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T here was no time to think.

As rock crumbled from the ceiling, Vahly turned and ran, following her sons, Nix, and the other Call Breakers.

Arc grabbed her roughly and threw her onto Kyril, who flew past the Call Breakers.

Arc jumped on behind Vahly as Jades roared behind them, the earthblood too much for even their heat-loving hides.

Everyone rushed through the tunnels. Acrid smoke burned Vahly’s throat and eyes as she tried to glimpse the light of the cave’s entrance.

Sweat poured down her back, sticking her clothing to her skin. She blinked stinging eyes to see that Aitor and Euskal had taken up Cygnus and Zuzan, thank the Source.

Blindingly white light grew from the end of the passage, and they all poured out of the mountain, immediately flying high and away.

Vahly twisted to watch golden earthblood spill from where they had just been and down toward the foothills. Trees shook off their ice and snow as the earth trembled and groaned.

Was there anything she could do? “Should I be doing something?” she shouted at Arc behind her.

“The earth must have its way with this, I think.”

She agreed. This seemed like something she shouldn’t tamper with. Her magic felt as though it crouched deep inside her heart, pulling back and away from this event. She didn’t think she could use it even if she disagreed with Arc, which she didn’t.

Beyond the Jades’ new and now destroyed home, more volcanoes erupted along the northern range of mountains. The earthblood glittered brightly, and smoke rose in swirling plumes of pure white and deep gray as far as the eye could see.

The Jades flew in circles overhead, their clacking and roaring heard when the volcanoes had moments of peace.

“What are they saying?” Vahly asked Nix as she hovered beside her, still in human form. The earthblood explosion hadn’t given Nix time to shift back to her dragon form. It was luck only that had Aitor and Euskal still in their dragon forms and able to carry Vahly’s sons.

“I don’t know.” Nix’s eyes flicked to the earthblood waterfalling from the mountain, then to the skies. “But I don’t see Eux.”

Vahly’s chest tightened, and she nudged Kyril to fly higher. Cygnus and Aitor followed.

Arc leaned forward, his fingers jutting into Vahly’s waist. “Maybe she flew to the other side of the peak?”

“She looked terrible. I doubt she has the energy to do that.”

The earth groaned, and the shaking trees along the sides of the mountain stilled. Three full-sized Jades flew back to the crushed entrance of the mountain and began searching for survivors. Vahly felt her pocket, but the rune stone Eux had given her was gone. Was it an omen?

Magic surged inside Vahly’s chest, drawing her thoughts away from Eux’s whereabouts.

She was lifting the oaken sword before she realized what she was doing.

Kyril veered right as she drew a line in the air.

Underneath them, her earth magic peeled the dirt up and rolled it over the pools, streams, and rivers of shimmering earthblood.

“Go! We’ll help them!” Cygnus called out from Aitor’s back.

As they flew over the mountains, Vahly breathed slow and deep, letting the power pour through her and into the earth below.

Leaving the others, she, Kyril, and Arc soared on and on, settling cool ground on top of the earthblood.

She would’ve thought the earthblood would consume the ground, but instead, the golden and fiery liquid cooled, hissed, and went to sleep under the freshly turned dirt.

Arc’s hand on her back and Kyril’s strength kept her alert as they worked on and on.

The sun lowered as they neared the ocean where it seemed three tiny islands had been joined by the eruptions.

Now, the chain of small spits of land was a full stretch of land as large as the newly expanded Illumahrah forest.

Vahly’s stomach lifted, and she paused in her work. “Look, Arc. Grass and trees are already sprouting.”

He leaned to look past Kyril’s great, gray wings, his gaze shifting. “It’s incredible.”

She nudged Kyril, and they flew as quickly as possible back to the new Jade settlement, only to find a party of grieving dragons gathered on a wind-swept outcropping not far from the now ruined entrance to the mountain.

Kyril landed beside Nix, and Vahly and Arc hopped off.

The cold, snowy wind stirred Nix’s bright hair as she sighed and looked at Vahly with large, yellow eyes. She drew Vahly into a hug that smelled of roses and cider. “Eux didn’t make it out.”

“No.”

Nix pulled away and glanced at Arc, then over to the Jades, who were standing and sitting close to one another. Now, Vahly realized they were shielding something. Eux’s unmoving tail showed between the guard and the youngest of the Jades, a male with only three crystalline spikes on his back.

The guard turned, his green-scaled hands clasped. “We are going to that peak.” He pointed to a jagged point of rock that scraped the twilight sky. Thick snow blanketed the steep slopes halfway up, and no trees dared to attempt a life so far from the ground.

“You’re welcome to come back with us,” Vahly said. “The hunting here must be challenging. There are plenty of deer in the new areas around the Red Meadow.”

“No, we are determined to follow Matriarch Eux’s last wishes. We will become true dragons and stay clear of what you deem civilization. We wish you well and thank you for respecting our matriarch’s request to meet.”

“True dragons, my tail,” Nix muttered.

Arc came forward, his horns shimmering with magic. Vahly still wasn’t completely used to them and how fearsome he looked. “Jade clan, if I can aid by healing anyone injured, I am more than willing.”

Arc set to healing a Jade who’d lost most of the scales on his flank and another who’d suffered from inhaling the earthblood’s foul gases.

Once they were as good as they were going to get in the middle of a cold winter day weighed down in grief, Vahly raised her oaken sword and covered Eux with stone and dirt.

The Jades nodded in gratitude, then rose as a group, emeralds in the last of twilight’s violet haze, and they veered toward their stark new home.

Arc’s handsome brow wrinkled. “Why would they choose such a forbidding place?”

“I can see the attraction,” Zuzan said from behind them. “No one to give orders. Your own life to live as you see fit.”

Nodding, Vahly’s stomach turned at the venom in his words. “I suppose it fits their true dragon idea. They’re giving up the comforts of civilization.”

Nix snorted. “I could never sacrifice cider and dice for some noble idea. Or the company of you lot.”

Cygnus elbowed her. “Nice to know we’re at the top of your priority list.”

Nix winked and pinched his backside, making him laugh. “Watch your tone with me, youngling. Now, ready to go home? We probably need to find out how things are going with Arrosa and those sea folk who aren’t sea folk anymore.”

Arc raised an eyebrow. “I wonder what my daughter has in mind…”

Nix waved him off and began disrobing so she could shift back into full dragon form. “It’ll be fine, King Arcturus. Your daughter is a wise one.”

Euskal and Aitor were already bending low to let Zuzan and Cygnus mount up. With her clothing tucked into her bag, Nix closed her eyes, but nothing happened.

Her gaze locked on Vahly, her throat moving and her lips parting as she gasped. “I can’t…I can’t shift.”