2026-06-19 02:16:07Lyra let out a sharp cry of pain as her sapphire sky-cutter dragon sank its teeth into her shoulder. The beast she had bonded with, the creature that was supposed to be her loyal lifelong companion, slammed her body hard against the cold stone wall. Blue sparks of electricity flickered weakly from its scales but its golden eyes were completely gone, replaced by a terrifying hollow blackness.
"Stop!" I yelled, pushing myself up from the dusty floor. My muscles screamed in protest, still drained from the magical bridge that had just shattered. The duplicate boy ignored me. He stood outside the ruined cage, his arms spread wide as if he were enjoying the cool breeze of freedom. The dark veins on his face pulsed with an eerie light and his pitch-black eyes fixed on Lyra's struggling form. "A beautiful bond," the boy mocked, his voice echoing through the chamber. "But all dragons are born from my stolen energy. They do not belong to the nobles of this academy. They belong to me." "Lyra!" Zane called out. He was sitting near the broken iron door, nursing a bruised shoulder from the previous explosion. He tried to scramble toward her, but the shadow energy radiating from the duplicate boy threw him back down to the ground. “Kael, we have to move now,” Erebos urged inside my head. The ancient dragon's voice was getting stronger, fueled by the residual power left in the air. “His control over her dragon is absolute because the sky-cutter is a young beast. But he cannot control me. Use my fire to break his hold on her.” I reached inside my shirt, pressing my palm flat against the hidden royal crest on my chest. I didn't care who saw it anymore. If I didn't act, Lyra would be crushed by her own dragon and Zane and I would be next. "Erebos, give me everything!" I shouted aloud. A large wave of violet fire exploded from my chest. The bright flames did not burn my skin or my clothes. Instead, they swirled around my arms like twin serpents. I lunged forward, throwing my hands out toward Lyra's sapphire dragon. A stream of violet fire blasted across the room, striking the beast's wings. The dragon roared in pain, the solid black color in its eyes flickering violently. The violet fire did not burn the creature's flesh but it acted like a shock to its system, disrupting the duplicate boy's dark command. The sky-cutter released its grip on Lyra's shoulder, crashing heavily to the stone floor as it fought to regain its own senses. Lyra slid down the wall, gasping for breath. She clutched her bleeding shoulder, her pale face completely shocked as she looked from the duplicate boy to the violet flames still dancing on my fingers. "You..." she whispered, her voice trembling. "The black dragon... its soul is inside you." "We need to leave! Now!" I yelled, rushing over to grab her uninjured arm. I pulled her to her feet, while Zane quickly scrambled up and grabbed her other side to support her weight. The duplicate boy let out a low, angry hiss. He stepped forward, his bare feet making no sound against the stone. "You cannot run from yourself, Kael. We are two halves of the same broken crown. You will return to me!" He raised his hand to summon another wave of darkness but the heavy exertion of breaking the cage seemed to catch up to him. He stumbled, his black eyes widening slightly as he coughed up a thick dark fluid. The shadow energy around him flickered and died. "Go!" I told Zane. Together, we dragged Lyra out of the secret chamber, sprinting through the broken iron doorway and back into the narrow maintenance tunnels. Behind us, the duplicate boy did not follow but his chilling laughter echoed through the dark tunnels, chasing us like a ghost. We ran blindly through the pitch-black passages for what felt like hours. Lyra was growing heavier with every step, her breathing shallow as the dark energy from the dragon bite seeped into her skin. Finally, we saw a faint light ahead. We burst through a hidden panel in the wall and collapsed onto the floor of an empty, dusty storage room in the basement of the Discard Dorms. Zane quickly shut the panel, sliding a heavy wooden crate in front of it. He slumped against the wall, panting hard. "We made it. We actually made it out alive." I knelt beside Lyra, carefully pulling her hand away from her bleeding shoulder. The wound was deep, and dark purple lines were spreading out from the bite marks. "Why did you follow us down there, Lyra?" I asked softly, using a clean piece of my torn shirt to press against the bleeding. She looked up at me, her cold blue eyes filled with a mixture of pain and a sudden strange realization. "Because my father left a journal before he died. He didn't execute your father because of treason, Kael. He executed him because your father refused to let Headmaster Vance breed the true royal bloodline like cattle." She swallowed hard, wincing as I tightened the cloth bandage. "The boy in the cage... he isn't just a duplicate. He is your twin brother, hidden away from birth to be used as a magical battery." My world shattered for the second time. I had a brother. A twin who had been tortured for seventeen years. Before I could process the truth, the storage room door was kicked open with a violent crash. Headmaster Vance stood in the doorway, surrounded by ten fully armed guard mages. His face was a mask of pure, absolute fury. But as he looked at the three of us, he didn't draw a weapon. Instead, he smiled a horrific clicking sound echoing from his throat. "Thank you for finding the key, Kael," Vance said. He stepped aside, and behind him stood General Voss,Lyra's father, who was supposed to be dead. General Voss looked at Lyra with a cold, uncaring expression and said, "The harvest can finally begin."
