With a careless, heavy thud, the massive warrior dropped the girl’s bound ankles.

  ?Valerie groaned in pain as she hit the cavern floor, immediately twisting her bruised body around until she managed to sit upright against a cold stalagmite. She spat a mouthful of dust onto the stone, glaring daggers at the towering man.

  ?The warrior didn't say a word. He unclasped the colossal, emerald-glowing broadsword from his back and leaned it against the cave wall, where it hummed with a low, lethal vibration. Slowly, the giant sank down onto a heavy boulder on the opposite side of the crackling campfire. He picked up a thick, blackened branch and began to slowly, methodically poke at the glowing embers. Orange sparks danced up into the frigid cave air, illuminating his jagged obsidian antlers and his sharp, pointed ears.

  ?And then, he finally looked at her.

  ?He didn't just look; he analyzed her with the cold, calculating precision of a predator sizing up an anomaly.

  ?His eyes were a terrifying, burning crimson—the eyes of a high-born demon lord. As he stared through the smoke at the bruised, bound girl across the fire, a deep furrow formed on his brow. It made absolutely no logical sense.

  ?She looked human. Fragile, squishy, and completely unremarkable, wrapped in shredded, pathetic armor. Yet, tumbling over her shoulders was a wild mane of brilliant crimson hair. It wasn't just red; it was the exact, distinct shade of his own royal bloodline. A color that belonged exclusively to his family.

  ?He narrowed his crimson eyes, peering deeper.

  ?She didn't have his eyes. Hers were a striking, vibrant emerald green. But as the firelight caught her irises, the warrior’s breath caught slightly in his chest. Deep beneath that human green, buried in the very core of her soul, he saw it. The monster. There was a dormant, radioactive, world-ending kinetic pressure sleeping behind her gaze. It was an aura so ancient and violently powerful that his own demonic instincts flared in absolute warning.

  ?He saw echoes of his own ancestors in the shape of her jaw, in the stubborn tilt of her chin. Who is this creature? his mind raced. A bastard child of a forgotten cousin? A shapeshifter? A weapon sent by the High Lords?

  ?The silence in the cave stretched on, heavy, oppressive, and incredibly dangerous. The warrior continued to poke the fire, his mind running through a thousand lethal scenarios.

  ?Valerie, however, had the survival instincts of a cornered badger.

  ?"So," she croaked, breaking the terrifying silence with a dry, raspy cough. She wiggled her magically bound wrists, unable to break the ropes. "Are we going to sit here and aggressively stare at each other all night, or are you going to tell me what the plan is? Because if you're going to eat me, I need you to know that I am ninety percent sarcasm and ten percent cheap cafeteria food. I will give you terrible heartburn."

  ?The warrior paused. The heavy branch hovering halfway over the fire.

  ?He blinked slowly. In all his centuries of warfare, conquering realms and slaughtering armies, no captive had ever spoken to him like this. Kings had wept at his feet. Warlords had begged for mercy. This tiny, bruised girl was tied up in a freezing cave, entirely at his mercy, and she was... complaining about her nutritional value?

  ?"Or, you know, just keep poking the stick," Valerie continued, rolling her green eyes and leaning her head back against the rock with a loud sigh. "That's cool too. I love a good one-sided conversation. Really builds character. Tell me, do you do children's parties, or is the brooding-lumberjack-of-death your full-time gig?"

  ?The warrior slowly lowered the stick back into the fire. A tiny, almost imperceptible twitch pulled at the corner of his stoic mouth. It wasn't a smile—he didn't do smiles—but the sheer, baffling audacity of this creature had momentarily short-circuited his urge to interrogate her with a blade.

  ?"You speak too much," he finally rumbled. His voice was incredibly deep, vibrating like grinding tectonic plates. "For something that falls from the sky."

  ?Valerie scoffed, shifting uncomfortably against the stalagmite. "Yeah, well, gravity and I had a disagreement. Now, are you going to untie me, or do I need to start asking you uncomfortable personal questions until you get annoyed enough to let me go?"

