Page 59 of A Court of Wings and Shadows

A shriek tore through the sky above me.

High. Piercing. Inhuman.

Kaelith snarled instantly, her body twisting in midair to shield me as a dark shape blurred through the clouds above. Another shriek followed, and then?—

More wings.

Too many.

Black dragons.

Ambush.

“Incoming!” I shouted, drawing my blade as shadows fell from the clouds like a murder of crows.

The sky shattered into chaos.

Screams tore from the clouds, and the Blood Fae descended like shadows dipped in oil and venom. Their wings, some leathery, others feathered, corrupted and wrong, beat the air into a frenzy. Magic lit up the sky in flashes—fire, shadow, frost. Our dragons answered in kind, roaring, snapping, spiraling into the fray with fury in their bones.

Kaelith moved like a storm, elegant and ruthless, her violet scales streaking across the sky as we dove, twisted, struck. Below, Cordelle and Ferrula fought back-to-back, their dragons ducking and weaving between the cliffs and crashing waves.Naia screamed a warning as a Blood Fae hurled a spear of ice at her flank, but Riven intercepted it with a flash of blinding flame.

And then I saw her.

Above us. Silent.

A female figure cloaked in black steel and crimson-tinted leathers, riding a dragon so dark it seemed carved from shadow itself. Her helm gleamed with jagged onyx, her hair braided back in a warrior’s crown. The black dragon beneath her was massive, sleek, fast, dangerous, but still dwarfed by Kaelith’s size.

She lifted a single hand.

Lightning crackled from her palm, bright and sizzling, arcing not toward me, but to my left.

Zander.

He banked just in time as the bolt missed by inches, Dark Fire erupting from his hand in retaliation. The spell roared toward her, but she moved like a wraith, conjuring a shield midair, its surface rippling with power. She absorbed the blast, banked hard, and turned her dragon straight back toward me.

She didn’t speak. Didn’t smirk.

She didn’t have to.

Because I could feel it.

That magic. That power. It pulsed in the air like a second heartbeat, one that mirrored mine.

Seraveth.I breathed the name into my thoughts.

Yes,Kaelith responded, her voice grim.The Blood King’s General.

She dove before I could answer, and we clashed midair, Kaelith’s wings flaring wide as she rolled beneath Seraveth’s dragon and came up sharp, our blade catching the edge of the black dragon’s armor. Seraveth moved with brutal grace, her dragon an extension of her body, slicing through the air with cruel efficiency.

Lightning. Dark Fire. Blood magic. The sky rippled with it.

I dodged her second strike, but it sang through my bones, familiar. As if part of my own magic reached back toward her.

I called the lightning but she avoided my strike with ease, her face calm, unreadable beneath the helm. Still silent. Still focused.

Not to kill.

But to test.