Then her lips parted, and a sound escaped her that was half laugh, half gasp. Her wings drew in, as if her body needed to contain itself before it burst apart.
"Oh," she breathed.
The air around her seemed to tighten as her grin spread, sharp and unrestrained. Thought unraveled into delight, into anticipation that made her fingers curl.
'Me?'
'Tested like that.'
'Against him?'
"Yes," she said at first, voice low and trembling with barely contained excitement.
Then she threw her head back and screamed it, the sound tearing out of her chest and echoing across the sky.
"YES! I ACCEPT!"
The world tore.
…
The transition was instantaneous. One moment, the wind was whipping against Nyxara's wings; the next, the world was a silent, shimmering cage of crystal-clear light.
She didn't look at the environment first. Her eyes locked onto the figure standing at the opposite end of the dome. Quinlan.
