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“Challenge accepted.” I steal Aya’s line and throw it in his face.

“No!” Aya screams and lunges forward, but my mother catches her arm.

My parents hold her as she begs us not to do this, but it’s already decided. Valek steps back. The male clan members come down from their cabin porches to form the battle circle around us. The shouting brings Hazel and Dominic running back. He joins Sam in the circle while Lauren and Hazel help my parents restrain Aya.

I look over at her. She strains against my mother’s grip with her eyes wide and white-rimmed. It guts me to see her like that. If I got my ass beat by a wolf, fighting Valek’s dragon is a whole different story. My mouth has gone dry as ash. My dragon stirs and wants out. He’s going to get us killed, or I am.

Valek shifts first. His bones crack as his body contorts. Scales erupt across his skin in waves of bronze and copper. His wings tear from his back, sending a gust through the clearing that rocks me back. His neck lengthens and his jaw stretches into a snout lined with teeth. As his tail whips out behind him, his clothes shred away. Then a massive bronze dragon stands before me.

Valek’s dragon roars, and the ground shudders under my feet. The men pound their fists against their chests in rhythm.

“ASH CLAN! ASH CLAN! ASH CLAN!” The chant rises around us and echoes through the village.

I close my eyes and reach for my dragon. He rushes up. The shift tears through me as midnight-blue scales split my skin and race over my body. My bones pop and stretch as I grow larger and stronger. My clothes fall away in tatters. At the base of my back, my tail breaks loose. My wings burst from my shoulders and spread wide. The Stormscale blue pulses through my veins.

When I open my eyes, the world is sharper, full of colors and scents my human body can’t pick up. Aya’s cuts through all of them, sour with fear. Valek’s battle-scarred dragon faces me from across the circle.

My dragon roars back, but he’s outmatched, and he knows it. I’m younger and smaller than Valek. I’ve never had to fight for my life.

His dragon slams into mine and drives me backward until my claws carve trenches in the dirt. His talons rake across my scales and open my flesh to the bone. My blood hisses where it spatters the grass. I snap at his neck, but he twists away.

His tail swings around and smashes into my face. The world strobes white, and I stumble under the blow. Valek’s dragon doesn’t give me a chance to recover. He drives forward again and rams his armored head into my side. Bones splinter. I can’t get any air. My dragon bellows and lashes out blindly.

Valek’s dragon sidesteps me without trying. He darts in low and bites down on my wing joint. His teeth punch through the membrane where it joins my shoulder. He wrenches back and forth until muscle and sinew tear. It burns clear down to the tip of my tail. My dragon bellows, and the clan members flinch.

When he releases my wing, it hangs useless, dragging in the dirt. My uncle makes a deep sound that might be laughter.

My dragon is past caring and lunges again with blood running into his eyes. Valek’s dragon rears up to his full height and slams his front claws into my shoulders. The impact drives me to my knees. His bronze tail lashes around and sweeps my legs out from under me. Smoke punches out of my lungs when I crash onto my back.

He’s on me in an instant and pins my chest with a clawed foot. More ribs crack. He stamps down on my throat and presses until I can only wheeze. I choke on hot blood. Black spots crowd my vision. My dragon thrashes and beats his good wing against the ground. Nothing he does moves the weight off me.

Valek’s dragon has won the fight. He brings his snout down to mine and opens his mouth. Fire glows deep inside it with heat that scorches my scales. He could burn me where I lie. I can’t even turn to find my mate. Mother Fate, don’t make Aya watch this.

Instead, he roars over me, and the sound echoes across the lake into the forest. My dragon lies broken beneath him, bleeding from his nostrils.

“Remember who you are, son.” My father’s voice cuts through the noise. “You are a Stormscale, a dragon of the stars, of the storms.” He gets louder. I hear every word even with Valek’s dragon bearing down on me. “You are descended from those who commanded the heavens, who called lightning from clear skies, who rode the winds between worlds. The cosmos itself bends to your will, just as the stars bend to the gravity of black holes. Remember.”

My dragon knows who’s calling him. He knew the words before he ever heard them. He’s been waiting all my life for someone to say them out loud. I give him everything I have.

He throws his head back and roars. Static races over my scales and raises them on end. Black clouds boil up overhead out of nowhere with blue lightning flashing inside.

Bolts blast craters around us. Scorched earth stings my nose. The clan members break the circle and scatter for their porches as the strikes fork across the clearing. At the tree line, Hazel throws her hands up. Her magic webs the air around us to shield the cabins from the lightning.

My dragon shakes the blood out of the wounds on his face and climbs to his feet. He stands tall even with pain stabbing through my cracked chest and his torn wing dragging behind him. Valek’s dragon backs up with his eyes on the clouds. Thunder rattles the cabin windows.

My dragon charges into a blast of fire. I can’t see anything but orange. The flames blister my scales and turn my blood to steam beneath my skin. I keep pushing through.

I come out the other side blackened and smoking. I whip my tail around and catch Valek across the jaw. Teeth shatter as he goes down and gouges up the earth.

He scrambles to his feet and lunges for my neck. This time I’m ready for him. I sidestep and rake my claws deep down his exposed flank. His bronze scales split open under them. He spins to face me with a roar.

We circle each other with our wounds dripping. When he comes at me again, I meet him in the middle. We clash and roll across the grass in a knot of claws and fangs. His blood scalds my mouth.

Aya screams my name, and I whip toward her. She’s broken free of Lauren and is running at us. She slams into the shield and gets knocked off her feet. Hazel never lowers her hands. Aya’s fall jolts through the mate bond as a hard yank in my gut. My dragon forgets the fight.

Valek’s dragon takes the opening. He clamps down on my neck and drags me to the ground. My dragon thrashes to break free, but Valek’s grip is too strong. He presses me into the dirt under his suffocating weight, and every twist drives his teeth deeper.

I’m ready to give up, but my dragon isn’t. He roars into the sky with everything he has left.