Page 217 of Blood of the Stars

Mayvus briefly stumbled but quickly caught herself as the others still scrambled for purchase.

“The whole tower’s going down,” Velden shouted, pulling Iris to her feet while swinging her arm across his shoulder. “We have to get out of here.”

Lukai rushed to help Emeris, but Aeliana went straight for Durriken’s snout, where mournful cries escaped. She placed a hand on his scales.

His eyes opened, and he stilled.

I’m sorry. She hoped Durriken could still sense her words through his pain. The tower shifted beneath them, making Aeliana slide closer to Durriken’s wing.

Warmth touched her back and hands lifted a leather cord over her head. She felt her starlock’s heat before she even saw it. “Yes,” she breathed out, bending forward to heal Durriken’s stump. She couldn’t give him back his paw, but at least she could do this. As his wound closed over and her power waned, her mind flooded with his memories. Flying back to his home after she’d freed him, content to live out his days in peace rather than vengeance. Waking with the pain of another brand forming on his paw. Misjudging Mayvus’ power.

“She had no right. I’m so sorry.”

A simmering growl came from Durriken’s mouth, more like a hum.

“She probably has stores of your blood to do it all over again.”

The growl intensified.

“Can you still command him?” Gaeren leaned in to ask. “Can he take us all to safety?”

Aeliana frowned, searching for Mayvus. Sylmar’s staff was in one piece again, and he drove Mayvus back with its molten frame, but she returned a wind that knocked him aside.

“I doubt it. Besides, if we run now, we just have to do this all over again,” Aeliana said. If they’d defeated Arvid and his dark spirit, they could defeat Mayvus and hers too. Aeliana’s mind sped through the fight with Arvid, the way he’d still needed blood magic. Mayvus would eventually need more—she couldn’t drain all of her own blood. “We can weaken her. Besides, we asked for this war. He didn’t.”

She leaned against Durriken’s forearm. You’re free. I have the right to command you, but I release you of it. Go where you want to go, live how you want to live. Just never serve Mayvus again.

Durriken stirred.

Aeliana stepped away, trading the warmth of the dragon’s breath for the warmth of Gaeren’s hand. Aeliana didn’t know if her command could be enough to prevent Mayvus’ control if she branded him again, but maybe keeping him branded would allow Aeliana to protect him in some way.

She reached for her dagger, tucking it back into its sheath. The tower shifted again, making her stumble, and Gaeren caught her, pulling her in against his chest.

Durriken struggled to his three paws, testing out his balance, which only made the tower shift again. He let his wings spread, then flapped them harder, sending several others on their backsides once more.

Thank you.

Durriken took off, first gliding down from the tower, then flapping his wings and rising higher into the night sky. The tower went still, its foundation no longer sturdy but the threat of collapse momentarily halted. Gaeren released Aeliana, and they turned as one to face Mayvus.

Sharp pain stabbed into Aeliana’s side. She hunched forward as Gaeren did the same.

“You let him go?” Mayvus stood over Aeliana, her piercing voice pounding into Aeliana’s skull with the same force as the magic.

Aeliana tried to see what was causing her pain, but Mayvus was relentless, white sparks flying from her fingertips as she spoke, like nails driving in each word.

“Ten years it took me to catch him and brand him, and you let him go. Twice. Remember how well that worked out last time?”

The wind picked up around Aeliana as she fell to the stone floor, curling up in a ball with her eyes closed. The white light kept coming, kept hitting her in just the right spot to set her nerves on fire once more. She cried out, no longer able to hear Mayvus’ words, especially with the intolerable wind. How could one woman control so much power, so much magic?

They had to get rid of the bodies, just like they’d done with Arvid. They could do it. Aeliana squinted at her companions, trying to see who might be free to start the process, but her vision blurred with each white light that struck her.

Suddenly, the fiery currents stopped, and so did Mayvus’ tirade, but the wind grew louder, like Mayvus was working it up to a tropical storm.

Aeliana came to her knees, summoning her blood’s energy, letting it shift and grow until she sent it out like a wall, a shimmering light that encompassed everyone near her, protecting everyone behind her on the east side of the balcony.

“Mother?” Aeliana called, scanning her companions still on the west side of the shield, still not safe.

Her mother’s hand lifted, but she was too far for Aeliana to reach her, too near to Mayvus.

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