Draeven's POV
The Void's attack hits me like a mountain falling from the sky.
I try to shift to dragon form, but my body won't respond. The journey through the Twilight Abyss drained more of my strength than I realized. My magic flickers weakly, barely enough to create a shield.
The Void's claws slam into my shield, and the impact throws me backward. I crash into the throne, and pain explodes through my chest. Something cracks—ribs, probably more than one.
"Draeven!" Seraphina screams.
I try to stand, but my legs give out. I fall to one knee, pressing my hand against my chest. When I pull it away, it's covered in blood.
My blood.
I haven't bled in battle in over a century. Not since the Great War when I was barely more than a boy.
The throne room erupts into chaos. Guards are shouting. The High Priestesses are chanting frantically, trying to contain the Void with magic circles. But their spells slide off the creature like water off scales.
"He's wounded!" someone yells. "The king is wounded!"
I look up and see shock on every face. They've never seen me bleed before. To them, I'm invincible. Untouchable. The Dragon King who cannot be defeated.
But right now, I'm just a man who's hurting and scared.
The Void laughs, and the sound shakes the walls. "Look at your mighty king now! Broken. Bleeding. Helpless."
Seraphina drops to her knees beside me. Her hands glow with silver light as she touches my chest. Warmth flows through me, easing the pain slightly.
"You're healing me," I gasp.
"Of course I am." Her eyes are fierce with determination. "You saved me. Now I save you."
"Touching," the Void says. "But pointless. You both die here. Tonight."
It raises its massive claw to strike again.
But before it can attack, something unexpected happens.
Arrows fly from the crowd of guards. But they're not aimed at the Void.
They're aimed at me.
Three arrows hit my shield, which is barely holding. The force makes me stumble.
"What—" I look at the guards in confusion.
Then I see it. Ten of my own guards have drawn their weapons. And they're not pointing them at the Void. They're pointing them at Seraphina and me.
"Traitors!" Kael roars, shifting to dragon form. "You dare attack your king?"
One of the guards—Marcus, a man I've trusted for fifty years—steps forward. His eyes are completely black. Not normal black. Void black.
"The Void promises us freedom," he says in a voice that's not quite his own. "Freedom from your tyranny. Freedom from dragons bowing to a king who protects witches over his own people."
"I'm possessed," I realize with horror. "The Void possessed them."
More guards step forward. Twenty. Thirty. Too many.
And they're not the only ones. Several of the High Priestesses' eyes turn black too. The Void has infected dozens of people in this room.
"Did you think I came alone?" the Void asks mockingly. "I've been preparing for this moment for centuries. Whispering in minds. Planting seeds of doubt. Turning your own people against you."
Casimir steps forward, and for a terrible moment, I think he's possessed too. But his eyes are normal. He's just terrified.
"Everyone out!" he shouts to the unpossessed guards and servants. "Evacuate the palace! Now!"
People scramble for the exits. But the possessed guards block the doors.
"No one leaves," possessed-Marcus says. "Everyone in this room dies with the king."
My chest throbs with pain. Seraphina's healing is helping, but I'm still weak. Too weak to fight dozens of possessed guards and the Void at the same time.
"We need to get you out of here," Seraphina whispers urgently.
"No. I'm not abandoning my people."
"Draeven, you can barely stand!"
"Then help me stand." I grab her hand and pull myself up. Pain shoots through my ribs, but I force myself to stay upright. "I'm the Dragon King. I don't run from battles."
"Even battles you can't win?"
"Especially those." I look into her silver eyes. "You said we're strongest together. Let's prove it."
She studies my face for a moment, then nods. "Together."
We stand side by side, facing the Void and the possessed guards.
Kael lands beside us in dragon form, breathing fire at the advancing traitors. "Any brilliant plans, brother?"
"Working on it," I grunt.
The Void moves closer, its massive form filling half the throne room. "Your loyalty is admirable but pointless. You cannot kill what has no body. You cannot trap what exists in every shadow. I am eternal. You are meat and bones that will rot."
"Maybe," Seraphina says. "But meat and bones are stubborn. And we've gotten very good at surviving impossible things."
She raises her hands, and white light explodes from her palms. It hits the Void square in its center mass. The creature roars in pain and fury.