  ?He stared at her again, the firelight catching the crimson hair they both shared. The monster sleeping in her eyes hadn't woken up yet, but the sheer defiance in her voice was entirely, unmistakably familiar.

  ?"You will remain bound," he stated flatly, tossing the stick into the flames. "Until I determine what exactly you are."

  The crackle of the campfire was the only sound in the massive, subterranean cavern for a long, agonizing minute. The flames cast towering, dancing shadows against the jagged stone walls, making the giant warrior’s obsidian antlers look even more demonic in the flickering light.

  ?Valerie shifted uncomfortably against the cold stalagmite. Her magically bound wrists burned, and the throbbing in her skull was becoming unbearable. But she refused to look away from the towering man across the fire.

  ?"Okay, fine," Valerie finally sighed, breaking the silence again. She let her head thump back against the rock. "Keep me tied up like a holiday roast. But if I’m going to be your prisoner, I at least need to know what map I’ve fallen off of. Where the hell am I? How far am I from the Academy?"

  ?The warrior stopped watching the embers and slowly raised his crimson eyes to meet hers.

  ?"Academy?" he repeated. His deep voice rumbled with genuine, guarded confusion. It wasn't the confusion of someone who didn't know the directions; it was the confusion of someone who had never heard the word before in his life.

  ?Valerie frowned, her green eyes narrowing. "Yes. The Academy. Giant stone towers? Annoying, elitist Drow nobles in shimmering robes? The Crucible arena? Don't tell me you've never heard of Aeridor."

  ?The giant went completely still. The ambient temperature in the cave seemed to drop a few degrees. He leaned forward, resting his massive forearms on his armored knees, staring at her with an intensity that made Valerie’s lungs seize up.

  ?"Aeridor," the warrior said slowly, testing the syllables on his tongue as if she had just spoken a forbidden curse. "Aeridor is a settlement. A wretched, muddy encampment of tents and desperate scavengers at the edge of the blood-plains. There are no towers. There is no 'Academy.' And there are certainly no high-born elves walking its dirt roads."

  ?Valerie stared at him. A cold spike of dread pierced through her headache.

  ?Mud? Tents? she thought, her mind racing. Aeridor was the oldest, most impossibly grand magical fortress in the entire continent. It had stood for millennia. Was this guy crazy? Was she on a completely different continent? Or maybe in some weird, twisted pocket dimension created by that silver portal?

  ?"Right. Mud and tents. Sure," Valerie muttered, her sarcasm acting as a desperate shield against the rising panic in her chest. "Let's go with that. So, I'm nowhere near civilization. Great."

  ?The warrior didn't blink. "You demand to know where you are, yet you fall from a torn sky. You wear the armor of a soldier, but speak with the insolence of a jester. And you possess..." He trailed off, his glowing red eyes flickering up to her messy, blood-matted crimson hair. "Traits that do not belong to you. Who are you?"

  ?Valerie hesitated. The name de Valois had brought her nothing but pain. And if this guy hated the High Court or the nobles, dropping her newly acquired royal surname might get her killed on the spot.

  ?"Valerie," she said cautiously, keeping her chin up. "Just Valerie."

  ?"Just Valerie," he echoed, his tone dripping with dark skepticism. He stood up. The sheer size of him was terrifying. He was a walking mountain of dark metal and muscle.

  ?He reached to the leather pouch at his heavy belt. Valerie immediately tensed, pressing her back flat against the rock, expecting him to pull out a dagger or a torture device. Instead, he pulled out a thick, coarse lump of dried, cured meat wrapped in a dark leaf.

  ?Without a word, he tossed it across the fire.

  ?The heavy ration hit Valerie squarely in the chest and dropped into her lap. She looked down at the food, then looked up at her wrists, which were still magically bound tightly together. She gave him a flat, deadpan stare.

