38. Chapter Thirty Eight
Chapter Thirty Eight
Eldrake
The forest seemed unnaturally quiet as we rode; the only sounds were the rhythmic clatter of hooves and the occasional snap of a branch underfoot.
The air carried an unnatural chill, one that prickled at the edges of my senses and sent a warning deep into my bones.
Vyper’s tower was close. I could feel it.
Avod rode just behind me, his silence uncharacteristic, though I knew his tension mirrored my own.
We’d been following the faint traces of Vypyr’s corruption for days now—claw marks on trees, patches of scorched earth that reeked of sulfur, and the occasional dismembered animal carcass that spoke of the Vyrmin’s foul rituals.
Each sign drew us closer to the heart of the danger and to Eva.
Her scent had been absent for miles, but I clung to the hope that she was still alive, still fighting.
I wouldn’t let myself think otherwise. The bond between us thrummed faintly, a distant thread of connection that flickered like a dying ember.
I reached for it constantly, trying to pull her closer in my mind, to feel her presence, but the distance or her condition made it impossible.
Then it happened. Something punched me in the chest.
Not a blade. Not a fist.
A feeling .
I slumped on my saddle as the breath was knocked from my lungs. The forest ahead blurred, moonlight bending like mist. Avod turned, about to ask something, but I held up a hand, fingers trembling.
“Wait,” I rasped. “Just—wait.”
The air shifted. Thickened. A scent I knew—honeysuckle and dew—flooded my senses. My vision tunneled. The bond— our bond—flared to life like a lit vein through my chest. Hot. Bright. Alive.
Eva.
I felt her panic before I saw anything. Her fear. Her pain. The weight of a name:
Vyper.
And then—like something unfolding inside my skull—I saw it. Not a memory. Not a dream. A message .
A God in shadow, his eyes swallowing the light. The Vessel’s unnatural hum. Vyper, kneeling, whispering “The soul of the Dragon.” Offering me like a sacrament to break her. To claim her.
My blood ran cold.
My knees nearly buckled under me, the vision crashing over me like a tidal wave—real and unreal, present and distant. My heart raced, but it wasn’t just mine. I could feel hers , too—ragged and furious. The tether between us buzzed, taut as a drawn bow.
She had seen it. She was showing me.
And worse—she was hurting .
I swore, pressing a hand to my sternum, right over the place where the tether burned beneath skin and bone. It wasn’t just magic. It was her. She’d sent this. Not some uncontrolled flare like before—this had intent. Purpose.
She was trying to warn me.
Avod moved closer. “Drake?”
“I…” I forced a breath, swallowing the bile rising in my throat. “I think Eva just contacted me. Through the Rift. Through the bond.”
His face went still. “You felt her?”
“Not just felt.” I looked up, eyes wide. “She sent me a vision. Vyper was speaking to the Vessel. Azh’raim was there. He—he told Vyper to offer what Eva wants most.”
Avod’s jaw clenched. “You.”
I nodded slowly. “He’s going to try and kill me to break her. And she saw it.”
I could still feel the imprint of her—like heat after lightning, like someone had carved her essence across my ribs. My hand curled into a fist.
She’d done that from a cell. Injured. Alone.
And she’d known . She had to. The way the bond had pulsed—deliberate, tethered to memory, to me .
There was no more hiding it now. She knew we were bonded.
And yet… she’d still reached for me. Still trusted me.
Gods, she chose me. Even knowing the Rift had bound us.
Even knowing the danger. That knowledge hit harder than any blade.
It didn’t feel like a chain. It felt like…
grace. Like a second chance I hadn’t earned but had been given anyway.
“She’s in danger,” I said, my voice sharpening. “Vyper knows what we are. He knows about the bond. He’s planning to use it.”
Avod frowned. “We don’t know how much he understands?—”
“He doesn’t have to understand . He just has to hurt us.”
For a moment, I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.
And then something inside me snapped into place.
This wasn’t just about saving her anymore. It wasn’t even about revenge.
It was about the bond . The real one. The thing I’d been denying, avoiding, dancing around in the dark. The thing that just reached across Godsdamned miles to warn me. She’d called to me like I was home.
And now I had to answer.
“We keep moving,” I said. “No more delays.”
Avod nodded.
But as we rode—quiet and quick through the trees—I kept one hand over my chest, where I swore I could still feel her fingers reaching through the tether.
And in the dark, I whispered back.
I’m coming.
“Drake, couldn’t this be exactly what he wants? We are playing into his— ” Avod started.
Before he could finish, the air shifted—heavy and wet with the reek of sulfur, ash, and rot. The Rift pulsed beneath my boots, wrong somehow. Twisted.
I turned my head sharply—too late.
The ground exploded in a shower of black stone and bone. A massive shape burst upward, shrieking, its roar shrill and broken like metal scraping against itself.
And then I saw it.
Not a beast. A ruin. A memory defiled.
