Elara's POV
Cold water shocked me awake.
I gasped and choked, my body still half-paralyzed from the mages' spell. Someone had dumped a bucket over my head while I was unconscious.
"Good. She's awake." A woman's voice, clinical and emotionless. "Begin the examination."
My vision cleared slowly. I was strapped to a metal table in a stark white room. Magical lights blazed overhead. Strange instruments lined the walls—sharp, cruel things that made my stomach turn.
The research facility. They'd actually brought me here.
Drakarion? I called out through our bond desperately. Can you hear me?
For a horrible moment, there was nothing. Then, faint and strained: Elara. Thank the old gods. Are you hurt?
Not yet. Where are you?
In a cage. Adamantine chains. I can't break them. His mental voice was rough with frustration and fear. What are they doing to you?
Before I could answer, a woman in gray robes leaned over me. She had cold eyes behind wire spectacles and hands that moved with surgical precision as she examined the glowing bond mark on my chest.
"Fascinating," she murmured. "The mark has spread since the initial bonding. See these patterns? They're not random—they're dragon script. Ancient binding runes." She looked at someone I couldn't see. "Prepare the extraction tools. We'll start with a tissue sample from the mark itself."
They're going to cut into the bond mark, I told Drakarion, trying to keep panic out of my mental voice.
NO! His response was so fierce it made my head pound. The bond mark is a direct connection to your life force. If they damage it—
What? What happens?
Silence. Then, quietly: You could die. Or worse—your soul could be trapped between life and death, conscious but unable to move or speak. Forever.
Terror flooded through me. The woman—Doctor something—returned with a scalpel that glowed with dark magic.
"This will hurt considerably," she said without any sympathy. "Try not to scream too much. It disturbs my concentration."
She pressed the blade against my chest, right where the bond mark glowed brightest.
Pain exploded through me—not physical pain, but something deeper. It felt like she was cutting into my very soul. I screamed despite her request, my body arching against the restraints.
And through our bond, Drakarion felt every second of it.
STOP! he roared in my mind. STOP HURTING HER!
But they couldn't hear him. Only I could.
The doctor made another cut. Another wave of soul-deep agony. Through my screams, I heard her talking:
"Remarkable. The tissue regenerates almost instantly. Lifeweaver magic is even more powerful than the old texts suggested. If we could harvest this and replicate it—" She paused, considering. "Bring me the dragon blood sample. I want to test a theory."
Elara, listen to me. Drakarion's voice cut through my pain with desperate urgency. The bond is two-way. They're cutting into your mark, which means they're indirectly touching mine as well. Can you feel it?
I focused through the agony. He was right—I could feel something stirring in the bond. Not just pain, but power. Raw, angry power that was building with each cut the doctor made.
What is that?
Defense mechanism, Drakarion explained quickly. Dragon bonds protect both parties. When one is attacked through the mark, the bond automatically tries to defend by channeling power to the victim. But you have to accept it. You have to let it in.
How?
Stop fighting the pain. Stop trying to resist. Open yourself completely to our connection, just like when you broke my chains.
The doctor returned with a vial of golden liquid—Drakarion's blood, stolen from him during his centuries of imprisonment. She poured a single drop onto my bond mark.
The reaction was immediate and catastrophic.
My body convulsed. The bond mark blazed so bright everyone in the room had to shield their eyes. And through the connection, I felt Drakarion's power surge into me—not gently, but like a flood breaking through a dam.
Now! Drakarion commanded. Take everything I'm giving you! Don't hold back!
I stopped resisting and opened myself completely to the bond.
Dragon power poured into me in a torrent. The restraints holding me to the table began to glow red, then white-hot. They melted like butter, and I sat up, my entire body wreathed in golden flames that didn't burn my skin.
Doctor Maren stumbled backward, her clinical composure finally cracking. "Impossible! The paralysis spell should have—"
"Your mistake," I said, and my voice echoed with two tones—mine and Drakarion's overlapping, "was thinking I was alone."
I raised my hand, and dragon fire exploded from my palm. Not wild or uncontrolled like before, but precise and surgical. The blast hit the door, melting it instantly.
Alarms shrieked. Guards rushed into the room with weapons drawn.
Can you reach me? Drakarion asked urgently. I can feel you moving. Are you free?
Working on it, I replied, dodging a guard's sword strike and countering with a burst of flame that sent him flying. Where exactly are you?
Underground. Three levels below where you are. I can feel you through the bond—you're almost directly above me.
Three levels. That meant going down, not up. Away from freedom.
But I wasn't leaving without him.
"Stop her!" someone screamed. "Don't let the Lifeweaver reach the dragon!"
Too late. I was already running.
I blasted through walls instead of looking for doors, following the pull of our bond like a compass pointing home. Guards tried to stop me, but dragon fire made short work of them. Mages threw spells that bounced off the protective aura Drakarion's power created around me.
I was unstoppable.
I'm coming, I told him. Hold on just a little longer.
I've waited three hundred years, he replied, and I felt his fierce pride through the bond. I can wait three more minutes. But Elara—be careful. They'll have the cage heavily guarded.
