Chapter 167 Dante
The anxiety didn’t hit all at once.
It crept in. Slow. Quiet.
Like something slipping under my ribs and settling there, heavy and suffocating.
I stood beside Seraphine at the head of the table, arms crossed, posture steady—because that’s what everyone expected of me. Fire King. Controlled. Unshaken.
But through the mate bond?
There was no hiding it.
Not from her.
Not from myself.
I had just found her.
The bond was still new, still raw, still learning how to breathe between us—and I hadn’t even had the chance to show her what it meant. What it could be. What it was supposed to feel like when it wasn’t drowning in chaos and war and death.
I hadn’t had time to cherish her.
To teach her the bond the way it was meant to be experienced.
And now—
Now we were standing in a war room again.
Talking about hunting Thane.
Again.
Because he’d decided he wasn’t just a problem.
He was going to be the problem.
King of all kings.
I exhaled slowly through my nose, forcing my jaw to unclench as I looked around the room.
Everyone felt it.
The shift.
The escalation.
Lucian was pacing now, running a hand through his hair for the third time in under a minute. “Alright,” he muttered, “we need a plan before this turns into a full-blown disaster.”
“It already is a disaster,” Amara said from where she leaned against the pillar, arms crossed. “We’re just figuring out what kind.”
Rhevik stood straighter than before, but I could still see the tension in his shoulders. “If this is truly a serpent sage… we can’t approach this like we did Thane.”
“No,” Edrin agreed quietly from behind him. “This is something else entirely.”
Valin pushed off the pillar, storm energy flickering faintly around him again. “Then we stop guessing and start narrowing it down.”
Lukas nodded once. “Agreed.”
I finally spoke, my voice low.
“Start with what we know.”
The room shifted slightly. Focused. Grounded.
Lucian stopped pacing and pointed toward the table. “We know Shadow territory is warded. Strongly. Not witch-based. Not elemental.”
“Which means serpent sage is still our strongest lead,” Lukas said.
Valin crossed his arms. “We also know Kael is involved.”
“Not just involved,” Rhevik said. “Complicit.”
I glanced at him. Good. He was learning fast.
Edrin nodded once. “He allowed this into his territory. That alone is enough.”
Lucian exhaled. “We still need proof before we can act on Kael directly.”
I dragged my thoughts back into the room.
“We don’t hit Kael first,” I said. “Not yet.”
Lucian glanced at me. “Then what?”
“We identify the sage.”
That got everyone’s attention.
Lukas nodded slowly. “That would be the most logical first step.”
Valin frowned slightly. “How?”
Lukas began pacing now, slower, more deliberate than Lucian’s earlier movements.
“Serpent sages value knowledge,” he said. “More than power. More than territory.”
Amara tilted her head. “So we bait them?”
Lucian snapped his fingers. “That’s actually not terrible.”
“With what?” Rhevik asked.
I answered.
“Information.”
Everyone looked at me.
“We feed something into the system,” I continued. “Something valuable. Something they would want.”
Edrin frowned slightly. “False information?”
“No,” I said. “Real.”
That got a reaction.
Lucian raised a brow. “You want to give them knowledge?”
“Controlled knowledge,” I corrected. “Something that draws them out.”
Lukas nodded once, interest sparking in his eyes. “That would force interaction.”
Valin’s expression tightened. “And if they take the bait?”
“Then we track the reaction,” I said. “Movement. Response. Ward fluctuation. Anything.”
Amara pushed off the pillar. “Okay, but we’re still missing one thing.”
“What?” Lucian asked.
“How do we even see the wards properly?”
Silence.
Then Lukas spoke.
“There may be a way.”
All eyes turned to him.
“Serpent sage wards are linguistic,” he said. “Which means they have structure.”
Lucian frowned. “We already established we don’t speak whatever ancient nightmare language that is.”
“No,” Lukas said. “But we might be able to read it.”
Valin’s eyes narrowed. “With what?”
Lukas glanced toward me briefly.
“Dragonfire.”
I frowned.
“Explain.”
“Fire reveals truth,” Lukas said. “Not just physically. Conceptually. If we apply it correctly… it may expose the underlying structure of the wards.”
Lucian blinked. “You want Dante to light up Shadow territory like a forensic investigation?”
“Not the whole territory,” Lukas said dryly. “A small section of the border.”
Amara smirked slightly. “Careful isn’t exactly our brand.”
Lucian huffed. “Speak for yourself.”
Valin exhaled slowly.
“So the plan is… bait the sage, expose the wards, track the response.”
“And confirm what we’re dealing with,” Lukas added.
I nodded once.
“Then we decide how to kill it.”
The room went quiet again.
Because that was the real plan.
Not just find it. Not just understand it. End it.
Amara pushed off the pillar again, stepping closer to the table, her brows pulled together in thought.
“Okay,” she said, glancing between all of us, “obvious question then.”
Lucian groaned lightly. “Those are usually the dangerous ones.”
“What information are we putting into the system?”
Silence followed.
Because that was the part none of us had actually answered yet.
We all knew we needed bait.
We just hadn’t said what kind.
I felt Seraphine shift beside me.
Not physically.
Through the bond.
That cold, steady presence moved forward again.
Decisive.
She spoke before anyone else could.
“We use me.”
Every head turned.
I didn’t like that.
Not even a little.
“What do you mean?” Lucian asked carefully.
Seraphine didn’t hesitate.
“The awakenings.”
The room stilled.
“The female dragons,” she continued, voice calm, controlled. “The ones I’ve been helping.”
Rhevik’s eyes sharpened. “The gentle awakenings?”
She nodded once.
“I have a ten out of ten success rate.”
That landed.
Hard.
Valin’s posture shifted slightly. “That kind of consistency doesn’t exist.”
Edrin frowned. “Not even in recorded history.”
Seraphine didn’t react to the disbelief.
She just continued.
“We leak that information.”
My jaw tightened.
“Seraphine—”
She didn’t look at me.
“They’ve been experimenting for years,” she said. “Torturing women. Forcing awakenings. Failing.”
Her voice didn’t rise.
But the weight behind it did.
“And I can do it without killing them.”
Silence. Heavy.
Understanding settled in the room all at once.
Rhevik spoke first, slower this time. “That would… draw attention.”
Lucian huffed. “That would draw everything.”
Amara nodded. “Yeah, that’s not bait—that’s a beacon.”
Valin’s expression had gone completely serious now. “That kind of knowledge would destabilize every territory.”
Edrin added quietly, “Not just serpent sages.”
I felt it before anyone said it.
Lukas stepped forward. “They would come immediately.” His voice was certain. “That level of knowledge..." He shook his head slightly. “That is the kind of information serpent sages would cross realms for.”
My chest tightened.
“And not just them,” He added.
That was the part I didn’t want to hear.
Lucian said it anyway. “Yeah,” he muttered. “That’s not just attracting one problem.”
Amara crossed her arms slowly. “That’s attracting all of them.”
Valin nodded once. “Every power-hungry leader. Every rogue. Every collector of forbidden knowledge.”
Edrin’s voice was quiet, but firm. “Every enemy.”
“That information wouldn’t just bring the serpent sage to your doorstep.” His eyes lifted to Seraphine. “It would bring everything.”