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My pulse rang between my ears as I met Landers’s gaze. “It was a trap,” I said, my eyes flashing to Ata then back to him. “They knew we were coming.”

Ata cursed under her breath. “We need to find the others and get the fuck out of here. Now.”

Another roar broke out above us, fire scorching and catching everything around us aflame as we ducked away from it.

A flicker of movement caught my eye and I whirled. Shadows began to bleed from every one of my pores, drenching me in darkness as I opened my palms, letting the Death Magic slip from my body.

Figures slid into the alley on either side of us, trapping us as our backs pressed against each other. Landers drew his sword, violet tendrils of magic climbing and cracking around its blade as Ata pulled her bow string tight, nocking an arrow into place.

“You take the dead. I’ll kill the living.” A snarl tore from Ata’s lips on the tail of her words as she loosed her arrow. It careened through the air, landing in the center of a necromancer’s skull.

And then they charged us.

A surge of raw power leapt from my palms, violently ripping the life force from every living dead that lunged for us. Ata’s bow sang as she unleashed arrow after arrow, each one finding its mark and taking down every necromancer that neared us in a single shot as Landers’s blade sliced through flesh and bone, decapitated heads rolling off the bodies as they collapsed at our feet. The air was thick with the metallic stench of blood and the scent of decay as the bodies piled up around us in a gruesome display of carnage.

The last of the living dead surrounding us fell as my hands ripped the death magic from its body, my chest heaving as I tried to catch my breath. Nithra screeched above us, their giant bodies colliding with the buildings, sending granite and limestone flying in every direction.

I heard it then, her scream down the fastening—the pain she was enduring from her own battle in the skies.

My eyes shot frantically to Landers. “Nithra.”

I had already begun running, climbing over the bodies we had cut down as I sprinted to the heart of the island. Landers and Ata were on my heels as I let magic explode from my body, obliterating anything that got in my way.

I would not let her die.

We rounded a corner and skidded to a halt.

A hoard of the living dead blocked our path—Andrues, Wren, and Dukovich caught in the middle of their ranks. Another cryof pain sounded down the fastening as my eyes darted between Nithra and the scene in front of us.

I had an impossible choice to make.

Landers gripped my shoulders, spinning me to face him.

“Go,” he ordered. “Get to Nithra and find Gimara.”

“I can’t leave—” I started as he cut me off with a commanding look.

“Your dragon needs you.” His expression softened for a heartbeat. “I will find you, I promise.”

I hesitated for only a second more before nodding and sprinting toward the battling dragons. I could hear the clash of blades and the twang of Ata’s bow behind me as I ran, but I didn’t look back—I couldn’t.

Nithra needed me.

Rubble and flames littered my path, the heat stinging my skin as my feet flew over the blood-soaked ground. I leaped over smoldering timber, my heart in my throat as Nithra let out another agonized screech.

I burst into the central square just as Nithra and the dragon tumbled from the sky. Their bodies slammed into the ground and the earth beneath my feet shuddered at the force. They were a tangle of claws and teeth, their scales slick with blood as they tore at each other. I watched in horror as the copper dragon clasped its talons into her, pinning her to the ground as blood seeped from the gashes beneath her scales.

“Nithra!” I screamed, my voice raw with desperation.

She wrenched her head toward me, her golden eyes wild with pain and fury. In that moment of distraction, the other dragon lunged, its jaws clamping around Nithra’s throat. A roar of agony ripped from her as blood poured from the wound, staining her iridescent scales crimson.

Rage consumed me at the sound of her screams, a blinding white-hot fury that set my veins alight with power. My bodybegan to glow from the magic coursing under my skin as wings erupted from my back.

I took a single step forward, my hands opening at my sides as white tendrils began to snake around my fingers.

“Get. Off. My. Dragon.” The words were a snarl as they ripped from my throat and the creature turned its massive head to face me, its talons replacing the teeth it had clamped around Nithra’s neck.

I could feel the vibration of the dragon’s low growl through the ground as it fixed its glowing eyes on me. Nithra thrashed beneath its grip, her own blood pooling around her. The sight of it fueled the inferno of rage burning through me.