Aria's POV
The Ashford mansion burns below us.
Flames shoot from the windows. The roof collapses with a thunderous crash. And through it all, I hear roaring—not dragon roaring, but human screaming in a voice that shakes the earth itself.
My father's voice.
"He's killing everyone inside," I gasp, clinging to Kael's scales as we circle above.
Twenty-three years of torture, Kael's mental voice is grim. He's snapped. Lost control. This is what happens when you push a Dragon Tamer too far.
"My mother's in there!"
Then we go in. Now.
Kael dives toward the burning mansion. Heat blasts my face as we plunge through smoke and flames. He lands in what used to be the main hall—now a crater of broken marble and fire.
A man stands in the center of the destruction.
He's tall, maybe forty-five years old, with wild golden eyes and long dark hair streaked with white. His clothes are torn prison rags. His hands glow with the same golden light as mine, but brighter. Stronger. Terrifying.
Bodies lie around him—Ashford family guards, all unconscious or worse. The walls are carved with deep claw marks, though he hasn't transformed. He's doing this with pure taming power alone.
"Father?" My voice cracks.
He spins toward me, and for a second, his eyes are completely blank. Animal. Then recognition flickers.
"Aria?" His voice is hoarse from disuse. "My daughter. They said—they showed me pictures but I thought—" He stumbles forward. "You're real?"
I slide off Kael's back. "I'm real. I'm here. Where's Mom?"
"Safe. I got her out first. She's in the gardens." His expression hardens. "But the Ashfords locked her in a cage for ten years, Aria. They used her to control me. Made me watch as they—" His voice breaks. "I'm going to kill every single one of them."
"Father, the Council is coming. We need to leave—"
"Let them come!" Power explodes from him, cracking the floor. "I am Dante Russo, the Dragon Tamer who burned cities! I bowed to no one before, and I won't start now!"
Oh no. He's too far gone.
I feel Kael tense behind me, ready to intervene if my father attacks.
"Dante Russo," I say clearly, using his full name. "I'm Aria Russo. Your daughter. And I'm a Dragon Tamer too."
He freezes, staring at me. "You awakened?"
"Today. And I bonded with the Dragon King." I gesture to Kael, who shifts to human form. "We came to rescue you, but you've already rescued yourself. Now we need to go before this gets worse."
"The Dragon King?" My father looks at Kael with sudden sharp focus. "You survived the Great Hunt?"
"Thirty of us did," Kael says carefully. "We've been hiding. Waiting for the next Dragon Tamer."
"And she bonded with you." Something dangerous flashes in my father's eyes. "Interesting. I had seven dragons under my command before they captured me. Seven dragons who abandoned me when I needed them most."
The air goes cold.
"That's not—" Kael starts.
"Where were you when the Ashfords took my wife?" My father's voice drops to a deadly whisper. "Where were the mighty dragons when a human family imprisoned the Dragon Tamer?"
"We didn't know you existed!" Kael's eyes flash gold. "By the time we found out about the Ashfords' captive, you'd been drained of so much power we couldn't sense you. We thought you were dead!"
"Lies." My father raises his glowing hands. "You hid like cowards while I suffered for twenty-three years."
"Stop!" I step between them. "Both of you, stop! We don't have time for this!"
But my father's power is already surging. Not toward Kael—toward me.
Golden light wraps around my body before I can dodge. The bond he's forcing feels nothing like my connection with Kael. This is violent. Invasive. He's trying to take control.
Aria! Kael roars in my mind.
Through our bond, I feel his panic. My father is trying to bond with me by force, and if he succeeds, he'll have access to Kael through me. He'll be able to control the Dragon King.
"Father, don't—" I gasp.
"I'm saving you," he says, eyes wild. "These dragons will betray you like they betrayed me. But if we're bonded, I can protect you. Together, we'll command all thirty dragons. We'll burn anyone who ever hurt us!"
His power digs deeper, trying to hook into my soul the way Kael's bond does naturally.
It hurts. God, it hurts.
Fight him, Kael urges. Your will is stronger. Reject the bond!
But how? My father's been a Dragon Tamer for over forty years. I've been one for three hours. I'm a baby compared to him.
Then I feel it—Kael's power flowing into me through our bond. His strength. His ancient knowledge. His love.
