Page 12 of Bound by Fire and Scales (The Dragons of Earis #1)

Despite telling Zephyr I’d given up, Loryr was there first thing in the next morning, waiting for me in the library. She didn’t like me, that much she had made very obvious, but I couldn’t deny that without her harsh training I would be lost trying to unlock my mind to the power of the elements.

Over the next few weeks, my training with her pushed me to the edge. Every session was harder than the other, every mistake met with a look of disgust. Yet, slowly, I felt something in me shift. With each lesson, it became easier to reach deeper into the hidden reservoir of fire in my mind. Stretching my focus felt like trying to hold a star in my bare hands: impossible. And then, as the days blended together, the flicker inside me grew into a steady blaze, its heat coursing through my veins.

The fire wasn’t just within me anymore; it was me. It surged from the roots of my hair to the very tips of my toes, electrifying and consuming me. The sensation was intoxicating, and for the first time in my life, I felt something I had spent my entire existence as an omega fighting to grasp: power.

I let out a sharp gasp of pain, my focus shattering as the fragile thread of fire I had connected to in my mind slipped away. My eyes snapped open, the familiar surroundings of the library rushing back as I rubbed the nape of my neck, wincing in pain. Small black dots crept in at the edges of my sight, swirling and multiplying.

This wasn’t normal.

Something was wrong.

I blinked hard, hoping it would clear, but the dizziness only worsened. I’d woken up with a slight wave of dizziness that morning, but I had brushed it off, thinking it was nothing. It happened sometimes. But now, the dizziness was joined by a sharp neck pain. A wave of nausea rolled over me and I tried to push through it. The heat in my veins, which had felt like strength moments ago, now made me dizzy. I blinked hard, willing the sensation away, but everything in the room seemed to tilt.

Loryr’s voice, cut through the haze. “What is wrong, girl?”

A wave of nausea rolled through me, making my stomach twist violently, and the room tilted around me as if the ground itself had shifted. My head throbbed, and the edges of my vision blurred, darkening at the corners like shadows creeping in. The world swayed, my legs feeling shaky, as though the floor might give way beneath me at any moment.

I blinked rapidly, trying to steady myself, but it was like being on the edge of a cliff, teetering dangerously close to falling over. My breaths came faster, shallow, and my hands tingled with the effort of holding on to whatever scrap of balance I had left .

“Speak, girl!” I tried to steady myself, gripping the edge of the table for balance, but the room continued to sway as though the floor beneath me had turned to liquid. The nausea twisted violently in my stomach, threatening to choke me. I swallowed hard, willing my voice to work, but no words came. They were trapped, lodged behind the thick, suffocating sensation that had taken hold of me. Before I could gather myself, the heavy thud of the library doors being thrown open echoed through the room.

“Zephyr!” Loryr hissed, turning toward him, but her protest was cut short.

“What’s happening?” Zephyr demanded, his voice a low growl that filled every corner of the library. His sharp gaze snapped to me, and his expression darkened the moment he saw me swaying on unsteady feet. In two strides, he was at my side, his strong hands gripping my arms to steady me.

“She’s fine,” Loryr said dismissively, but the tightness in her tone betrayed her unease.

“She doesn’t look fine!” Zephyr shot back, his voice laced with a fiery edge that made Loryr bristle. His focus remained on me, his eyes scanning my face. “What’s wrong, Sabrina? Speak to me.”

I tried to answer, tried to tell him about the dizziness, the pain, the black spots that had now swallowed the edges of my vision completely. But the words wouldn’t come, and the nausea surged again. My knees buckled, and I sagged forward, Zephyr catching me right before I hit the floor.

“Loryr,” he snapped, his voice like thunder. “What did you do to her?”

“Nothing!” she barked back, defensive. “She’s been training as usual. Whatever this is, it’s not from me.”

Zephyr’s jaw clenched as he lifted me into his arms with ease, his warmth radiating through me like a shield. “She needs a healer,” he growled.

“Don’t coddle her,” Loryr warned, though her voice wavered ever so slightly. “She won’t survive the trials if she can’t handle a little bit of pain.”

“I don’t care about your damn trials right now!” Zephyr snarled, the fire in his voice making Loryr take a step back. He turned on his heel, holding me tightly as he strode out of the library. His grip was steady, his heartbeat a soothing rhythm against the chaos spinning in my head.

I wanted to tell him I’d be fine, that I didn’t need this, but as the darkness crept further into my vision, I gave in to the pull, the sound of his voice the last thing I heard before everything faded.