[Evelyn’s POV]

The battle is nothing like training. I knew this intellectually. I feel it now in every bone as Aspis banks hard left and a ballista bolt screams past my shoulder close enough to feel the displaced air.

“Left flank — two more incoming!”

“I see them!”

Aspis rolls and I press flat against her scales, thighs burning with the effort of staying mounted. Two more bolts cut through the space we occupied a heartbeat ago.

Below us, the eastern shore writhes with movement — landing boats, warriors in blue and gold, the organized chaos of an invasion that refuses to stop.

“The ridge. Riven’s force is engaging.”

“How many boats are still coming?”

“For every one we scatter, two more push through.”

“Then we must be more efficient. The channel mouth — I can create a barrier.”

“Steam wall?”

“Like we practiced.” I scan the cliffs. Three ballista positions, staggered heights, overlapping fields of fire. “Get me a clear line. Five seconds.”

“The crews are coordinating their fire. You will need to be fast.”

“Fast I can do, trust me.”

“I always trust you. It is the power I do not trust.”

Aspis dives and I reach for the moonlight. It comes surging through the bond, wilder than in training. The current pulls against my control like a river fighting its banks.

“Steady. Channel through me.”

“I’m trying. The power feels different — like it’s fighting me.”

“Combat amplifies everything. Channel the energy, do not fight it.”

I narrow the light. The beam cuts across the approach channel and hits the water.

Steam erupts — a wall of white vapor that swallows the incoming boats, blinds the crews, turns their coordinated assault into chaos.

“It’s working!”

“Hold the channel. Don’t let the power —”

The surge hits me like a fist. The same spike from the training yard, but amplified by combat, by fear, by the bond straining at its limits.

Light erupts from my body. Not a beam — a sphere that expands fifty feet in every direction, searing white radiance that turns the air to glass.

Aspis’s wings lock mid-beat as she channels everything she has into containing the surge, pulling the worst of it away from allies below.

“EVELYN!”

The sphere collapses. I’m gasping. My vision spots with afterimages — black shapes burned into my sight. My hands feel like they’re on fire, and when I look down, I see light still bleeding from my fingertips in silver wisps.

“Aspis, are you hurt?”

“I am functional, but it seems you are not. That surge nearly broke the bond.”

“I didn’t mean to lose control —”

“The power consumes you. Each burst costs more than the last: the moonlight is outpacing your ability to channel it.”

“What do I do?”

“Let me carry the overflow. Filter through the bond instead of forcing it alone.”

I force my eyes to focus, blinking against the afterimages still seared across my vision. Below, the eastern gate holds: Torren’s unit fighting with savage efficiency. Bodies pile at the threshold.

But to the south, smoke rises. My stomach drops.

“The residential quarter is burning. Draven’s people are dying, and we need to relieve the southern front.”

“Another surge like that could kill you.”

“What about those people inside those walls?!”

“Do not use them against me,” my dragon’s cuts sharp through the bond, edged with, as it seems to me for the first time, fear. “I am trying to keep you alive.”

“If the compound falls, none of it will matter. Can you get me there?”

Silence. Then, heavy with reluctance: “I can, but promise me: we work as one! And if I feel you slipping again —”

“You pull me back, I know.”

“I see it! Too much crossfire from the positions. And… Evelyn, your hands.”

“I can do this, I have to. Every second I hesitate, someone dies. Help me control it, Aspis. That’s what partners do.”

“One more, and then we pull back. That is the agreement.”

“Can you? Or are you telling yourself what you need to hear?”

“Brace — I cannot hold the glide —”

“BRACE!”

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify