Chapter 20 Burning Bridges
SERINA POV
"You can't be serious."
Arvain stared at me like I'd suggested jumping into a volcano. Which, honestly, wasn't far from what I was proposing.
"The Ley Line conduit powers every enforcer weapon in three districts," I said, pointing at the map Maren had stolen. "We destroy it, their soldiers can't execute the awakening children. It's simple."
"Simple?" Arvain's voice climbed. "That conduit is inside the Council's main fortress! Protected by fifty elite mages! It's suicide!"
"Then I'll die." I met his eyes calmly. "But three hundred kids won't."
We'd been arguing for an hour. Outside, dawn was breaking, and somewhere in the city, Inquisitor Malachar was hunting me. The Council's army was mobilizing. And Tym's power kept pulsing, waking more people every minute—each one a death sentence unless we acted.
"There has to be another way," Arvain insisted.
"Name it."
Silence. Because there wasn't another way, and we both knew it.
Finally, Kaelthar purred in my mind. The little vessel grows a spine. I was beginning to think you'd talk until everyone died.
"Shut up," I muttered.
Arvain blinked. "I didn't say anything."
"Not you. Him." I tapped my head where Kaelthar's presence burned like a coal. "The dragon approves of the suicide mission. Shocking."
It's not suicide if you survive, Kaelthar corrected. And we will survive. Because I'm not spending another thousand years in a cage because you were too cautious.
Maren entered, her face grave. "The Council just executed twelve awakening children in the southern district. Public burning. They're making examples."
My hands clenched into fists. Scales rippled across my knuckles—Kaelthar's rage bleeding through our bond, or maybe my own. Hard to tell anymore where I ended and he began.
"That settles it," I said. "I'm going. Tonight."
"Serina—" Arvain started.
"You can help or get out of my way. Choose."
He stared at me for a long moment. Then his shoulders sagged. "I'll help. But if you die, I'm killing that dragon myself."
He can try, Kaelthar said cheerfully.
The fortress was exactly as defended as Arvain had warned.
I crouched on a rooftop across from the Ley Line conduit building, watching mage patrols move in precise patterns. Their weapons glowed with stolen dragon essence—magic ripped from Kaelthar's people and turned into tools of murder.
See that? Kaelthar's voice was cold. Every weapon they carry is powered by my mate's dying scream. By hatchlings who never learned to fly. Remember that when you start feeling merciful.
"I won't forget," I whispered.
Arvain touched my shoulder. "The patrol changes in two minutes. That's your window."
"You're sure about the exit route?"
"No. But it's the best we have." His hand lingered. "Sera, you don't have to prove anything. You're already—"
"I'm not trying to prove anything." I met his eyes. "I'm trying to save children from burning alive. Like my mother did. Like your wife did."
His jaw tightened. "They both died for it."
"Then I'll die knowing I tried." I squeezed his hand once. "Take care of Tym if—"
"When you come back, tell him yourself."
The patrol changed. I moved.
Kaelthar's power flooded through me, enhancing speed and strength beyond human limits. I crossed fifty feet in a heartbeat, scaled the fortress wall like a spider, slipped through a window before guards could blink.
Left corridor, Kaelthar guided. Three guards ahead. Incapacitate quietly.
I dropped all three before they saw me coming. Not dead—unconscious. I was done killing people who were just following orders.
Soft, Kaelthar observed. But effective.
The conduit chamber was exactly where Maren's intelligence said it would be. A massive crystalline structure pulsing with blue light, feeding power to weapons across the city. Weapons being used right now to murder children.
I placed the sabotage charges Maren had prepared. Thirty seconds to detonation.
Wait, Kaelthar said suddenly. Something's wrong. The magic signature—it's different than it should be.
"Different how?"
It's a trap.
The charges exploded.
But instead of destroying the conduit, they triggered something else. The crystal structure flared brilliant white, and backlash magic slammed into me like a physical blow.
Pain. Everywhere. The Ley Line magic recognized dragon essence and reacted violently, trying to burn Kaelthar out of my body. I screamed as my skin caught fire—not real flames, but magical burning that felt like being torn apart from the inside.