You're not alone, he says. We're bonded, remember? What's mine is yours.
I grab onto that connection and pull. Dragon power floods through me—not just Kael's, but the echo of the other twenty-eight dragons waiting in the city. All of them feel my distress through Kael. All of them are offering their strength.
"No," I tell my father. "I won't be controlled. Not by you. Not by anyone."
I shove back with everything I have.
My father's forced bond shatters. He staggers backward, shock on his face. "You rejected me? Your own father?"
"You tried to take my free will!" Tears stream down my face. "I came here to save you, not to become your weapon!"
"I'm trying to protect you—"
"By doing exactly what the Ashfords did to you?" I'm shaking with anger and hurt. "Forcing a bond? Taking control? You're becoming the monster they tried to make you!"
He flinches like I slapped him.
Sirens wail in the distance. The Council is almost here.
"We need to leave," Lysander says, appearing from the smoke in human form. "All of us. Now."
My father looks at the burning mansion. At me. At Kael. His expression is lost, broken, dangerous.
"Where's Mom?" I ask desperately. "Please, tell me where she is so we can all leave together."
"The gardens. East side." He won't meet my eyes. "She's unconscious but alive. I couldn't wake her—they had her on some kind of drug."
Kael nods to Lysander, who immediately shifts and flies toward the gardens.
"Come with us," I plead. "Father, please. We have a safe place. We can figure this out together—"
"Together?" He laughs bitterly. "You chose the dragon over your own blood. You rejected my bond but kept his. Don't pretend we're on the same side."
"We are on the same side! We're family!"
"Family doesn't abandon each other. The dragons abandoned me. And now my own daughter—" His voice cracks. "Maybe I deserve this. Maybe I deserve to be alone."
"You're not alone—"
Helicopters appear over the burning mansion. Searchlights sweep the grounds.
"Council! Everyone on the ground, hands visible!" Commander Stone's voice booms through a megaphone.
My father's eyes glow brighter. "I won't go back in a cage."
"Father, wait—"
But he's already running. Not toward safety—toward the Council helicopters.
"No!" I scream.
He raises his hands, and power explodes from his body in a blinding wave. Three helicopters spin out of control. One crashes into the mansion's north wing. Tamers bail out, their beasts screeching in panic.
"Dante Russo, stand down!" Commander Stone's tiger leaps from a helicopter, landing between my father and the Council forces.
My father smiles. It's not a sane smile.
"I am the Dragon Tamer who burned the world," he says. "And I just got started."
He throws his arms wide, and I feel power gathering. Too much power. Enough to level the entire city block.
"Kael!" I grab his arm. "Stop him! He's going to kill everyone!"
Kael shifts instantly, his dragon form filling the crater. He launches himself at my father—
But someone else gets there first.
A woman appears from nowhere, moving impossibly fast. She's maybe sixty years old, with silver hair and eyes that glow the same gold as mine and my father's.
She places one hand on my father's chest.
His power stops. Just—stops. Like she flipped a switch.
My father collapses, unconscious.
The woman catches him gently and looks directly at me.
"Hello, granddaughter," she says. "I'm sorry it took me so long to find you. Your grandfather and I have been searching for twenty-three years."
My mind blanks. "Granddaughter? But my father said his parents were dead—"
"We let him believe that. For his protection. For yours." She touches my father's face sadly. "We're Dragon Tamers, child. All three generations. And the Ashfords weren't the only family hunting us."
Behind her, an old man appears. Also golden-eyed. Also radiating power.
"We're not your enemies, Aria," my grandfather says. "But we need to leave. Now. Before the real threat arrives."
"What real threat?"
As if answering my question, the sky tears open.
Not metaphorically. Literally tears, like someone ripped a hole in reality itself.
And through that hole, something massive pushes through. Something with scales that shimmer like oil slicks. Eyes that burn with purple fire.
A dragon.
But not like Kael or Lysander. This dragon is wrong. Twisted. Ancient in a way that makes my bones ache.
Impossible, Kael breathes in my mind. That's a Void Dragon. They went extinct five thousand years ago.
The creature's eyes lock onto me.
When it speaks, its voice echoes in everyone's mind—human and dragon alike.