The heat from Lyra’s melting hand rushed up my arm like a wave of boiling milk. I tried to pull away, to yank my wrist from her grip, but our flesh was already flowing together. The silver roots from her fingers were drilling deep into my veins, sewing our muscles into a single, seamless limb. Her blue eyes grew dull, the lively color fading away until her entire face turned into a smooth, white porcelain mask. She was no longer a person standing beside me. She was becoming a physical part of my own body, an armor plating that locked my left arm into a permanent, outstretched position. "Lyra!" I screamed, but the sound didn't come from my throat. The voice that bounced off the cavern walls was a dual chorus. It was the majestic bell tone of the high king mixed with the soft, melodic echo of the woman who had just dissolved into my skin. The white light inside my chest flared with a violent, blinding intensity, pushing the dark green moss of the hatchery away until we stood in a wide

The stone beneath my bare feet shook with a fierce, rhythmic vibration. I stared up at the giant ice column piercing the purple twilight sky. My twin brother stood at the very top, his fingers wrapped tight around the iron levers of the ancient engine rising from the dark sinkhole. The platinum crown on his head threw a deep, bloody glare across the ruined plaza. He looked exactly like me, but his smile was cold and empty."The three seconds belong to me, Alden," his voice boomed down from the ice, sounding like heavy stones grinding together. "You built the engine, you drew the blueprints, and then you ran away into the mud because you could not handle the noise of the harvest."Beside me, Rin shivered, her porcelain fingers clutching my torn sleeve. The white mask covering her face was starting to flake away, showing the soft, frightened skin of the little girl I had protected in the dorms."Kael, look at the five guardians," she whispered, her voice cracking with terror.I looked a

The wind at this height was an angry beast, ripping at my torn shirt as the palace stage rose higher into the clouds. The stone floor beneath my feet was no longer marble. It was the rough, gray hide of the sixth dragon, an ancient leviathan that had carried the capital city on its back for centuries. The creature's heavy breaths vibrated through my bones like deep thunder, a slow, titanic rhythm that made the air feel thin and freezing cold.Up on the creature's crown, my twin brother stood tall, his fingers wrapped tight around the black leather spine of the beast. The real, unbroken baseline contract in his hands glowed with a dark crimson glare that cut through the stormy grey sky."You look confused, Kael," he shouted over the roar of the wind. His voice did not sound like clockwork. It sounded clear, loud, and entirely human. "Did our father's old woman make you believe you were just a machine? Did you really think a few brass gears could hold the soul of the firstborn prince?"