Chapter 21 · The Seal in Mara's Hands

The dragon gate closed with a sound like the sky biting down.

Black stone folded over black stone. The last thread of violet light snapped across the chamber, showering the floor with sparks that hissed against the floodwater. On the other side of the sealed arch, something enormous struck the barrier once.

The impact lifted Lio off her feet.

She hit the wet stone on her shoulder. Pain flashed white behind her eyes, but she rolled before the next wave of pressure could crush her ribs. The chamber groaned around them. Dust sifted from the ceiling. Somewhere beneath the floor, the buried beast dragged its claws across the closed gate, searching for a seam.

Lio pushed herself up on one hand.

“Stay closed,” she whispered.

The gate answered with another distant thud.

Inside her ribs, Oro's presence shifted. Not a voice this time. Not words. Heat, coiled and watchful, curled around her heart like a second skeleton.

It could take control now.

The thought came with the memory of its claws inside her nerves, of her own hands moving without permission, of dragonfire pouring through her veins while Oro warned her that it might never give her body back.