  ?"Thank you for the rock-meat," she said dryly. "But unless you want me to eat it like a feral dog eating off the floor, we have a logistical problem here."

  ?The warrior let out an irritated growl. He drew a wicked, curved hunting knife from his thigh sheath and crossed the distance between them in two massive strides. Valerie flinched, closing her eyes, expecting the blade to sink into her chest.

  ?Instead, she felt the cold steel slip between her arms. With one precise, effortless flick of his wrist, he severed the rope connecting her bound hands to her waist. Her wrists were still tied together, meaning she couldn't cast complex magic or fight, but she could at least lift her hands to her mouth.

  ?As he leaned over her to cut the rope, the distance between them vanished.

  ?And in that fraction of a second, something impossible happened.

  ?Valerie’s breath caught. The violent, radioactive kinetic energy sleeping deep in her veins—the power that usually felt like a burning, uncontrollable poison—suddenly purred. It settled. A strange, overwhelming wave of warmth and absolute safety washed over her. It was a feeling so profound, so deeply biological, that it brought a sudden, stinging tear to her eye.

  ?The warrior froze. His hand, still holding the knife, hovered inches from her shoulder. His crimson eyes widened slightly. His demonic core, forged in centuries of ruthless bloodshed, resonated violently with the aura of the bruised girl sitting in the dirt. His instincts, which usually screamed kill or conquer, were suddenly roaring a completely different command: Protect.

  ?He ripped himself away from her as if he had been burned, taking a heavy step back. His expression hardened into a furious, defensive scowl, deeply disturbed by the sudden, inexplicable bond he felt toward this stranger.

  ?Valerie looked up at him, her heart hammering against her ribs. She didn't understand it either. She should be terrified of this giant monster, but part of her soul was screaming that she was finally safe.

  ?"Eat!!" the warrior barked, his voice harsher and louder than before, trying to mask the sudden crack in his stoic armor. He turned his back on her, marching quickly back to his side of the fire.

  ?Valerie didn't say anything else. She picked up the dried meat with her bound hands and took a small bite. It was tough, salty, and tasted like ash, but she was starving.

  ?"Rest," the warrior commanded, not looking at her as he sat back down on his boulder, his jaw clenched tight. "At dawn, we break camp. I am taking you to the settlement of Aeridor. The elders there will pull the truth from your mind."

  ?Valerie chewed silently, staring at the dancing flames. Aeridor. Whatever this place was, whoever this strange, terrifying man with her red hair was... she had a terrible feeling that she hadn't just fallen off the map.

  ?She had fallen off the calendar.

  ?The massive subterranean cavern grew freezing cold as the campfire slowly burned down to a fragile pile of glowing orange embers.

  ?On the far side of the dying light, the giant Red Warrior sat completely motionless. He rested his heavy, armored back against the rough cavern wall, his crimson eyes closed. He appeared to be asleep, breathing in slow, rhythmic measures, though Valerie noticed his massive, gauntleted hand never strayed more than an inch from the hilt of his colossal broadsword. He was a predator, resting but never truly off guard.

  ?Valerie couldn't sleep. Every single muscle in her bruised body ached, her magically bound wrists throbbed, and her mind was racing with a million unanswered questions. She shifted uncomfortably in the freezing dirt.

  ?Looking down at the ash near her boots, she noticed a thick, cooled piece of blackened charcoal that had rolled away from the fire.

  ?Bored, anxious, and fueled by her usual, incurable stubborn defiance, she picked it up with her tied hands. She awkwardly shuffled on her knees closer to a smooth, flat surface of the cave wall beside her stalagmite.

  ?If she was going to die or disappear in this weird, hostile wilderness, she was at least going to leave a mark. A tiny, insignificant piece of proof that Valerie de Valois had existed.

  ?She pressed the charcoal to the cold stone and began to draw.

