"The dragon-shifters of Demue are the most cunning and alluring of female warriors," Davina had told her, the story weaving together over the course of five nights just after Astrid's fifth year of birth, "but none rivaled Raelina de Fiuma, Scáthach of Denithe, the lustrous dwelling atop the highest sand dune in the desert realm where dragon sisters train in flight and battle. To be the Scáthach is to be the most revered, for the Scáthach led the Denithe and instructed all those who came to her sandstone lair. To become the Scáthach, one must spill the blood of the reining Scáthach before her upon the burning sands of Gnathóg. It is a sacred ritual of Denithe, held during each solstice to honor Lord Feué and his reign over the ever-burning flames of the sun. Feeding the sands of Gnathóg pleasures the lands of Demue, and thus rewards the blood-spiller—not only by becoming the Scáthach but by creating an elemental bond of fire to all the prior Scáthachs. The power of that bond could level an entire fortress in nothing more than a plume of smoke.

"Scáthach Raelina held that power and had never allowed her blood to be spilled for near a century, maintaining her position of strength and reverence until the Purge severed one of the Scáthach thorns upon her brow whilst stuck between transitions—"

"Drop the blade, whelp," the shifter had said, "I've come to retrieve you. Your mother's bond demands it of me."

Wrenched from the memory, Astrid beheld the true dragon warrior; distinct, human-like hair coiled in dark curls down her crimson, reptilian neck lithe with muscles. Her beautifully lethal talons, awash in silver to glint like the sharpest of swords, appeared jointed, curling towards Astrid like a beckoning finger. Stalking, deep eyes a magnificent shade of gold with dark, round pupils that tracked Astrid's every move with intellectual ridicule. An expression reserved not for predatory beasts but for people—stuck between transitions. The Purge. Her mother. Mighty wings, their golden webs interlacing like patterned veins, flapped once more. They crashed an invisible wave into Astrid. Grains of sand pelted against her lowered eyelids, the bits of her hair not locked away in braids caught up in the draft, smacking against her cheeks in a startling revelation.

"Raelina." Astrid's short-blade had yet to waver, but she felt the handle slide against the rising perspiration of her palm. "Scáthach Raelina of the fearsome Fiuma clan. You are Raelina de Fiuma."

"Scáthach. Shadowy One." Raelina snorted, angry sparks erupting from her wide nostrils, her next words coming as a threatening whisper against Astrid's mind. "A stolen title. A thieved honor."

Three of the golden, orange sparks shot upwards, circling the magnificent ivory horn above her left ridged brow, dancing like flickering flames, illuminating the carved inscriptions decorating it, notches that noted each victory its bearer had won. Of which, there were plenty. Transfixed, Astrid watched, her dry tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth as she trailed the Scáthach thorn to where its matching pair should rest.

A jagged scar marred the scales above the shifter's right eye, the flesh underneath torn and swollen as if it had never properly healed. Astrid couldn't help but wonder where the missing horn resided now, for the Scáthach's thorns were no longer twins, but singular. One had been severed decades earlier, Raelina's blood spilled by—?

"My mother—" Astrid tightened her grip on her only weapon, laughable against her current foe as it may appear—"would not want you to retrieve me until my task was completed."

"Obedient whelp," Raelina's voice rife with coy wisdom. "Blind obedience, however, brings nothing but pain and death."

Hidden behind her back, Astrid's free hand reached outwards, fingers scrabbling for a single thread. A relieved breath stuck in her throat when she, as faintly as it came, felt Raelina's Spirit. It burned like embers just out of reach of her fingertips. She brushed it aside, searching for another as her elemental burnout retreated. Her arm cramped where her arulonite cuff normally imprisoned her.

"Yet you claim to be bonded to my mother; perhaps I am not the only one blinded."

"Cursed, blind, but clever."

Astrid grinned with as much demure as Raelina's expression held a smooth cunning. She managed to match the expression even as the knot in her stomach, that place where Astrid had connected herself to Sebastian so long ago, twisted and burned, aflame as she called upon their bondage:

Leaves screaming, smoldering as they fell to the forest floor, Sebastian leaping over a dying pile of them, brushing at the sparks threatening to ignite the frayed threads of his shirt—

For a moment, the bondage flared to life, leaving Astrid's chest gasping with a feared determination, but it dulled just as swiftly with nothing further than a useless thump deep in her belly. It flipped, frustrated.

Gaia's words mixed with Raelina's and stoked her doubts: Clever, cursed child.

Something touched her in a soft tickle against her flesh.

Another thread, one that was not Sebastian's, brushed against her temple, twisted around her wrist, and unfurled her fist. One that smelled of damp dew on morning grass and something heavier, like spiced licorice or warmed rum. A rich scent. An older one. Despite the inner turmoil, Astrid kept her grin in place, masking her surprise by readjusting the position of her knife.

"Your missing horn," Astrid said, a touch louder than was necessary, "looks to be quite tender and unprotected."

