로그인ARAH
She was pulled into another memory. This time, she was merely a passenger, riding alongside the consciousness of her younger self.
Young Araheen’s eyes fluttered open to a blur of shifting trees and rolling land. The world bounced and swayed. She smelled the coarse, familiar scent of horsehair. Beneath her, the rhythmic thunder of hooves beat fast against the earth. They were moving quickly, fleeing, perhaps, from someone or something.
She was seated
ARAHEENPain shot through the back of Araheen’s neck as Hedda tried to drive her hold deeper, but her Awakened power snapped the connection apart. Araheen ripped free and got to her feet in one hard motion. Hedda barely had time to register it before Araheen sent the pain back through the bond—clean, sharp, and just as vicious as what Hedda had forced on her. Hedda recoiled and bit down on her scream.Araheen turned on Theobald at once. Her wind current spilled from her skin, and the female owl tattoo peeled free after it, both of them surging forward to hold the line while she dragged her sigil needle across her palm and triggered her Creation Sigil.Theobald came in hard. His sword flashed and clipped the owl’s wing. Pain tore across Araheen’s shoulder as though the blade had cut her own flesh. She grunted and gave ground, leaving the wind current and the battered owl to keep him busy while she finished the craft.
ARAHEENHe made it.Relief hit her hard at the sight of Gildeon freed at last, able to take his full beast form again. She saw Kohina too, her flame-colored hair beginning to grow back, along with Yadira and Eitan riding behind other sylph riders.There were salamanders with them that she didn’t recognize. Loyalists, most likely. The ones who still stood with Gildeon and had come to see this through. She believed not all salamanders approved of their general’s choice to side with Zephyr.Araheen had not truly expected to see many of them here. Most salamanders would rather hang back than throw themselves into a sylph civil war.This wasn’t their fight, after all.She stepped away from Zephyr without drawing attention and slipped out her sigil needle, keeping both hands behind her back. Quietly, she pricked her left palm, where she had etched and hidden a special sigil earlier.She had to be ready for
GILDEONHe shot Lothair a hard, questioning look. If this wasn’t about him, then why were the sylphs here? They had their own war with Zephyr. They wouldn’t bleed themselves fighting salamanders unless they had something to gain.“I am no longer their general,” Lothair said, lifting his head. “The man leading them now wants Zephyr brought down, and my daughter saved. If that means siding with the one man who can make it happen, he’ll do it.”Gildeon followed his gaze into the swarm overhead and caught a face he recognized at once.Feviel.His eyes snapped back to Lothair, and the former sylph general gave him one last thin smile.Then Paikon moved.He came in from behind, fast and wild, his face twisted with rage. His claws ripped across Lothair’s throat before anyone could even flinch.“That is for Baltae and Father!” Paikon snarled.He stood t
GILDEONWhen Taeran told him Zephyr had handed Lothair over to the salamanders, Gildeon hadn’t believed it at first. The man had once been a general. Worse, the kind of bastard even his own people kept an eye on—ruthless, feared. And now he’d been delivered like an animal dragged in for slaughter.As they moved through the tunnel, the heat pressed in hard. Vents carved into the black rock exhaled sulfur and furnace air, and every few steps, the walls gave off a dry hiss. It suited the place. The outpost had been carved into the upper throat of a dead volcano, where the stone still held old fire and the mountain never truly cooled.Even through the hiss of steam and the scrape of boots against rock, Gildeon could hear them ahead—hundreds of salamanders roaring for Lothair’s execution.The tunnel opened into a vast basin of cracked obsidian and smoke-dark stone. Heat shimmered across the ground. Thick banks of
GILDEONHe woke in a place that felt too familiar.Stone walls boxed him in, close and suffocating. The only light came from a narrow, barred window high above. He tested his body—steady, recovered, as if he’d slept for days. But his power… it was muted. Restricted.The moment his eyes landed on the steel door, recognition hit.He snapped upright.The seer sigil carved into it pulsed faintly—designed to keep him contained, to stop him from shifting into his dragon form.His pulse picked up.This was the cell General Markaus had thrown him into before—back when he’d lost control of his dragon beast.Which meant he was on one of their important bases.His thoughts shifted instantly to Araheen. Where was she? What about Kohina, Eitan, Yadira?The last thing he remembered was the old outpost—the dizziness, the collapse.Had Markaus found them?He rose from the stone bed and crossed the r
ARAHEENThat afternoon, she returned to Lothair’s estate under the pretense of visiting her mother’s tomb again. Zephyr suspected nothing, though Hedda had given her a sharp, sour look and said nothing.Lady Vaelina was absent from the castle, but Isalee was there. A servant directed Araheen to the garden.Isalee was pacing in front of the twin-dove fountain, her face tight, her mouth drawn thin, her hands restless at her sides. Araheen was certain her stepsister wasn’t sleeping with any Fractured, yet her emotions had grown bolder of late—not just hers, but the sylphs’ during the battle earlier… Feviel’s, and even the servants’, here in the citadel.Perhaps the Shining Keeper’s absence was loosening the shackles on their spirits little by little as time passed. It was a thought worth keeping.For now, what mattered was speaking to Isalee.Her stepsister was so lost in w
ARAHShe gasped as his skin rippled before her, like ink bleeding into parchment. His face blurred then vanished—or rather, fused with the hard lines of the mask that took its place. He looked exactly as he had when she’d crossed the Mad End’s Wall.Warmth crept up he
GILDEONHe’d been awake since the dark chains had suddenly unlatched from his wrists and ankles. They had disappeared into thin air without a trace of magic left behind. He had a good idea of what had gone down, but right now, all that mattered was the relief of those
GILDEONRoselia took a long gulp of her tea. “I can’t believe you’ve got the nerve to ask me that, My Lord,” she seethed, glancing up from the table, throwing him a pointed look. “You made a deal with them behind my back, and I made peace with that. Yet now you need me to h
GILDEONInstinct told him to shift his hand back to normal, but when Arah’s eyes flicked to it without a hint of reaction, he knew it didn’t matter. Everything was out in the open now. There was no point in trying to hide it anymore.He couldn’t tear his gaze away as she approached. She met his bewild







