Page 102 of A Court of Wings and Shadows

Kaelith,I called through the bond,I have an idea.

What is it?she asked, voice low and coiled like lightning before it strikes.

Can you signal the others? Get the dragons to fly lower. Just for a moment. Make the Blood Fae think we’re getting tired—draw them in.

There was a pause, then a quiet hum of approval.

It will be done.

Around us, the sky churned with chaos, dragons spiraling, flame slicing through mist, the shriek of Blood Fae echoing like torn metal. But Kaelith angled downward, gliding low over the water with terrifying control, and I saw the others begin to mirror her.

And the Blood Fae followed.

They dove after us with vicious precision, their black dragons narrowing their formation, trying to press us closer to the sea. And more and more of them began swarming toward Foran, toward Dorian.

My heart thundered in my chest as I reached again.

I focused on my magic.

And the wind obeyed.

It rose like a beast, howling through my veins, tugging at my fingers as I called it, not above us, but far ahead. I shaped the chaos, the pressure, the fury, and aimed it a mile out, over open sea.

It slammed into the water like a volcano erupting beneath the waves.

Kaelith bucked beneath me from the shock, but I held firm, as the sea reared.

A twenty-foot wave.

A wall of water rising from the ocean’s surface, drawn by the force I’d unleashed.

I felt it coming even before I saw it, the pressure rolling toward us like a freighted gale, wind and sea hissing, screaming, tearing toward everything in its path.

Kaelith!

Yes.

Pull up—NOW!

Her wings snapped wide as she veered skyward, muscles surging as she clawed at the air. The horde followed in an instant—Zander, Riven, Ferrula, every dragon pivoting with desperate speed as the wave rushed beneath us like a living mountain.

Kaelith’s claws skimmed the water, slicing the foam as we rose.

Foran just cleared the crest, one wing dipping dangerously low, but he kept climbing, Dorian clinging to his saddle like a ghost.

The Blood Fae weren’t so lucky.

Several of their dragons failed to pull up in time, caught too low, too focused on the kill. The wave caught them mid-flight, dragging them beneath with a roar that swallowed their screams.

It crashed into the rocks where Dorian had taken refuge earlier, pulverizing the shoreline into jagged ruin.

And when the sea calmed, it left behind wreckage… and silence.

I looked back at the devastation I’d summoned, at what I had done.

The sky was chaos, blades of flame, roars that split the clouds, the force of magic pressing against my skin with every beat of Kaelith’s wings. Blood Fae dragons dove and struck in precise, lethal patterns, but none of them came for me.

They were circling Zander’s flank, pushing him hard, hammering his defenses, but every time I turned my blade toward one, they veered away.