"It's working!" Kael shouts. "Keep hitting it!"
But Seraphina's already paling. Using that much power is draining her fast.
"I can't keep this up," she gasps. "It's too strong."
The possessed guards attack. Kael fights them off, but there are too many. One slips past him and lunges at me with a sword.
I'm too slow. Too weak. The blade is going to hit—
Casimir steps between us. The sword plunges into his chest instead of mine.
"Uncle!" I catch him as he falls.
"Had to... choose a side... eventually," Casimir wheezes, blood bubbling from his lips. "Chose... the right one... this time."
"Don't talk. Save your strength." I try to lay him down gently, but my own strength is failing.
"No time." He grabs my arm with surprising force. "The Void... weakness... in the archives... old book... blue cover..."
"What book? What are you talking about?"
"Kill... the host..." His eyes are fading. "Void needs... anchor... someone invited it in... kill the anchor... send it back..."
His hand falls limp. His eyes go blank.
My uncle—the man who killed my father, who spent three centuries trying to steal my throne—just died saving my life.
Rage explodes through me. Rage at the Void. Rage at this situation. Rage at losing another family member.
My dragon roars to the surface. The pain in my chest doesn't matter anymore. I shift fully, my black scales gleaming, my wings spreading wide.
"Draeven, wait!" Seraphina calls out. "You're too injured!"
I don't listen. I launch myself at the Void with everything I have left.
My claws rake across its shadow-form. My fire scorches it. My rage fuels every attack.
But it's not enough. The Void is too big, too powerful. It bats me aside like I'm a fly.
I crash into the wall so hard the stone cracks. I fall to the floor, barely conscious.
Through blurry vision, I see the Void moving toward Seraphina.
"Your turn, little priestess," it purrs. "Time to come home to daddy."
"I'm not your daughter!" she screams, blasting it with more white light.
But she's exhausted. The light is weaker now. The Void pushes through it easily.
It reaches for her with one massive claw.
I try to stand. Try to shift. Try to do anything. But my body won't respond.
I'm going to watch her die, and there's nothing I can do to stop it.
Then Kael does something insane. He flies directly at the Void's face and breathes fire straight into its eyes.
"Leave. My. Family. Alone!" he roars.
The Void roars back and swipes at him. Its claw catches Kael's wing, tearing through scales and membrane. My brother crashes to the ground with a sickening thud.
"Kael!" Seraphina runs to him.
The Void looms over both of them. "How sweet. You'll die together."
I have to move. Have to help them. Have to do something.
But I can't. I'm too broken.
Then I remember Casimir's last words. Kill the anchor. The Void needs someone who invited it in.
I look at the possessed guards. Their black eyes. Their wrong movements.
But one person's eyes have been black longer than anyone else's.
Lyria.
She's standing in the corner, watching everything with a small smile. She's not fighting. Not helping. Just watching.
Because she's the anchor. She invited the Void in. She's the one keeping it here.
"Seraphina!" I shout with the last of my strength. "Lyria! She's the anchor!"
Seraphina's head whips around. She sees Lyria. Sees the truth on her face.
"You," Seraphina breathes.
Lyria's smile widens. "Took you long enough to figure it out."
"You brought it here. You're the one keeping it in our world."
"Of course. Who do you think opened the gateway in the first place?" Lyria laughs. "I've been planning this for three hundred years. The Void promised me power. Immortality. Everything I've ever wanted. And all I had to do was help it escape."
"If I kill you," Seraphina says slowly, "the Void goes back."
"If you can kill me." Lyria's hands glow with black magic. "But I'm much stronger than I look."
The Void growls. "Don't you dare touch my vessel."
"She's not yours anymore," Seraphina says. "She's my target."
White light explodes from Seraphina's body. She launches herself at Lyria with speed I didn't know she had.
Lyria throws up a shield of dark magic. The two forces collide in a explosion of light and shadow.
They're evenly matched. Both powerful. Both determined.
But Seraphina is exhausted, and Lyria is fresh.
I watch in horror as Lyria's magic starts pushing through Seraphina's defense.
"You can't win, little priestess," Lyria taunts. "You're too weak. Too broken. Too—"
A sword plunges through Lyria's back.
She gasps and looks down at the blade sticking out of her chest.
