The sky was split open by fire and shadow. Dragons tore through the clouds.
Flame crashed into flame. Roars shook stone.
Below was chaos. Swords rang against armor, metal screaming. Wolves tore into wolves, snarling.
Fire raced along banners. The air smelled of ash and blood.
Serena froze for half a heartbeat, taking it in.
This was terror.
This was war.
And somewhere in this hell, Dex was fighting alone.
The thought moved her feet before conscious decision caught up.
They swept the routes most often used by omegas, moving through the keep with purpose. Innocents were evacuated as they went, pushed into safe passages, doors sealed behind them.
Elara kept healing in the midst of it all. Silver light flared from her hands again and again as she worked, steady now, practiced. She was in a rhythm.
Serena did not hesitate when enemies appeared. She burned them with flame and kept moving, never slowing, never second-guessing.
They had cleared two sections of the outer grounds when the sound reached them. Not the clash of swords, but something deeper. A howl that made the stone beneath their feet tremble.
Serena's head snapped toward the outer wall.
Through the smoke and chaos, she saw it.
A dragon lay crashed against the outer stone, one wing twisted at an impossible angle.
It let out pained, broken cries, blood pooling on the ground.
They ran to it, dropping to their knees in the blood-slicked grass. Tears welled in Serena's eyes at the sight.
Elara pressed her hands to the dragon's side and silver light flared, bright and desperate. Her magic poured out as she tried to knit shattered flesh.
But it was too large for Elara to do on her own and the wounds were too deep.
Without thought or intention, gold light spilled from Serena's hands into the dragon, warm and steady, answering Elara's silver like it had been waiting for it.
The two energies mirrored each other, sinking into the dragon together.
The dragon's howls softened from agony to low, rumbling breaths. The ground beneath them vibrated as its massive chest rose and fell more evenly.
By the time they were finished, Serena was panting and her legs trembled.
"Give me a moment." She leaned back against the dragon, feeling its blood-slicked scales beneath her palms.
The dragon allowed it, lowering its massive head to rest on the ground beside her. It made a noise that sounded like a purr.
Serena let out a breathless laugh. "You're welcome, buddy."
Around them, the battle raged on—distant enough not to threaten them, close enough that smoke drifted over the outer wall and the clash of steel rang in her ears.
She could feel her grip on the energy slipping. She needed to take it back fully before she did anything else.
She closed her eyes and breathed. After a minute, the control returned.
She shifted her focus outward, toward the dragons that had been channeling into her and had not stopped. From the shape and steadiness of their energy, she could tell there were no other injured dragons.
The relief hit harder than she expected.
She pushed her gold magic toward them, surrounding them like armor. At least, that was how she pictured it in her mind.
Then she pushed the same gold into the dragon she had just helped. She did not recognize it as one that had been channeling into her, but she did it anyway.
The dragon lit up gold. Its massive body became outlined and surrounded by her magic.
It worked.
"Who is your rider?" Serena asked softly, running her hand along the ridge of scales near its claw.
Elara had been standing nearby keeping watch, hands still glowing silver. But suddenly, she went still.
She should have been terrified. She was not. A deep sense of connection settled into her chest instead, calm and absolute. The dragon's energy matched her silver magic perfectly. It felt familiar. Like finding a piece of herself she hadn't known was missing.
Serena watched her step forward, sensing the shift between them. Each step Elara took looked inevitable, like following a path home.
Elara stopped just before the dragon's massive head and lowered herself to her knees.
She placed her hand gently between the dragon's eyes.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then silver light exploded outward.
The shockwave slammed into Serena like a fist. She flew backward, hitting the stone wall ten feet away. The impact drove the air from her lungs.
"Flareon," Elara said faintly, already moving, already climbing onto the dragon in a daze. "She came to find me."
Serena's vision swam. She pushed herself up on shaking arms, blinking away stars. Elara was already stumbling forward, hands finding purchase on scales as she climbed.
"Wait—" Serena gasped, legs already moving.
She sprinted across the grass and leapt, catching the edge of Flareon's claw just as its wings snapped open.
They soared upward, the ground vanishing beneath them.
