blade and pricked the center of my hand. Blood pooled there instantly, along with a sharp sting that fanned out across my skin.
Alaric reached for my hand and turned it over, allowing the blood to drop onto the sand.
He nodded toward the others.
Bastian and Garrick spread out their hands, and a white wall of light emitted from their palms, surrounding us.
The dragons roared together, and a stream of blue flame poured from their massive jaws.
The wall of light blazed around us, beautiful and terrifying in equal measure, but it was the dragons that stole every rational thought from my mind.
Then ancient words spilled from Alaric’s lips."Kythara nos veridian, solthen mor drakmys,”he chanted.“Aethon vel sanguinus, nethys tol vaelthara."