"Wench of arrogance." Raelina's neck rolled and twisted, her snout huffing out a blackened threat of smoke. Astrid supposed she had hit a nerve. "You are mine, cursed Salveretta."

The shifter's wings swept upwards, and Raelina reared back, golden-plated chest puffed outwards, horned head thrown upward into the sky. A flicker of flame slithered out her left nostril, but Astrid still spotted the rainbows of colors that refracted off the diamond-material of the blood-blade's hilt as the smoky sun sparked off of it. As silent and swift as a storm, Matthias exploded from the trees, which Astrid belatedly realized were alight in roaring flames. His feet danced along the length of the thick branch holding him aloft, supporting his journey through the air. It grew with him as he ran, wood sprouting outwards far beyond where it should have reached, veins of flaming ruby sparks snaking within its bark, burning it from the inside out.

A surprising number of awed curses filtered through Astrid's thoughts.

"It's quite a shame, you know," Astrid said to the dragon with a casual shrug of distraction. "I always admired your story." She held Raelina's blazing glare. "You better look up."

The dragon-shifter's shock rippled down their mental connection, vibrating Astrid's teeth, just as the elemental branch extending beneath Matthias's feet snapped under the weight of the flames. There was a short, high-pitched wail before the dying branch launched Matthias into open air. His body flipped and twisted like the realm's most graceful ballerina before he straightened like a javelin with the blood-blade as his tipped head. He fell, an avenging Spirit from Eyelesene, angling his sword towards the exact spot Astrid had suggested to him—the missing Scáthach thorn, whose vulnerable scar now waited in the perfect position for Matthias's infuriatingly perfect aim.

Matthias's boots hit first, straddling each edge of the scar, a breath before his sword struck.

Only the tip of his blood-blade had sunk into the shifter's inflicted flesh when Raelina bellowed a low, shaking cry that shook the realm. Her head thrashed, neck muscles flexing, and then flames exploded from her. It bathed the lake in fire and smoke.

"'Thias!" Astrid pinched his soul's thread between her fingers, a cough rattling her chest. "Spill your blood!"

Eyes burning with soot and heat, she took off in a sprint, tripping and kicking over the colored pebbles of the shore before leaping onto an outcropping of rock that hung over the now steaming waters of Holalethe. Raelina's wings whipped and curled in pained frenzy, wild surges of water and flames crashing up and over the shoreline, exploding over the rocks Astrid's now stood upon. A few frothy droplets landed on her bare feet; they burned her skin. Shivering, she swiped the sweat from her brow, forcing the cursed water's threatening images to ebb away.

"Silly, ridiculous girl!" Raelina shrieked. "A mere cut from a male's sword is nothing compared to me."

"That may be," Astrid said, "but it is not your cut you should fear."

Finally, Astrid saw her shot and flung her short dagger. It left her hand, flipping blade over hilt, slicing a dangerous path that flew just over and past Raelina's remaining Scáthach thorn.

Astrid grinned as Raelina twisted, reptilian neck contorting to follow the knife as it flew outside her line-of-sight and plunked beneath the agitated waters of the churning lake. The jerky, sudden motion allowed Matthias to stumble, and Astrid felt his thread flare, a flash of bared pain vibrating down the tether as Matthias fell against the edge of his own blade that stuck from the dragon's ridged flesh.

His blade that knew the taste of his blood and would seek vengeance on whomever had spilled it.

A disdained huff of laughter blew from the shifter's snout. "Your training is weak, whelp—"

Raelina's drawl morphed into an outraged, gravely howl that sounded quite different in its ferocity. This time, Astrid smirked at the chaotic swirl of flames spewing from that fanged jaw sprawled open in torment. The sky lit up into hues of dark oranges and flaring reds, but a silvery flash flickered amongst the haze. Matthias's blood-blade dodged the feral swipes of Raelina's barbed tail, the bellowing smacks of her golden-webbed wings as her body twisted and spun, bucked and convulsed, slashing at each spot left vulnerable in the shallow crevices between her scarlet scales.

Astrid's hand clasped around Matthias's stiff, steady thread, willing his elvish instincts to be strong enough to hold him in place atop the shifter's head. After all, she hadn't missed the touch of a limp in his left leg as he had run on the trees, and, now, with this new wound—Without any conscious thought, a healing flare of warmth flowed from Astrid's soul down the length of Matthias's thread to wrap around his upper thigh and torso. It went easily, swiftly, and her lungs loosened as she felt Matthias's instant relief.

Oh, my Gaia, this could actually work.

Water collided into the outcropping when Raelina swept lower, sending a deluge of water cascading over Astrid's feet. Blood recoiling, veins burning even though the water felt cool against her toes, her brain exploded into noise.

Astrid! I'm here!

"Sebastian." Their knot twisted and unraveled, her gut blooming into pleasant, relieved warmth as his voice entered her mind. The familiar, deep timbre of it pushed back Holalethe's cursed images, clearing the haze creeping into her vision. "Bash! Do it! Do it now!"

