Chapter 30
Chapter
Thirty
The air trembled with the unraveling of ancient wards, magic shrieking like metal torn apart.
The invisible shield that had kept the Blood Isle hidden for centuries finally crumbled, and the land groaned beneath the loss of its anchor.
Pillars split, arches collapsed, and the once-imposing towers of Veralin’s dominion fell into heaps of dust and ruin.
Zander staggered across the fractured courtyard, pale but resolute, until he reached me. His hand closed around my arm, steadying me as the earth quaked again. His eyes burned, his voice low but fierce.
“Veralin lied. That chest did more than bind the dragons to him and his people. He used them—bled them—as a power source to amplify his own. Everything he built, every stone and illusion, it’s all disintegrating.”
The words sank into my bones like ice, and my gaze fell to the pulsing chest at my side. Its hum was a constant thrum in my blood, as though it remembered every soul it had consumed.
The others closed in around us, instinctively forming a barrier—Jax in front, sword raised, Ferrula to his right, Naia at my back, and Tae slipping into position with that glint of defiance in his eyes.
We formed a living shield around the artifact, as if our bodies alone could keep Veralin’s greed from reclaiming it.
Across the courtyard, Veralin’s red gaze lifted skyward. His lips twisted, and for a fleeting moment I thought he might be calling his dragon.
But then I heard it.
The beating of wings. Dozens of them.
Shadows rippled through the thinning clouds as black dragons broke through, sleek and terrible, their scales gleaming like oil beneath the newborn sunlight. They wheeled in formation, their riders clinging to their backs, the very force that had plagued Warriath since before I was born.
Veralin’s composure finally cracked. His voice split the sky, raw and unhinged.
“Kill them!” He thrust a clawed finger toward us, his scream rattling my bones. “Kill them all!”
The black dragons roared as one, the sound a wall of fury and despair that shook the broken castle to its foundations. They dove as Veralin’s command wrapped around them like chains, their massive wings blotting out the sun.
And all I could think was—we’d torn down his fortress, but the true war was only just beginning.
Kaelith’s voice brushed against my mind, steady and commanding even as the battlefield roared around us.
Step away from the chest.
I froze, then glanced back at her massive purple frame, her eyes glowing brighter than any flame. The certainty in her tone made my stomach drop. She meant to end this.
I raised my hand and motioned for Zander and the others to back away. “Move,” I ordered, my voice harsher than I intended, but they obeyed, retreating in slow, reluctant steps.
Veralin’s head snapped toward Kaelith, his expression twisting as though he’d heard her thought. His scream split the courtyard, jagged and furious.
“Kill the purple!”
Hein reared up with a roar, his wings beating hard enough to stir the rubble at our feet.
Fire licked across his fangs before he unleashed it in a torrent at Veralin.
But the Blood King lifted his hand, weaving a shield of warped energy that shimmered like broken glass.
Hein’s flames struck it, scattering sparks that ricocheted across the courtyard, but Veralin stood unscathed. His laugh was cruel, inhuman.
Above, the rest of our dragons answered with fury.
Temil dove first, his orange Swordtail carving the air with lethal grace as Naia’s cry rang out.
He sliced through the flank of a black dragon, sending its rider spiraling to the ground.
Koddos charged head-on, his heavy armored body colliding with another, his roar vibrating through my bones as Jax cheered him on.
Narvea streaked past like a green blur, her reflexes honed, her clubbed tail smashing into a black dragon’s side with bone-crushing force.
Kieren flanked them, his green wings banking hard, Tae’s sharp laughter echoing as he seized the mind of a rider, turning his blade on his companion mid-flight.
The sky was chaos—a storm of wings, flame, and clashing steel. They were holding them back, but only barely. There were too many, a tide of darkness bearing down. And our dragons were at a disadvantage with us on the ground.
And then the earth trembled beneath a heavier landing.
Severeth.
Her dragon’s obsidian wings folded tight as its talons dug into the courtyard stone, its black scales glinting red where the firelight kissed them. She rose, tall and terrible, her robes moving in the breeze as she dismounted. Her eyes blazed crimson as they locked on me.
“You cost me the war, Ashlyn.” Her voice dripped venom, but beneath it, a thread of twisted admiration. “It was devious and underhanded. Under different circumstances, I would have been proud of you. But you threaten our immortality, our way of life… so I’m afraid you need to die.”
Kaelith roared, her fire building in her throat until it burst forth in a violent stream aimed directly at the chest. The flames lit the world gold and violet, searing the air. For a moment, I thought it would work—thought the artifact would melt beneath her fury.
But Veralin’s hand snapped upward, blood magic swirling from him like a living storm. His shield coiled tight around the chest, absorbing the brunt of Kaelith’s fire and snuffing it out before it could touch the artifact. Smoke curled off the barrier, but the chest remained untouched.
“Stop playing, Severeth, and kill her!” Veralin’s scream was ragged, desperate. His composure fractured, revealing panic beneath his cruelty.
Severeth’s gaze slid toward him, then back to me. Her lips curled into something that was almost a smile. “With pleasure.”
