Chapter 26
Chapter
Twenty-Six
The wind swept across the island as Kaelith banked low over the trees, the late afternoon sun casting gold across the sea. Zander and I flew side by side in silence, both lost in the gravity of what we’d learned. The summit had ended, but the shadows that chased us had only grown.
We broke through the cloudline and dipped low toward the Ascension Grounds, the stones finally coming into view. Kaelith rumbled beneath me, already sensing what I hadn’t yet seen.
Elara.
She darted from the castle’s main doors, her lavender skirts fluttering, hair tied in a loose braid.
Her steps were quick but unhurried, as though drawn by instinct more than fear.
Innocence radiated from her, untouched by court politics or the truths that haunted her brother. And Zander… gods, the look on his face.
He dismounted from Hein before the dragon had fully landed, boots crunching softly on the stone. He crossed the grounds in long, urgent strides and dropped to his knees before her.
“Elara,” he whispered, voice cracking as he took her hands in his. “Are you alright?”
She nodded with a shy smile, already tilting her head as though listening for something only she could hear. “You’re back.”
His fingers brushed her cheek. “I always will be.”
For a moment, the world stilled.
Zander’s eyes shone—not with the fire of a prince or rider or heir to a bloodline, but with the raw, unfiltered love of a brother who would give the world to keep this one small human safe.
I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until I heard the footsteps—quick, urgent.
“Zander! Ashe!”
Quinn sprinted from his tower, his robes flapping wildly as he nearly tripped on the last step. His face said everything long before his voice did—drained of color, lips pressed in a line of restrained panic.
“The pool,” he gasped, clutching the hem of his robe. “It’s black. The wards… they’re gone.”
My blood turned to ice.
Zander stood slowly, shifting Elara behind him.
“What do you mean, gone?” I asked, already striding toward him.
Quinn’s breath hitched. “I mean completely collapsed. The runes around the sanctum are inert. The magic is severed.”
Kaelith’s voice curled into my mind, low and grim.
Then the last protection has fallen.
A low, rumbling roar broke through the thick silence, echoing off the cliffs like a war cry from the gods themselves.
Then came the second… then a third. A chorus of primal thunder that shook the sky.
Kaelith’s head snapped up, eyes burning violet.
We are under attack!
The warning hit me like lightning. Chaos ignited across the Ascension Grounds.
“Riders to your dragons!” I shouted, already sprinting for Kaelith’s side.
Zander grabbed my arm briefly, his face pale but resolved. Then he turned to the nearest castle guard. “You. Escort my sister to her chambers. Lock the door and do not leave her.”
The guard nodded, grabbing Elara’s hand gently. She looked back once, eyes wide with fear, but Zander gave her a smile that nearly shattered me.
“I’ll come for you,” he promised.
Then she was gone, rushing inside the castle just as the first blast of lightning lit the skies overhead.
Kaelith surged forward as I vaulted into the saddle, the wind slapping my face. Riders mounted across the grounds, Cordelle, Naia, Ferrula, Jax, Riven, Tae, all leaping into the fray with practiced precision.
Black-winged horrors descended from the clouds, their scales glistening like oil in the sun. The Blood Fae rode them, robed and armored, blades flashing with unnatural fire. The air shimmered with their spells, warping the wind, the light, even sound.
Kaelith rose with a shriek, barreling into a black Striker and knocking it from the air. I ducked under a blast of Storm Fire and countered with my own, bright white-blue energy flaring from my hands.
But something felt... wrong.
They weren’t fighting to kill. I realized it mid-strike, my blast barely grazing a rider who should’ve been eviscerated. He pulled away instead of pressing his attack.
Kaelith spun, her claws catching another dragon’s wing, not enough to cripple it. And yet… the fae didn’t retaliate.
They’re not aiming for our dragons, Kaelith hissed. They’re avoiding fatal blows.
I stared around the battlefield as the dance continued. The Blood Fae were attacking in waves, but their movements were strange—coordinated, restrained.
A diversion, I realized. This isn’t a battle. It’s a distraction.
But for what?