Serina, let go! Kaelthar roared. Break the bond or we both die!
"No!" I gasped through the agony. "I need you—to save the kids—"
You idiot girl! You're not worth dying for!
But even as he said it, I felt him change tactics. Instead of pulling away from the pain, he pulled it toward himself. Absorbing the worst of the Ley Line's backlash, channeling it through our bond into his own consciousness.
Protecting me at his own expense.
Kaelthar, stop! You'll—
Shut up and run!
The pain lessened just enough for me to move. I staggered toward the window I'd entered through, alarms screaming now, guards converging.
Behind me, the conduit was dying. Not destroyed, but damaged enough that it would take weeks to repair. Weeks the Council couldn't use those weapons.
Weeks for the awakening children to escape or hide.
I'd done it.
But the cost—
Still alive, Kaelthar gasped in my mind, his voice weak. Mostly. Though I'll be useless for hours while I heal. Try not to die in the meantime.
"Why did you do that?" I whispered, running through corridors as guards shouted. "You could have let me take all the damage—"
Because you're my vessel, you insufferable human. If you die, I'm imprisoned forever. Simple math.
But I felt the lie through our bond. Felt something else underneath—concern? Care? Something that made no sense from a dragon who claimed to view me as a tool.
I burst through a window as magic fire erupted behind me. Fell two stories, rolled, kept running. Arvain was waiting at the extraction point with a stolen cart.
"Go!" I gasped, throwing myself inside.
He whipped the horses forward. Behind us, the fortress lit up like a star as mages scrambled to respond.
"Did it work?" Arvain asked.
"Yes. The weapons are offline for—"
Something massive landed on the cart's roof, claws punching through wood. A dragon's head—silver scales, purple eyes full of hunger—thrust down toward me.
Not Vyraxis. Someone else.
"Found you," the dragon hissed. "The Council said I could eat whoever helped the vessel. Guess that's you."
Kaelthar tried to manifest, but he was too weak from absorbing the Ley Line backlash. I can't... Serina, I can't help you right now...
The dragon's jaws opened wide.
Arvain threw himself between us, a resistance blade somehow in his hand—enchanted steel that actually hurt dragons.
"Touch her and die," he snarled.
The dragon laughed. "Brave. Stupid. I'll eat you first so she can watch."
But before anyone could move, another presence slammed into our attacker with the force of an avalanche.
Tym.
My twelve-year-old brother, still glowing with that silver-white power, had somehow followed us. And now his awakening magic blazed so bright the dragon recoiled, shrieking.
"Don't. Touch. My. Sister," Tym said, his voice carrying harmonics that weren't quite human.
The dragon fled.
Tym collapsed immediately. I caught him, feeling his fever-hot skin, the wild pulse of magic still racing through him.
"Tym! What were you thinking? You could have—"
"Saved you," he whispered. "Like you save me. Fair's fair."
He passed out in my arms.
Arvain stared at both of us, his expression unreadable. "Your brother just scared off a full-grown dragon."
"I noticed."
"Serina, what exactly is he becoming?"
I looked at Tym's peaceful face, still glowing faintly. "I don't know. But the Council will kill him if they figure it out."
They already know, Kaelthar said weakly. That power surge? Every mage on the continent felt it. They know exactly where he is now.
My blood went cold. "How long do we have?"
Minutes. Maybe less. Magistrate Elara was close when that happened. She's coming.
"Then we run. Arvain, take Tym to the backup safehouse—"
"What about you?" Arvain demanded.
"Elara wants me, not him. I'll lead her away, buy you time to—"
Tym's eyes snapped open, glowing pure white. When he spoke, it wasn't his voice. It was thousands of voices, speaking in perfect unison:
"Too late. She's already here. And she brought an army. Serina Ashwell, you have thirty seconds before this entire district becomes a battlefield. The awakening souls ask: do you run and let them die? Or do you stand and become what they need you to be?"
His eyes rolled back. The voices stopped.
And in the distance, I heard the war horns.
Elara's army had arrived.