"You are shaking like a leaf in a storm, Xavier, and we both know you will not survive the night without my help."Lyra did not lower the crossbow. She stood in the dim light of the bunker, her gaze scanning the dark scales that crept up his neck like a slow-moving shadow. Xavier gripped the edge of his table. His knuckles were raw and bloody. He felt the cold air of the room biting into his skin, but it was nothing compared to the fire turning his lungs into brittle, useless stone."Your help," Xavier gasped. He spat a thick, gray glob of ash onto the floor. "You are just another leech. You want the power. You want the dragon. Why don't you just kill me and take what you need from my corpse?"Lyra laughed. It was a sharp, dry sound that had no warmth in it. She reached into her coat and pulled out a small glass vial. The liquid inside glowed with a sickening, vibrant blue light. It pulsed in time with the phantom heartbeat in Xavier’s chest."I cannot loot a dead dragon," she said. "

"Stop breathing if you want to live."Xavier landed hard on a pile of something that crunched under his boots. It sounded like brittle bone. He tried to stand, but his legs gave way. He gasped, his lungs feeling tight. A sickly, green fog curled around his feet."Get up, Xavier," Lyra yelled. She grabbed his arm. She pulled him toward a wall. "Move. Now.""I cannot," Xavier grunted. He felt like lead. He looked down. The ground was covered in white, calcified ribs. They were dragons. Dozens of them, dead for years. "Look at them. This place is a tomb.""It is a trap," Lyra hissed. She pointed at the ceiling. "Look."A shadow dropped from above. It was made of brass and cold steel. It looked like a gargoyle with wings that sawed through the air. It shrieked, a sound like grinding metal, and dived straight for Xavier’s head.Xavier raised his hand. He tried to summon his fire, but nothing happened. He just felt cold, thin air. His body was failing him."Move," Lyra screamed.She stepped

"They are not just hunting us, Lyra, they are herding us like cattle into a slaughterhouse."Xavier stumbled against the jagged face of Razor Ridge. His breath came out in ragged, freezing clouds. The air at this altitude was thin, but it was the Aether leaking from his own arm that made him dizzy. His left sleeve was shredded. Beneath the fabric, dark, vein-like cracks glowed with a sickening, violet light."Keep moving," Lyra hissed. She grabbed his jacket and shoved him forward. Her face was pale, her eyes constantly darting toward the sky. "If we stop, we are dead. You know that.""My arm," Xavier gasped. He grabbed his shoulder, his fingers digging into the muscle. "It is burning. I cannot hold the energy anymore.""Just one more ridge," she promised. She did not sound convinced. "We get over the peak, we find a way down. We survive.""Survive for what?" Xavier spat. He kicked a loose rock into the abyss below. It vanished into the white mist. "To die in a different ditch? To let

"You think you know what pain feels like, but you are just playing with shadows while I am drowning in the abyss."Xavier hunched over the heavy stone table. The imperial maps were spread out before him like a death warrant. His hands were shaking. He gripped the edge of the table until his knuckles turned gray. The poison in his blood, the tether linking him to Lyra, felt like a cold, sharp needle piercing his lungs with every breath."Stop moving so much," Lyra whispered. She stood across from him. Her face was pale in the flickering torchlight. "You are going to trip the alarm if you keep leaking that much Aether.""I cannot help it," Xavier snapped. He looked up. His eyes were wild. "The tether... it is feeding off the resonance in this room. My soul is bleeding, Lyra. Can you feel it?""I feel the cold," she said. She reached out to smooth the map. "Just focus on the symbols. Tell me which one leads to the vault."Xavier tried to focus, but the world blurred. The air in the archi

"Run, Lyra—if you stay here one more minute, you are going to die for a ghost."Xavier collapsed against the cold, jagged stone of the corridor wall. The key was burning in his hand, a volatile piece of ancient tech that was currently screaming its presence to the entire world. A blinding pillar of violet Aether surged from the artifact, punching through the roof of the outpost and painting the sky in colors that belonged to another age."Shut it off," Lyra commanded. She was hauling him up by his harness, her face smeared with soot and sweat. "Xavier, look at me! You have to pull the signal back.""I cannot," he choked out, another spray of black blood staining his lips. His left arm was numb, the scales dull and pulsing with a frantic, dying light. "It is drawing from the poison. It is using my own blood as a conduit."A massive explosion rocked the facility. Dust showered down on them, and the floor groaned under the weight of an artillery strike. The Immortal Empire had arrived, a