Elara's POV
"Get away from him!" I scream.
My magic explodes outward without thinking—pure protective instinct. The blast hits Commander Ravik and his war mages, sending them stumbling backward. I didn't know I could do that.
Neither did Valdris. Through our bond, I feel his shock.
But Kthanos—the thing possessing Miko's body—just laughs. "Oh, this is delicious. The little Dragon-Tender has claws after all."
"Let him go!" My voice breaks. "He's just a child!"
"Exactly." Kthanos tilts Miko's head at an unnatural angle. "Weak. Defenseless. The perfect vessel for ensuring your cooperation." Those black eyes fix on Valdris. "Hello, little brother. Five hundred years, and you're still so predictable. Still trying to save the ones you love."
Valdris's hand tightens on my shoulder. Through the bond, I feel something I never expected from him: fear.
"You're not my brother," he snarls. "You're a parasite wearing his face."
"True. But I learned so much from him before I devoured his soul." Kthanos smiles with Miko's innocent face, making it horrible. "Did you know he cried for you at the end? Begged me to let him say goodbye?"
Valdris roars, and fire erupts from his hands. But before he can attack, Kthanos raises one small hand.
Miko's body convulses. The boy screams—a real scream, Miko's scream—and blood trickles from his nose.
"Stop!" I lunge forward, but Valdris catches me.
"Every attack on me hurts the vessel," Kthanos purrs. "So here's my offer: surrender peacefully, and I'll leave the boy alive. Resist, and I'll burn through his little body like firewood. Your choice, Dragon-Tender."
Through the bond, I feel Valdris's rage warring with his helplessness. He knows what Soul Eaters can do. He's seen them destroy entire villages by jumping from body to body, leaving corpses behind.
"There has to be another way," I whisper.
"There isn't." Valdris's voice is flat. Dead. "Soul Eaters can't be killed without destroying their host. If we attack, Miko dies. If we surrender, Kthanos uses us to free more of his kind. Everyone dies."
"So we just give up?"
"No." He looks at me, and through the bond, I feel his desperate plan forming. "We run. Save who we can. Let this one go."
"Let him GO?" I stare at him, horrified. "That's Miko! He's six years old! He draws me pictures and calls me 'Lara' because he can't say Elara properly!"
"And he's already dead," Valdris says quietly. "The moment Kthanos possessed him, the boy you knew was gone. We're just looking at his corpse walking."
The words hit me like a physical blow. Through the bond, he feels my heart breaking—but he also feels that he believes every word. In his five hundred years, he's seen this before. Many times.
I look at Miko's body. At those black eyes. At the wrong way he stands.
"Miko?" I call softly. "Can you hear me? It's Lara."
For just a moment—one tiny heartbeat—the black flickers. Brown eyes shine through, terrified and confused.
"Lara?" The voice is Miko's real voice. Small. Scared. "I can't move. There's something inside me. It hurts—"
Then the black slams back, and Kthanos snarls. "Impressive. The boy has more fight than I expected. But it won't matter. Soon, I'll digest what's left of his consciousness, and—"
"No." The word comes out of me with absolute certainty. "I'm going to save him."
Valdris grabs my arm. "Elara, listen to me—"
"You said Dragon-Tender magic breaks bindings." I pull away from him, stepping toward Miko. "Possession is just another kind of binding, isn't it? A soul bound to a body that isn't theirs?"
Through our bond, Valdris's emotions crash into me: shock, hope, terror, and something else—pride.
"It's never been done," he says. "Exorcising a Soul Eater requires power that—"
"That I don't have alone." I hold out my hand to him. "But we're bonded. Your strength and my magic. Together."
He stares at my hand. Through the bond, I feel his war with himself: five hundred years of learning that caring gets you hurt, versus this tiny spark of hope that maybe, just maybe, this gentle thief can do the impossible.
"If this fails, we both die," he says.
"Then we fail together."
His hand closes around mine.
The moment we connect, power floods through our bond. Not just magic—understanding. I feel his centuries of knowledge about Soul Eaters, and he feels my absolute determination to save this child. Our magic weaves together, destruction and healing becoming something new.
Something neither of us could do alone.
"NO!" Kthanos shrieks. "You can't—"
I place my free hand on Miko's chest, right over his heart. "Yes, I can. Because you made a mistake. You chose a child I love. And love is stronger than possession."
My healing magic pours into Miko's body, but it's not gentle anymore. It's fierce. Demanding. It finds every piece of Kthanos's essence and tears it away from Miko's soul like ripping thorns from flesh.
