เข้าสู่ระบบARAH
Young Araheen screamed. The sound tore from her throat like it had clawed through every cell of her body. She collapsed to her knees, hands trembling, mouth frozen in a silent wail of horror.
Arah wept with her. It didn’t matter that she was only witnessing a memory. The grief struck like a physical blow. Her heart felt crushed, again and again, as though something inside her chest had turned to glass and shattered.
She wanted to look away. But she c
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
ARAHEENShe woke alone in bed, though she dimly remembered Zephyr pressing a kiss to her forehead before slipping into a robe and leaving the room.The first thing she checked when she sat up was her belly. The power of the Containment Sigil pulsed faintly beneath her skin, proof that it had done what it was meant to do. It had activated the moment Zephyr was inside her last night. For a second, she had feared he might notice, but he had been too lost in pleasure, too deep in that mindless rush, for his guard to stay fully up.Now that the deed was done, all she had to do was wait. And that depended entirely on her allies outside the citadel.Her mother had said the sigil’s full function would only unravel if Zephyr was engaged in battle. Only then would they have any real chance of bringing him down.She climbed out of bed, pulled on her dress, and opened the door, only to start at the sight of Hedda standing outside.
ARAHShe had a narrow window before any sudden movement might make one of the thugs pull the trigger out of pure reflex.Or panic.Before she even realized it was possible, her wind tattoo split into two. One lash coiled tightly around the ankle of the thug who was about to assault Mabel’s sister,
GILDEONHe still had a few days left in his hibernation. But then he heard Ghulik’s voice. Said bad men were trying to hurt Arah.Sharko’s bad men.That was all it took.He tore out of his cocoon without a second thought.In the past, he might’ve held back, avoided tapping into the rest of his abil
ARAHShe reached across the bed, only to find cool, empty sheets. Gildeon was gone. But outside the house, she could hear his voice, talking to Roselia.She glanced down at her forearm. The vine strands had withered, and the bite wound was already healing.Sliding out of bed, she headed outside and
ARAHShe slipped the cardstock with her printed Clover Wish design out of the binder, tore it into pieces, and dropped them into the bin. Then she pulled out a few more flash sheets—ones with patterns that looked a little too much like real sigils—and tossed those out too.She couldn’t risk setting







