I woke up to the sound of crackling lightning.
Not the sound I'd come to know like breathing.
This was wrong.
Thick. Hungry. Jagged.
It buzzed against my skin before my eyes even opened, the hair on my arms lifting, the air tasting like metal and burned bone.
I forced my eyes open.
Raiden stood over me.
Lightning crawled over his hand, pooling in his palm like a living storm—and bleeding through with shadows that dripped between his fingers like ink. His face was blank. His eyes, cold red.
He was aiming at my heart.
For a second, I couldn't move.
My body remembered the feel of his fingers around my throat, the way the world had narrowed to darkness and pressure and the sound of my bones creaking. My mind remembered his voice in my head, saying I love you, calling my name as the bond blackened.
My heart—
My heart remembered everything.
My muscles didn't.
"Raiden," I whispered. "Please…"
He didn't flinch.
The lightning in his hand thickened, gathering into a spear.
Move, Lyra.
I tried.
My limbs felt like they were full of wet sand. My lungs burned with every breath. The blast against the rocks, the choking, the spirit realm—it all crashed back, leaving my body hollow and shaking.
I couldn't even get my elbows under me.
Raiden raised his hand higher.
The lightning flared.
"LYRA!"
Steel blurred above me.
Revik slammed in from the side, sword raised in both hands. The lightning left Raiden's palm at the same instant Revik's blade came down to meet it.
They collided.
There was no time for them to cancel each other out.
The lightning hit the sword full-force.
It screamed.
Metal went white-hot in an instant, molten slag dripping from the edges as the energy rebounded, shooting back toward Raiden in a ragged blast.
The shockwave hit first.
It threw him backward, hurling his body across the stone. He hit the cracked terrace on his back and skidded, armor sparking against rock. For half a heartbeat, the red in his eyes streaked with flickers of blue—
Then the shadows swallowed it again.
Revik's sword, still in his hands, sagged.
The blade slumped like wax, half-melted, leaving only a ruined chunk of twisted metal and a warped, useless edge. He stared at it for half a second, then let it drop with a hiss.
He turned to me, breathing hard, hair wild, soot smeared across his jaw.
"Get up, lovey," he said.
His voice was all steel.
I dug my fingers into the stone and pushed. Every muscle protested. My ribs ached with each inhale; my throat still felt bruised. But Revik's eyes didn't leave mine until I got one knee under me.
"One more," he said. "On your feet."
I shoved myself upright.
My legs trembled, but they held. Barely.
Lightning crackled again.
Raiden rose slowly to his feet, smoke still curling from the edges of his armor. The explosion hadn't broken him. Of course it hadn't. He rolled his shoulders once, like he was loosening tension, then started walking toward us.
Not charging.
Walking.
Unhurried. Unbothered. Like the battlefield was a hallway in his palace and we were late to bow.
Unease crawled down my spine.
Revik stepped in front of me, squaring his shoulders, completely unarmed.
"You know," he called, voice almost conversational, "for someone so terrifying, you're really casual about turning your back on me, Fire Prince."
Raiden didn't answer.
He just kept walking.
The dead around us had gone still again, forming a loose ring. Watching. Waiting. The shadow-weight of the Fire King's presence pressed from the far side of the field, but he didn't intervene. Not yet. Mortimer's influence hummed at the edge of my mind—a distant, hungry whisper.
Raiden stopped a few strides away.
Up close, the corruption was worse.
His veins glowed faintly red-black where the lightning threaded through them, shadows coiling faintly along his wrists and throat like smoke trapped beneath skin. The bond between us, once a bright, living current, felt like a door bolted from the other side.
Empty.
Cold.
"Look at me, Raiden," Revik said. "Go on. Take a good, long look. Do I really seem like a small enough threat to ignore?"
Finally, Raiden's gaze shifted to him.
There was no recognition there.
No irritation.
No reluctant respect.
No annoyance at being teased.
Just… absence.
"I don't intend to waste energy on someone I know I can easily kill," he said.
His voice was wrong.
It had the same shape. The same cadence. But there was no heat in it. No life. Just a flat certainty that didn't bother to justify itself.
Revik huffed a humorless laugh. "Then by all means," he said softly, "give it your best shot."
Panic clawed at my throat.
"Revik, don't," I hissed. "You don't have a weapon. You don't—"
He didn't look back at me.
"Stay behind me, lovey," he murmured. "You're in no shape to play hero. Let me be an idiot for once."
Raiden raised his hand again.
Lightning gathered, red-black and snarling, staining the air.
He was going to kill Revik.
In one hit.
I could feel it.
No.
No no no—
Something in me snapped.
Embrace it, child… Her voice entered my head…
"STOP!" I screamed.
It started as a word.
It didn't end as one.
The sound tore out of my throat, ripping past my vocal cords like they were nothing. Pain exploded along my spine, then through my ribs, down my arms, into my legs.
Heat.
Pure, unbearable heat.
It flooded my bones, my blood, my skin. Every joint seared. Every breath was a glass shard. My hands clawed at the air as my fingers bent wrong, stretching, splitting, scales erupting across the backs of my knuckles like light made solid.
