Page 128 of Feralheart

“Pull up,” I shouted, knowing he couldn’t hear me over the screams from dragons and elite riders alike.

He’d latched onto the reins and sawed them. Light flickered along the straps. The mist surged toward the magic. Reece’s face blanched as he understood what he’d done. He’d just painted a target on his dragon’s hide.

The dragon’s wings beat frantically, trying to climb, but the mist was faster. Silver-gray tendrils strained toward the creature’s hind legs.

“Drop the reins,” I screamed.

He couldn’t hear me. Or he did and fear overrode instinct, because his hands stayed locked on the leather, pulling harder.

The rune-magic flared brighter.

Mist spiked toward him.

I banked Selira hard, urging her to dive toward them again. “Fucking let go of the reins or you’re going to die!”

His mouth dropped open, but he let the reins go slack. They fluttered along the dragon’s neck before dropping down, dangling toward the lake.

The mist hesitated, its tendrils loosening enough for Reece’s dragon to surge upward, his wings beating at a feverish pace. They climbed free.

Relief crashed through me so hard my vision blurred. He’d trusted me and dropped the reins the way Fenian had, the way I’d been flying with Selira since the cave.

Something that started with a crown prince was rippling outward, changing how we all flew.

Goosebumps rose across my skin in a quick wave.

A price would be paid, and I suspected I would be the one bearing this cost.

But Mother would’ve made the same choice. She’d healed people who couldn’t pay, who didn’t even thank her, solely because she couldn’t watch them die.

“Stay close to me,” I shouted at both him and Lyndie. “Watch where I fly. The mist follows patterns.”

Lyndie’s gaze fell on my hands where the lines flared bright. “You can see them.”

“Selira can.” I pressed my palms against her neck, warmth flooding through the bond. “We can.”

Deaths came in waves I stopped counting. Wings locked mid-beat, riders screaming as stone spread faster than thought. A full team tried retreating. The lake swallowed them before they reached the initial shore.

I kept flying because stopping meant joining them.

“We’re not dying today.”

Selira’s response was wordless, fierce. No. Today we fly.

Wild dragons didn’t waste energy on fear. They flew until they couldn’t, then they died flying.

Selira’s awareness changed, and I saw through her eyes for one instant before I was yanked back into myself again. Safe paths existed, narrow strips of dead water where the mist didn’t go, where something underneath had already fed and moved on. But they shifted, following patterns I couldn’t quite make out.

The red lines across my palms glowed brighter, warmth flooding through me and into her. I was either giving her something or she was pulling it from me.

It didn’t matter. We moved together.

Fenian waited with Aristus on the other side of the lake. Even from a distance, I felt his attention lock onto the glow.

He’d seen.

The red lines weren’t subtle anymore. They blazed bright enough anyone glancing my way would know this wasn’t dye or the hands of a woman who had worked hard all her life.

He knew I was different. He’d known since the garden, maybe. Since the kitchen.