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The dragons sweep overhead, flames streaming from their mouths. I search the sky ahead of them, finding every stream of phoenix fire by feel and parting the dragonfire to protect the people inside.

Once Ryu, Mygist, and Nailah reach the end of the field and ascend into the sky, the dragonfire hits the ocean and fizzles out.

Thirty. Seven.

I deflected dragonfire thirty-seven times.

The same number of groups I covered.

My knees buckle, and I crumple to the ground. Vision wavering, nerves shrieking, I don’t understand what’s happening until Rafe rolls me onto my side.

I’d collapsed beside him.

“Lark! Are you okay?”

I can hear his voice but can no longer sense him in my mind. The merge is broken.

I’m spent.

Overhead, I feel the pride and joy of my dragons. Pride in me. In my abilities. They’d trusted me to keep everyone safe.

By some miracle, I did.

My vision swims, and my head throbs. A tangle of voices blur together nearby.

Gentle hands wrap around me and lift me into a sitting position. “Talk to me, love. Tell me you’re all right.”

I blink, Sterling’s face coming into focus as he crouches beside me. “Yeah. Just need…a minute.”

“I didn’t know that was possible.” Agnar kneels beside us. “We should all be dead.”

A hand settles on my shoulder, and I peer up to see Leesa holding a waterskin in her other hand. “Drink up. It’s Fusion Root Vine tea. There’s plenty for all of us.”

Leave it to my sister to come prepared. I have no idea where she stashed the tea during our battle, but I’m too tired to ask.

I smile my thanks, take a long drink, then hand the container to Leesa. “You next.”

She accepts the tea, drinks some, and passes it to Bastian.

“Better?” Sterling skims his knuckles across my cheek, eyes shining with concern.

“Much better.” I lean over and brush a kiss across his lips. “Help me up?”

We stand, not bothering to wipe the dirt and ash and gore from our clothes.

I spare a moment to scan the crowd outside the arena. Some people have fled. Others who helped fight mill about. Some remain in the stands.

A strange sound rends the air. A booming, cracking noise from far above, like thunder but deeper and more resonant. I glance up, past the wheeling dragons to the sky beyond.

Though clear and blue directly overhead, the edges of the heavens look…distorted somehow, as if something massive is pressing against our reality.

The sound comes again, louder this time. A tremor runs through the ground beneath my feet.

Bastian’s eyes widen with alarm as he follows my gaze upward. “What is that?”

I shake my head, mud squelching with the movements.

Then an awful suspicion forms in my mind. “It sounds like what we heard in the portal outside the realm of the gods as they were fighting. Except worse.”