I fell to my knees.
No—I collapsed forward, but my hands didn't hit stone.
Claws did.
The world tilted. My vision fractured—left, right, up, down, all at once. My jaw dislocated, then reshaped, teeth lengthening into fangs. My spine cracked, extending, vertebrae popping like breaking branches as a tail unfurled behind me.
Wings.
They ripped free from my back with a wet, tearing sound, membrane stretching between long, bony fingers. This wasn't the half-formed shift. This wasn't scales under skin and a dragon just beneath the surface.
This was the surface tearing open.
Bones groaned as they rearranged into a new architecture.
Dragon.
I roared.
The sound shook the mountain.
Stone cracked beneath me, the shockwave bowling over the nearest ring of dead, sending them tumbling like dolls. Frost shattered, ash scattered, shadows quivered under the force of the noise.
When the roar died, I was no longer looking up at Raiden.
I was staring down, towering over him and the battlefield.
The terrace looked smaller from this height. The Fire King's army seemed less like an ocean and more like a swarm. My body felt… vast. Heavy and graceful at once. Every part of me thrummed with power.
My scales glowed a bright iridescent white threaded with veins of violet fire and blue water-light. Where my claws dug into the stone, glowing cracks spiderwebbed outward, light seeping through.
The Primal Dragon.
Full and undeniable.
Behind Raiden, a voice bellowed—a voice layered with mortal and god, human and shadow.
"RAIDEN!" the Fire King roared. "SHIFT. KILL HER."
The command sliced through the air, edged with Mortimer's gleeful hiss.
Something dark flashed across Raiden's face.
He didn't argue. Didn't hesitate.
He moved.
Revik lunged, trying to intercept, but Raiden swatted him aside with a flick of his wrist, a burst of raw force throwing him bodily into a cluster of dead. They toppled under him in a tangle of limbs while he struggled back to his feet.
Raiden's body ignited.
Not with normal light.
With shadow-streaked lightning.
His shape blurred, bones snapping and stretching, scales erupting over skin. Black poured over him like spilled ink, coating his body in a familiar, terrible silhouette.
His dragon hit the stone in front of me with enough force that the terrace shook.
He was still beautiful in a brutal way.
But the corruption had claimed that too.
His scales were black, yes—but now they gleamed with an oily red sheen when the light hit them. Between the plates, darkness oozed faintly like smoke trapped in seams. The spikes along his neck and back had sharpened into jagged, cruel hooks. His horns curved forward more, like blades meant for impaling.
His eyes glowed blood-red.
The bond was a dead line.
He spread his wings.
Shadows dripped from the undersides like tar.
We stared at each other.
Once, this had been a fantasy I never admitted aloud.
Two dragons in the sky, side by side.
Now we stood opposite. Light and darkness.
He moved first.
Lightning blasted from his jaws—a torrent of red-black energy, wild and coiled with shadow. It slammed toward me in a jagged sheet, searing the air.
I met it with fire.
Violet flame erupted from my mouth, laced with white and blue. When it collided with his lightning, the impact exploded in a shockwave of color and sound, flinging dead bodies off the terrace in chunks.
The blast threw us both back—but he recovered faster.
Raiden lunged.
His jaws snapped where my neck had just been. I twisted, wings beating hard, my claws striking at his shoulder. My talons raked along his scales; sparks flew, shadows bursting like bruises.
No blood.
His tail whipped around, faster than I could dodge. It slammed into my side, the spikes ripping between my scales. Pain flared. I stumbled, dug my claws in, and shoved back, using the force of the hit to spin.
I lashed out with my own tail, catching him across the wing joint.
He roared.
Not Raiden's roar.
Something lower. Rougher. Tainted.
Shadows poured from the wounded joint, hissing where my magic had burned through. He surged in again, jaws snapping for my throat, claws reaching to drag me down.
The gods' voices rose in a desperate chorus at the edge of my mind.
"Little flame—hold your ground!" Kagutsuchi snapped.
"Anchor. Breathe. You are not fighting alone," Njord murmured, his voice the calm in a storm.
The moonlit woman's tone brushed the back of my thoughts, weary and aching. "He is not gone. Not yet. But you must fight the monster, not the man."
Easy for them to say.
Raiden's claws raked across my chest, tearing scales. I snarled, lunging forward to slam my shoulder into his, forcing him back a few paces. We circled, claws scoring gouges in the stone, tails curling for balance.
He feinted left, power building in his throat.
I saw the flicker too late.
Lightning speared from his mouth point-blank.
It hit me across the face, searing bright light through my vision. My world went black. Pain tore through my skull, down my jaw, into my neck. I reeled, half-blind, wings stretching out automatically to keep me from falling.
Shadows surged in, drawn to the wound, trying to crawl into the crack in my defenses.
Mortimer's laughter whispered along the edges of my mind.
"See how he shines in my image?"
"SHUT. UP." I roared aloud, shaking my head hard enough to scatter sparks.