  ?First, she drew the only symbol she had truly known for the past year: the crest of the magical Academy of Aeridor. She sketched two heavy broadswords, perfectly crossed over each other, and placed a large, sharp letter 'A' right in the center.

  ?But as she looked over her shoulder at the sleeping giant across the fire, she hesitated. She didn't know why, but the traditional crest suddenly felt incredibly incomplete in this dark, ancient place.

  ?Slowly, guided by a strange, unexplainable instinct, she added two large, jagged demonic horns curving upward on the outside of the crossed swords, perfectly mirroring the intimidating obsidian antlers of her captor.

  ?There, she thought, satisfied, wiping a smudge of soot from her cheek. Now it’s accurate.

  ?To finish her masterpiece, she drew a large circle around the entire modified crest. Inside the border of the circle, she wrote a string of modern text that no ancient scholar or warlord would ever be able to decipher. She listed the names of the only family she had ever chosen: Bram. Roc-ta. Pip. Demian. Valerie. Right below the text, she added her signature touch. With a few quick, aggressive scrapes of the charcoal, she drew a terrible, goofy, cartoonish little doodle of her own face—complete with spiky, exaggerated hair and a miserable, frowning stick-figure mouth.

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  ?She let out a soft, amused breath. It was ridiculous, but it made her feel a little more human.

  ?As she pressed her fingertips against the finished drawing to brush away some loose dust, a tiny, microscopic spark of neon-green kinetic magic bled from her skin. It wasn't an intentional spell; it was just a residual leak of her newly awakened aura. The glowing green spark sank deep into the porous bedrock, illuminating the charcoal lines for a fraction of a second before settling permanently into the stone.

  ?Suddenly, a massive shadow fell over her.

  ?Valerie jumped, her heart leaping into her throat as she dropped the charcoal. The Red Warrior was standing right behind her. He had moved across the cavern completely silently, an impossible feat for a man of his size wearing heavy plate armor.

  ?He stared down at the strange, crude drawing on the wall. He looked at the crossed swords, the names he couldn't read, the demonic horns, and finally, the utterly ridiculous cartoon face.

  ?Valerie braced herself, expecting him to yell, or to demand to know what the bizarre letters meant, or perhaps to simply hit her for defacing his cave.

  ?He did none of those things.

  ?Instead, the giant slowly raised his massive, gauntleted right hand. He wiped his armored palm across a soot-stained rock, gathering a thick layer of black ash. Then, with heavy, solemn deliberation, he pressed his hand firmly against the stone wall, right next to her cartoon face.

  ?When he pulled his hand away, a colossal, pitch-black handprint remained. The sheer kinetic weight of his demonic aura pressed into the rock, perfectly and permanently sealing her tiny spark of green magic into the cavern wall forever. It was an unbreakable, ancient anchor locked in time.

  ?He didn't look at her. He just stared at the wall for a second longer.

  ?"Sleep," he grunted softly, his deep voice barely above a whisper as he turned his back to return to the dying fire.

  ?Valerie stared at his massive retreating back, her heart beating a little too fast. She rolled her green eyes, quickly defaulting back to her defensive sarcasm.

  ?"Why, of course," she muttered, settling back down into the dirt. "Whatever you say, you big yeti."

  ?The warrior stopped at the edge of the firelight. He didn't turn around, but his final words echoed off the damp stone walls, carrying a weight that made Valerie's blood run entirely cold.

  ?"Rest while you can," he said. "Tomorrow, we leave for Aeridor." He paused, his silhouette terrifying in the dark. "My village.

  ?Dawn in this unfamiliar world did not bring the gentle, golden sunlight Valerie was used to. Instead, the subterranean cave gave way to a dense, suffocating blanket of pale gray mist as they stepped out into the ancient forest.

  ?The trees here were impossibly massive. Their trunks were as wide as the watchtowers of the Academy, and their roots ripped through the earth like the veins of sleeping titans. The air was thick with the smell of wet moss, decaying leaves, and an underlying, metallic scent of ozone. It felt prehistoric. It felt incredibly dangerous.