Kthanos screams—both souls screaming, the parasite and the child. Through the bond, Valdris feeds me power, keeping me anchored as I dive deeper into Miko's consciousness.
There—a tiny spark buried under Kthanos's darkness. Miko's real self, terrified and fading.
Hold on, I tell him. I've got you.
I wrap my magic around that spark and pull. Kthanos fights, trying to drag the boy's soul deeper, trying to consume it before I can extract him.
But I'm not alone. Valdris's power surges through our bond, and together we rip Miko's soul free.
The separation tears reality. Kthanos's essence explodes out of Miko's body, forming a shadowy figure that shrieks with rage.
"This isn't over!" he howls. "I'll find another vessel! I'll hunt you both until—"
Valdris breathes fire. Not at Miko—at the shadow. Dragon fire that burns souls, not flesh. Kthanos's essence ignites, screaming as it dissolves into nothing.
Then there's silence.
Miko collapses. I catch him, and this time when I feel for his consciousness, there's only one soul inside. His own. Weak and traumatized, but alive.
"You did it," Valdris whispers, staring at me like I'm something miraculous. "You actually did it."
Through our bond, I feel his awe. His disbelief. His realization that maybe healing magic really is the most powerful force in existence.
Commander Ravik and his war mages are still standing at the cave entrance, frozen in shock at what they just witnessed.
"You saved him," Ravik says quietly. His voice cracks. "You saved a child from a Soul Eater. That's... that's impossible."
"Nothing's impossible," I say, pulling Miko close. His fever breaks against my chest—the Red Fever, still killing him, still needing to be healed. "Not when you actually care about people."
I look up at Ravik, and for the first time, I'm not afraid of the war mages. I just saved a child from possession by an ancient demon. What can they possibly do to me?
"You have a choice, Commander," I say. "Help us save the other children, or get out of our way."
Through the bond, I feel Valdris's fierce approval. This is the Dragon-Tender he was teaching me to be—not begging, not apologizing. Commanding.
Ravik looks at his war mages. At Miko in my arms. At the scorch marks where Kthanos's essence burned away. At me and Valdris, standing together with power crackling between us.
"The execution is in twenty hours," he says finally. "Theron has moved it up. He knows you're coming."
"Then we'll be ready."
"You don't understand." Ravik steps forward, and I see genuine fear in his eyes. "Kthanos wasn't acting alone. He said 'I'll find another vessel.' That means—"
The cave entrance explodes for the second time today. But this time, it's not war mages.
It's dragons. Five of them, their eyes completely black with possession. And riding the largest one is Lady Catryn, her smile vicious.
"Found you," she calls. "And look what I brought—friends who are very eager to meet the Dragon-Tender who's been breaking bindings."
Through our bond, Valdris recognizes them instantly. "Those are freed dragons from the Citadel. The ones released when you broke my chains."
"And now Kthanos's children possess them," Catryn continues. "Did you really think there was only one Soul Eater? Kthanos had a whole family before Valdris helped seal them away five hundred years ago. Breaking the Cage of Chains didn't just free one dragon—it broke the seal holding back dozens of Soul Eaters."
My blood runs cold. "How many?"
"Forty-three." Her smile widens. "One for every dragon you freed. They're already spreading through the kingdom, possessing mages and soldiers. By tomorrow, Theron will have an army of possessed war mages, and your precious children will burn as kindling for the Soul Eaters' victory feast."
The five possessed dragons land, surrounding us. Their black eyes fix on me with hunger.
"You can try your little exorcism trick again," Catryn says. "But you barely survived one Soul Eater. How many can you fight before you collapse? Two? Three?" She laughs. "There are forty-three, Dragon-Tender. And they're all coming for you."
Valdris pulls me behind him, but I can feel through our bond: he's exhausted. The exorcism drained him too. We can't fight five possessed dragons. We can barely stand.
Miko stirs in my arms, his brown eyes fluttering open. "Lara? I had a bad dream..."
"I know, sweetie. I know." I hold him tighter, looking at the possessed dragons closing in. At Catryn's triumphant face. At Ravik's war mages backing away.
At the impossible situation we're trapped in.
Through the bond, I feel Valdris making a decision. A terrible one.
"Run," he says quietly. "Take the boy and run. I'll hold them off."
"No—"
"It's the only way." He doesn't look at me. "Our bond has a range of five miles. That's enough time for you to reach the sanctuary and save who you can. I'll die buying you that time."
"If you die, I die. The bond—"
"Will give you maybe thirty minutes after I'm gone." His voice is soft. Sad. "Use them well, my gentle thief."
And before I can stop him, Valdris transforms into his dragon form and charges at the five possessed dragons alone.