I lunged by feel more than sight, slamming my body into Raiden's, teeth snapping at the vulnerable spot where his neck met his shoulder. My fangs sank into scales, then shadow, then something like flesh.
He screamed.
Lightning erupted from his body, wild and thrashing. It ripped through my mouth, my teeth, my skull. Every nerve lit up with agony. I held on anyway, pouring violet flame into the wound.
Shadows burned.
They shrieked as they retreated, scorched back from his core. For one impossible heartbeat, a flicker of blue shimmered under the red in his eye—
Then the shadows surged back, filling the space.
He threw me off.
I hit the stone hard enough that a crater formed under my ribs. The impact rattled through me, wings flaring, tail lashing in reflex. The dead that had dared creep closer were crushed under the shockwave.
Raiden pounced.
His claws slammed into my shoulders, pinning me. His jaws opened above my throat, breath hot and buzzing with power, ready to tear it out.
Wind screamed.
It slammed into him from the side—sharp, invisible blades of air.
Tadewi hit him like a hurricane given teeth.
She slammed into his flank, orange scales flashing, wings beating with a force that turned the air itself into a weapon. The wind she carried scooped him clean off me, sending his dragon body skidding across the terrace, claws tearing furrows in the stone.
She landed between us, wings half-spread, eyes blazing.
"ON YOUR FEET, PRIMAL," she snarled. "WE DON'T FALL TODAY."
I shoved myself upright.
Everything hurt.
Blood dripped between my scales, sizzling slightly where it hit the stone. My chest heaved, each breath a grind of pain and stubbornness.
Raiden shook himself off, head snapping to focus on us again. His father's voice rose over the battlefield, thin and sharp.
"RAIDEN. END THEM."
Shadows surged harder between his scales, thickening, like Mortimer himself had taken hold of his spine.
We didn't have long.
Tadewi's voice brushed my mind, not in words, but in intent. A question.
Ready?
I answered with a roar.
We moved together.
Tadewi went high, wind rolling off her wings in crushing waves that forced Raiden to brace. I went low, ice sparking along my claws as I dug them into the stone for better purchase.
She dove.
I charged.
Raiden lashed out with his tail, but Tadewi twisted midair, catching the blow along her flank instead of her wing. Scales shattered, but she used the momentum to spin and slam both hind claws into his shoulder.
I hit his other side at the same instant, my weight slamming into his foreleg.
Bone cracked.
He dropped to one knee, roaring.
We didn't give him time to recover.
Wind wrapped around my body, Tadewi lending me speed I didn't know how to hold alone. I lunged for his throat again, claws seizing his chest, forcing his head back.
He fought like a trapped storm, lightning bursting in every direction, scorching the stone, vaporizing dead on contact. One blast caught my wing, burning a line through the membrane.
I screamed.
But I didn't let go.
"REVOKE HIS SKY!" Kagutsuchi shouted in my head. "PIN HIM TO THE EARTH!"
Tadewi answered with a shriek, wind slamming down like a hand on Raiden's back, forcing him further toward the ground. For a heartbeat, all three of us were locked there—corrupted storm, primal light, and air given dragon form.
"Lyra!" a voice yelled from below.
Revik.
I glanced down with one eye.
He was running toward us, weaving through the chaos, jumping over fallen bodies. He grabbed a jutting stone spur and climbed, hauling himself up my foreleg like I was a cliff. His boots slipped once; my scales shifted instinctively to give him purchase.
"Sorry, lovey," he panted, dragging himself up my shoulder. "Borrowing you."
He swung a leg over, straddling the base of my neck, fingers curling into the ridge of scales like reins.
The Fire King shouted something across the field, voice laced with fury and panic, but the wind stole the words.
We didn't have time to listen.
Now, the old primal whispered inside me.
The gods' voices rose in unison.
"BRIDGE," Njord urged. "Open."
"BURN," Kagutsuchi snarled. "Cleanse."
Trust yourself, child…
Raiden thrashed under us, muscles straining, shadows boiling. If we held him much longer, he'd break free.
So I stopped trying to hold.
And let go.
Violet light surged from deep within my chest.
Not as a stream.
Not as a blast of fire.
As a star.
It erupted outward in a sphere, exploding from my body in all directions. It swallowed Tadewi and her winds, swallowed Revik where he clung to my neck, swallowed Raiden's struggling form beneath us.
For a heartbeat, there was nothing but light.
Tadewi's power slammed into it—wind catching the edges of the explosion, folding it, shaping it, accelerating it. Together, our magic latched onto the threads of the world itself and yanked.
The battlefield dropped away.
Sound vanished.
Weight vanished.
For a single breath, we were nowhere and everywhere, streaking through a space that wasn't sky, wasn't earth, wasn't anything I had words for.
Then—
We were gone.
The light snapped out.
Far behind us, on the shattered terrace, corrupted Raiden, the Fire King, and the endless army of dead stared at the spot where we'd been—
At the empty stone.
At the absence.
At the place where, a heartbeat ago, their prey had stood.
And found nothing at all.