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KION

“There is no mage more deadly than a High Mage of the Stone Tower.”

—Common knowledge in the Faded Lands.

“Kion, wait!” Anneli raised her sword as I hurtled across the resurrected bridge. “Listen to me, Draakon!”

“I’d rather kill you,” I snarled, coming in close.

Her weapon crashed against mine, but my advance held more force. Anneli parried, then spun, putting space between us, a tactic I’d taught her to stay beyond an enemy’s reach.

“Betraying me I understand,” I snarled. “But Renwick—was betraying him worth the gain? He invited you here. Trusted a High Mage of the Stone Tower, and you proved yourself as treacherous as you’ve always been.”

Anneli backed away while ferocity lit her eyes. “You can’t help her.”

“She’s mine. ”

“She isn’t yours. Senaria is ours . We’ve searched for her since her mother ran away. She’s a Skyborne mage, your opposite. A force equal to you. She’ll be unharmed, I promise you.”

“Your promises mean nothing, sorceress.”

Anneli kept moving—something else I’d taught her—while dark hair swirled around her face, obscuring the perfect features that I’d once been curious about.

Was she as hard to melt on the inside as she appeared?

But while heat flared, the flames burned out quickly, and I’d left her as easily as I’d bedded her.

She’d hated me for it. Still hated me.

“Taking Senaria to hurt me changes nothing between us, Anneli.” My grin was all teeth. “But it’s always revenge with you.”

“And what is it with you?” she sneered. “You’ll destroy her as easily as you left me.”

“What do you want with her?”

“Senaria will be with family.”

Rebalancing my weapon, I stalked toward the high mage. “Her mother ran from that family.”

Anneli’s lip curled. “What would you know about it? You sacrificed your chance to have a family. Bargained it away, and for what? A lifetime of penance when dragons nurture a hatred toward humans? What good will come from giving her to them?”

Anneli’s shoulders heaved as she continued, “Would you condemn this girl to the same empty life as yours? Or allow her the freedom to live without being hunted? Used for another’s ambitions?”

My chest tightened. “Including your ambitions? Those of the Stone Tower—having a Skyborne mage after how many decades?”

“I warned you what could happen. This is not a simple war between Thales and that girl. Ardalez put a bounty on her head, and the King’s Guard is on the march.

They’re close to the Black City, with scouts searching for weakness in the Wall.

You have mage priests dead in that field, so not even this castle is safe, and rumors are flowing from the eastern frontier—Eydis Khoth is now hunting.

Only the mages at the Stone Tower can keep her safe. ”

I breathed in harshly. “I don’t believe any lying word from your mouth.”

“You’ve been hunting her all this time, but it’s for the wrong reasons,” Anneli said with what could be a softening in her voice.

“The dragons demanded a penance. They knew all along what she was and wanted to control her. We can teach her how to fight on her own. A powerful mage can be as destructive as dragon fire and—”

“You would force her to do what her mother couldn’t?”

“This is her destiny.”

I refused to accept such a destiny. “Do not touch her,” I growled.

Our battle resumed. The mage met every aggressive move I made until our blades locked, and she hissed, “It kills you, doesn’t it? Realizing she’s beyond your reach? But why would she stay loyal to you, when you’ll never choose her over the dragons? I can offer her so much more.”

“You’ll seduce her into darkness for your own gain, witch.”

“And you’ll be forced to watch.”

Anneli’s blade slashed.

I countered, stepped into the attack and pushed her backward. Anneli Zayas was skilled enough at fighting to hold her own, even with the skirts swirling around her legs, and when our blades locked, released, and locked again, I relished the shockwaves racing up my arm.

“Such a dilemma, Kion,” she taunted, her smile curving with excitement close to triumph. “The mighty Draakon. How many centuries have you spent shutting out anyone who needed you? Refused to need them in return? And now you need her, and you can’t force yourself to admit it.”

Anneli’s fighting style was cat-like, sure-footed and graceful.

But the hand she held outstretched was far more dangerous than the hand holding her blade.

Ice settled in my heart. This was no longer an argument with blades.

Once magic entered the fray, the ending would be as bloody as the conflict in the field.

I stepped into the fight with all my weight. “I never needed you, Anneli, and that’s what keeps you bitter at night while I sleep without guilt. You wanted it more than I did and can’t forget that I walked away.”

“You slithered like a coward,” she spit after a sharp moment .

Our blades jarred until we stood, inches apart, and each raging breath I took mingled with hers as if we were still lovers.

