Blake POV
The first warning isn’t sound.
It’s pressure.
The kind that settles into my bones and coils tight around my spine, like the land itself has gone rigid in anticipation. Dragon territory doesn’t scream when danger comes—it braces. Stone remembers war. Fire remembers blood.
And so do I.
“He’s found us,” I say, the words barely leaving my mouth before Blaze stirs.
Not stirs—rises.
A deep, ancient presence stretches beneath my skin, vast and restless, like a continent waking after centuries of sleep.
They dare follow you this close, Blaze rumbles inside my mind, his voice layered over mine, older and far larger than my own thoughts. Your father grows careless.
Rhazek glances back at me, sharp-eyed. “You felt it too.”
“Yes,” I answer. “He’s triangulated my position. Not exact
