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We reach the final archway. And I hear Rhyven. "Nobody touches anything." His voice carries across the entire field. Cold. Sharp. Absolute. I step through.

Stop. Dragons are everywhere. Not flying. Grounded.

Agitated. A bronze female I recognize from Sky Wing is pulling against two handlers, wings half-open, tail carving furrows through the grass. A blue-grey male paces in a tight circle, claws digging into the earth.

Another dragon presses close to the stone wall, head low, pupils narrowed to black slits. Every one of them is looking toward the same place. An empty section of field.

At first, I don't understand. There are dragons. Handlers. Riders. Wardkeepers. Rhyven. Dax. Professor Kaelis. More people arriving every second. What am I looking at? Then I see the ground. Four enormous impressions in the grass. Claws. Deep. Fresh. Two long grooves behind them where something heavy shifted its weight. A tail mark. A partially crushed training post. Signs of a dragon. But no dragon.

A man is on his knees beside the impressions. Third-year. Sky Wing. I know his face. Eddy. We've trained together twice. He is usually quiet. Good with throwing blades. His dragon— I know her too. Theryn. Dark copper scales. Black along the edges of her wings. A scar across her left flank from an old training accident. She stole an entire basket of apples from Cassian during our first formal dragon-body-language lesson. Cassian still claims it was intentional. She was standing here. The ground proves it. Now she isn't.

Eddy is screaming her name. "Theryn!" Nothing. He turns toward the sky. "THERYN!" His voice breaks. No answer. My brain refuses. A person can disappear into a corridor. A woman can vanish from a ward marker. A dragon— No. Theryn is enormous. Not Vyrael enormous. Still. Thousands of pounds. Wings wider than the Academy gates. She cannot simply

"Where is she?" Someone asks behind me. No one answers. Because we all know.

Rhyven reaches Eddy. Drops beside him. "Ed."

The Rider doesn't seem to hear. "Theryn!"

Rhyven grabs the back of his neck. Not violently. Firm. "Eddy." Golden eyes meet his. "Look at me."

Eddy does. Barely. "Is the bond there?" Silence. Then Eddy makes a sound I never want to hear again.

"I don't know."

Rhyven's face changes. "What do you mean?"

"I don't—" Eddy presses both hands against his head. "I can't—" His breathing breaks. "I can't feel her." Rhyven goes completely still.

Professor Kaelis kneels on Eddy's other side.

"Is it severed?"

Eddy shakes his head.

"Is she dead?"

"No." Immediate. Absolute.

"How do you know?"

"Because I would know." His voice cracks. "I would know." Rhyven looks at Kaelis. Something passes between them. Rider knowledge. Something I don't understand.

Eddy grabs Rhyven's forearm. "If she died, it would break." His fingers tighten. "It didn't break."

"Then what happened?"

Eddy looks toward the empty field. Tears running openly down his face now. "It's just..." He swallows.

"Not there." Not there. My stomach turns. Absence. Again.

A dragon behind us suddenly lashes out. Not at anyone. At the air. Her wing snaps open. Handlers scatter.

Professor Kaelis stands. "Get them back."

A handler looks at him. "Sir?"

"Move every dragon from this field."