AYLA'S POV
The mountain groaned.
Not like rock shifting, not like thunder cracking. This was deeper, older—a sound like the world's bones straining under weight they were never meant to carry.
I pressed a hand to the scorched earth, ash smearing across my skin. My heart slammed against my ribs so hard it hurt. Kael was still inside. The Trial of Flames had swallowed him whole, and all I could feel through the bond between us was fire. Fire, and something darker, coiled like a serpent around it.
Cassia crouched beside me, her eyes narrowed against the wind blasting from the mountain's peak. "He's holding on," she muttered, more to herself than me. But her fingers clenched on her blade hilt, white-knuckled. "Damn stubborn dragon."
The ground split, molten cracks racing outward in jagged lines. For a moment, I thought it would swallow us too. Then—silence.
A heartbeat, and then Kael emerged.
