Serina's POV
I woke up choking.
Something was wrapped around my throat—not hands, not rope, but power itself. Invisible and crushing. I clawed at my neck, gasping for air that wouldn't come.
"Breathe, little thief." That terrible voice rumbled through the shrine. "Though I suppose suffocating would solve my current problem quite efficiently."
The pressure vanished. I sucked in air, coughing so hard my ribs ached. My eyes watered, but through the tears, I finally saw him clearly.
The dragon was impossible.
His head alone was bigger than Uncle Castor's entire house. Scales covered his body—not just red, but every shade of red that ever existed. Crimson like fresh blood. Ruby like expensive jewels. Scarlet like sunset fire. They shifted and gleamed with each tiny movement, and I couldn't tell if they were reflecting light or making it.
His eyes though. Those were what made my stomach drop.
They glowed like twin suns, burning with an intelligence that felt older than the world itself. When he looked at me, I felt naked. Like he could see every thought, every fear, every secret I'd ever kept.
And right now, those eyes were filled with absolute contempt.
"Well?" The dragon's voice shook dust from the ceiling. "Speak, child. Explain why you've woken me from my imprisonment. What grand ambitions drove you to break a seal that has held for one thousand years?"
My mouth opened and closed like a dying fish. What was I supposed to say? Every survival instinct I'd learned on the streets screamed at me to run, hide, disappear.
But running wouldn't save Finn.
"I—" My voice cracked. I swallowed hard and tried again. "I didn't know anyone was here! I just needed the crystal! The Tear of Life! My little brother is dying and—"
"The Tear of Life?" The dragon's laugh was like rocks grinding together. Cold. Bitter. Mean. "Is that what the legends call it now? How delightfully ironic."
He moved closer, and I scrambled backward until my shoulders hit the wall. His massive face lowered until his eye—just one of his eyes—filled my entire vision.
"That crystal wasn't a treasure, foolish child. It was a seal fragment. One of seven pieces holding me prisoner in this cursed shrine." His breath washed over me, hot enough to make me sweat. "And you, in your desperate stupidity, shattered it."
The mark on my chest suddenly burned. I looked down and saw it glowing through my torn shirt—a dragon symbol carved into my skin, right over my heart. Red light pulsed from it in rhythm with my heartbeat.
"What did you do to me?" I pressed my hand against the mark, and pain shot through my whole body. "What is this?"
"An ancient blood contract." The dragon pulled back slightly, and I could breathe again. "The moment you touched the seal fragment, you activated magic that hasn't been used since the Dragon Age. My power now flows through your pathetic human body. We are bound, you and I. Linked by blood and magic until death separates us."
My brain struggled to understand. "Bound? What does that even mean?"
"It means, little thief, that you are now my vessel. My anchor to this world." Those burning eyes narrowed. "It means I cannot kill you without destroying myself. And it means YOU are now trapped carrying the power of the World-End Dragon, whether you want it or not."
The World-End Dragon. The name from the legends. The stories said he'd almost destroyed the entire world before the ancient mages sealed him away.
And I'd just set him free.
"No." I shook my head so hard it made me dizzy. "No, that's not—I can't be—I'm nobody! I'm just a rankless girl from the slums! I don't even have normal magic!"
"Clearly." The dragon's voice dripped with sarcasm. "A powerful mage would have recognized a seal when they saw one. But no—I get bound to an ignorant child who can't tell the difference between a healing crystal and a prison fragment."
Anger flared in my chest, hot and sudden. Even terrified out of my mind, I couldn't stand being talked down to. I'd dealt with that my entire life.
"Maybe if someone had LABELED it, I wouldn't have made a mistake!" I snapped. "And I'm not a child! I'm nineteen years old!"
"Nineteen?" The dragon actually laughed again. "I have been alive for over one thousand years, girl. To me, you are less than an infant."
"Well, congratulations on being old!" I shot back. "That must be why you're so bitter and mean!"
The shrine went deadly silent.
The dragon's eyes flared brighter, and the temperature in the room dropped so fast I could see my breath. When he spoke, his voice was quiet—which was somehow more terrifying than when he'd been loud.
"You have courage, I'll grant you that. Foolish, suicidal courage, but courage nonetheless." He shifted his massive body, and I heard chains rattle in the darkness. "Most humans grovel and beg when faced with my presence. You argue."
"Because begging never got me anything," I muttered.
Something flickered in those burning eyes. Interest? Surprise? It vanished too quickly to tell.
"Listen carefully, little thief, because I will only explain this once." The dragon's tail swept across the floor, sending ancient weapons scattering. "The blood contract has three rules. First—my power now lives inside you, marked by that seal on your chest. Second—the bond cannot be broken except by death, yours or mine. Third—"
He paused, and somehow I knew I wasn't going to like what came next.
