LOGINEiraBy the third day of our march, the frozen black cliffs of the Valley of Sighs were slowly disappearing behind us.The landscape gradually softened. The barren fields of ice and merciless northern winds gave way to vast forests of ancient pine trees covered in snow.The army of ten thousand, winding like a serpent along the mountain roads, presented a sight unlike anything the empire had ever witnessed.The soldiers of the Southern Legion, who had once marched in the king's black and gold armor, now walked beside the freed prisoners of the eastern mines and the savage, fur clad warriors of the mountain clans.Distrust still lingered among the ranks.I saw the suspicious glances exchanged around the campfires and heard the hushed arguments, but discipline held.No one dared draw a weapon against another.Not only because of General Vane's strict orders and the authority of Rurik, the clan leader, but also because of the two gigantic shadows moving
Eira In the thick, sulfurous steam of the volcanic chamber, morning arrived not with light, but with a subtle change in temperature. I lay beneath the heavy fur blankets, every inch of my body weighed down by the exhausting physical and magical trials of the previous days. Yet a deep, unfamiliar peace spread through my bones, a tranquility I had never known before. The runes of the Ancient Focus on my skin, the emerald green and midnight black vines stretching from my collarbone all the way down to my left thigh, no longer burned. They pulsed softly in a quiet rhythm matching my heartbeat, blending with the breathing of the man lying behind me. Zade's chest was pressed against my back. His arm encircled my waist with the strength of an iron grip, yet with infinite care, his hand resting directly on my stomach. I could feel the scorching dragonfire radiating from his skin, a warmth that could have protected me even
Zade Our kiss tasted of ash, blood, and a scorched sky. When I slowly, reluctantly pulled away from Eira's lips, the world around us was still frozen in the surreal, silent paralysis left behind by the destruction of the Twin Flame. At the entrance to the gorge, molten obsidian hissed and glowed red in the freezing wind, sending columns of black steam toward the gray sky. Where my father, the dreaded King Toric, and his enormous red dragon, Balerion, had stood only minutes earlier, there was nothing left. Just a gaping, glass-scorched crater where the shattered ice barricade had once been. And twenty paces away, another smoking depression that had swallowed Caspian. It was over. Decades of poison, murderous intrigues woven through the palace's dark corridors, the lashes of whips, and the commands enforced through blood magic had all burned to nothing in a single blinding storm of green and black fire. The woman in my arms suddenly trembled. I immediately looked down at her. Eira's
EiraThe rocky ledge didn't simply tilt beneath our feet. The ancient obsidian wall of the Black Glaciers surrendered to destruction with a deafening scream."Hold on to me!" Zade roared.Before the stone could completely slip from beneath my boots, he wrapped his free arm around my waist and pulled me against him.In the fraction of a second before we fell, Noctis spread both his enormous wings.On his left wing, where I had just fused the shattered bone with my own ether, emerald green runes blazed between the black scales.The dragon didn't fall.He glided downward, sailing through a rain of boulders and shards of ice crashing against the cliff face, descending into the smoke and dust filled depths of the gorge.Zade and I leaped from his back almost simultaneously, barely a few yards before our feet reached the frozen, blood soaked ground.The force of the landing shot through my knees, but the runes of the Ancient Focus immediately absorbed t
EiraThe storm clouds didn't simply part above our heads. It was as though the sky itself had been torn in two to make way for hell.In the narrow canyon of the Black Glaciers, the air froze in a single second, only to turn immediately into suffocating, sulfurous heat.Behind us, the dull thunder of the ice mountains Kaelen had brought crashing down still echoed through the gorge. The solid barricade had sealed the passage against the infantry of the Southern Legion, but no one looked back.We were all staring upward, toward the three enormous shadows that blotted out the bloodred dawn.Zade's hand tightened around my wrist with such force that the runes burned into my skin immediately flared beneath the pressure.Through our bond, I felt the prince's icy realization rising within him, followed instantly by raw, murderous fury.Beside us, Noctis pressed himself low against the ground.An ominous, earthquake deep growl erupted from the enormous black dragon's throat, making even the ob
ZadeThe sky didn't simply collapse above us. Thousands upon thousands of tons of frozen magic came crashing down upon the Valley.When Kaelen's ice shield exploded high overhead, the shock wave tore across the battlefield with such brutal force that it drove the air from my lungs.Blinding shards of bluish-gray ice rained from the clouds like a deadly meteor shower, embedding themselves deep in the scorched snow and the armor of fallen soldiers.Instinctively, I stepped in front of Eira, shielding her from the falling debris with my own body and black cloak, while the rune on my right wrist pulsed wildly with burning pain.In the distance, beyond the thick curtain of black smoke, the imperial war horns sounded.Their deep, sickening notes echoed between the obsidian walls of the Black Glaciers.The ground began trembling beneath my boots, not from magic, but from the combined, relentless thunder of thousands of iron-shod hooves and marching boots.My father's main army was advancing.
Zade The crystal glass was cold in my hand, the deep red wine inside it still as a mountain lake. I stood beside the fireplace staring into the flames, but I did not see them. All I saw was that defiant pair of green eyes that had poisoned me with hatred barely an hour ago. "She has to lear
Eira The slam of the iron door was not just a sound. It felt as if the entire world had split in two and I had been left on the worse side. As the echo of Zade's footsteps slowly faded and disappeared, the silence settled on my shoulders like heavy black lead. I was alone. Alone with noth
Eira The silence in the room was not peaceful. It was suffocating. I listened to the prince's steady deep breathing from the massive bed across the room, and every beat of my heart told me the same thing. Run. Now or never. I waited. It felt like hours before I dared to move. Moonlight st
Eira The darkness was not friendly. It felt as if heavy weights pressed down on my chest while the walls moved closer inch by inch, ready to crush me completely. Then suddenly there was air. Cold, clean air filled my lungs, carrying the scent of mint and pine. My eyelids trembled. The







