LOGINARAH
“Leave my mind, sylph!” Marianne’s distorted voice echoed in Arah’s ear, and an intense tingling sensation shot from her feet upward, stealing her breath for a moment.
Her mind snapped back to the sight of the cell. A force slammed into her like a kick to the stomach, hurling her across the room. Her back collided with the wall, a groan tearing from her throat. Her muscles and bones ached, and a sharp ringing settled in her ears. Disoriented, it took her a
GILDEONHis senses cut out before the rest of Haemos’s words could register.Everything collapsed into a heavy, smothering silence. Then, feeling bled away from his body, leaving him hanging on the edge of nothing with only one clear sensation: something hooked deep into his core and started dragging his spirit out of him.Was he dying?No. He refused. He hadn’t clawed his way through centuries of war just to let it end like this, pinned on some cursed weapon while Arah was still out there. She needed him. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t give her up to anyone.But wanting to fight and being able to fight were two different things.Seconds slipped by. Pain had flattened into a distant, throbbing awareness somewhere below his ribs, where the three-tined spear had run him through, but it felt far away, like it belonged to someone else.Then a voice cut through the dark.“My Lord?”Roselia.The name
GILDEONEverything Drusden’s memory fragments had carved open for him slammed back into place at once.His father, Daego, and his wife, Ragina. The clash with the Greater Beasts. His father stumbling home with an infant in his arms. The Dark Plane yawning open like a wound.“You’re the one who lied to me,” Gildeon growled. “About who my parents were. About how my father—General Daego—died.”Haemos’s salamander eyes narrowed to burning slits. “How did you know about that?” he demanded.Heat flickered harder around the commander’s scaled face as he shook his head. “Kohina wouldn’t dare. She swore a seer’s vow.”“It doesn’t matter how I knew,” Gildeon said. “Tell me why you’re calling my father selfish. He sacrificed himself to save the salamanders.”“He doomed us,” Haemos snarled, “by bringing you back with him after his disappearance.”Gildeon froze.“Your father was given a choice,” Old Man went on, flam
GILDEONHe’d dropped his guard.He hated admitting it, but there had been plenty of times Old Man had slipped past his defenses over the years—appearing out of nowhere, catching him off balance, reminding him who had trained him in the first place. Usually, Gildeon only realized it when it was already too late.This time was different.Not just because half of his mind was still locked on Arah—on her safety, on her pulse in the distance—but because Commander Haemos felt heavier, meaner, more dangerous than anything Gildeon remembered.Salamanders didn’t bleed aura like other beings. One could only see their true level in battle. But Gildeon carried a dragon spirit. Just standing this close, it could taste Haemos’s threat level like metal on the tongue.This version of Old Man was more formidable than the one he’d sparred with before.“You had me fooled, little bastard,” Haemos rasped, lips peeling back from his beast’
ARAHDanger prickled the back of her neck a split second before her mind caught up.Her body moved first.The wind tattoo on her forearm peeled away from her skin, snapping into the air like a released whip. In the same breath, her owl sigil burst free from her abdomen, the tiny inked shape stretching and unfolding mid-flight. Wings widened, bones and feathers building themselves out of glowing sigil lines until her female owl was a colossal bird above her, shadows of its wings swallowing the moonlight.She felt the rush of air before she heard the shrieks.The owl beat its wings hard, each powerful stroke throwing knives of wind across the sand. The front line of salamanders jerked back, their flames guttering as the gusts shoved them a few steps away, buying her a heartbeat of space.Arah spun, heart hammering, eyes automatically searching for him.She found Gildeon in the distance, and her stomach dropped.H
GILDEONHis eyes went wide, pulse punching hard against his ribs.He’d always known this was a possibility. Some part of him had been waiting for it, braced for it. But he’d still hope it wouldn’t happen. Tonight, his guard had been down in the worst possible way.Multiple platoons. A full company at least. Probably more hidden beyond the reach of his eyes. The fact that this many salamanders were standing on open sand, in front of lower mortals, told Gildeon they weren’t fucking around about taking Arah at all costs.From the corner of his eye, he saw Yadira and Eitan shoot up from their seats, chairs clattering to the sand. Their shocked gazes snapped from the salamander line straight to him, waiting for orders.“I don’t get it,” Arah murmured beside him, fingers digging into his arm. “I thought the portal was intact.”“I sent Ghulik there days ago to make sure it
GILDEONHe rose as she slowly drifted down from that peak, hands sure on her body.By the time he stood, shrugging out of his clothes, she was still hovering a few inches off the floor, dress hanging in tatters from her shoulders, hair wild and glowing at the edges. It was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.“Arah,” he murmured, almost to himself.He stepped in close, hands catching her hips.She was hot and slick and ready for him, her thighs automatically parting to welcome him. He guided himself to her and pushed in with a low, guttural groan, her tight heat clamping around him like she was made for him and no one else.Her head snapped back, a sharp cry tearing from her throat.He set his feet and drove into her, using his grip on her hips to pull her down onto him, his thrusts deep and steady. Each movement sent another jolt of pleasure and power through his spine. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and







