Aria's POV
"Hundreds of them," I whisper, staring at the purple eyes glowing through the dimensional rift. "We can't fight hundreds."
Yes we can, my father's voice echoes through the Trinity Bond. We're five Dragon Tamers unified. That's never existed before.
But we've never fought together, my mother adds, her fear bleeding through. We don't know how to coordinate this much power—
Then we learn fast, my grandmother cuts in. Her mental voice is sharp despite her injuries. Or we die. Those are the options.
The first Void Dragon lunges through the rift, followed by three more. Then ten more. They keep coming, pouring into the cavern like a nightmare flood.
"SHIELDS!" the Matriarch roars.
Every dragon responds. Hundreds of barriers snap into place, layered and overlapping. The Trinity Bond amplifies my control—I can feel each dragon's position, their strengths, their fears.
The Void Dragons slam against our defenses. The barriers hold, but barely.
We can't just defend, my grandfather says through the bond. Void Dragons feed on magic. The longer we use power, the stronger they get.
"Then what do we do?" I ask desperately.
We sever their connection to the void dimension.
Everyone in the Trinity Bond turns their attention to my grandfather.
I fought Void Dragons once, he explains. Five thousand years ago, in my previous life.
Previous life? I think, confused.
Dragon Tamers reincarnate, child. We're bound to the dragons across lifetimes. I've lived forty-seven lives. Your grandmother, thirty-two. We remember everything.
My mind reels. "You're saying I've lived before?"
No. You're the first new Dragon Tamer soul in ten thousand years. That's why you're so powerful—no past life trauma holding you back. But it also means you're untrained in ways we take for granted.
Another wave of Void Dragons attacks. More barriers crack.
Grandfather, focus! my father snaps. How do we sever their connection?
The rift has an anchor point. Something in this dimension keeping it open. Find the anchor, destroy it, and they'll be sucked back to the void.
I reach through my bonds, feeling for anything unusual. The dragons are easy to sense—warm, alive, magical. But there's something else. Something cold. Dead. Wrong.
"There." I point to the cavern floor where the Matriarch stands. "Under her. Something's buried there."
The Matriarch looks down, then begins digging with her massive claws. Three meters down, she pulls out an object wrapped in dark cloth.
She unwraps it carefully and gasps.
It's a dragon skull. But not like any dragon I've seen. This skull is small, twisted, with three eye sockets instead of two.
"A Trinity Dragon," the Matriarch breathes. "I thought they were extinct."
They are, Lysander says through the bond. That skull is at least ten thousand years old.
"How did it get here?" Kael demands.
Before anyone can answer, the skull starts glowing with purple light. Dark energy pours from the eye sockets, feeding into the rift.
Someone planted it, my grandmother realizes. Someone knew a Dragon Tamer would awaken. They prepared this trap in advance.
"WHO?" I scream. "Who would do this?"
The Void Dragons stop attacking. They all turn to look at something behind me.
I spin around.
Standing in the cavern entrance, perfectly calm despite the chaos, is Commander Sarah Stone. The Council leader. Her tiger sits beside her, but there's something wrong with its eyes. They're glowing purple instead of the normal gold.
"I would," Commander Stone says with a smile that doesn't reach her eyes. "I've been preparing this for twenty-three years. Since the day I helped the Ashfords capture your father."
My blood turns to ice.
"You," my father snarls through the Trinity Bond. "You were the Council investigator who declared my disappearance a 'voluntary departure.' You covered it up!"
"I did more than cover it up. I orchestrated it." Commander Stone walks closer, unbothered by the dragons surrounding her. "Dragon Tamers are too dangerous to exist. You reshape the world on a whim. You command forces that should bow to no one. The Council has maintained peace for three hundred years precisely because there were no Dragon Tamers to disrupt the balance."
"So you've been killing them," my grandmother says, her voice deadly quiet.
"Capturing them. Draining them. Feeding them to my Void Dragon allies." Commander Stone gestures to the creatures still pouring through the rift. "The Void Dragons were never extinct. I've been breeding them in a pocket dimension, feeding them Dragon Tamer souls. They grow stronger with each one they consume."
"How many?" I whisper. "How many tamers have you killed?"
"Forty-seven, over the past three centuries. Your grandfather was particularly delicious across all his incarnations." She smiles at his horrified expression. "Oh yes, I know about reincarnation. Every time a Dragon Tamer is reborn, I find them. Wait until they awaken. Then feed them to my pets."
Rage floods through the Trinity Bond—five generations of fury focused on one target.
Let me kill her, my father begs. Please, Aria, let me rip her apart.
But I force myself to think strategically. "Why tell us this? Why not just let your Void Dragons kill us?"
"Because I want you to understand." Commander Stone's expression turns cold. "Your father burned three hundred people when they threatened his family. Your grandmother reshaped an entire continent in one of her past lives. Dragon Tamers are natural disasters wearing human skin. The world is better off without you."
"We protect people!" I shout.
