Chapter 23 When the Sky Breaks
Khyros hit the ground with the force of a falling mountain.
The earth split beneath his claws, soil and stone erupting upward as trees snapped like twigs around his landing crater. His wings massive, jagged, burning with crimson corruption spread wide enough to eclipse the storm-darkened sky.
Lyra jerked backward instinctively, wings flaring to shield the injured Bound Dragon she’d just freed. Aurenyx’s presence surged inside her not panicked, not afraid, but coiled tight with primal readiness.
Khyros is lost, Aurenyx said grimly.
There is nothing left of the dragon he once was. Only the Empress’s leash. Only Kael’s hand tightening it.
Khyros’s eyes glowed like two burning coals.
His roar ripped through the forest, the sound so forceful it knocked Mira and Dorian off their feet again, flattening grass and sending debris spiraling into the air. Lyra braced against the shockwave, digging her claws deep into the torn earth.
Kael simply stood at the edge of the clearing, cloak billowing behind him as if he commanded the storm itself.
“This is unnecessary,” Lyra growled, narrowing her golden dragon eyes at him.
Kael smiled.
“Everything necessary looks cruel to those who can’t see the full vision.”
Khyros lunged.
Aurenyx’s warning thundered through her:
MOVE!
Lyra launched herself skyward. Her wings cracked the air as Khyros’s jaws snapped shut where she had stood a heartbeat before, pulverizing a boulder into dust.
Khyros turned sharply, neck serpentine, fire gathering in his throat.
Crimson fire.
Lyra dove to the side as a beam of corrupted flame seared across the clearing, obliterating a swath of forest. The smell of burning wood and molten stone filled her senses.
“LYRA!” Mira screamed from below. “He’ll kill you!”
Lyra’s gaze dropped to her friends mud-soaked, bruised, terrified and something inside her snapped.
This ends tonight.
She angled her wings sharply and dove toward Khyros, unleashing a torrent of golden flame at his flank. The fire struck true Khyros roared, staggering
but the crimson corruption twisted, absorbed, and redirected the blow, dissipating the golden fire like wind scattering embers.
Lyra’s chest tightened.
“Aurenyx—my fire isn’t working.”
Not like this, Aurenyx said, pulse sharpening.
Khyros’s corruption shields him from flame alone. You must break the Empress’s bind to weaken him.
“How?” Lyra demanded.
Aurenyx hesitated.
The same way you freed the other one.
Lyra’s blood ran cold.
Merge flames.
Risk death.
Or be consumed.
“No,” she whispered. “Not again. Not with him. I can’t survive doing it twice.”
Then you must find another wayFAST!
Khyros leapt again—faster than Lyra expected, far faster than any dragon should move under such twisted magic. He slammed into her side mid-air, sending her spiraling violently. The sky spun. Earth and storm blurred together.
Lyra smashed through the branches of a massive oak, snapping the tree in half as she crashed to the ground. Pain lanced through her body. Her vision flickered.
Khyros was already stalking toward her.
Kael walked behind him with the unhurried calm of a man watching a performance he’d rehearsed for years.
“Stand down, Lyra,” he said softly. “This doesn’t have to hurt.”
“Shut up,” she snarled, rising on shaking limbs.
He tilted his head.
“You’re trembling.”
“I’m surviving.”
“A temporary state.”
Khyros roared and charged again.
Lyra blasted golden fire directly into his eyes just enough to blind him for a moment then rocketed upward. She barely cleared the treetops before Khyros crashed into the same space, shaking the entire clearing.
Lightning streaked across the sky.
She circled once, catching sight of Rhian emerging from behind a fallen log face pale, bow drawn, scanning for a shot.
Lyra’s heart seized.
“Rhian, STAY BACK !”
But it was too late.
Khyros sensed the movement.
The Bound Dragon pivoted toward Rhian with terrifying speed, inhaling deeply
“No NO!”
Lyra dove, wings burning with exertion, but she was too farseconds too far
A golden blast streaked upward from the forest floor like an arrow made of sunlight.
Rhian.
Her arrow wasn’t ordinary.
It was glowing.
It struck Khyros’s jaw just as the dragon released a burst of corrupted flame, snapping his aim off-target. The beam scorched the ground a meter from Rhian, vaporizing soil and stone.
Rhian stumbled back, eyes wide with terror and fury.
“FOCUS ON ME, YOU OVERSIZED NIGHTMARE!” she shouted hoarsely.
Khyros turned on her.
Lyra’s heart nearly stopped.
She dove, but Kael raised his gauntleted hand, crimson magic flaring
and Khyros froze mid-lunge.
Lyra skidded to a halt in mid-air.
What is he doing?
Kael lowered his hand slowly.
“Khyros,” he murmured. “Bring her to me.”
A shudder rippled through the Bound Dragon’s massive body.
Then, impossibly
He bowed.
Not to Kael.
To Rhian.
Lyra’s breath caught.
Kael’s smile faded.
“What…?”
The dragon’s head lowered further eyes flickering between crimson and amber. Something in Rhian’s arrow her courage her defiance had pierced more than his flesh.
It had hit the place where his soul still struggled.
Kael’s expression twisted in anger.
“KHYROS. ATTACK.”
Khyros shuddered violently not obeying, not complying, not attacking.
He was resisting.
Lyra saw her chance.
She landed hard beside Rhian, golden wings forming a shield around her.
“Rhian,” she gasped, “that arrow what?”
“I don’t know!” Rhian shouted, trembling. “I just it felt right it burned in my hand Lyra, what’s happening to me?!”
Khyros screamed a tortured, agonized sound as crimson light flared violently around him, the chains of corruption re-tightening, burning through any moment of clarity he’d gained.
Kael raised both hands now, voice rising in fury.
“OBEY ME. NOW!”
Khyros’s body convulsed.
His eyes flickered once
amber
crimson
amber
crimson
Then went fully crimson.
And everything snapped.
Khyros roared, lunging with renewed ferocity, his body a tornado of corruption and fury.
There was no hesitation.
No reasoning.
No mercy.
He was lost again.
Rhian screamed.
Lyra leaped between her and the beast just as
A shadow fell across them.
A heavy thud shook the earth.
The Bound Dragon Lyra freed earlier rose weak but conscious placing himself between Lyra and Khyros, staggering but determined.
Aurenyx’s voice trembled with conflict.
He will die if he fights Khyros again. He is not healed.
Lyra stepped forward.
“No one else dies. Not for me.”
She spread her wings.
Her flame rose.
The golden fire pulsed brighter than it ever had fueled by her fear, her fury, her resolve.
Kael’s eyes widened.
“Lyra, STOP!”
She didn’t.
She unleashed everything she had golden fire exploding outward like a solar storm. It slammed into Khyros at point-blank range, bright enough to blind the sky.
The forest vanished in light.
Kael shielded his eyes, stumbling backward.
When the light faded
Khyros was still standing.
Barely.
Skin fissured.
Wings shredded.
Breath ragged.
But standing.
Lyra staggered, exhausted, the flame inside her fluttering weakly.
Kael’s expression twisted into something dark, something furious and desperate and hungry all at once.
“I’m done playing games.”
He pressed his marked wrist to his own chest.
The crimson sigil glowed
and Khyros surged with new power, his veins blazing as if his corrupted heart had been set on fire.
Kael whispered, voice trembling with awe:
“Now watch what happens when a Dragonborn stops holding back.”
Khyros roared.
Lyra felt the earth tremble.
Aurenyx’s voice filled her mind with dread.
Lyra… run.