The Dragon Slayer's Queen
“Not if you do it with me. Guardians and dragons. Pact remade.”
Bella nods. “We’re in.”
The ritual is clumsy and half-improvised. They cut Jenifer’s, Zayla’s, and Bella’s palms and pressed their hands together over the spiral. The blue, violet, and silver drip into the stone. For a second, nothing happens. Then, the spiral flares white, a halo of light that lifts their hair, makes their teeth rattle, and burns every remnant of the old convergence to ash.
When the light fades, the world is quiet. Liam is breathing normally. The spiral is only a scar. And the sky above is calm, shot through with the faintest edge of dawn.