LOGINARAHEENAfter Yonah had been brought down, she and Gildeon returned at once to the Shining Keeper’s domain, shadow-walking once more through the Dark Plane. Both of them were exhausted, drained to the very marrow by the battle—Gildeon especially, his body still struggling to mend the grave injuries he had sustained. Even so, they pressed onward, spending what little strength remained on the journey.Araheen had also chosen not to tell him about Kohina just yet. She would not burden his mind while something far too important still remained to be done.When they arrived back in the domain, they found the Creator exactly as they had left her.She lay upon an elevated bed of flowers at the heart of the garden, a stab wound in her chest where Gildeon had driven Yonah’s dagger. Fresh golden blood still welled slowly around it, as though the wound had been preserved in the very state of her death.Araheen drew out her ph
ARAHEENShe stared at Kohina, wide-eyed, unable to summon an answer at once. First, the Shining Keeper had offered up her life so they might have even the slightest chance of saving the world from utter ruin. And now, if Yonah was to be brought down, Kohina had to die as well.A part of her wished to dismiss it as some cruel jest, absurd even in the midst of war against the beasts. But this was Kohina. The seer would never speak of such things lightly, least of all now, when they were losing, and Gildeon was in grave danger.Araheen parted her lips to ask another question, but Kohina cut her off before the words could leave her.“You swore never to ask questions, Araheen.”“But what you’re asking of me...” The sentence broke apart in her throat.Above them, another pained roar tore from Gildeon. One of his wings was badly ripped, and his spiritual wings were bearing most of the burden of keeping
ARAHEENShe watched Gildeon shift into his ultimate True Form. She had once believed nothing could surpass the majesty of his full dragon form.This was way beyond that.What rose into the ravaged sky now was not merely a dragon, but a coronation made flesh.His body had grown broader, longer, more sovereign in every line. The black of his scales remained, but now it was overtaken by more gold—rich, molten, radiant gold that streamed over him in commanding patterns, sheathing his throat, his chest, the curve of his ribs, and the heavy arches of his limbs. He looked to be wearing a gilded armor blessed by the divine light.Fire flowed along the ridges of his spine like living silk, pouring from one spiked crest to the next in bright rivers. His eyes, twin orbs of black and gold, became deeper and blazing all at once, like eclipsed suns lit from within.His wings alone could have undone her breath. The first pair was his
GILDEONThe end of the world had begun by the time he and Araheen stepped out of the Shining Keeper’s domain.Shamibar met them in ruin.Breaches hung open across the land like fresh wounds in the world, and beasts kept pouring out of them in numbers too great to count. There was no rhythm to it. No sign of slowing. Just a steady flood of teeth, claws, hide, and hunger. Sylphs and salamanders had been forced to stop tearing at each other long enough to fight the things trying to swallow them all.The air reeked of carrion, spoiled flesh, and old magic ripped wide open. Even for his kind—who had been raised amid the stinks of the ancient beasts—it was enough to make the gut tighten. All around them rolled the sounds of the creatures: deep, ancient bellows, wet snarls, bone-thin shrieks, jaws clacking like stones in a grave. The noise crawled beneath the skin and settled in the blood.Araheen’s grip tightened
NARRATOR’S POVThe wound in the fabric of the world pulsed at the center of the crater, a black tear that throbbed like something alive. Around it, the earth had caved in, forming a wide basin of broken stone and loose dirt. Dense forest ringed the crater on all sides, dark and still, its trees packed so tightly they looked like a wall.The elder witches who had tried to seal the breach lay scattered across the ground where they had fallen. Their mouths hung open. Their bodies were shriveled and dry, skin pulled tight over bone. Their eye sockets were empty. Their limbs had stiffened into bent, twisted angles.Yonah sat at the crater’s edge, cross-legged, his back straight, his eyes closed, his white hair shifting in the wind. He was deep in a trance, waiting.Then the cold reached him.It started in his core, frosting upward into his chest until his whole body went numb. Fine grains of ice seemed to gather over his ski
GILDEONHe’d already braced himself for the truth that his real mother might be a High Immortal—one of the first companions shaped at the dawn of time. But this was way beyond anything he could’ve ever imagined.The realization came down hard and clean, like a blade laid flat against the back of his neck. Not confusion. Not wonder. Just the cold, ugly weight of knowing he should’ve seen it sooner.His gaze dragged over her golden scales, the claws, the old power sitting beneath her skin like banked fire, and disgust curled in his gut.At himself.“You’re the Dragon Queen,” he muttered.The words came out low, rough with disbelief and irritation.The Shining Keeper turned toward them. At once, her body shifted.Shinier golden scales spread over her skin and hardened, bright and dense like forged plates, each one throwing off its own light. Wings burst from her back&mdash
GILDEON“I can’t believe you’ve had a hidden torture chamber all this time,” he said as he glanced around the cavern. “Why didn’t you tell me?”They were deep inside the cave, half a mile from Roselia’s farmstead. Jagged stalactites hung from the ceiling like teeth,
ARAHThe pain was immediate and total. Acid seared through her armored flanks, every breath like inhaling boiling seawater. But now the panic wasn’t just hers—it belonged to the creature too, a fusion of instincts and desperation.She flexed her raptorial claws, fee
Many Years Ago (Part 4)YOUNG ARAHEENShe never truly intended to leave her family forever. At first, she only wanted to escape the fate her father had chosen for her. If she were to be parted from her home, her siblings, and her mother’s t
ARAHShe hadn’t realized two hours had already slipped by since they’d sat down at the new café. They chatted over random gossip about the locals on the island. Jeric knew a surprising amount, especially considering he’d spent most of his life on the mainland with his moth