"Third, dragon magic is not meant for human bodies. It is too powerful, too wild, too vast. If you cannot learn to control it within one year, it will consume you from the inside out. Your body will burn to ash, and your soul will shatter."
One year to learn magic I wasn't supposed to have, or die horribly.
Perfect. Just perfect.
"But—" I hated how small my voice sounded. "But what about Finn? What about my brother? He's dying! That's why I came here! I need—"
"What you NEED is irrelevant." The dragon's voice turned sharp as broken glass. "What you HAVE is a death sentence. Your brother's fate is no longer your concern."
Something inside me snapped.
I'd been scared. Terrified, actually. But I'd walked through a poisonous wasteland, fought corrupted beasts, and broken into a cursed shrine. I hadn't done all that just to give up now.
"No." I pushed myself to my feet, even though my legs shook. "I didn't survive nineteen years in hell just to die in a stupid shrine. And I'm not letting Finn die either."
I walked forward—actually walked TOWARD the dragon—and pointed at him with a trembling finger.
"You said your power flows through me now, right? That means I have magic. Real magic. So here's what's going to happen—you're going to teach me how to use it. I'm going to save my brother. And then I'll help you with whatever you need to be completely free."
The dragon stared at me like I'd grown a second head.
Then, to my complete shock, he smiled. All those sword-length teeth on full display.
"You want to make a deal with me? A dragon?" His laugh rumbled through the shrine. "You truly have no idea what you're asking, do you?"
"I don't care what I'm asking!" My hands clenched into fists. "Finn is all I have! He's ten years old and he's dying and I WILL save him, even if it means making deals with dragons or monsters or the devil himself!"
The silence that followed felt like it lasted forever.
Finally, the dragon spoke, and his voice carried something new. Respect? Maybe. Or maybe just amusement.
"Very well, little thief. I will make you a deal." He lowered his head until we were almost face to face. "I will give you power. Enough to heal your brother. Enough to survive the year. In exchange, you will help me destroy the remaining six seal fragments scattered across this pathetic kingdom. Only then will I be truly free."
"And you'll teach me how to control your magic? So it doesn't kill me?"
"I will try. Though I make no promises that you'll survive the training." His eyes gleamed with dark humor. "Dragon magic responds to emotion, not words. When you're angry, things explode. When you're afraid, things burn. Most humans can't handle it."
"Then I guess it's a good thing I'm not most humans."
"Indeed." The dragon pulled back. "We have a contract, then. Your service for your brother's life."
Before I could respond, red light exploded from the mark on my chest. It shot out like chains, wrapping around the dragon's massive form. He roared—not in pain, but something else. Relief? Release?
The shrine shook. Cracks spread across the walls. And then—
The dragon CHANGED.
His massive body shrank, compressed, transformed. Scales became skin. Wings folded into broad shoulders. Claws became hands. In seconds, where the impossible dragon had stood, there was now a man.
The most beautiful and terrifying man I'd ever seen.
He stood at least a head taller than me, with a lean but powerful build. His hair fell past his shoulders in a silver-white cascade that seemed to glow in the dim light. His skin was pale—too pale, like he'd never seen sunlight. And his eyes...
His eyes stayed the same. Burning red. Ancient. Powerful.
He wore black clothes that looked like they'd been made from shadows themselves. When he moved, it was with a grace that seemed almost unnatural.
"This form is more practical for traveling," he said, and even his voice had changed. Still deep, still powerful, but now almost hypnotically smooth. "Humans tend to panic when they see my true form."
I just stared, my brain refusing to process what I'd just witnessed.
He walked toward me—actually walked, on two legs like a normal person—and stopped just close enough to be intimidating.
"You may call me Kael." He looked down at me with those burning eyes. "And try not to die too quickly, human. I'd hate to waste my freedom on someone who can't even survive a week of training."
"My name is Serina," I managed to say. "Not 'human' or 'little thief' or 'child.' Serina."
Something that might have been a smile flickered across his perfect face. "Very well, Serina. Shall we begin? Your brother doesn't have much time."
He held out his hand.
I looked at it, this hand attached to a dragon in human form, offered to a girl who'd been nobody her entire life. Everything in me screamed this was insane. Dangerous. Probably suicidal.
But Finn was dying.
I took his hand.
The moment our skin touched, power exploded through me. Not painful—shocking. Like touching lightning and living. I gasped, and Kael's grip tightened.
"One year, Serina," he said softly. "One year to master what takes dragons centuries to learn. I hope you're ready."
He pulled me toward the shrine entrance, and I stumbled after him, still reeling from everything that had happened.
But as we stepped out into the red wasteland, I felt it—something dark watching us. Not from the wastes. Not from the shrine.
From inside my own mind.
A presence. Ancient and hungry and patient.
And when Kael glanced at me, his eyes flickered with something that looked almost like fear.
"Run," he whispered. "The seal breaking has alerted them. And they're coming for us both."