But not just anywhere.
We passed the western cliffs where the newest clutches were nestled in protected hollows, their small bodies glowing with the colors of their lineage. I saw two adults, likely their assigned guards, glance up as we flew overhead, Kaelith’s wings casting shadows over the nesting grounds.
But she didn’t descend.
She passed them, ignoring the soft trills of the hatchlings.
Instead, she flew to the tip of the island where the rock was burned black from old fire, the earth cracked and scorched in jagged patterns. There were no nests here. No signs of life.
Just silence and soot and stone.
Kaelith landed hard, her claws scraping the basalt as she folded her wings slowly.
I slid down her side and landed on the uneven rock, my boots crunching against ash and old bone fragments—long dead, bleached white by time.
Kaelith stepped forward and nudged the edge of the scorched ridge with her snout, her voice finally entering my mind.
This is where they died,she said.Where the betrayal began.
And I knew.
This was the trial.
This was the place where I would prove whether I was worthy of her trust.
I glanced around the scorched clearing, heart thudding as the wind howled through the jagged stone as if it carried the whispers of the dead.
Bones littered the ground—scattered fragments of dragons and something else. Older. Finer. The bones of a human or fae.
“What do I do?” I asked, my voice rough against the quiet.
Kaelith’s golden gaze found mine, unreadable.You touch the stone. And they will come.
I stared at the blackened ridge, its surface pulsing faintly with residual heat. Veined with silver and obsidian, the rock appeared as if ancient fire had melted and reshaped it. My fingers trembled as I stepped forward.
Be warned,Kaelith said, her voice low and distant, as if it came from some far-off age.The last fae to take this test died. Screaming.
My breath caught.
But I knelt anyway.
I needed this. Not just for her. For all of them.
I pressed my palm to the darkened stone.
And the world broke.
Magic exploded beneath my skin—jagged, primal, wrong. It surged through my veins like wildfire and lightning, crashing into my soul, digging into my memories.
Suddenly I was standing in my father’s office, watching him sell me to the crown with a bag of coin and a nod. Then the scene shifted, and I was in the training ring, failing, again and again, as dragons turned their backs on me.
The pain twisted—emotional, mental, relentless.
A voice slithered into my thoughts,You are not worthy. Not of her. Not of this.
I gritted my teeth. “That’s a lie?—”
The stone flared, and my magic was torn from me, pulled like thread from a spool. I screamed as it unraveled, as if something ancient was shredding my very core.