  ?The giant Red Warrior led the way, his heavy armored boots crushing fallen branches into splinters with every step. He moved through the untamed wilderness with the effortless, terrifying grace of an apex predator. His glowing emerald broadsword was securely strapped to his back, but his crimson eyes constantly scanned the thick canopy above.

  ?Valerie struggled to keep up. Her wrists were still tightly bound together by the magically reinforced rope, making it nearly impossible to balance as she stumbled over slippery, jagged roots. Her muscles screamed in protest, still battered from the arena, but she forced herself to keep moving.

  ?She stared at the giant’s broad back, her mind racing. Aeridor... a village? she thought. None of this makes any sense. If he takes me to this ‘settlement’, I’m just going to end up in another cage. Or worse, on a spit over a fire. I survived the Crucible. I didn't fall out of the sky just to become someone's breakfast.

  ?The warrior suddenly stopped, holding up a massive, gauntleted hand.

  ?Valerie nearly crashed into his armored back. She peeked around his waist, following his gaze. Carved deep into the bark of a colossal oak tree, about ten feet off the ground, were three massive, jagged claw marks. Thick, black sap oozed from the wounds in the wood.

  ?"Keep your pace," the warrior rumbled, his deep voice slicing through the morning mist. He didn't look back at her. "And stay close to my shadow. The ancient woods are unforgiving. Giant stalkers hunt in the canopy, and they favor strays."

  ?Valerie rolled her eyes, masking her anxiety with her usual defense mechanism. "Noted. Avoid the giant murder-squirrels. Anything else on the tourist brochure?"

  ?The giant slowly turned his head, his terrifying obsidian antlers catching the dim light. His crimson eyes locked onto hers with absolute, deadly seriousness.

  ?"Do not test my patience, human," he warned softly. He pointed a thick, armored finger toward the east, where the dense green canopy seemed to thin out, giving way to a jagged, towering mountain ridge. "And whatever you do, do not drift toward the eastern ridge. That is the scorched boundary of the Wyrm-Queens. The Scale-Lords do not take prisoners. If the dragons catch your scent, not even I will be able to retrieve your ashes."

  ?Dragons, Valerie thought, swallowing hard. Actual, literal dragons. Perfect. "Got it. Giant monsters up, dragons to the right. Sounds like a lovely neighborhood," she muttered sarcastically.

  ?The warrior gave a low grunt of disapproval and turned back around, using his massive hands to violently rip a thick wall of thorny vines out of their path.

  ?As he stepped through the cleared brush, his attention momentarily entirely focused on navigating the dense overgrowth, Valerie’s survival instinct kicked into overdrive.

  ?It’s now or never.

  ?She didn't think about the stalkers. She didn't think about the magic bounding her wrists. She just turned exactly ninety degrees to the left, away from the warrior and away from the eastern ridge, and she bolted.

  ?She sprinted into the thickest part of the misty forest, her boots sinking into the wet mud. Without her arms to pump for momentum or balance, running was an agonizing, clumsy sprint. Branches whipped violently against her face, scratching her pale cheeks, but she didn't slow down. Pure, unadulterated adrenaline flooded her veins.

  ?Behind her, the forest erupted.

  ?"GIRL!"

  ?The roar was deafening. It wasn't the shout of a man; it was the earth-shattering bellow of a demon lord realizing his captive had slipped the leash. The sheer kinetic force of his voice shook the damp leaves from the canopy.

  ?Valerie gasped, pushing her burning legs faster. She could hear the heavy, terrifying THUMP, THUMP, THUMP of his armored boots tearing through the forest behind her, snapping small trees in half as he gave chase. He was incredibly fast for his size.

  ?Panic blinded her. The mist grew thicker, obscuring the ground beneath her feet. She just needed to find a place to hide, a hollow log, a cave—anything.

