"Fly separately!" Jacaerys Velaryon roared into the storm.
"Lucerys! Northeast! Break your course! I'll draw them away!"
"Back to Dragonstone! Go—tell Mother. Tell everyone!"
"Jace! No!" Lucerys cried. "Let's go together!"
"Go!" Jacaerys shouted. "That's an order! Do you want Joffrey to have died for nothing?!"
He yanked hard on the reins, forcing Vermax southeast. At the same time, Jacaerys emptied his lungs and screamed at the vast shadow plunging through the rain clouds above—death given form.
"Aemond! Kinslayer!"
"Bastard! Come on! I'm right here!"
"Come and kill me! Let's see who dies first!"
His furious curses tore through wind and rain, echoing across the blackened sky.
High above, Aemond Targaryen, astride Vhagar, heard the rage of helplessness and smiled faintly.
If they died, they died. They were nothing more than lesser beasts.
He raised a finger toward Jacaerys, then made a sharp, decisive gesture toward the massive black dragon flying nearby.
Two fingers came together. A horizontal sweep—pointing northeast, toward the fleeing Lucerys.
"Fly, Lathron. Kill him."
Clear orders. Clear targets.
Vhagar took the primary prey.
Lathron was sent to finish the other.
The great black dragon did not hesitate. His powerful wings beat once more, and his enormous body carved a sharp arc through the air, blood still clinging to his scales as he surged northeast after Lucerys and Arrax.
Jacaerys would not allow it.
"Vermax!" he shouted. "Now—do it!"
Vermax unleashed a torrent of dragonfire, forcing Lathron to break his line for a heartbeat as rider and dragon surged forward in desperate defiance.
For an instant, the black dragon stalled.
Then Lathron roared, twisted back through the flames, and struck—his claws tearing into Vermax's belly.
Vermax screamed in agony. His claws raked across Lathron's black scales, but they would not break.
Lathron seized him in turn, and the two dragons spiraled through the storm, biting and clawing, fire bursting between them—a savage dance of death in the sky.
Jacaerys was thrown violently in the saddle, nearly torn free as flames scorched past him.
Blood sprayed from Vermax's wounded abdomen.
Then Lathron kicked away, shoving the grievously injured Vermax aside.
For a heartbeat, both dragon and rider were stunned.
And then—
Vhagar struck.
Her claws closed around Vermax's entire body, vast enough to engulf the smaller dragon whole.
Crack.
Then another.
Vermax screamed as his bones shattered.
Jacaerys clung to his dragon's neck, alive by some cruel miracle, as terror unlike anything he had ever known consumed him.
"I'm sorry," he whispered brokenly. "I'm sorry, Vermax…"
Below him, his dragon wailed in helpless agony while cold rain lashed Jacaerys' face.
"Run!" he screamed into the storm. "Run, brother! Lucerys!"
Ahead, Lucerys Velaryon, astride Arrax, looked back in horror.
Vermax was trapped in Vhagar's claws, his body broken, unable to resist.
Lathron was closing fast.
"Run, Arrax!" Lucerys cried, striking his dragon's neck in panic.
The black dragon reappeared off Arrax's left flank, the distance shrinking with terrifying speed.
Lucerys drove Arrax low over the sea. He could hear the heavy, measured breathing behind him—smell fresh blood, feel the raw, predatory hunger radiating from the black dragon.
"No! Stay away!" Lucerys screamed, breaking at last.
What answered him was Lathron's vast maw, strips of flesh and blood hanging between serrated teeth, and vertical pupils burning with cold, golden-red fire beneath the storm-dark sky.
This time, Lathron did not bite.
He lifted his head. Deep within his throat, a dark red, molten glow ignited—like lava stirred to life.
Then a voice rang out, cold and unmistakably clear in High Valyrian.
"Dracarys."
Aemond's command cut through the storm.
Lathron opened his jaws.
Dark red flame—hotter than Vermax's fire, thick and almost viscous—sliced through rain and wind with terrible precision, sweeping toward Arrax's rear.
Arrax screamed in pain and terror, instinctively twisting to evade.
Too slow.
The edge of the fire tore across the base of his right wing. Worse still, splashes of burning flame struck Lucerys squarely in the back.
"Aaaah!"
The pain was blinding, searing into bone and soul alike. Lucerys' vision darkened. His grip failed.
His body slid from the saddle—
—and vanished into the sea below.
Wounded and riderless, Arrax spiraled wildly, his flight collapsing into chaos.
And Vhagar, already diving, struck.
Crunch.
Blood exploded into the air as Arrax was torn apart, his body shredded and consumed mid-fall.
From within Vhagar's claws, Jacaerys Velaryon screamed until his voice broke.
"No—no—NO!"
The sky filled with the sickening sounds of bone crushed to powder and flesh torn apart beneath immense force.
Afterward, Aemond Targaryen turned Vhagar toward the port of Dragonstone, reducing the harbor and its remaining warships to ash beneath dragonfire.
By dawn, the storm had passed.
Aemond returned to King's Landing with Jacaerys Velaryon taken captive and Vermax broken beyond saving.
Jacaerys knew then—
there would be no escape.