Kaleb POV
The hum of the ship changed.
I felt it before I heard it, an itch at the base of my skull, a low growl vibrating through my ribs. Something ancient. Wrong.
"Sasha?" I barked.
Nothing.
The ship...our fucking Nightfang, lurched hard to the left. Lights flickered. Gravity shifted. I slammed into the nearest wall, catching myself before my skull cracked open.
Rhiannan's scream echoed from down the corridor.
"RHIANNAN!" I roared, already sprinting.
Arwen met me halfway, barefoot, blades drawn, hair wild and eyes glowing. "What the fuck is going on?"
"We've been breached. Not physically. It's something else. A fucking virus or curse, something dark. I can feel it in my magic."
The ship dropped again, hard.
Metal groaned. Sparks rained down from a busted vent. Sasha's voice crackled once, then died completely.
"Fuck," Arwen hissed. "She's gone. We're flying blind."
"We're crashing," I said. And I was right.
The ship tilted. Spun. The forest canopy of dragon territory screamed toward us like claws. I caught a brief glimpse through the glass, trees taller than mountains, golden mist, massive shadows moving in the fog.
Then all hell broke loose.
We hit.
Steel screamed. The Nightfang bucked like a wild beast, tearing through the canopy and slamming into the ground with a bone jarring quake.
My body snapped forward. I heard Arwen shout, and then...
"RHIANNAN!"
Her name tore from my throat like it was the last word I'd ever say.
I found her crumpled on the floor of the corridor. Her limbs twisted wrong. Blood in her mouth. Her eyes barely fluttered.
"No no no no!"
I dropped to my knees, scooping her into my arms. "Moon, stay with me. Breathe. Breathe. Fuck."
Her body was limp. Her magic, silent. Like the bond had snapped.
Arwen appeared beside me, blood running down his temple. "Is she.."
"I don't know!"
And that's when they came.
Eyes.
Dozens of them. Red. Glowing like embers in the fog.
Shadow creatures crawled from the wreckage, spindly limbs, dripping maws, crawling on the walls like nightmares. They hissed and shrieked and came for her.
"No," I growled, standing slowly, Rhiannan still in my arms. My wolf clawed at my skin, desperate to get out. To kill.
Arwen shifted first, bones cracking, black panther unfurling like liquid shadow.
I dropped to my knees, kissed her forehead, and let go.
My shift tore through me like wildfire. My body exploded into fur, muscle, fang. Giant, silver, snarling.
We fought like demons.
My fangs ripped through the nearest beast, splattering black ichor. Arwen was a blur beside me, slashing, tearing. The air was chaos...smoke, blood, lightning, death.
I fought for her. For us. For the bond.
Then the air changed.
It crackled, like the veil of the world was tearing open.
A roar split the sky. Not a beast. Not a creature. A fucking force of nature.
A massive golden dragon burst through the clouds, wings spread wide, eyes blazing.
He landed in the clearing like a god of war, his claws digging into the earth. His head snapped toward us, nostrils flaring.
He sniffed once, twice, then a disgusting evil voice echoed through the clearing, "Too slow Dragon King.." The voice hissed.
Elisha roared, running towards Rhiannan..
And then she vanished.
Rhiannan's body disappeared from the ground. One second she was broken at my feet....
The next, gone.
"NO!" I shifted back, screaming. "NO, BRING HER BACK!"
Arwen dropped to his knees. "What the fuck just happened?"
"She's gone. I didn't feel her leave. The bond!" I slammed my fist into the dirt. "Where the fuck is she?!"
Elisha shifted as well, appearing from the dragon's body in a storm of golden light, shirtless, eyes wide, hair tangled from the wind.
He was shaking.
"I smelled her blood. I followed the scent. And then… she was just gone."
My chest cracked.
The emptiness hit me like a blade.
I couldn't breathe. I couldn't feel her.
She was gone.
And I didn't know if she was dead, or taken, or something else.
But I swore in that moment, on my soul, my wolf, my fucking blood, I would burn the fucking realms down to find her again.
No matter what.
Elisha POV
The clearing was empty.
Too fucking empty.
Her scent still lingered, sweet and sacred, carved into my lungs like a brand, but she was gone.
Ripped from the world like a page torn from a sacred book.
And I had failed her.
My knees hit the earth with a soundless thud. Clawed hands dug into the dirt, desperate to pull her back through sheer will. The bond had snapped too suddenly. There had been no goodbye. No time.
Only absence.
Only silence.
And then... grief.
It swallowed me whole. A cavernous ache that devoured air, thought, reason. My dragon stirred deep inside me, claws scratching against my ribcage, howling to the skies. Begging to tear the world apart until we found her again.
But there was nothing to fight.
Only the void she left behind.
I tipped my head back and opened my mouth, and the sound that left me wasn't a roar.
It was song.
The old kind. The ancient kind. The kind passed down in our blood, sung only when a dragon's heart was split in two.
The Dragon's Lament.
It bled from my chest like a wound, low and keening. Deep as the roots of the mountains. Each note laced with agony and devotion. Each verse painted with the memory of her.
The trees stilled.
The air held its breath.
Magic shivered across the forest as my voice rose and cracked, breaking the hearts of every creature within miles. Animals cried. Leaves trembled. The stars dimmed.
My soul was in that song.
Every note was hers.
A promise. A scream. A vow.
I would find her.
Even if I had to burn the realms to fucking ash.
And when I did, I'd never let her go again.
The song ended in a choked whisper, and I collapsed forward, forehead to the earth, body trembling.
"Come back to me, moonfire," I whispered. "Please… come back."