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The False Inheritance
The porcelain fingers tightened around my wrists like iron clamps, pinning my arms flat against the cracked, dry earth. The coldness of the material bit into my skin, freezing the veins underneath. I thrashed against the soil, trying to kick my legs, but two more white ceramic arms burst through the dirt, pinning my ankles to the ground.Above me, on the high spire of the ruined tower, the true Prince Alden stood bathed in the harsh midday glare. His silver root crown caught the bright beam, reflecting tiny needles of light into my eyes. The blood-red glow of his heavy iron sword cast a long, crimson shadow over the valley."You look pathetic down there in the dirt, draft four," the prince called out, his voice smooth, clear, and dripping with authority. "Our father built you with such grand hopes, yet you sit trapped by the very material used to line the lower drainage pipes."Beside me, Erebos lay motionless, his scales dull like cold gray clay. His yellow eyes were half-closed, his
The Bone Mirror
My fingers tightened around Rin’s wrist, but the warmth in her skin vanished in an instant. I watched in absolute horror as her cheeks crumbled into fine white powder, blowing away on the cold night wind like dry flour. Her golden eyes widened in terror, but no sound came from her lips. She was disintegrating right before my eyes, her entire body flaking away into dust until my hand closed on empty air.I spun around, staring up at the hollow central tower of the shining fortress.The figure on the white bone throne looked down at the courtyard with cold, ancient eyes. She wore a plain peasant tunic, her brown hair falling over her shoulders in loose waves. She looked identical to the girl who had just vanished into the breeze, but her face held no fear, no pity, and no warmth."Rin?" my voice rasped, the sound cutting through the eerie silence of the plain.The girl on the high throne did not answer. She raised one pale hand, her slim fingers tracing the armrest of the bone chair. Ac
The Glass Horizon
The wind blew right through my chest, but I couldn't feel the chill anymore. I stared down at my right hand. My fingers were completely see-through, looking like smooth, ice-clear glass. Through my palm, I could see the golden blades of grass swaying on the valley floor. I pressed my fingers together, but there was no feeling left in my skin, only a faint, ringing buzz that vibrated inside my head.Beside me, Rin stumbled back, her eyes wide with terror as her hand passed straight through my shoulder. She reached out again, her fingers grasping at empty air where my arm used to be."Kael!" she cried, her voice breaking into a frightened sob. "Hold on to something! Don't let go!""I can't feel the ground, Rin," I said. My voice sounded thin, like a faint echo coming from a deep well.Beside us, Erebos let out a low, mournful whimpered cry. His glorious golden scales were losing their luster, turning into transparent crystal from his snout down to his heavy tail. The five guardian drago
The Rotten Soil
The gray stone crust climbed past my knees, freezing my legs into heavy pillars. The cold was unbearable, a dead frost that numbed my skin and made my bones feel brittle like dry twigs. Across the plaza, the silver-clad vanguard soldiers were completely silent now, turned into a field of grey statues standing stiff beneath the copper mirrors.My father stood in the center of the mirror grid, his simple canvas apron fluttering in the cold wind. His hands were still wrapped in the glowing silver roots that fed the copper glass. He looked up at me with eyes that held no warmth, no love, and no regret."Do not fight the stone, child," his voice drifted up to the stage, carrying the dry, dusty smell of freshly turned earth. "You were created for this single purpose. The plague in the deep hatchery needed a biological sponge, a vessel strong enough to gather the rot from the soil so the real kingdom could bloom again."Beside me, Rin was desperately scraping at the stone on my ankles with h
The Silver Vanguard
The green daylight arrow on Lyra’s bowstring hummed with a terrifying, high-pitched whistle. I stood on the gray hide of the landing dragon, my boots slipping on the rough scales as the cold valley wind whipped past my face. The army behind her stretched across the open plain, a vast sea of silver-clad soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder beneath the darkening sky. Their polished armor caught the dim purple light, casting long, predatory shadows over the dirt."Don't move, Alden," Lyra called out, her voice crisp and steady.She did not look like the girl who had crawled through the palace debris with a broken dagger. Her spine was straight, her blue eyes cold and empty of any warmth. The silver twine roots that had once woven into my left arm were gone, replaced by a pair of heavy iron gauntlets that locked her wrists into a perfect firing stance."Lyra," I rasped, my throat tight as the dual voice of my merged brother echoed softly inside my chest. "You were in the hatchery. You g
The Primary Anchor
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?"
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