ELARA POV
The power was killing me.
I could feel it burning through my veins like liquid fire, consuming me from the inside out. Every breath hurt. Every heartbeat sent waves of searing heat through my body.
But I didn't stop.
Couldn't stop.
My mother was fifty feet away, tied to a pyre with flames beginning to lick at the kindling. I had minutes—maybe less—before she started burning.
So I pushed harder.
The golden light exploding from my hands wasn't gentle or controlled. It was raw, wild, desperate. The kind of power that should have killed me instantly.
But love is a hell of a motivator.
"Rise," I commanded, my voice echoing with harmonics that didn't sound entirely human. "Rise and protect."
The earth responded.
Not metaphorically. Actually responded.
The ground beneath the Northern forces buckled and shifted. Stone flowed like water, reshaping itself into massive forms. Dragons. Dozens of them, formed entirely from rock and earth and my desperate will.
