Ryven POV
I threw myself at the nearest possessed dragon, letting my transformation complete.
Scales erupted across my body. My bones cracked and reformed. Wings tore through my back. In seconds, I stood in my true form—a Shadow Dragon, black scales gleaming like midnight, silver eyes blazing with protective fury.
The blue dragon that had attacked first slammed into me, and we crashed through the archive wall. Its claws raked across my chest, drawing blood. But I barely felt the pain. All I could feel was Kaida's terror through our bond, and it made me stronger.
"Get away from her!" I roared, my dragon voice shaking the ground.
I sank my teeth into the blue dragon's neck and threw it across the courtyard. It smashed into a stone fountain, water exploding everywhere.
But there were too many. At least twenty possessed creatures surrounded the archives—dragons, phoenixes, even some chimeras with those sick green eyes. They all wanted Kaida.
"Ryven!" Kaida screamed from inside the building.
I spun around. Three possessed phoenixes had gotten past me, diving through the broken windows toward her. The golden barrier she'd created was gone—she'd used too much power already.
No. I wouldn't let them touch her.
I leaped back through the wall, my massive dragon body barely fitting in the archive room. The phoenixes scattered, screeching with rage.
Kaida stood in the center of the chaos, her hands glowing with those golden marks. But her face was pale, her body shaking. She was running on empty.
"I can't—" she gasped. "Ryven, I can't control it. The power keeps trying to come out, but I don't know how—"
"Stop trying to control it!" I shifted back to human form so I could talk properly, though I kept my scales and claws. "Dragon-rider power isn't about control. It's about trust. You have to trust yourself!"
A possessed chimera crashed through the ceiling, its three heads roaring. Lion, goat, and snake—all with those glowing green eyes fixed on Kaida.
I grabbed her and rolled us both out of the way as venom sprayed from the snake head, melting the floor where we'd been standing.
"Trust myself?" Kaida shouted. "I've spent five years being told I'm worthless! How am I supposed to trust anything?"
The chimera lunged again. I raised a wall of shadow between us and it, but the creature tore through it like paper.
"You trusted me!" I shot back, desperately trying to keep us alive. "When everyone else abandoned you, you trusted me to be your friend. When I said I'd teach you, you trusted me. Do it again now!"
"That's different!"
"It's not!" I caught the chimera's lion head by the jaws before it could bite Kaida. My muscles screamed with the effort of holding it back. "Your power is part of you, just like my dragon form is part of me. Stop fighting it. Let it flow!"
The chimera's snake head struck at my shoulder. I felt fangs sink in, felt venom burning through my blood.
"Ryven!" Kaida grabbed my arm, and I felt her panic spike through the bond. "No, no, no—"
Something snapped inside her. I felt it through our connection—like a dam breaking, like chains shattering. Her fear for me overwhelmed her doubt.
Golden light exploded from her body again, but this time it was different. Controlled. Purposeful. The marks on her skin blazed like the sun, and I felt ancient words pouring from her lips in a language that shouldn't exist anymore.
The old tongue. The dragon-rider language that died with the original riders three centuries ago.
The chimera froze mid-attack. Its three heads turned toward Kaida, and the green glow in its eyes flickered.
"Release him," Kaida commanded, still speaking that ancient language. Her voice resonated with power that made my dragon instincts want to kneel. "Whatever possesses you, leave now. This creature is mine to protect."
The chimera's heads all screamed at once—but it wasn't the creature screaming. It was whatever possessed it. Black smoke poured from its mouths, writhing like it was in pain.
Then the green light vanished from the chimera's eyes. The creature collapsed, free but exhausted.
Around us, the other possessed creatures were screaming too. The black smoke erupted from all of them at once, swirling together into a massive dark cloud above the archives.
"She's stronger than expected," the smoke hissed in that horrible mind-voice. "The bloodline remembers. We must gather more forces."
Then it shot away into the night sky, moving impossibly fast.
The freed creatures—dragons, phoenixes, chimeras—all lay on the ground, groaning and confused. Whatever had controlled them was gone.
For now.
Kaida swayed on her feet. I caught her before she fell, ignoring the chimera venom still burning in my shoulder.
"I did it," she whispered, her eyes unfocused. "I actually did it. I freed them."
"You did more than that." I pulled her close, my heart pounding. "Kaida, you spoke the old tongue. You used covenant magic. That's—that's impossible. Only the ancient riders knew those words, and they've been dead for three hundred years."
"I don't know how," she mumbled against my chest. "The words just came. Like my blood remembered them."
