Instead, we found Milena trapped within the trunk of a monstrous tree, guarded by a fierce bear.
Her power was gone, her mind was broken, and she couldn’t remember the man who had trapped her here.
We soon learned it was Malak’s son.
The deliverer of that news was Graviter Rex, the dragon king, whose child had been murdered by Malak’s son. As retribution for the death of his child, Graviter has vowed to end all Blacksmiths.
I know his pain.
I’ve felt it.
I know what it will have done to his mind and his reason.
The air above me shimmers with heat and the vibrations through the stone tell me that Graviter is close.
I can’t do a damn thing to protect myself or Asha—wherever she is—except silently roar at my body to move.
Fucking move!
My body fails to respond.
Directly in front of me, a jagged, white bone is caught on the rocky ground, resisting the shallow flow of water.
A blue leaf, burned at the edges, is trapped beside it.
The leaf brushes my outstretched hand and then…finally…
My fingers twitch in the freezing water.
It’s the first movement my body has made and it sends a shock of hope through me.
At the same moment, the heaviness of the burning smoke lifts. A fresh breeze fills my chest.
It brings Asha’s scent.
I taste fear, anger, and desperation, but also life, and that’s what matters most.
My fingers twitch again.
A painful flood of feeling suddenly rushes through my left arm, so agonizing that I grit my teeth to stifle my groan and hide my wakefulness.
I can’t pinpoint Graviter’s exact location, but if he thinks I’m completely immobilized—if he thinks the threat I pose to him has been neutralized—I’m not going to enlighten him until I’m certain I can fight back, at least with my arms.
Assuming my other arm regains feeling?—
Fuck!
The rush of pain through my chest and right arm—the return of feeling—is searing, hotter than the dragon’s fire that burned across my back.
Far worse is the agony that tears through my stomach, hips, thighs, and calves only seconds later.
The pain lasts so long that I’m screaming within my mind, my fingers clawing the ground.
I focus on the dark metal that protrudes from my fingertips and cuts into the rock beside me. These claws are as unnatural as the changes Malak forced on me and Skirra. They’re long and sharp and appear as if they’re fashioned from the same titanium alloy that comprises Asha’s hammer—the same alloy that she used to plug my wounds when I was bleeding out.
I woke up with these claws after she pulled the device that Malak used to transform me from my heart.
Malak didn’t give me these claws.