Behind her stands one of the High Priestesses—Morganna.
"Hello, my dear student," Morganna says coldly. "Did you really think I'd let you steal my prize?"
Lyria falls to her knees, blood spreading across the floor.
And something impossible happens.
The Void screams.
Not in anger. In pain. Real, genuine pain.
Black smoke pours out of the possessed guards' eyes. They collapse, unconscious but alive. The shadows in the corners shrink back. The Void's massive form starts to fade.
"No!" it roars. "Not now! Not when I'm so close!"
It's being pulled backward, sucked toward the cracks in the floor where it came from.
"This isn't over!" the Void shouts as it disappears. "I'll return! I'll always return!"
Then it's gone. The throne room is suddenly quiet except for people groaning in pain.
Seraphina collapses, completely drained.
I crawl to her, my broken ribs screaming with every movement. "Seraphina. Stay with me."
Her eyes flutter open. "Did we win?"
"I think so."
She smiles weakly. "Good. Because I don't think I can fight anymore today."
"Neither can I." I pull her against my chest, careful of my injuries. "We survived. Again."
"How do we keep doing that?"
"No idea. Luck? Stubbornness? Maybe we're just too annoying for fate to kill."
She laughs, but it turns into a cough. "Draeven?"
"Yeah?"
"When you said you loved me, in the Abyss..." Her voice is barely a whisper. "Did you mean it?"
My heart stops. In all the chaos, I forgot about that confession.
"Every word," I say quietly. "I've never meant anything more."
She looks up at me with those silver eyes that have haunted my dreams. "Good. Because I think I love you too. Even though you tried to kill me nineteen times."
"Twenty-three times, actually."
"See? Can't even keep count of your murder attempts. And I still love you." She touches my face gently. "We're both insane."
"Probably."
I lean down to kiss her. Finally. After all this time. After everything we've been through.
Our lips are about to touch when Morganna's voice cuts through the moment.
"How touching. The Dragon King and the Void's daughter, in love."
We both freeze.
Morganna steps over Lyria's dead body, holding the bloody sword. Her eyes are cold and calculating.
"Did you really think I saved you out of kindness?" she asks. "I've been planning this for two centuries. Building you up. Shaping you. Making you into exactly what I need."
"What are you talking about?" Seraphina demands.
"The ritual, my dear child." Morganna smiles, and it's the cruelest smile I've ever seen. "Lyria was right about one thing—you are the Void's daughter. But she was wrong about what that means."
She raises her sword, and it glows with dark magic.
"You're not meant to die to seal the Void away," Morganna continues. "You're meant to die so I can absorb your power. The power of life and death combined. The power to become a god."
She drives the sword toward Seraphina's heart.
I throw myself in front of her, but I'm too slow, too broken.
The blade is going to hit—
And then someone else steps between us.
Kael.
My brother, with his torn wing and battered body, throws himself in front of the sword.
The blade plunges into his chest.
"No!" I scream.
Kael looks at me with golden eyes that mirror my own. "Protect her," he whispers. "Promise me."
"Kael, don't—"
"Promise."
"I promise."
He smiles. Then his eyes close, and he goes limp.
My brother falls, and something inside me breaks completely.
Not my ribs. Not my body.
My heart.
And from that broken place, something new rises.
Something that's been sleeping inside me for three hundred years.
Something that Seraphina's presence has been slowly awakening.
Power. Pure, ancient, unstoppable power.
The kind of power that only comes from a dragon who's found his true mate and watched someone hurt her.
I shift, but this time it's different. My scales aren't just black—they're edged with silver. My eyes aren't just gold—they glow with white light. My fire isn't just flame—it's life and death combined.
Because Seraphina and I aren't just connected emotionally. We're bonded magically. Her power flows through me, and mine flows through her.
We're mated.
And no one hurts my mate.
I roar, and the sound shatters every window in the palace.
Morganna's face goes pale. "Impossible. True mate bonds are a myth—"
"Then you're about to be killed by a myth," I growl.
I lunge at her with speed that makes her teleportation look slow.
This time, nothing stops me.
This time, I'm strong enough.
This time, I'm going to end this.
But as my claws reach for Morganna's throat, the Blood Moon finally sets.
And everything changes.