The courtyard disappeared in a rush of black smoke, swallowing me whole. I spun, sword raised, but the mist closed in on every side, thick and suffocating. The sound of battle, the clash of steel, the roar of dragons vanished into silence. My heart pounded as the realization sank in. I was cut off.
Kaelith?
I am here, her steady voice filled me, anchoring me to something real.
Do not fear. Severeth does not have the power to sever our bond.
The others still fight. They will keep the dark ones from the chest, but you must end her.
She possesses as much power as Veralin, and she will not hesitate to use it.
The mist shifted, and then she was there—Severeth, her form solid while everything else dissolved around her. Her crimson eyes glowed like banked coals, and her smile was vicious enough to cut.
“You could have had it all,” she said, her voice smooth, dripping with cruel pity. “A realm. Dragons at your command. The kind of power mortals dream of and fae kill for. All you had to do was choose me.”
I squared my shoulders, blade steady though my arm trembled. “I already have it all.” My voice didn’t waver. “Love. Friendship. Loyalty I’d die for. You’ll never understand that.”
Her laugh echoed in the smoke, low and mocking. “Love fades. Friends die. But true power?” She spread her hands, shadows coiling off her fingers like venom. “Control is eternal. You could have ruled beside me. Instead, you waste yourself on a boy playing at king and a clutch of misfit riders.”
“Control,” I hissed, “is the real illusion. And power doesn’t bring happiness. It brings emptiness. Just look at you—so desperate to matter, you chained an entire species to your throne.”
Her eyes narrowed to slits, the glow in them pulsing hotter. “Weak. Naive. Stupid girl. You’re nothing but a vessel for your dragon’s magic. A half-blood mistake that should have died in the trials. I’ve broken queens stronger than you. You will be no different.”
My grip tightened on my blade, fury burning away the chill of her words. I met her gaze head-on, refusing to flinch. “Stop stalling, Severeth.”
Her lips peeled back into a predator’s smile. “Gladly,” she said as she rushed toward me with her sword raised.
Steel screamed against steel as our swords collided, sparks flying in the heavy mist. Severeth moved with a grace that was unnatural, every strike calculated, every feint designed to draw me off balance. My arms ached as I parried again and again, her blade sliding close enough to kiss my skin.
I shoved her back and reached for my magic, desperate to unleash even a flicker of it—only to find the power sputtering like a candle in the rain. A gasp escaped me as Severeth’s sword bit across my arm, hot pain searing through flesh.
Kaelith! I cried inwardly, teeth gritted against the sting.
Her voice thundered in my mind, steady and fierce. She marked you, Ashlyn. A tether laid upon your magic to temper it, to keep you bound when you fought her. Every time you reach for it, she clamps down.
I ducked another slash, rolling to the side and barely avoiding the downward slice that cracked stone where I had been standing. “So that’s it?” I spat, circling her, sword steady in my bleeding hand. “You couldn’t beat me without chaining me first.”
Severeth’s smile was pure malice. “I do what’s necessary. Unlike you, I don’t hesitate.” She lunged, and our blades locked again, her strength bearing down until my knees shook.
Break it, Kaelith urged, her presence pressing into mine like a flood tide. It is a tether of shadow, not iron. Push against it with your bond to me. My flame is not hers to command.
My chest heaved as Severeth’s sword slid close enough to slice my cheek. I hissed, twisting free, and answered Kaelith in my mind. How?
Stop thinking of your magic as yours alone. Let mine flow with it. Together, we burn through her hold.
I sucked in a breath, blade flashing as I parried again.
My muscles screamed, my wounds stung, but I reached—not inward, but outward.
Toward Kaelith. Her fire surged like molten rivers through my veins, colliding with the storm building in my chest. The tether Severeth had laid thrummed like a cord pulled taut, straining as power pressed against it.
Severeth’s eyes widened as my aura sparked, tendrils of light bleeding through the smoke. “No,” she snarled, slashing again. “You are mine. I marked you—I own you.”
My sword caught hers with a clash that rattled my bones, but my voice was strong when I hissed back, “You own nothing. Not me. Not my dragon. Not anymore.”
And with Kaelith’s fire twining into my storm, I shoved hard against the tether—feeling it splinter.
The tether snapped with a soundless crack inside me, and the pressure I’d been fighting against detonated outward. My scream tore through the mist as my magic exploded free—lightning bursting from every pore of my skin, arcing in violent threads that ripped across the courtyard.
The air around me swelled, pulsing with raw energy, until it burst into a dome of blinding light—like a bubble made of living lightning. The shockwave screamed outward, shredding the smoky veil Severeth had conjured, dissolving it into nothing.
Severeth was caught in the blast. Her body twisted violently, hurled twenty feet into the air as though she were nothing but a leaf in a storm gale.
She slammed into the stone with a brutal crack, her limbs sprawled, her sword clattering across the courtyard.
For a long, breathless moment—she didn’t move.
“No!” Veralin’s roar split the sky, guttural and furious, the sound of a beast whose leash had been yanked.
The storm still circled me, wild and furious, its eye centered in my chest. I turned slowly toward him, the whirlwind gathering at my command, sparks sizzling across my skin and the ground trembling under my feet.
I raised my hand, and the storm bent with me, coiling like a predator waiting for release. My gaze locked on those cruel red eyes.
This ends with you.