He wasn't wrong.
When I burst through the final wall into the underground chamber where they'd imprisoned him, I found fifty guards surrounding an enormous cage made of silvery metal that pulsed with enchantments. And inside, chained again despite his freedom being so recent, was Drakarion in his dragon form.
Our eyes met across the room.
The bond between us flared so brightly that several guards cried out and covered their faces.
"You came," Drakarion said, wonder in his voice.
"Of course I came." I stepped forward, power crackling around me. "Did you really think I'd leave you?"
"The smart move would be to escape while you can," he pointed out.
"Then I guess I'm not very smart." I smiled at him—fierce and reckless. "Besides, we're bonded. Where you go, I go. That's how this works."
Something profound passed through our connection. Not words, but pure emotion—gratitude, wonder, and that dangerous warm feeling that was growing stronger every moment we spent together.
"FIRE!" the captain of the guards screamed.
Fifty weapons discharged at once—arrows, spells, and projectiles all aimed at me.
I raised both hands and created a wall of dragon fire that incinerated everything before it could reach me.
"New plan," I announced. "Everyone leave now, or I melt this entire facility with you inside it."
Some of the smarter guards started backing toward the exits.
But the captain held his ground. "You're bluffing. You wouldn't kill innocent—"
"Try me." My voice was cold as ice despite the flames surrounding me. "You've tortured me, tried to dissect me, and hurt someone I care about. I'm done being nice."
The captain's face went pale. He finally understood: the gentle healer who'd forgiven her enemies was gone. In her place stood someone who'd learned that sometimes, kindness wasn't enough.
Sometimes you had to burn.
"Retreat!" he ordered. "Everyone out! NOW!"
The guards fled in a chaotic scramble.
Within seconds, Drakarion and I were alone in the chamber.
I ran to his cage, placing my glowing hands on the adamantine bars. "How do I open this?"
"You can't," Drakarion said grimly. "Adamantine is magically neutral. It doesn't respond to any power, including yours. The only way through is with the key."
"Then where's the key?"
"The head magistrate has it. He's the only one who can open the cage." Drakarion's expression was frustrated. "Elara, you need to leave. They'll come back with reinforcements. With the magistrates themselves. You can't fight them all, not even with my power flowing through you."
"I'm not leaving you!" I pulled harder on the bars, but he was right—they didn't even warm under my touch. "There has to be another way!"
There is, Drakarion said through our bond, his mental voice gentle. But you won't like it.
Tell me anyway.
Break the bond.
I stared at him in shock. "What? No! That would—"
"Send me back to being chained and you'd lose your dragon powers. Yes." His golden eyes were sad but determined. "But you'd be free. You could escape this place. Live your life. You're still young, Elara. You deserve—"
"Don't." My voice cracked. "Don't you dare suggest I abandon you after everything we've been through."
"I'm not worth dying for—"
"YES, YOU ARE!" The words exploded from me with such force that flames erupted around the cage. "You're worth everything! You believed in me when no one else did! You protected me! You—" My voice broke. "You made me feel like I mattered. Like I was strong. Like I was enough."
Through the bond, I felt his emotions crashing into me—shock, wonder, and something that felt dangerously close to love.
"You've always been enough," he whispered. "I just helped you see it."
Footsteps thundered in the corridor above us. Lots of them. The reinforcements were coming.
I looked at Drakarion, then at the cage, then back at him.
"I have an idea," I said suddenly. "It's crazy. It might kill us both. But it might work."
"What kind of idea?"
"When I channeled your power to break your chains before, the bond mark expanded and strengthened, right? What if—" I pressed both hands against his cage, directly in line with where his heart was on the other side. "What if we did that again? But bigger. Stronger. What if we merged our power completely through the bond?"
Drakarion's eyes went wide. "That's—that would be a complete soul fusion. No one's attempted that in over a thousand years. The amount of power it would generate could—"
"Could break an adamantine cage?"
He hesitated. Then slowly nodded. "Possibly. But Elara, soul fusion is permanent. If we do this, we won't just be bonded. We'll be connected on every level—physical, magical, emotional, spiritual. You'll feel everything I feel. I'll feel everything you feel. We'll essentially become two parts of one whole."
"Sounds perfect," I said without hesitation.
"You don't understand. There's no going back. Ever. And if one of us dies—"
"Then we both die. Together." I met his golden eyes steadily. "I'm okay with that. Are you?"
The footsteps were getting closer. Maybe thirty seconds before the guards burst in.
Drakarion looked at me for a long moment. Then he shifted his claw through the cage bars and gently touched my face.
"I'm okay with that," he said softly. "More than okay. But I need you to know—if we do this, you're not just bonding with a dragon. You're bonding with someone who loves you."
My breath caught. "You—"
"Love you. Yes." His golden eyes blazed with emotion. "I fought it. Told myself it was impossible. But watching you fight for me, sacrifice for me, refuse to abandon me even when the smart move was to run—" His voice roughened. "How could I not love you?"
Tears streamed down my face. "I love you too. I think I have since you begged the magistrates to spare my life."
