The hall felt heavier with every heartbeat. Torches sputtered, casting jittering shadows across the stone walls as the dragon leader’s gaze never wavered from Lydia. Fen, still chained, stiffened in disbelief. Dragons… real, pure dragons… he had thought they were all gone. Yet here he stood, powerful and alive, radiating authority and danger.
The leader’s eyes, molten gold rimmed with scarlet, narrowed. His fists clenched, the veins on his scaled arms pulsing with restrained energy. Slowly, deliberately, he raised his hands and muttered words in a tongue so ancient it made the stones of the chamber hum. The air around them thickened, a low vibration running through the floor, walls, and chains. Fen’s claws twitched, sensing the raw surge of magic, but even he couldn’t break free.
The mag