Anneli’s lips twisted. Mage magic swirled as she spat, “How does it feel to crave what you can’t have? She’s gone . She isn’t coming back, and there’s no one left to save you.”

From the side, her hand whipped up, a short blade in her grip. Fire scored across my ribs. She pushed against our locked weapons and used my momentum to spin away, far enough to summon a wave of mage power.

The wave knocked me from my feet before I raised a bent arm, forced out a counter shield of energy. Beneath my knees, the bridge shuddered. But Anneli had disappeared.

“Essabeth, fetch the healer. Hurry.”

Renwick’s voice firmed as he knelt beside me. My head refused to move. My eyes remained closed and my arms were iron, welded to the cold ground. Even breathing took effort.

I thought, in the distance, that I heard the dragons screaming.

“Kion, my boy, fight it. The mage magic.”

Renwick was shoving my armor and shirt aside. Cool air brushed against my skin.

“The dragons have come. They’re agitated. Circling but refusing to land. Fennor is talking to them, but they aren’t listening. ”

I tried to focus and heard Sarnorinth in my head. “Fine…” I managed when he asked if I was still alive.

Then he snorted and said, She is gone.

“Yes.”

We hunt.

“No. Guard the eyries. The red priests were here.”

A storm comes. One in the earth from the moon that is blue.

Beneath my back, the first vibrations turned ominous. “Earthquake.” Renwick pressed his hand against my shoulder when I pushed upward.

“It’s passing,” he cautioned as the deep rumbling faded. “We’re safer in the open.”

“Wounded?”

“You. Two others with minor wounds. The healer has arrived.”

I rolled onto one elbow. “Must…”

“No.” My old mentor allowed no disobedience. “Until we learn what magic Anneli had on that blade, you aren’t moving, unless it’s back to the castle to get out of the weather.”

My thoughts were clearing. “She said—”

“We’ll talk,” Renwick agreed. “But not here.”

The healer pressed something against my side and a fraction of the fire beneath my skin banked down to the level of smoldering coals.

But my heart wouldn’t stop racing. I couldn’t block out the expression on Senaria’s face.

The way, once again, she held my gaze as if willing me to see her before she stepped over an edge and disappeared.

But this time, I didn’t dive in to save her.

“For three old men, and each of you over two hundred years, you aren’t very wise.”

Essabeth walked from chair to chair in the small salon, adding generous doses of rum to the cups of tea Fennor, Renwick, and I held, even though none of us had asked for tea or rum. Essabeth, though, had a way about her, taking charge like the daughter Renwick always wished he had.

Fennor frowned at her. “The last person who sassed me like that ended up mucking out the stalls.”

“The last time I challenged the Nithe, I got farther than you,” she said, adding a second splash of rum to his tea while he balanced the cup and cursed when it spilled. Essabeth smirked as she turned away and aimed toward me.

I narrowed my eyes. Winced at the pain in my side as I shielded my cup from her attack. “You can’t hold the Nithe against me.”

“True, I haven’t had to fight a witch’s dirty tricks.” Essabeth reached around and targeted my cup, splashing the medicinal alcohol somewhat accurately. “But I haven’t given up yet. I intend to be ready, even if Senna is right and the dragons won’t ever want to bond.”

I shook the liquid from my hand. Wiped the damp across my pants, and groused, “She lets you call her Senna?”

“We’re friends.” Essabeth huffed like an annoyed mother catching her young one being impolite. Renwick was smirking. Fennor grinned; he hadn’t found a towel, either, and had used his pants, and with Essabeth sloshing alcohol around, we could be forgiven for thinking she’d also imbibed.

“Did your mothers teach you nothing about towels way back when?” she asked pertly.

Fennor made his voice sound creaky. “Been so long, I forgot.”

“Go ahead, make fun of me. A fine lot of dragon lords you three are.”

“Two dragon lords and one draakon,” Fennor corrected, while I resettled the large bandage wrapped around my side. Renwick was smothering a belch, pretending he coughed.

Through the wavy glass in the diamond-paned window, the dark night had settled.

The dragons had burned the bodies of the enemy after Fennor’s men checked for identifying documents or notes—there were none.

How they’d managed to get so close to Samira was a question for tomorrow, but more sentries guarded the castle this night and would remain until I strengthened the wards.

Where Senaria might be was a numbing worry. I suspected Sarnorinth had made his own decisions about her though, and dragons patrolled the night skies, searching.

They wouldn’t find much. Mages from the Stone Tower were capable of magic forces that did, indeed, rival the dragons.