Footsteps echoed across the courtyard. I tensed, ready to fight again, but it was Uncle Aurelius running toward us with a dozen more dragons in human form.
"What happened?" Aurelius demanded, staring at the unconscious creatures scattered everywhere. "We felt the covenant magic from across the city. That power signature—it was pure dragon-rider authority."
"Something's possessing beasts," I said quickly. "Controlling them, making them attack Kaida. She freed them using the old magic."
Aurelius's face went pale. "The old magic shouldn't work anymore. The covenant broke when the last rider died. Unless—" He stared at Kaida with something like fear. "Unless the bloodline never died. Unless it just went dormant, waiting for the right trigger."
"What trigger?" I asked.
"A dragon bond." Aurelius's voice was barely a whisper. "The ancient riders always bonded with dragons first. The bond awakened their powers. Your accidental connection with her—" He looked at me. "You didn't just bond with a human. You bonded with a sleeping dragon rider. And now she's waking up."
Kaida's eyes fluttered closed, her body going limp in my arms. She'd used too much power too fast.
"We need to get her somewhere safe," I said. "Whatever that smoke was, it said it would gather more forces. It's coming back."
"Bring her to the sanctuary," Aurelius said. "Our hidden stronghold. She needs protection, and we need answers. If she's truly a dragon rider, then—"
A scream cut through the night. Then another. And another.
All across the city, beasts were howling in pain and rage. I felt it through my dragon senses—hundreds of creatures, maybe thousands, all being possessed at once.
The green-eyed monsters were everywhere.
"It's not gathering more forces," one of the dragon enforcers said, his voice shaking. "It already has them. Every beast in the city just got infected."
I held Kaida tighter. She was unconscious, defenseless, and an entire city of possessed monsters was hunting for her.
"The sanctuary won't be enough," Aurelius said grimly. "She broke their hold once. They'll do anything to stop her from doing it again."
"So what do we do?" I demanded.
Aurelius looked at me with ancient, tired eyes. "We run. We hide her somewhere they'd never think to look. And we pray she wakes up strong enough to fight them."
"Where could we possibly hide her? They're everywhere!"
A new voice spoke from the shadows. "I know a place."
Zephyra Moonshadow stepped into the courtyard, her storm eagles circling above her. The rogue tamer looked deadly serious.
"There's a sanctuary in the Forbidden Mountains," she said. "A place the old riders used as a training ground. It's protected by ancient wards that even possessed beasts can't cross." She looked at Kaida. "But we have to move now. I'm sensing possessed creatures heading this way. At least a hundred of them."
I didn't question how she knew about the old rider sanctuary. Didn't care. If it could keep Kaida safe, I'd go anywhere.
"Lead the way," I said.
Aurelius grabbed my arm. "Ryven, once you take her into those mountains, you won't be able to leave until she's strong enough to defend herself. The wards work both ways—they'll trap you inside as much as they keep others out. You could be there for weeks. Months."
"I don't care."
"Your clan will think you're dead. Your responsibilities—"
"Mean nothing compared to her life!" I snarled. "She's my mate, Uncle. My soul-recognized fated one. I'm not leaving her."
Aurelius's eyes widened. He'd suspected, but hearing me say it out loud made it real.
"Then go," he said quietly. "I'll hold them off as long as I can. But Ryven—" His voice dropped. "Whatever you find in those mountains, whatever truth she uncovers about herself, remember that she's still just a girl who's been hurt too much already. Don't let her power change how you see her."
"Never," I promised.
Zephyra transformed into her eagle form. "Climb on. We fly now, or we die."
I shifted back to dragon form and clutched Kaida gently in my claws. Behind us, the howls of possessed creatures grew louder. Closer.
We launched into the sky just as the first wave of green-eyed monsters crashed into the archives.
And as we flew toward the mountains, I felt Kaida stir in my grasp. Her eyes opened briefly—glowing pure gold now instead of amber.
"Ryven," she whispered. "There's something else. Something the voice in my blood told me before the barrier broke."
"What?"
"I'm not just a dragon rider." Her voice was fading again, exhaustion pulling her under. "I'm the last of the Covenant Keepers. The ones who could control all dragons, not just bond with them. And that thing possessing the beasts—"
She passed out before finishing.
But I'd heard enough to be terrified.
Because if Kaida was a Covenant Keeper, then she didn't just have the power to bond with dragons. She had the power to command every dragon alive. To control us completely.
And whatever was hunting her knew that too.