"Then let's do this." He pressed his claw harder against my hand. "Together."
"Together," I agreed.
We both closed our eyes and opened ourselves completely to the bond.
The effect was instantaneous and overwhelming. Power exploded between us—not his or mine, but ours. A fusion so complete that I couldn't tell where I ended and he began. Our hearts beat in perfect sync. Our magic intertwined like threads in cloth. Our souls merged into something entirely new.
The bond mark on my chest blazed like a newborn star.
And the adamantine cage shattered.
Drakarion burst free with a roar that shook the entire facility. But he wasn't just Drakarion anymore—he was us. And I wasn't just Elara—I was us.
The guards burst into the chamber and froze at what they saw.
A dragon wreathed in golden and silver flames stood protectively over a girl who glowed with the same fire. Their eyes—both pairs—burned with identical golden light.
"Impossible," someone whispered. "They've achieved soul fusion. No one's done that since the ancient—"
The head magistrate shoved through the crowd, his face twisted with rage and fear. "KILL THEM! KILL THEM BOTH BEFORE—"
Drakarion and I moved as one.
We raised our hands—mine human, his clawed—and channeled our combined power.
The blast that erupted was beyond dragon fire. Beyond Lifeweaver magic. It was something entirely new—life and death, creation and destruction, perfectly balanced and absolutely devastating.
It swept through the facility like a cleansing wave. Not killing—because even in our fury, we chose mercy—but destroying. Every cage. Every chain. Every tool of torture and imprisonment.
And in the underground levels below us, we felt them: other prisoners. Other magical beings the empire had captured and hidden away.
Free them, I thought.
Yes, Drakarion agreed.
Our combined power poured through the facility, breaking every lock and seal. Dragons emerged from hidden cells—not many, maybe a dozen, but more than anyone knew existed. Other magical creatures too, things I didn't even have names for.
They were all free.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" the head magistrate screamed.
Drakarion shifted to his human form and pulled me against his chest. Through our fusion bond, I felt his protective fury as clearly as my own determination.
"We've done what should have been done centuries ago," Drakarion said, his voice carrying through the chaos. "We've torn down your empire of lies."
The facility began to collapse—not from violence, but because we'd destroyed the magical foundations holding it together.
"Time to leave," I said.
Drakarion grinned. "Together?"
"Always."
He shifted back to dragon form, I climbed onto his back, and we launched ourselves through the ceiling in an explosion of combined power. The other freed prisoners followed—a swarm of magical beings taking to the sky for the first time in years or decades or centuries.
Behind us, the research facility crumbled into rubble.
But as we flew toward freedom, I felt something through our soul fusion that made my blood run cold.
A presence. Watching us. Not human, not dragon, but something ancient and terrible and definitely not friendly.
Drakarion, I said urgently. Do you feel that?
Yes. His mental voice was grim. Something's been awakened. Something that should have stayed sleeping.
We looked back toward the ruined facility.
A crack had appeared in the earth where the building once stood—a massive fissure that glowed with sickly green light. And from that crack, something was emerging. Something that made even Drakarion, with all his centuries of experience, feel genuine fear.
"What is that?" I whispered.
His answer was barely audible over the wind:
"The empire's final weapon. The thing they created by harvesting dragon power for three hundred years. The thing that was feeding on the souls in that facility."
The creature that pulled itself from the earth was massive—easily three times Drakarion's size. It had the body of a dragon but wrong, twisted, covered in scales that looked like they were made of screaming faces.
"They created an abomination," Drakarion breathed. "A corrupted dragon made from stolen power and tortured souls."
The creature's eyes—all seven of them—locked onto us.
Then it roared, and the sound was the screaming of thousands of trapped souls crying for release.
"It's coming after us," I said, feeling the thing's hunger through our magical senses.
"No." Drakarion's voice was heavy with realization. "It's coming after me. It wants to absorb my power. Make itself whole."
The abomination launched itself into the sky, moving with terrifying speed despite its size.
"FLY!" I screamed.
Drakarion didn't need to be told twice. He poured on speed, wings beating desperately, but the creature was gaining.
And behind it, rising from the ruins, came something even worse:
The head magistrate, no longer looking human. His body had fused with his magic, turning him into something half-man, half-monster. And he was laughing.
"You thought you could destroy us?" his voice boomed across the sky. "You've only made us STRONGER! Now we'll take everything—your power, your souls, your very existence! And when we're done, we'll use what's left to rule this world forever!"
The abomination was seconds from catching us.
Drakarion looked back at me, our fused bond carrying a desperate question: Can we fight them?
I thought about our combined power. About soul fusion. About everything we'd learned and everything we could do.
Maybe, I answered honestly. But Drakarion—I don't think we can win.
Then what do we do?
I looked at the freed prisoners scattering across the sky. At the world spread out below us. At the monster closing in behind us.
And I made the hardest decision of my life.
We lead them away, I said. Away from everyone else. And then we end this. One way or another.
Through our soul fusion, I felt Drakarion's understanding. His acceptance.
His love.
"Hold on tight," he said aloud. "This is going to be one hell of a fight."