Though she kept her back to the shore where he stood, Astrid somehow saw him behind her eyes: his black mess of curls tangled and singed, dark soot smeared between his brows and across his brown cheeks—streaked like warrior paint—the determination in his jaw as he threw his arms out towards Raelina, long, dirty fingers splayed into the elemental realm—

Matthias lost his footing. His Spirit's thread slipped through Astrid's fingers as Raelina shot into the smoke-filled sky like one of Abel's spiraling arrows. Though the silvery flash of Matthias's blade followed the shifter, Matthias did not. Could not. He stumbled from Raelina's neck, struck against her meaty front thigh, and then dove in a sure collision with the lake. Astrid wasn't sure, but she thought she heard herself scream. Because she knew what awaited anyone but an Author in those blasted waters. Torture. Pain. Death.

Memories swamped her: ones of foolishly shoving Matthias to safety during the second task of her mother's tournament, plummeting down the mountain with that mechanical beast, Sebastian forcing Air's threads to his will, halting her fall, but Astrid was cursed. Her control existed only in shambles, and Matthias descended, faster and faster, and Astrid stood stuck.

Terror choked her into a ridiculous panic that cleaved her head into two.

Pain drowned her. She knew she had fallen to her knees because her hands suddenly scraped against the damp stone beneath her. Someone shouted her name, but it sounded as if it came from another realm entirely. Fog seeped into her mind like a nightmare taking shape—

Her forehead ignited into a scorching bright light.

"A thief will arise to conquer the rest."

Gaia's voice echoed within her very soul, a hot kiss against the top of her head.

"Join me, thief."

As if directed by a master puppeteer, Astrid felt her body rise to her feet, sure and steady beneath her tormented body. She felt her hands reach outwards.

"See what we could become. Together."

Astrid felt the threads spinning between her fingers, hundreds of them, thousands, all of them connected to the air around her. Power prickled in her chest, a sense of utterly calm control straightening her spine, bringing a knowing grin to her lips. With a cry, she gathered Air's threads between her clasped fists and flung them outwards.

The updraft caught Matthias, halting him mere inches from the lake. Strength rushed through her bones, the radiance from the heptagram on her head cutting through the smoke and flames Raelina bellowed into the sky. Air's threads still in her clasp, Astrid rotated her hands, directing Matthias back to the shore, out of harm's way, where Sebastian would certainly take over—

Something sharp clutched around her ribs, clamping around her spine, and Astrid became airborne.

"Devious, possessed witch," Raelina growled, her silver talons clutching Astrid in a sharp prison, "Your curse lies deep, but I will end it. I shall drag you to the depths with me."

Conflict battled inside the shifter; Astrid felt it in a way she had never been able to before: vibrations along the dragon's jointed, finger-like claws, the drag of her wings as she struggled to stay aloft, confusion wrecking her intellectual, human thoughts as she looked down at Davina's daughter caught in her unforgivable grasp The mighty Spirit's thread of Raelina fought against Sebastian's stubborn pull with such valiance that how had Davina ever defeated her? Sebastian couldn't possibly—he was nowhere near strong enough—

"Hush your fears," Gaia crooned into her mind. "You are with me, now."

The mark on Astrid's head flared.

"Yes. That's it." Gaia called upon Astrid's hands once more, forcing them out from their position trapped between her chest and Raelina's piercing talons. "End her."

Despite the water that rushed closer as Raelina spiraled down towards it, an irrational sense of peace stilled Astrid's struggling limbs. Her mouth twisted, serene, poised. Commanding. She felt her neck crane to look up at the massive chest of the dragon-shifter where Matthias's blade tore and ripped at her flesh, nothing more than bothersome bites from spiders.

"I am not your Salveretta," Astrid's voice hissed right before her entire soul cracked open into blaring rays of lights. "I am your villain."

Snap!

A sharp, immediate noise—a precious jewel fracturing under a miner's ax-pick—vibrated along Astrid's spine and broke Raelina. The shifter's spiritual thread disintegrated, obliterated into infinitesimal grains of ash that seemed to snow down upon the entire realm like the soot drifting from her flames. With an earth-shattering screech, those intimidating wings snapped to her sides like a severed kite. Her colossal body limped and wilted. Gravity reclaimed her flight, tearing Raelina through the open air, dragging her to drown in the lake below.

"You and I," Gaia promised into Astrid's wretched soul, "are the same."

Astrid's mind emptied, her fears, hopes, and dreams melting under the heat of the burn in her forehead, but it, too, retreated, dulled, sank away until the last recollection she had was the strength of Raelina de Fiuma's talons still wrapped around her torso as it sank her into the cursed waters of Holalethe.

- - -

...I really don't have anything to say because I'm so excited for the next part that I'm afraid I'll just start spoiling it all. So, I'll leave you with a gracious apology that we haven't updated for this long (seriously, I'm embarrassed), but we hope this chapter made up for it. 

As always, thank you so much for reading!