"You protect who you choose. And you destroy anyone who threatens you." She points at the burning Ashford mansion visible through the broken wall. "Your father murdered seventeen people tonight. Seventeen humans with families. With children. All because he was angry."
The guilt hits my father through the bond like a physical blow.
"They tortured me for twenty-three years—" he starts.
"And that gives you the right to kill innocent guards? Servants? People just doing their jobs?" Commander Stone shakes her head. "This is why Dragon Tamers must die. You're all the same—righteous, powerful, and absolutely certain you're the heroes. But from where I stand? You're monsters."
She has a point, my mother thinks quietly.
DON'T, I snap back. Don't let her get in your head.
But the doubt spreads through the Trinity Bond. My father's guilt. My mother's fear that I'll become like him. My grandparents' memories of their own atrocities across multiple lifetimes.
We're fracturing. The Trinity Bond is weakening.
The Void Dragons sense it. They attack with renewed fury.
"It's over," Commander Stone says. "Your bond is breaking. My dragons will feast. And the world will finally be safe from your kind."
She's right. I can feel the Trinity Bond cracking. Can feel my family's doubts consuming them.
But then Kael's presence pushes through our connection. His love. His certainty.
You're not a monster, he tells me. You're twenty-two years old. You awakened three hours ago. You've hurt no one. Killed no one. Everything you've done has been to protect the people you love. Don't let her rewrite who you are.
Through Kael, I feel the other dragons. Lysander. The Matriarch. All of them sending the same message:
We chose you. We trust you. We believe in you.
I look at Commander Stone. At the woman who's been murdering Dragon Tamers for three hundred years. Who thinks she's the hero.
"You're right about one thing," I say. "Dragon Tamers are dangerous. We have power that can reshape the world. But that's exactly why we need to exist. Because people like you—people who think murder is justified if it's for the 'greater good'—need someone to stop them."
I raise my hand. The Trinity Bond flares back to life, stronger than before.
"You want to see what a Dragon Tamer can really do?" Golden light explodes from my body. "Let me show you."
I reach through every bond at once—my family, my dragons, even the dying Void Dragons trapped in our dimension.
And I pull.
The void energy rips out of the Void Dragons like hooks tearing from flesh. They scream. The rift starts collapsing.
"NO!" Commander Stone lunges forward—
But my father is faster. He materializes beside her and grabs her throat.
"Twenty-three years," he whispers. "You owe me twenty-three years."
"Father, don't!" I shout. "Don't prove her right!"
He freezes. Looks at me. At his hand around her throat.
Slowly, he releases her.
"You're right," he says. "I am dangerous. I did kill innocent people tonight. I'll carry that guilt forever." He steps back. "But I'm also capable of mercy. Of restraint. Of choosing who I want to be instead of letting rage define me."
He looks at me with tears in his eyes. "Thank you, daughter. For reminding me I'm more than my worst moment."
The rift collapses completely. The Void Dragons still in the void dimension scream as they're cut off from our world.
The ones trapped here start dissolving without the rift to sustain them.
Commander Stone staggers back, her tiger collapsing beside her. "No. This isn't—you were supposed to—"
"We were supposed to be monsters," I finish. "But we're not. We're just people with power. And we're going to use that power to build something better."
I look at my family. At my dragons. At the cavern full of beings who chose to follow me.
"No more hiding. No more running. Starting today, dragons return to the world. And Dragon Tamers will protect everyone—even from ourselves."
The assembled dragons roar their approval.
Commander Stone laughs bitterly. "You think it'll be that simple? The Council will hunt you. Governments will fear you. Humans will—"
She stops. Her eyes go wide.
She looks down at her chest, where a blade of pure void energy has pierced her heart.
Behind her stands her own tiger, purple light fading from its eyes.
"What—" she gasps.
The tiger speaks in a voice that echoes from the void dimension itself.
"YOU FAILED, COMMANDER. AND WE DON'T TOLERATE FAILURE."
Commander Stone crumbles to dust.
The tiger's form ripples, revealing its true shape—a small Void Dragon that must have possessed the beast years ago.
It looks at me with ancient, hungry eyes.
"This isn't over, Dragon Tamer. We'll be back. And next time, we're bringing everyone."
It dissolves into shadows and vanishes.
Silence fills the cavern.
"Well," Lysander says finally. "That's terrifying."
I laugh. It comes out slightly hysterical. "Yeah. Yeah, it really is."
My grandmother puts a hand on my shoulder. "Welcome to being a Dragon Tamer, dear. It's always terrifying."
"Do we at least get a break before the next apocalypse?" I ask.
As if answering, every phone in the cavern starts buzzing at once.
Zara's face appears on my screen, her expression panicked.
"Aria! Turn on the news! NOW!"
I pull up a news app. The headline makes my blood freeze:
BREAKING: DRAGONS CONFIRMED REAL - WORLD LEADERS DEMAND DRAGON TAMER'S IMMEDIATE SURRENDER
Below it, a photo of me riding Kael mid-flight.
My face is everywhere.
The whole world knows what I am.