It had the shape of a dragon—but only just. Its body was warped, dragged out of proportion by something dark and hungry.
Tattered wings scraped the sky, shredded and stitched with pulsing red veins of Riftlight.
Horns curved back like blades, splintered and blackened at the tips.
Its scales were patchy, flaking away to reveal muscle that oozed some thick, tar-like fluid.
Its face— Gods.
It wasn’t a dragon anymore. But it used to be. You could still see the shape of one beneath the rot. Like something once sacred, gutted and remade by someone who hated what it used to be.
“Vyrmin,” I breathed, but this one was different. Bigger. Older. Familiar.
A long scar split its left side—identical to the kind that used to be carried by trained Dragonblood warriors. My gut twisted.
This thing wasn’t born. It was turned.
“Drake,” Avod muttered beside me. “Tell me I’m not seeing what I think I’m seeing.”
“You are.” This was one of us. Once. Now, it was just another weapon in Vyper’s collection.
The creature let out a rattling hiss and lunged—faster than its size should allow. I shoved Avod back and drew my blade in one motion. The creature’s claws tore gouges into the stone where he’d been standing.
“Ambush!” I shouted, eyes scanning the shadows. They answered.
The lesser Vyrmin poured from cracks in the walls, half-human shapes crawling on too many limbs, their skin sloughing off in ribbons. Their eyes glowed like coals, and their mouths snapped in unnatural angles as if chewing on memories they couldn’t digest.
The corrupted dragon reared back, wings flaring wide as the swarm fanned out around it. The sound of its breath—wet, broken, bubbling—echoed like a death knell. I gritted my teeth.
“You take the left!” I shouted to Avod. Before he could answer, the first creature lunged.
My sword met it mid-air, slicing through its neck with a burst of hot, hissing ichor. It screamed as it fell, limbs twitching. Another followed. Then two more. The swarm descended in a frenzy, claws, and teeth tearing at the air, driven by something deeper than hunger—something taught. Trained.
Vyper hadn’t just made monsters.
He’d made soldiers.
Avod’s hammer swung in a wide arc, smashing through one creature and burying deep into the chest of another. “There’s too many of them!” he shouted over the cacophony of snarls and screams.
The Star-Glow surged in my veins, the fire in my chest igniting as my rage boiled over. A roar tore from my throat as flames erupted from my mouth, engulfing the nearest creatures in a blazing inferno. Their screams echoed through the forest as their bodies crumbled to ash. But they kept coming.
The power inside me burned hotter, uncontrollably, as I felt the shift begin.
My claws tore through my gloves, my teeth elongating as scales started to ripple across my skin.
The transformation was partial, my wings bursting from my back as I slammed into the ground with a force that toppled several of the creatures.
The Vyrmin hesitated, their snarls faltering as they sensed the raw power radiating from me.
I didn’t give them a chance to recover. My claws tore through flesh, my flames reducing their twisted bodies to ash.
I fought like a creature possessed, every strike fueled by the desperate need to get to her.
But exhaustion crept in, my vision blurring as the transformation began to recede. My body screamed in protest, the cost of wielding such power too great, too often. I staggered, my wings folding back into my body as I returned to human form, my breaths heaving.
“Drake, behind you!” Avod’s voice was sharp with panic.
I turned too late. The largest of the Vyrmin barreled into me, its massive claws ripping through my armor and sending me sprawling to the ground. My sword skittered out of reach as I struggled to push the beast off, my strength waning.
I reached for it anyway. Pain lanced through my shoulder as the beast pinned me with one claw, snarling hot breath in my face. I thrashed, summoned fire—but all I got was a flicker, a dying ember.
“Get off him!” Avod roared. His hammer crushed into the creature’s back with a sickening crunch. It howled—but didn’t fall. Another Vyrmin slammed into Avod’s side, dragging him down. I caught one last glimpse of his arm swinging, blood spraying across the stone.
We were overwhelmed. For every beast we felled, more crawled from the shadows. I tried to shift again, to summon fire, strength, anything. But my body betrayed me. The fire was gone. My limbs wouldn’t move. The Vyrmin’s claws drove into my chest, pinning me like prey.
“Eva,” I whispered, breathless, and everything went black.
I awoke to the stench of rot and stone, the air wet and sour. My head pounded with every heartbeat. Chains bit into my wrists, my ankles. I tried to move—and immediately regretted it. My back arched against the cold floor, breath coming shallow.
I wasn’t alone. I heard the rustle of movement, a grunt. “Avod?” I rasped.
“I’m here,” his voice came from somewhere in the dark. Ragged. Tired. “You look worse than me, and that’s saying something.”
“Where are we?”
“Vyper’s lair,” he muttered. “Or some basement of it. I blacked out right after they jumped me.”
I tested the chains again. No give. My rage simmered low and hot. “I’ll get us out,” I said, every word a vow. “And I’ll kill him.”
Avod huffed. “Good. Because if we’re dying in a dungeon, I’m haunting someone.”