The response was immediate and overwhelming, forty-three dragons acknowledging her authority, their individual resonances aligning with hers in preparation for the coordinated strike that would determine their species' survival.
Maya opened her eyes, golden and pupilless, to find her seven mates watching her with expressions of awe and satisfaction. Through their completed bonds, she could feel their consciousness as clearly as her own, seven distinct personalities united in purpose, their combined power flowing through her like a river of liquid starlight.
"How do you feel?" Leon asked, though through their bond she knew he could sense her condition as clearly as she could his.
"Complete," Maya replied, testing her voice and finding it carried new harmonics that made the crystallised c
