Page 9

The creature doesn’t fall.

Instead, it swings toward me, blank eyes now gleaming with pinpricks of starlight arranged in patterns similar to those in the diamond waterfalls.

“Look at its eyes!” Sterling lunges forward, his hands slicing through the air to summon his water magic.

A stream disgorges, hammering the warrior with the force of a battering ram. The warrior totters backward, off-balance from the sudden pressure.

Sterling’s face contorts into a grimace I’ve never seen before. He stumbles, nearly losing his footing, and the water stream falters. “Something’s not right. The water, it’s⁠—”

“No! Stay back!” Agnar’s horrified shout cuts through the battle, and the note of raw fear freezes my bones.

I spin, and for a moment, I can’t process what I’m seeing.

As Kaida takes off, a small figure squirms free from the enormous pack of emergency supplies on the ground. I was so intent on the stone warriors wreaking havoc, I didn’t even notice the black and blue dragon land.

Tousled blond hair flies as Rose skips into the gore-splattered street.

Directly into the path of an advancing stone warrior.

The flame over her shoulder flickers merrily, as if unaware of the impending danger.

“Rose!” I shout. “Watch out!”

I launch into a desperate sprint, already knowing I’m too far away to reach her in time. As I race toward her, I grasp for my dragonbond and convey my terror to Kaida. He turns mid-flight and heads back toward the battle.

The warrior raises a wicked blade, the edge glinting above Rose’s head.

Her eyes, though wide, stay oddly calm.

Then something happens that almost stops me in my tracks.

The flame familiar that hovers over Rose’s shoulder, that tiny sprite of living fire that follows her everywhere, suddenly expands. With an explosive burst, a shield of protective flames cocoons the child and blazes upward like a miniature inferno.

The stone warrior recoils.

Where the flames touch its arm, the stone thins and becomes almost transparent, revealing a void beneath. Not flesh or machinery, but a hollow space brimming with starlight and shadow.

Just like its eyes.

Rose remains motionless in the center of her fiery shield, her small face eerily peaceful amid the chaos. “They’re stone and yet not.” She speaks with that same serene tone she’s often used since I freed her from corruption with my phoenix fire, like an old soul trapped in a little girl’s body.

Sterling rushes to my side, his face pale with exertion. He aims his magic and creates a dome of water around Rose.

Instead of extinguishing her own personal flame, the fire expands to fill the dome, creating a shimmering, comingled barrier of water and blaze that shouldn’t be possible.

Another warrior lunges for the barrier.

The moment the stone fist strikes the water-fire shield, the creature rears back as if scalded. Cracks zigzag across its exterior, revealing more of that starlit void beneath.

“Get her out of here!” I pivot to find Agnar waylaid by two stone soldiers as he struggles to reach Rose.

“Can’t.” He’s battling both at once, his blade sparking against their giant bodies. “She’s safer with us than trying to run.” He ducks under a giant arm. “Fancy a merge? Earth and fire together should smash these fuckers.”

Merging magic strengthens the elements beyond their individual power. Merging also allows for blended types of elemental attacks. That’s how I managed to destroy Narc mid-resurrection.

That and my phoenix fire.

“Not yet!” Sterling’s strained voice interrupts us.