Page 89 of A Court of Wings and Shadows

They were all watching me now. And I closed my eyes for a second to center myself, calling on my power like a siren.

The storm answered before I had control.

Wind howled above us like it had teeth, slicing across my skin as if urging me to move, to act. Rain pelted down in sheets, hammering against the stone ledge and soaking through my uniform, but I didn’t flinch. Couldn’t. Not when I needed every ounce of control to hold the magic steady.

I pushed my magic, and felt it bloom, fuller than it had been weeks ago, more obedient than wild. But Kaelith… was still holding out. The more power I pulled, the thicker that damn barrier became between us. Like fogged glass, I knew she was there, but something kept us separated. Something that wasn’t just mine.

Zander’s voice curled through my mind like smoke, as easy as breathing. Calm. Solid.

Are you ready?

I nodded once. Jaw tight. Muscles locked. I didn’t have the words to say yes, not when I needed everything focused on the storm, on the way the wind twisted unnaturally, funneling toward the Blood Isle like it knew where I wanted it to go.

Zander’s power met mine in the next breath, his magic like ice and lightning, sharp and precise. Where mine pulsed and surged like a living thing barely leashed, his wrapped around it, not smothering but guiding. Together they twined, braided like a chain ready to break something wide open.

“We move now!” Remy shouted over the roar, his sword already strapped across his back, hair dripping with rain, his dragon Katama snarling behind him.

I didn’t hesitate.

Kaelith crouched like a shadow wreathed in violet flame, wings stretched, scales shimmering with every strike of lightning above. I scrambled onto her back the same moment Zander and Remy did theirs, Zander’s silver beast gleaming like a storm-forged blade, Remy’s light-green Catalan already airborne and bucking to fight the wind.

We launched together, three shadows against a bruised and boiling sky.

The magic in the air shifted the closer we flew.

I felt the wards first, like cold water pouring down my spine, like teeth sinking into bone and warning us back. The air thickened. The wind turned violent. My magic surged again, wanting to react, wanting to protect. But before it could, Zander’s power cracked forward, a silver lance of Dark Fire cleaving through the black clouds and slamming into the boundary around the Blood Isle.

The sky didn’t scream, it blurred.

One heartbeat we were above the storm, and the next?—

—we were inside it.

The mist was everywhere, as black as spilled ink and tasting of blood and old curses. I could barely see Kaelith’s wings stretching ahead of me, could barely breathe past the pressure of ancient power curling like a noose around my neck.

But we were in.

We’d breached the Blood Isle.

We flew in a tight formation, barely a dragon’s length apart, wings nearly brushing as we cut through the blinding mist. The world around us had vanished into swirling black, the air thick with dark magic and ancient curses that pulsed against my skin like a second heartbeat.

I can’t see anything,I whispered through the bond, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice.

You don’t need to,Zander replied.The dragons know where they are in the air. They feel one another. Trust them.

I nodded, though I doubted he saw it. I was thankful Kaelith was leading the way, her movements sure, even as my body sagged from the weight of spent magic. The effort to summon that storm, to anchor the lightning and lend it to Zander’s power, had drained me more than I thought.

My eyes scanned the shifting mist, but there was nothing but black and blur. No shapes. No direction. No sanctuary.

Do you have any idea where we go from here?

Not yet,Zander’s voice slipped through my thoughts again.But the others are about to strike the wards from the outside. That will buy us a window.

Before I could respond, a sound split the air, a shrieking wail so sharp it felt like it sliced across my spine. Kaelith reeled beneath me, and I had to tighten my grip on her saddle to keep from sliding.

The mist thinned just enough to reveal it.

A creature of bone-white wings and smoke-draped skin burst from the clouds above, its face a twisted void, mouth stretchedin an eternal scream. Its limbs were too long, its form shifting like it didn’t fully belong in this realm. Black light oozed from the cracks in its chest, and its claws gleamed like glass soaked in blood.