Kaelith’s wings snapped hard against the wind as she twisted mid-air, her gaze locking onto the movement atop the tower.
Severeth! I screamed into her mind.
I barely had the breath to shout before I saw it—the guard posted outside Elara’s door being ripped away from the threshold like a puppet cut from its strings. He didn’t resist. Didn’t even blink.
Because he wasn’t in control.
A twisted, blood-red shimmer clung to his skin as he pulled Elara from the door and pushed her toward the figure waiting on the rooftop.
Severeth.
My pulse slammed in my ears. Elara struggled, eyes wide with panic, but Severeth only smiled, slow, serpentine, and pressed a curved obsidian blade to the girl’s throat. Elara went still, the tremble in her limbs the only sign she hadn’t turned to stone.
Kaelith shrieked, her scales pulsing violet as I urged her upward. We soared toward the tower just as Severeth launched into the sky, wings like torn shadows ripping the clouds.
We have to catch her!
Kaelith gave chase, but Severeth didn’t flee, not immediately. She slowed just enough to allow me to fly beside her, like we were dancing mid-air.
“Let Elara go!” I shouted over the wind. “She isn’t the one you want!”
Severeth turned her head, and those bloodlit eyes met mine with a glint of cruel amusement.
“You’re right,” she purred, voice like velvet wrapped around a dagger. “She will be waiting for you, Ashlyn... in Veralin’s court. The Blood King is eager to meet his legacy.”
I gritted my teeth, magic surging under my skin. “You’re not leaving here with her.”
Severeth only chuckled.
“Oh, but I am. Come alone, Storm-born… or I’ll have a little fun with this one first.” She glanced at Elara, her smile sharpening. “I’m very skilled with blades. I know how to inflict… exquisite pain. Maximum damage. Without the pesky death.”
My throat went dry. “She’s just a child!”
Severeth’s eyes flashed, her voice dropping to a whisper I felt in my bones.
“There are no children in war.”
And with that, her wings surged and she vanished into the dark clouds—taking Elara with her.
The dark clouds parted as swiftly as they had gathered, vanishing like smoke on the wind.
But the silence they left behind was deafening.
The Blood Fae were gone.
And they had Elara.
Kaelith and I landed hard on the Ascension Grounds, my heart still slamming against my ribs, my body shaking from helplessness more than exhaustion. Zander dismounted before Hein’s claws had even stilled against the stones.
“What happened?” His voice was raw. Urgent.
I opened my mouth, but no sound came. My throat closed as the truth lodged like a shard of ice in my chest.
Theron burst from the castle doors, flanked by guards, his face a mask of fire and fury. “You allowed our sister to be abducted!” he roared. “I should have you put to death!”
The words cracked like a whip, but it wasn’t Theron’s voice that made me flinch.
It was the look on Zander’s face. Like he’d just been gutted. Like something inside him had been severed.
He turned to me, slow, hesitant.
“They took her,” I whispered, voice hollow.
He didn’t speak.
He didn’t have to.
The ground beneath our feet began to tremble.
Dark Fire seeped up from the stone, curling like serpents around Zander’s boots, swirling higher with every breath he took. The temperature dropped. Not with cold, but with fury.
With power.
He exhaled, and the flames roared.
Black as midnight. Endless as grief.
They climbed his legs, his back, his arms—cascading around him like a storm given form. I had to step back, the air thick with magic that crackled with grief and vengeance. Even Kaelith backed away, wings folding tight, her eyes wary.
Theron’s face paled. The heat was unbearable, but it wasn’t fire that unsettled him. It was what pulsed beneath it.
The Ascension Grounds fell silent.
Every rider. Every dragon. Every breath.
Still.
Because we all knew what this was.
Zander wasn’t summoning Dark Fire.
He was the Dark Fire.
And in that moment, even Theron seemed to realize—
If Zander lost control, we wouldn’t just lose an heir.
We’d lose the continent.
The last embers of Dark Fire curled into the air like fading smoke, and Zander dropped to his knees as if his rage had finally broken him.
I was beside him in a breath.