  ?She risked a single, terrified glance over her shoulder to see if she had lost him.

  ?It was a fatal mistake.

  ?When she turned her head back to the front, the forest floor simply vanished.

  ?Valerie let out a desperate shriek as her boots hit empty air. She had run blindly off the edge of a massive, hidden ravine.

  ?She plummeted downward, hitting the steep, jagged incline with a bone-shattering CRACK. Because her hands were bound, she couldn't brace herself. She tumbled violently head over heels, a helpless ragdoll crashing through thorny bushes, sliding over loose, razor-sharp shale, and slamming into protruding roots. The world spun in a chaotic blur of green, brown, and gray. Every impact knocked the breath from her lungs.

  ?She rolled for what felt like an eternity, the steep cliff tearing her combat leathers to absolute shreds.

  ?Finally, with a heavy, sickening thud, she hit the bottom of the ravine, sliding across a flat surface until she came to a complete, agonizing stop.

  ?Valerie lay on her back, staring up at the gray sky, gasping for air. Her entire body felt like it had been thrown through a meat grinder. Her vision blurred, dark spots dancing at the edges of her sight.

  ?Slowly, painfully, she rolled onto her side and forced herself onto her knees, spitting the metallic taste of blood from her mouth.

  ?As her vision cleared, she realized the environment had completely, drastically changed.

  ?There was no wet moss here. There were no ancient oak trees or chirping insects. The ground beneath her bruised knees wasn't dirt—it was solid, smooth black obsidian glass, covered in a thick layer of pale, gray ash. The air was blisteringly hot, smelling heavily of sulfur and scorched bone.

  ?She slowly raised her head, looking at the massive, towering wall of black rock in front of her.

  ?Embedded deep into the stone, glowing with an intense, molten-gold heat, was a single, colossal reptilian scale the size of a carriage.

  ?Valerie's breath caught in her throat. Her heart hammered a frantic, terrified rhythm against her ribs. In her blind panic to escape the giant, she hadn't run left. She had gotten completely turned around in the mist.

  ?She hadn't run away from the eastern ridge. She had fallen straight down into it.

  ?She was at the border of the Dragon Realm.

  Valerie groaned, spitting a mouthful of bitter ash onto the black obsidian glass.

  ?As she pushed herself up from the scorched earth of the ravine, she noticed something incredible. Her wrists felt strangely light. She looked down and saw that the magically reinforced rope had completely shredded against the razor-sharp rocks during her violent tumble down the cliff.

  ?She was free.

  ?But that wasn't the only thing that had changed. As Valerie caught her breath, she realized the crushing, suffocating weight that usually accompanied her magic was entirely gone. The radioactive, kinetic pressure inside her didn't feel like a poison burning her alive anymore. It felt vast, pure, and terrifyingly accessible. She didn't know it yet, but without the ancient seal her father had placed on her in her infancy—a seal that didn't exist yet in this timeline—her power was finally flowing without restriction.

  ?Before she could even process this newfound control, the sky above the ravine suddenly darkened.

  ?A shadow the size of a warship eclipsed the gray clouds. The air pressure dropped violently, and a hurricane-force wind slammed into the ravine, kicking up a massive, blinding storm of gray ash.

  ?Valerie threw her arms up to shield her face as a colossal, earth-shattering THUD shook the obsidian ground.

  ?When the ash finally cleared, Valerie’s blood ran completely cold.

  ?Landing less than fifty feet in front of her was a monster straight out of a nightmare. It was a dragon of incomprehensible size, covered in shimmering, iridescent scales that reflected the dim light like polished dark iron. Its massive, leathery wings remained half-spread, casting a terrifying shadow over the entire valley.

  ?The beast lowered its massive, horned head, exhaling a hot breath of sulfur. But what truly paralyzed Valerie were the dragon's eyes. They were glowing, intelligent, and a striking, brilliant emerald green.

