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“I can’t help you with this one, mortal—rules are rules,” her rescuer said, his tone apologetic. “You’ll have to find your own way if you want to stay in the race. If you’ve got any more surprises up your sleeve, now is the time to use them.”

And with that, he bounded away and took a running leap— right off the edge of the cloud mass.

“No!” Alex cried, sprinting after him and skidding to a stop at the drop-off point. But as she cast her eyes downwards, certain that she would see him falling to his doom, a hulking draekon soared up from beneath the clouds, the Tia Auran seated at the base of its neck, gripping tightly to its silver-coloured scales. There was a beaming grin on his face as he winked at Alex, before taking to higher skies.

Watching in shock, Alex could see that his skin was now glimmering gold, just like hers was from hervaelianalink, but his had only revealed itself upon contact with his draekon. The same was true for the other four Tia Aurans who had since enacted similar leaps of faith onto their draekons, their flesh now shining with the evidence of their bonds.

Her breath hitching, Alex understood that if she wanted to continue the race, she could only do so by riding one of the majestic beasts. However, no one could summon a draekon without being bound to it. The empress had to have known that, along with all those watching invisibly in the audience. The task Alex and her friends had been given was a joke; it was a cruel test with only one outcome.

“Looks like it’s the end of the line for you, mortal,” spat the one remaining Tia Auran—the first one she’d passed onthe clouded stairs, the long-haired male who had snarled at her.

His expression was still just as livid, making Alex wish she could take a step away, but she was standing too close to the edge.

“Better luck next time,” he taunted in the common tongue, before turning away in preparation to make his own leap.

With her tension easing once his attention left her, Alex looked back across the floating islands, using her enhanced sight and hoping,prayingto see a familiar creature. She knew better than to search for Xira, certain he would have answered her mental call if he were anywhere in this world, but perhaps one of the other Medoran draekons had returned to Tia Auras. Perhaps one of them would see her, recognise her,helpher. She’d met a few of them in the past—Kriidon, the aqua-eyed male; Vesaphina, the ruby-scaled female; and a host of others. All she needed was for one of them to be here, to lend their aid.

While searching frantically for a Medoran draekon—anyMedoran draekon—Alex’s focus left her immediate surroundings and the single remaining Tia Auran. As far as she was concerned, their interaction—as one-sided as it had been— was over. But apparently, she was the only one who thought so.

“You want to fly, mortal?” he sneered, seeing her searching gaze. “Allow me to help.”

Alex turned just in time to see him blur back towards her, nearly faster than her enhanced eyes could follow. His hands slammed painfully into her upper chest, the force of his shove bruising deep into the flesh just beneath her collarbones. But worse than that, she was unable to react quickly enough to defend against his powerful attack that sent her flying backwards…

… And straight over the edge of the island.

Screaming as she plummeted through the air, Alex knew her Tia Auran rescuer was too far ahead to know she was falling, let alone to swoop in and save her. There was nothing she could do, nothing to stop her ear-popping descent. She didn’t have access to theValispath, she couldn’t summon a Library doorway while on the move, and Xira… Xira was gone.

Just as Alex would soon be, too.

Down she fell, her lungs shrieking, terrified tears leaking from her eyes. The only small mercy was that, as she dropped low enough to be level with her friends who were carefully climbing the cloud stairs, she was too far away for their human eyes to see, for their human ears to hear. They, at least, wouldn’t have to suffer through their final memory being of her plunging to her death.

Falling too fast to note anything other than her friends’ slow, cautious ascent, Alex soon lost sight of them. And still she continued plummeting—beyond the point where the Gate had initially dropped them off, and down, down, down into the dimming sky below.

Light faded to darkness as she dropped further and further, the changing air pressure spearing agony through her eardrums. But she didn’t care about the pain—she knew in a matter of moments, it wouldn’t matter anymore.

When she was finally surrounded by nothing but blackness with three red moons showing in the star-streaked sky, Alex saw the desert again; the purgatory in which she had first arrived days ago. It was almost poetic that she would meet her end here—not in Freya, not in Medora, not even really in Tia Auras, but rather in the in-between world, the place of infinite night and unending nothingness.

But she didn’t want the last thing she saw to be darkness. She wanted it to be light. So, knowing she had only seconds remaining, she slid off her concealment ring and released it intothe air, allowing the renewed glow of hervaelianabond to soothe her—something she never would have imagined it doing, since she’d never appreciated the unnatural glimmer to her skin. Now, however, it was a comfort—the last comfort she would ever feel.

“Forgive me,” she whispered, her voice snatched by the air while she watched the sand dunes become clearer and clearer. She didn’t know who the words were for—her friends, her parents, her world. All that mattered was that she said them; that somewhere, somehow, they all knew how sorry she was. She’d failed them in so many ways, not just by being unable to finish the race. But at least now there would be no one left to mess things up. No one left to provoke Aven, no one to make him hate mortals more than he already did.

Her friends, both human and Meyarin, were resourceful. They were survivors. And they weren’t without their gifts and skills. She still had hope for them—hope that they would survive, even if she didn’t.

And her parents… Alex knew her death would devastate them. Maybe the Library would distract them with more ancient habitats, maybe they would venture out into the rest of Medora, maybe they would return to Freya. But whatever they did, she had to believe they would find a way to move on, tolivein spite of their loss. She had to believe the same for everyone she cared about—and who cared about her in return.

Knowing there was nothing she could do but accept her fate, Alex felt peace settle upon her. At least this way she would be with Niyx again. Perhaps with Xira, too, if he had indeed perished as she feared. Lady Mystique, William, King Astophe, even Skyla—Alex wouldn’t be alone. And with that hope, she was ready to embrace what was coming.

… Ready to embrace her swiftly approaching death.

Fourteen

Prepared to meet her end, it wasjust as Alex dropped close enough for her enhanced sight to see the individual specks of sand on the ground that an inky darkness erupted beneath her, darker than the black of the night surrounding her—darker than any dark she’d ever seen before.

With two exceptions.

Because twice before she had witnessed the same impenetrable darkness.

Her thundering heart stuttered in her chest as she recognised theabrassa—the Void between time, distance, space and worlds. But then her pulse doubled in speed when she saw a mammoth shadow surge out from within the blackness with an ear-piercing roar—a shadow whose talons snatched her from mid-air when she was barely a few feet above the desert floor.