“We’ll get her back,” I said, gently placing my hand on his shoulder. He didn’t flinch. Just stared at the ground, his jaw clenched tight, his chest still heaving.
“She wants me,” I whispered. “This is a ploy, Zander. Elara is leverage. She won’t hurt her, not yet.”
Zander shook his head, lips pressed into a trembling line. “She’s a child,” he rasped. “She’s just a little girl, Ashlyn. What if she—”
“She won’t,” I cut in, firmer this time. “But you need to calm down. Right now, your emotions are a mess, and if you want to save her, you have to control this.”
He tried. Gods, he tried. I saw it in the way he gritted his teeth, in the sweat beading his brow as he dragged breath after breath into lungs too tight with fear. His hands trembled as the heat faded from his skin.
When he finally looked up at me, he seemed… older.
Worn.
Like the weight of being both prince and protector had hollowed him out in a single moment.
“Lie down. Rest. Just for a little while.”
“I have to find her.”
“I know. And I have a plan, but I need you sharp when we act. Not burning the world down.”
He nodded slowly, his jaw tight again.
“Go to the vault,” I added gently. “Look for anything on the Blood Isle. There might be something we missed. A clue. A map. A name.”
He nodded again, eyes still on fire, but his hands steadier now. “I will come find you when I am ready.”
I smiled, even as the guilt pressed hot beneath my ribs. “Of course.”
He turned and walked away, his steps heavy but sure.
And as I watched him go, a sharp pang bloomed in my chest.
Because it was the first time I had openly lied to him.
Theron was already storming toward the castle, but instead of using the main entrance, he veered left—toward the lesser gate near the council wing. He didn’t want to face Zander. Not after what just happened. Not after the fire that nearly cracked the earth beneath our feet.
Coward.
Kaelith. My voice brushed through our bond like a breathless vow. We have to go after her.
I know. Her reply was calm. Resolute. But if we do this, we do it alone. You understand what that means?
I don’t want anyone else involved either.
Hein will be quite vexed with me, she said, the words slow and deliberate.
Then blame me. I didn’t hesitate. All of it. Say I ordered it. Say I threatened to leap off your back midflight if you didn’t take me.
As if, Kaelith huffed, but there was amusement laced beneath the steel of her voice. You’d survive the fall.
Probably.
She didn’t argue further.
The moment I threw myself onto her back, she leaped into the sky, wings flaring against the late sun. No one stopped us—too many still stunned from Zander’s outburst, or licking their wounds from the skirmish. We banked high, looping as if headed toward the Dragon Isle.
But the moment we passed over its rocky cliffs, Kaelith angled east.
Toward the storm-torn horizon.
Toward the island ruled by blood and shadows.
We flew fast. Fast enough to steal the breath from my chest. Fast enough to make it real.
I wasn’t going to wait for the council to vote, or Theron to consult his precious advisors. I wasn’t going to let fear paralyze Zander again.
I was going to get Elara back.
Or burn the Blood Isle trying.
How long before Hein realizes we’re gone? I asked, the wind biting against my cheeks as Kaelith sliced through the air.
Perhaps an hour, she replied, wings pumping with sharp efficiency. I told him to rest. To keep an eye on Zander. That display took more from him than he’s willing to admit.
My grip tightened on the ridged edge of her scales. So we’re flying into the most dangerous place on the continent, and we’ve got an hour head start before the most overprotective dragon alive notices you’re gone?
You say that like we haven’t done worse.
I didn’t argue. Because she wasn’t wrong.
Below us, the ocean churned like something alive—waves cresting with a frothy rage, slamming into the jagged rocks that ringed the Blood Isle like fangs. But it was the clouds ahead that held my attention. Thick and dark, coiling like smoke from a dying fire. Magic. Not storm, not sky.
Blood magic.
My stomach twisted as we dipped lower, the scent of copper and salt crawling over my skin.
This place smells of death, Kaelith said.
I didn’t reply. I couldn’t.
I was already staring at the island of blackened cliffs and ashen hills, my heart pounding like a war drum.
Elara was somewhere down there.
And I was the only one who could save her.