Moments ago, I had seen wings—vast, pale against the night, cutting through the mist with effortless grace. The ground had trembled beneath me as something massive descended, the rush of air from its nding nearly knocking me off my feet. Then, before my mind could fully register what I was seeing, it began to shift. To shrink. Wings pulling inward, limbs reshaping, a monstrous form folding into something unnervingly human.

  And now, she stood before me.

  The battlefield was silent .

  Frozen.

  Moments ago, there had been fire, screams, steel cshing against steel. Now, the world stood still, locked beneath a yer of ice that stretched as far as I could see.

  I could barely breathe. The cold had seeped into my bones, turning my limbs sluggish. My sword, half-buried in frost, refused to move at first when I yanked on it. I grit my teeth and gave it another hard pull. Ice cracked as I wrenched it free, pain ncing through my stiff fingers.

  She was watching me.

  A woman stood at the center of the frozen ruin, untouched by the devastation. Snow-white hair cascaded down her back, pristine despite the mist curling around her. Her golden eyes flickered with something that made my stomach tighten—amusement.

  What is a dragon doing here? No one has seen a Dragon in hundreds of years! Why now?

  Dragons didn’t concern themselves with wars like this. They didn’t bother with human conflicts. To them, we were ants beneath their feet, insignificant unless we strayed too close to their domain.

  But she had come here. Why?

  She tilted her head slightly, considering me the way a noblewoman might regard a stray dog. Then, she spoke.

  Her voice was smooth, foreign. The words meant nothing, but the sound of them crawled under my skin, resonating in a way I couldn't expin. It was like hearing something ancient—something powerful enough to bend the very air around it.

  I clenched my jaw, gripping my sword tighter.

  A sharp breath behind me. Movement.

  Aric.

  I turned just in time to see him rising, his war hammer still in hand. His face was pale, his eyes locked onto her with something close to pure terror.

  "Gods help us, a dragon" he whispered.

  His fingers twitched a slow, rhythmic movement. A small prayer under his breath.

  I recognized it immediately.

  A spell.

  He was about to attack.

  The dragon woman sighed, almost zily, and flicked her wrist.

  Aric was ripped from the ground as a small pilr of ice hit him and sent flying like a discarded doll. He crashed into the frozen wreckage of a tent, nding in a heap of armor and ice.

  I barely had time to register what had happened before I moved.

  "Stop!" The word tore from my throat as I lifted my sword. Not in defiance—just instinct. A reflex born from knowing I was standing before something far beyond my reach.

  She turned to me again, her golden gaze sharp, calcuting.

  Then, she spoke once more—but this time, the words were different.

  Elvish.

  The dialect was strange, old, but I understood pieces of it.

  "Why… human… wield this?"

  My gaze flickered to her hand.

  The spear.

  The one the sorcerer had wielded. The one that had burned with raw, unnatural power. I hadn’t even seen her pick it up, but there it was, held loosely at her side, its runes darkened in her grip.

  My tongue felt heavy. I struggled to piece together a response, my mind still sluggish from the cold. My Elvish was rough at the best of times, and now it was worse.

  "We… not… use," I managed, words clumsy on my tongue.

  Her eyes narrowed.

  "Lie."

  I swallowed hard.

  She took a step forward.

  "How… human… have?"

  "I…" I hesitated. "Not ours. Not… learn."

  Her expression darkened slightly, irritation flickering across her face.

  "Not learn?"

  I forced myself to meet her gaze, trying to keep my grip on my sword steady.

  "We… no magic."

  The moment I said it, I knew it was a mistake.

  Her eyes turned cold.

  "Foolish," she muttered.

  Then the air shifted.

  I felt it before I saw it—a crushing, suffocating pressure coiling around me like unseen chains. The cold bit deeper, locking my limbs in pce.

  Pain fred inside my skull, sharp and sudden. My vision blurred, my knees buckling.

  She was trying to tear into my mind.

  I gritted my teeth, trying to push her out, but it was like trying to stop the tide with bare hands. My thoughts slipped, fragmented—fshes of battle, of blood, of the spear cutting through our men. Of humanity’s fear of magic.

  Then—something else.

  An image flickered at the edge of my mind. Not mine.

  A war. Dragons.

  Her grip faltered, just for a second.

  And that second was all Aric needed.

  His warhammer smmed into her side with a force that would shatter any normal creature’s ribs.

  She barely flinched.

  She turned, slowly, her golden eyes blinking in mild surprise.

  Aric’s chest heaved, his breath ragged. He had put everything into that strike. And yet, as she looked at him, I saw the realization settle into his eyes.

  It hadn’t hurt her.

  Her hand shot out, grabbing him by the throat.

  Aric gasped, his body jerking as frost spread from her fingers, creeping over his armor, his skin. His warhammer slipped from his grip, falling soundlessly onto the ice.

  I moved.

  Didn’t think. Just acted.

  My sword arced toward her unguarded back, a desperate, reckless attempt to free him—

  And stopped.

  Her other hand caught my wrist, fingers like iron around my forearm.

  The grip tightened.

  Pain.

  Ice spiked through my veins, locking my muscles in pce and I would have colpsed if she weren’t holding me up.

  She looked at me.

  Really looked at me.

  And something shifted in her gaze.

  A thought. A decision.

  She released Aric.

  His body crumpled to the ground in a motionless heap.

  Then, before I could react—before I could even breathe—her arm snapped around my waist, and I was lifted off my feet.

  The st thing I saw was her wings unfurling, blotting out the frozen stars above us.

  Then, we were airborne.

  I screamed.