"We aren't going to make it to sunrise, are we?"Kaelen’s voice was barely a whisper, but in the sudden, eerie silence of the mountain peak, it sounded like a shattering mirror.Soren didn't answer right away. He kept his fingers locked around hers, his knuckles white, his palm burning where his royal mark bled a dim, flickering gold."Don't say that," he choked out, turning to face her. "We killed Raymond. The seal is held. We won.""Look at the valley, Soren!" Kaelen cried, shoving her free hand toward the horizon where tens of thousands of black banners rippled like a sea of dark oil. "That isn't a patrol! That's the High Council's entire grand army, and we are three bleeding survivors on a heap of broken rock!""She's right, kid," Varek spat, hauling his massive warhammer up the final stone steps, his heavy armor caked in dried gore. "Yael's hunters are holding the lower pass for now, but against forty thousand legionnaires? They'll grind those woods into splinters in an hour.""T

"He isn't breathing."Kaelen didn't say it to the room. She said it to the cold, glowing floor beneath her, her voice so thin and fragile it barely survived the heavy thuds vibrating through the iron doors."Get out of the way!" Varek roared, shoving his bloody warhammer into the stone as he dropped to both knees beside her. "Let me see him!""Don't touch him!" Kaelen shrieked, her body locking over Soren's chest like a shield. Her blue eyes were wild, red-rimmed, and completely unhinged as she pressed her pale palm flat against his bloodied tunic. "You'll break what's left! Just... help me force the mana back in!""Kaelen, look at his chest!" Yael yelled, grabbing Kaelen's wrist to yank her back. "His core isn't just empty! It's fractured! If you pump frost magic into a shattered royal core right now, you will freeze his heart solid!""So I'm just supposed to let him die?!" Kaelen sobbed, kicking Yael's hand away with a frantic, desperate violence. "He pulled that lance out for me! H

"You arrogant little worm!"The dragon's voice shattered the stone archways, a wave of sonic force that sent two charging legionnaires tumbling off the spiral stairs straight into the sea of magma below.Soren didn't flinch. He planted his boots into the crumbling platform, his fingers clawing through the hot air as if wrapping around an invisible throat. The black and gold fire erupting from his palm didn't just burn. It twisted into heavy, shimmering chains of pure magic that slammed directly into the beast’s massive snout.The crimson scales hissed loudly, white steam blinding the lower vault as the ancient dragon thrashed violently inside its spherical cage."He's binding it!" Varek yelled, using his warhammer to smash the knee of the first legionnaire attempting to clear the stairs. "Yael, hold the narrow pass! Don't let them reach his back!""I'm trying!" Yael spat, her dragon-bone spear a blur of silver and red as she impaled an officer through the throat, kicking his corpse ha

"You have to breathe, Kaelen! Breathe!"Soren’s voice cracked through the blinding fog of white heat, his scorched hands gripping her shoulders so tightly his fingers bit into her bare skin.Kaelen couldn't answer him. Her jaw was locked tight, her spine arching violently off the freezing snow as the golden fire poured through her blood vessels, tearing through her frost magic like hot iron through dry paper. Every single pulse of Soren’s heart slammed into her chest like a physical strike, dragging her straight into the roaring, agonizing depths of his suffering."Make it stop!" Varek roared, swinging his massive hammer around to face Lyra, his face flushed deep red with rage. "She’s burning alive, damn it!""Touch me and the bond snaps," Lyra said coolly, not even bothering to glance at the furious dwarf as she stood at the edge of the jagged crag. "If the link severs before their cores synchronize, both of their hearts will explode. Let it finish.""Kaelen, look at me!" Soren sobbe

"Then I won't kill you first," Soren growled, his voice vibrating with a dark, unnatural resonance that rattled the frost coating the stone beneath their boots. "I'll tear your limbs off."Marcus laughed, a deep, booming sound that was instantly cut short as a massive, jagged pillar of ice erupted from the platform right beneath Soren's feet.Soren didn't dodge. The silver tether on his arm blazed like a falling star, a wall of pure crimson fire exploding outward from his chest and vaporizing the ice pillar into a blinding cloud of scalding steam. Before the vapor could clear, Soren burst through the mist, his black-flamed fist driving straight for Marcus’s throat.The steel of Marcus’s heavy broadsword clashed against Soren’s bare, magic-infused hand with a sound like a cannon shot."You think you're strong because you chained a beast?" Marcus spat, leaning his massive weight into the blade, pressing the glowing edge closer to Soren’s neck. "You're just a broken prince playing with m