"If you touch her again, I will tear this realm apart with my bare hands."The threat hung in the freezing air, sharp enough to draw blood. Soren did not flinch, even as the serrated edge of Jaren’s ice dagger pressed directly into the hollow of his throat. A single crimson drop welled on his skin, freezing instantly into a dark bead against the frost."Jaren, stop!" Kaelen cried out, throwing herself between them and shoving hard against her brother’s chest. "Are you out of your mind?!""Get back, Kaelen!" Jaren barked, his eyes flashing with a desperate, manic fury. "You have no idea what you brought into this camp! You brought a plague!""He saved my life!" she screamed back, her voice cracking as tears spilled over her lashes. "Do you hear me?! If not for Soren, I would be rotting in a sun-cage right now!""He is the Prince of the Sun Throne!" Jaren roared, his hand shaking violently against the dagger's hilt. "Our father bled out in the snow because of his mother! Our mother was

"I am going to burn this world to the ground for what you did to her."The words did not sound human. They echoed from deep within Soren’s chest, carrying the primal, terrifying weight of an ancient beast tearing itself out of a grave.Before the golden arrows could even leave their strings, a deafening explosion of white light violently shattered the cavern darkness. The silver tether linking Soren and Kaelen did not just glow. It detonated into a blinding, heatless flare that swept across the stone floor in a massive shockwave.The arrows disintegrated in mid-air, turning to harmless gray ash."My hands! God, my hands!" an archer screamed as his golden bow melted into liquid metal, dripping scalding droplets onto his boots."What is that power?!" the commander yelled, shielding his visor as the temperature inside the stone room skyrocketed, melting centuries of thick ice into torrential streams of steam.Soren rose. He did not push himself up. His body simply floated off the dirt, r

The Shadow Gates"Drop your weapons, or I will order every dragon in this sky to fire on those captives."Empress Valerie's voice echoed through the canyon like a funeral knell. The sheer power of her dark projection rattled the cliffs, sending sharp obsidian fragments cascading into the abyss below. High above, fifty shadow drakes banked in formation, their riders locking golden fire arrows onto the surviving prisoners shivering in the rocks.Soren stepped directly in front of Kaelen, his gray eyes blazing with raw fury as translucent white fire flared around his trembling fist. "Touch one more person, Mother, and I will tear that dreadnought out of the sky!""Mother?" Valerie laughed, a cold, mocking sound that carried no warmth at all. "Is that what you call me now, after abandoning your birthright for a savage frost girl?""Don't look at her, Soren," Kaelen choked out, her knees buckling behind him. Her blue eyes flickered a pale, ghostly gray, the black ice creeping up her shoul

"If you take one more step toward my son, Empress, I will drive this blade straight through your neck."Yael’s voice cut through the dark gallery like a polished blade. She stood on the upper ledge directly behind Empress Valerie, her curved saber pressed tight against the monarch’s throat, drawing a thin line of crimson blood.Valerie didn't even flinch. A cold, dismissive smile touched her lips as two dozen imperial guards raised their heavy crossbows, locking their sights onto Yael's chest."You are bold, hunter," Valerie murmured, her eyes remaining fixed on Soren kneeling in the chamber below. "But terribly outnumbered. Lower your steel before my vanguard paints these stone walls with your blood.""Touch her and you die!" Varek’s battle cry echoed from the northern corridor as he burst into the gallery, his massive warhammer swinging in a crushing arc that shattered three imperial vanguard shields at once."Varek, look out!" Tristan screamed, scrambling up the stone stairs behind

"Hold on to the saddle straps!" Soren screamed, the words instantly ripped from his throat by the deafening roar of the dark river. "Don't let go!"Jet-black, glacial water slammed into them like a battering ram. The impact engulfed dragon and riders in a violent, suffocating abyss that stole the air straight out of their lungs.Red snapped his massive wings tight against his flanks. He used his thick tail to steer through the crushing velocity of the current. Pitch darkness pressed in from every single direction, broken only by the sporadic, drowning sparks of white fire pulsing from Soren’s palm as he fought with everything in him to keep a grip on Kaelen."Kaelen!" Soren choked out, water pouring into his mouth as he hauled her trembling body against his chest. "I've got you! Keep your head up!"She did not answer. Her face remained buried deep in the crook of his shoulder, her nails digging so hard into his tunic that the heavy fabric tore beneath her fingers. Her entire frame sho