LOGINGILDEONHe didn’t wait to watch the situation turn worse. He shifted at once, flesh and bone cracking wide into his full dragon beast form, and went straight for Garud. He meant to kill it. Yonah’s dagger was in that thing’s body, and he would stop at nothing to take it.He hit Garud hard enough to shake the ruins.His jaws closed around the creature’s side with a wet, splintering crunch, and the force of it drove them both through the half-broken spine of the citadel. The air filled with the scream of shearing metal, the roar of breaking rock, and Garud’s shrill, furious cry as Gildeon dragged it through what little was still standing.Garud fought like a trapped beast. Its great wings beat once, twice, then the feathers changed. Each one hardened into steel with a ringing, murderous sound. A storm of them slammed into Gildeon’s hide. Some skidded off his scales. Some punched in between them. A few dro
ARAHEENHer mother had warned her about this. If Zephyr ever forced his way through the sigil, there was only one measure left. It would cost her. She had prayed she would never have to pay it.But right now, there was no other choice.She drew the sigil needle and cut it across the mark hidden on her forearm. The air around her turned sharp and bitter, cold rising fast enough to sting her lungs. Her Awakened core shuddered inside her, then broke loose in violent pulses. Ribbons of teal light tore out of her body in hard, whipping bursts and shot toward Zephyr. They wrapped him from throat to ankle, binding his arms, his chest, his legs, locking him in place like chains forged from raw will.Zephyr’s indigo eyes lit up. His face pulled tight with strain, every line in it hard and furious. Indigo fire bled across his skin as power surged off him in waves, battering against her restraints. He tried to tear through them by force.
ARAHEENThe girl could not have been older than six or seven.Her being here still made no sense to Araheen, though at this point the whole operation had become strange enough that she should have stopped expecting sense from it.“Where’s Zephyr?” she asked.“I can’t let you hurt him.”The child stood her ground when she said it. Small body. Steady eyes. No fear in the words.“Why?” Araheen asked. “Who is he to you?”The girl said nothing.Araheen stepped closer and crouched in front of her. “Little girl, I don’t know who you are, but Zephyr is dangerous,” she explained. “He means to hurt people. He means to tear apart the balance of the natural world. I’m here to stop him.”The girl tipped her head. “He isn’t a bad person.”“How can you say that?”“I know it.&
ARAHEENHer heart lurched the instant Zephyr went still and dropped.“It’s time,” she said quietly.The moment she urged her eagle mount downward, Feviel followed.Araheen caught sight of Gildeon diving too, a black shape cutting through smoke and open air. Below them, Zephyr still had enough strength left to bend the wind around himself, slowing the fall just enough to keep it from breaking him on impact. He hit the rubble-strewn courtyard hard, but not hard enough to die. When Araheen saw him clearly, he was on his knees, sitting back on his heels, arms hanging limp at his sides, head bowed so low the curtain of indigo hair hid most of his face.Gildeon landed in a violent crouch, clawed hand already lifting, ready to tear Zephyr apart. Araheen jumped from her mount before it had fully descended. Air rushed past her as she dropped the last few feet and caught Gildeon by his steaming arm. She stopped him just as
GILDEONAnother sphere. Then two. Then five.They burst from the fog at shifting angles—some high, some low, others vanishing and reappearing through warped currents of steam. Gildeon dodged what he could, hurling his bulk sideways through shattered towers and open sky, but even he couldn’t avoid them all.One struck his shoulder and locked every muscle along that side of his body into a savage convulsion.Another slammed into his ribs and drove white-hot agony through his spine.A third exploded against the membrane of his wing, jolting the entire limb hard enough to throw off his balance.Electricity crawled beneath his scales like living knives.He surged upward to escape the trap.The storm answered.Above him, the unnatural clouds split apart and speared lightning downward in a single blinding strike.It hit him across the back.The force drove throu
GILDEONThe battle above the citadel had turned the sky into a slaughterhouse.Stone towers split apart under the force of it. Steel arches screamed as they tore free from their anchors and plunged into the inferno below. Roofs collapsed. Balconies folded inward. Entire sections of the upper citadel sheared away through smoke and sparks, crashing into courtyards already buried beneath rubble.Fire crawled across shattered walls and licked along beams blackened by dragonfire. Far below, servant sylphs fled in panicked waves toward the outer edges of the citadel, throwing themselves through broken gates and crumbling colonnades before the next collapse buried them alive.And through all of it, Gildeon flew in his dragon form like a living siege engine.He dominated the sky—massive, black-and-gold scales flashing beneath the ruin-lit clouds, each one veined with thin streams of steam bleeding from the fissures between them. Heat
ARAHShe barely had time to breathe. Gildeon caught her off guard in the most titillating way. His lips were fierce, his fingers tangled in her hair. Her heart thumped loudly as she melted under him. His tongue demanded entry, and her lips parted instinctively, their mouths melding. The taste of the
ARAHJeric offered to escort her home. He admitted to overhearing her conversation with Gildeon and catching the word “threat.” She tried to assure him everything was fine, but he insisted. Eventually, she agreed. Maybe it was a good thing. Whoever meant her harm might think twice when they saw her w
ARAH“Come on, Arah, tell us the truth.” Tonio leaned forward from the couch, his eyes more insistent than teasing. “It was you who killed those fugitives, wasn’t it?”It hadn’t been a week since the incident, and this was the first time she’d let her friends come over. They wanted details—details she
GILDEONHe stilled, masking his reaction with an innocent frown. Arah's gaze bore into him as he watched the short clip. He doubted she knew anything, but he couldn't take any chances. Behind him, he sensed Ghulik trying to slink away.‘Where do you think you’re going?’ he growled internally. The gobl







