The air pressure changes. The symbols pulse faster, brighter, synchronized with Lila's heartbeat in a rhythm that aches through my teeth. Mikhail is building toward something, using her blood to power a working I can feel gathering strength.
"What choice?"
"Give yourself to the ritual willingly. Let me drain your essence, ascend to what phoenixes were meant to become. In exchange, she goes free." He gestures at Lila with casual certainty. "Refuse, and I complete the ritual with her blood instead. She dies screaming while you watch. Then I hunt you down anyway and take what I need."
The old ritual. I recognize it now from the symbols, from the basin's placement, from the way her blood feeds the pattern. Siphoning immortal power through sacrifice. I've seen the aftermath before, centuries ago, when Mikhail experimented on lesser immortals. Never thought he'd perfected it enough to attempt a dragon.
Lila makes a sound low in her throat, fury cutting through fear. Her hands are definitely moving, working at the ropes despite the magical binding holding her torso in place.
The choice isn't a choice. Never was. I step forward, keeping my movements slow and non-threatening despite every instinctscreaming to rip Mikhail's throat out. "Fine. Take me. Let her go first."
"Finn, no." Lila's voice cracks. "Don't. It's a trap."
"Of course it's a trap." Mikhail's smile widens. "But he'll walk into it anyway because he can't help himself. Love makes immortals weak, and Finn has always been too sentimental for his own good."
I take another step. "Your word she goes free."
"You have it." He releases Lila's shoulder, moving away from her toward the basin. "Once the ritual completes and I have your essence, she can walk out of here. I'll even give her a head start before I collapse the cave entrance."
Lila's working the ropes faster now, her shoulders changing with effort. Whatever she's doing, she needs time. I give it to her.
"Why?" The question comes out rougher than intended. "We were friends for millennia. What changed?"
"You did." Real emotion bleeds into Mikhail's voice now, centuries of resentment finally surfacing. "You stopped being a dragon and started being mortal-adjacent. Caring about their little lives, protecting their fragile civilizations, bonding with a human woman like she was your equal. You forgot what you were."
"I remembered what I wanted to be."
"Weak." He spits the word like poison. "Sentimental. Vulnerable. Everything I saved you from when I killed Saoirse. And you rewarded me with hatred instead of gratitude."
Behind him, Lila's hands come free. She doesn't move otherwise, keeping her body perfectly still while her freed hands work at something I can't see. Smart. She understands predators respond to movement.
"So you built this." I gesture at the cave, the symbols, the setup. "Ritual sacrifices. Drowning victims. All to accumulate enough power to trap a dragon."
"To save you." His eyes burn with absolute conviction. "One last time. I'll drain your essence, ascend beyond phoenix limitations, and you'll finally be free of the weakness that's plagued you for centuries. No more caring. No more attachments. Just the peace of non-existence."
"That's not salvation. That's murder dressed up in justification."
"Call it what you want." He reaches for the ornate knife lying near the basin. "Your choice remains the same. Give yourself to the ritual, or watch her die first."
Lila moves.
She kicks out with both feet, slamming into the ritual basin. The stone vessel tips, spilling her blood across the carved symbols in a chaotic spray that breaks the careful pattern. The binding magic holding her snaps like cut rope.
She rolls away from the basin, putting distance between herself and Mikhail with the kind of quick thinking that comes from years of solo fieldwork in dangerous conditions.
Mikhail snarls and launches himself at her.
I'm already moving. The shift takes me mid-stride, human to dragon between one heartbeat and the next. Bones lengthen, crack, reform. Muscle mass explodes outward in a surge of ancient power. Scales erupt across expanding flesh, crimson and black, each one harder than steel. My skull elongates, jaw unhinging to accommodate teeth the size of daggers. Wings unfurl from my shoulders with enough force to crack stone.
The transformation completes before Mikhail crosses half the distance to Lila.
I catch him with my shoulder. The impact sends him flying backward, his human form crashing into the cave wall hard enough to crack volcanic rock. I follow, closing the gap with speed that shouldn't be possible for something my size. My claws—each one as long as a man's forearm—slam into stone on either side of him, pinning him in place.
He looks up at me. My dragon form towers over him, filling half the cave, wings pressed against the ceiling. I can see my reflection in his eyes. Scales gleaming in the firelight. Teeth bared. Every line of my body built for one purpose: killing things that threaten what's mine.
Mikhail smiles.
Then he burns.