Serena's fingers scraped against scales as she hauled herself up behind Elara.
By the time she made it, her breaths came in wheezes, her windpipe and lungs were still not healed.
"Fuck that's not easy to do," she said after she caught her breath.
"She is taking us somewhere," Elara called over the rush of wind, unbothered. "It is important. I feel it."
She didn't need to explain. Serena understood.
From this height, Serena could see the full scope of the battle below—and the sky above.
She felt and saw unfamiliar dragons in the sky. They did not belong to Drakenfell.
Corruption surrounded their energies and her chest ached with sadness. These dragons had been twisted, forced into this fight.
One of the dragons roared when it saw Serena.
Her heart stopped.
Every non-Drakenfell dragon froze mid-flight. Wings locked. Eyes turning toward her in perfect unison.
For a breathless moment, the sky was silent.
Then the shouts started. Riders yelled commands, panic sharp in their voices.
The dragons did not move.
They simply waited. Dozens of them, hovering impossibly still, eyes locked on Serena.
Waiting for her.
She did not want them here. Did not want them fighting. Did not want them corrupted and bleeding for a war that wasn't theirs.
Go. Land. You're safe now. I've got you.
The command blazed through her mind.
And somehow, they understood.
Every dragon descended toward the field below, ignoring the screaming riders on their backs, answering only to her.
Serena felt tears on her cheeks and didn't bother wiping them away.
"Holy shit," Elara whispered.
Yeah. That about covered it.
As soon as they landed, Serena surrounded them with gold magic, severing their connections to their riders. Many of them needed healing and none of them were fully in control of their own actions.
The dragons lowered their heads, understanding.
When they realized nothing they did mattered, enemy riders scrambled off their dragons. Drakenfell warriors were already there, blades drawn, meeting them head-on and holding the line.
Flareon banked sharply, diving toward the tree line. The wind screamed past Serena's ears as they plummeted.
She landed in a clearing near the forest with enough force to shake the trees.
Even here, away from the main battle, ash dusted the ground and the smell of smoke lingered. Another dragon lay there, collapsed. Its massive body was curled protectively around its rider.
The rider was slumped against its side, barely upright.
Serena's breath caught. She knew that scent before she even saw his face.
"Gav," she said, and then she was moving.
She ran at alpha speed, crossing the clearing in seconds and dropping to her knees beside him. His body and his dragon were already surrounded in her gold magic.
His wounds were bad. Deep. Too deep.
No. Worse than that.
Wrong.
Elara rushed in beside her and pressed her hands to him, silver light flaring as she tried to heal.
Nothing happened.
The wounds did not close. Did not even respond. The silver magic hit the edges of torn flesh and simply... stopped. Like trying to pour water into a void.
Serena's stomach dropped.
Dark magic. She recognized the signature now. The same oily, wrong feeling she'd sensed on the corrupted dragons.
But this was worse. This wasn't meant to control.
This was meant to erase.
"It's eating the magic," Elara said, voice shaking. "Everything I push in, it just—it takes it. Serena, I can't—"
"I know." Serena's voice cracked and tears filled her eyes.
Gav tried to speak. Probably to make some smart-ass comment about her crying over him. Instead, blood spilled from his mouth.
His eyes rolled back.
"No." The word tore out of her. "No, no, no—"
Serena unsheathed his blade and slashed her palm without hesitation. Gold blood poured over him, spilling into his wounds.
Nothing happened.
Her blood on his skin was not closing the wounds fast enough.
Her heart stuttered.
There was another way. A way she'd never tried. A way she wasn't sure would even work.
A way that might kill her if she got it wrong.
She shoved her bleeding hand into his mouth and let the gold blood pour in.
Her magic flared, sensing the internal contact, and suddenly she could feel him. His heartbeat. His fading pulse. The dark magic eating through him like acid.
No. Not him. Not Gav.
She poured more magic in. More blood. More of herself.
The gold light blazed brighter. Her vision swam.
Somewhere far away, Elara was shouting her name.
But all Serena knew was that Gav was inches from death.
And she would burn herself to ash before she let him go.