LOGINARAH
She wanted to run after Mabel and explain herself, but Cora grabbed her arm, shaking her head.
“Give her time,” she said. “What you told her isn’t something she’s going to believe right away. Besides, you just admitted to making her a widow on her wedding night.”
Arah sighed, clutching her collarbone as she watched Mabel storm off through the window.
“Gotta give it to you,” Cora said. “I didn’t think you’d actually say it to her.”
Arah
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
ARAHEENThe tea hit her tongue with honey, smoke, flowers, and something sharper beneath it, something bright enough to feel dangerous. It went down hot. For a moment, it felt like she had swallowed a strip of sunlight.Then the weight left her body.The room vanished. She drifted in the cosmic sprawl around her, light and sound spread wide in every direction. She couldn’t feel Gildeon beside her anymore, but she knew he was there. She knew he was being dragged through the same thing.Ahead of her hung a sphere of white light. Not a star, but a gateway. It stirred the same memory as the Dark Plane portal she had seen through her mother’s eyes, but this one carried no threat. There was no cold nor dread. It pulled instead.Araheen moved toward it, and as soon as she passed through, knowledge crashed over her all at once.Color. Light. Shape. Sound. Taste. Scent. Touch. Everything slammed into her in one brutal rus
ARAHEENSilence settled over them like a weight. She found herself reaching for Gildeon’s arm, her fingers resting against the heat of his hide. It was a small thing, but it said what words couldn’t: he wasn’t alone in this. She felt the fury in him, hard and banked hot beneath the skin, and she understood it. After what had been done to his people—after everything the Divine Command had taken from them—how could he face the being who had started it all and feel anything but rage?The Shining Keeper said nothing as she moved toward the gazebo. She was slight, elegant, but there was nothing soft about her. She carried herself like something that knew it could kill without effort—a viper-like being stripped down to a woman’s shape. A golden vase filled with flowers appeared in her clawed hands as if the world itself had placed it there for her. She set it on the table with a muted thud.Then she sat across
ARAH“Dammit!” She slammed her hands against the steel gate, the impact ringing out with a dull, metallic thud. Running her fingers through her hair, she fidgeted in place, pinching her lower lip, trying to figure out her next move. Her pride wouldn’t let her return to the witches’ block on her own.
ARAHShe kicked her legs off the couch and sprang to her feet, every nerve in her body on high alert. The lights in the whole block flickered on—whether by magic or not, she couldn’t tell.Drusden’s face tightened, his cigarette frozen halfway to his mouth. His brown eyes flashed with a brief glint of
ARAHThe guard led them down what felt like a back hallway, cameras watching from every corner. It seemed to stretch forever, with concrete walls pressing on either side—cold and oppressive. She knew what lay beyond these walls: the worst of the worst. Violent men who’d probably gutted people like li
ARAHJust when she thought the strange encounters of the night were over, fate threw another twisted joke her way.“Why are you…” Her voice wavered. “Are you one of them?”Agent Durante didn’t respond. Maybe he didn’t need to. His silence and steady gaze were confirmation enough. He stepped inside, and







