DRAVON'S POV I arrived at the capital on the edge of the mountains, the clash of swords echoing before me. I had gathered my men together, assembled and ready, determined to bring the realms back to peace — or whatever that would take. We had been drilling since before dawn in the flatlands east of the northern mountains — far enough from Aiden's reach, or so I had thought. The clash of steel rang through the air. The smell of sweat filled my nostrils as swords collided, each strike landing with force, each arrow finding its mark. I stepped onto the lower perch, grabbing five arrows at once and letting them loose. Every single one struck true, splitting through skulls with such force the shafts snapped in half. Silence followed. My men watched carefully as I continued the training until all hundred of them moved with the same deadly rhythm. "Fall in," I ordered. At once they marched into formation. "Your performance today shows me you've become something real," I said, my eyes

SERAPHINE'S POV I appeared at the edge of the forest where the magic ended. From here I walked on foot. I had always hated this part. The paths were familiar despite how long it had been, everything exactly as I remembered, which somehow made the walk feel longer. I followed the routes I knew until the clearing opened ahead of me. I crouched and swept the grass aside with both hands until the markings emerged from beneath. I took out my dagger, drew it across my palm and let the blood fall at the centre. The ground tore open. I descended. --- The hallways were as dark as I remembered. I moved through them using my enhanced vision, pressing forward through the black until the passage widened and he came into view, standing in his chains. He was enormous even in ruin. A thousand years had not made him small, only still. His body filled the chamber the way a fallen mountain fills a valley, the chains at his wrists and ankles driven into the walls at angles that told me who

HAZEL'S POVSeraphine's chants filled the air around me.I couldn't see her. She had put a sack over my head.I tried to move my hands but they had been chained to my sides. The cold from the stone beneath me pierced through my skin.I struggled to breathe as my heart pounded hard against my ribs.I had given up on the mind link but I was ready to try again. I reached out to the part of me that had always felt connected to him and found nothing to hold onto.Just pain, welling in my chest instead.Tears trickled down my face and mixed with the sweat dripping from my skin.The chants grew closer then began to rotate around me, echoing off the four corners of the structure where I lay.She was circling me.This woman. She was dangerous. I thought of how she had smiled when Mahir and Adriel were burnt to nothing at the tower that day, the rage that rose out of her when Dravon couldn't burn me, the cruel things she had done to Morwenna, and how she had killed the very men she used like th

AIDEN'S POVLast night kept playing in my mind as I lay on my bed.I had been burned by my own fire. That had never happened in the history of Eldorado. The wounds had healed but the knowledge of it had not settled and neither had the rage that came with it.After everything that happened at that tower it was becoming clear that Seraphine had been hiding things from me. She had told me only that Hazel was a hybrid Daraenxyn and nothing more. There was more. There had always been more.I sat up quickly.The more I thought about it the harder the rage built in my chest. I flung the jug from the table and stood.Then my heart burned. Amber light pushed through my chest and the pain surged before I could brace against it."Zarin," I called through a groan. "Come in."I had sensed him at the door before he could knock. He was the only one who came to me when the inferno rose.The door creaked and he stepped in."Speak," I forced out."The good news is the healers have arrived," he said car

HAZEL'S POVSleep had not found my eyelids since we arrived this morning.Our love had destroyed the peace of the realms and now I was ready to pick up what remained of the pieces we had left behind.I turned to look at Dravon. From his face down to his chest, rising and falling in a slow sleeping rhythm. The night had been a long one.But this moment was all there was left to savour before I finally left."I love you," I whispered, my eyes moving across his face one last time.I rolled carefully out of his arms and set my feet on the floor without a sound.I turned back to look at him. Grief bore through my heart but I stood anyway.I had bathed when we returned three hours ago. Morwenna had already helped me pack the few things I would need for the journey while Dravon and I were away together.If I went through the door Dravon would hear me. So I reached for the teleportation spell Morwenna had taught me instead.I drew on the power deep inside me and imagined myself in her room."