  ?The Dragon Queen took a slow, deliberate step forward, the black glass cracking beneath her heavy claws. Her highly evolved senses flared. She could smell the fresh blood on the girl’s scraped cheek from a mile away. But it wasn't just human blood. There was an incredibly rare, ancient scent mixed into it. It smelled like... her own kin. It smelled like dragon's blood.

  ?Valerie didn't hesitate. Survival instinct overrode her terror.

  ?She threw her hands forward. She didn't speak an incantation—she didn't need one anymore. With a mere thought, the neon-green kinetic magic exploded to life. Two brilliantly glowing, complex magical circles manifested in the air directly in front of her palms. Thick, radioactive green veins bulged beneath the skin of her hands and arms, pulsing with lethal energy.

  ?The Dragon Queen paused. She recognized that raw, untamed aura. She raised her massive head high into the air, the scales along her throat glowing with a matching, blinding green light as she gathered a devastating breath of dragon-fire.

  ?The two green-eyed anomalies stood deadlocked, seconds away from annihilating each other.

  ?And then, the sky directly behind Valerie tore open.

  ?CRASH!

  ?A figure plummeted straight down from the top of the mist-shrouded cliff, executing a flawless, earth-shattering hero landing directly between Valerie and the cliff wall. The impact blew a crater into the obsidian floor.

  ?Valerie whipped her head around. It was the giant Red Warrior.

  ?"What the f...?" Valerie gasped, looking bewildered between the towering warrior behind her and the colossal dragon in front of her. "What do you people want from me?! I just want to go to Aeridor!"

  ?"Silence, child!" the Red Warrior roared, his deep voice echoing off the canyon walls as he drew his colossal, glowing emerald broadsword. He stepped in front of Valerie, shielding her. "You should bow, for you stand before the Dragon Queen!"

  ?Valerie’s jaw dropped. The sheer absurdity of the situation finally snapped her remaining patience.

  ?"Oh, now you can talk in full sentences?!" Valerie yelled at the back of the giant's armored head, her hands still glowing with volatile green magic. "First, you drag me through the dirt like a sack of potatoes! Then you give me some vague, cryptic warning about where not to walk!"

  ?Valerie stepped out from behind the warrior, her kinetic aura flaring even brighter, casting a harsh neon glow over the dark rocks.

  ?"Then I fall down a damn ravine!" she screamed, gesturing wildly at the cliff. "And if that isn't enough, a giant winged lizard flies right at me!"

  ?She glared at the Red Warrior. "You could have just said, 'Hey Valerie, if you go that way, you die! Come with me, and you live!' Would that have been so hard?!"

  ?Then, Valerie turned her furious, glowing green eyes directly up at the towering Dragon Queen.

  ?"And you!" Valerie snapped, pointing a glowing finger at the apex predator of the skies. "If you think this little girl is going to be your morning snack? Think again! I am serious, I will shove so much kinetic magic up your scaly ass that you'll be flying in circles for the next thousand years trying to put it out!"

  ?Dead silence fell over the ravine.

  ?The Dragon Queen blinked her massive green eyes. The glowing fire in her throat slowly dimmed. She lowered her massive head until she was eye-level with the tiny, furious human.

  ?"What... did you just call me?" the Dragon Queen's voice resonated directly in their minds, a terrifying, echoing telepathy that vibrated through their teeth. "A... lizard?"

  ?The Red Warrior slowly lowered his broadsword. The fearless warlord, who had conquered entire continents, looked down at Valerie in absolute, unadulterated horror.

  ?"Oh, shit..." he muttered under his breath. He took a very deliberate step away from Valerie. He looked down at her and pointedly shook his head. "You are entirely on your own."

  ?Before the Dragon Queen could incinerate the insolent girl, the massive beating of wings echoed from above. A second, slightly smaller dragon landed heavily on the ridge high above them.

  ?"My Queen," a deep, telepathic voice interrupted urgently. "We must go. The northern borders are breached."

  ?The Queen’s massive emerald eyes lingered on Valerie. She seemed in a great hurry, but the sheer audacity of this tiny creature had somehow bypassed her royal outrage and landed squarely on amusement.

  ?"Child," the Dragon Queen's voice echoed in Valerie's mind, laced with a dark, rumbling chuckle. "It is your lucky day. You truly do not realize you are standing between the two most powerful beings on this continent, do you?"

  ?With a small, terrifying smirk that revealed rows of razor-sharp teeth, the Dragon Queen turned away. She spread her colossal wings, preparing to take flight. She threw one final, mocking glance over her shoulder at the Red Warrior.

  ?"And Dhakul," the Queen purred telepathically. "Watch what kind of pet you bring into my territory next time. Though... I must admit, this one is quite funny."

  ?With a deafening roar of wind, the Queen launched herself into the sky, disappearing into the gray clouds alongside her scout.

  ?Valerie stood frozen, the neon-green magic slowly fading from her hands. The ringing in her ears was finally subsiding, replaced by the crushing weight of a single word.

  ?"Dhakul?" Valerie whispered, her eyes wide.

  ?She slowly turned around to look at the giant Red Warrior putting his broadsword away.

  ?Her mind raced back to the dusty library of the Academy. She remembered sitting with Demian, reading the ancient, mythical texts about the origins of the world. She remembered the name of the primordial Demon Lord who had lived thousands of years ago. The terrifying warlord who had eventually laid the first foundation stones of what would become the Academy.

  ?Dhakul. Valerie stared at the giant's crimson hair and obsidian antlers, her stomach dropping into an endless abyss. She hadn't just fallen out of the sky. She had fallen millennia into the past. And the man who had tied her up... was the founding god of Aeridor.

  Meanwhile someone in the nox abyss.

  The heavy iron door of the maximum-security cell groaned open.

  ?A single, heavily armored Drow guard stepped into the freezing darkness, carrying a wooden tray holding a bowl of watery gray slop. The guard sneered, kicking the iron bars.

  ?"Feeding time, murderer," the guard spat, unlocking the secondary gate to slide the tray onto the stone floor. "Eat up. The executioner is sharpening his axe for tomorrow."

  ?Demian sat completely motionless in the shadows, his head bowed, the heavy anti-magic chains pulling his wrists toward the floor. He looked entirely broken. Defeated.

  ?The guard scoffed, turning his back for just a fraction of a second to lock the gate.

  ?It was the only mistake he would ever make.

  ?Demian didn't need void-magic to be a lethal predator; he had been trained by the deadliest assassins of the Night Court since he could walk. In total silence, he lunged forward like a coiled viper. He didn't strike with his fists. Instead, he whipped the thick, heavy iron chain connecting his wrists over the guard’s helmet, crossing the links perfectly around the Drow's throat.

  ?The guard dropped the keys with a muffled gasp, his hands flying up to claw desperately at the cold iron crushing his windpipe.

  ?Demian twisted his body, planting his boot squarely against the guard’s armored spine, and pulled backward with everything he had. The struggle lasted less than ten seconds. A sickening pop echoed in the small cell, and the guard went completely limp.

  ?Demian let the body drop to the stone floor. He was breathing heavily, his purple eyes cold and entirely devoid of remorse. He was no longer a pampered Prince, and he was done playing the victim.

  ?Crouching down, he snatched the iron keys from the dirt.

  ?With a definitive click, the heavy anti-magic cuffs fell from his bruised wrists and crashed to the floor.

  ?Instantly, the freezing air in the cell grew violently cold. Shadows detached from the walls, swirling around Demian’s boots like eager, living serpents. His purple eyes ignited with raw, terrifying void-magic. The Prince of the Night Court was reconnected to the Abyss.

  ?He reached down, pulled the crackling void-dagger from the dead guard's belt, and stepped quietly out of the cell into the endless, dark corridors of the subterranean prison.

  ?The breakout had begun.