SERINA POV
The golden eyes were getting closer.
I stumbled backward, my bleeding hand leaving red smears on the broken altar. The chains I'd shattered were reforming in the air, trying to wrap around something massive moving in the darkness.
"ANSWER ME, MORTAL." The voice shook the walls. "WHO DARES BREAK MY CHAINS?"
"I-I didn't mean to—" My voice came out as a squeak. "I just needed to steal a piece to—"
"STEAL?" The word came out like a roar. "YOU BREAK THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF IMPRISONMENT TO COMMIT PETTY THEFT?"
The shadows pulled back, and I saw him.
He wasn't in dragon form. He was human-shaped—or something close to it. Tall, maybe six and a half feet, with midnight-black hair that fell past his shoulders. Bronze skin marked with obsidian scales running up his neck and along his arms. His eyes were still molten gold with slitted pupils that made my prey-instincts scream to run.
He was the most terrifying and beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
And he looked absolutely furious.
"Three thousand years," he said, his voice dropping to something cold and deadly. "Three thousand years I've been chained in this prison. And the person who finally frees me is a ZERO-RANK CHILD trying to steal from me?"
He moved faster than anything that size should move. One second he was across the shrine, the next his hand was wrapped around my throat, lifting me off the ground. Not choking—just holding me there, forcing me to meet those burning gold eyes.
"Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you right now."
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. His hand was so hot it felt like it might burn through my skin.
But then I thought of Kael. Thought of my brother scared and alone, waiting for me to save him.
"My brother," I choked out. "They'll kill him. I need money. Please."
Something shifted in those gold eyes. "Your brother?"
"The Academy took him. I have fifty-eight hours to pay ten thousand gold crowns or they drain his magic core." Tears burned down my cheeks and I hated myself for crying, but I couldn't stop. "I tried everything. No one will help a Zero. This was my only chance. Please, if you're going to kill me, just do it quick so at least I don't have to watch him die first."
The dragon stared at me for a long moment. Then, surprisingly, he set me down.
"You broke into a forbidden shrine, triggered an ancient summoning ritual, and freed the most dangerous creature on this continent... to save your brother?" He sounded almost impressed. "Either you're the bravest human I've ever met, or the most foolish."
"Probably both," I admitted, rubbing my throat.
He circled me slowly, studying me like I was a puzzle he couldn't solve. "What's your name, little Zero?"
"Serina. Serina Ashveil." The moment I said my last name, he froze.
"Ashveil." His voice went quiet. Dangerous. "You're Ashveil blood?"
"I—I don't know. Maybe? I never knew my real parents. I grew up in the slums."
He grabbed my wrist, the one with the Zero tattoo, and pulled it close to his face. His eyes narrowed. "This mark is wrong. There's something beneath it."
Before I could ask what he meant, he pressed his thumb against my tattoo. Heat exploded through my arm. I screamed as the Zero mark started dissolving like ink in water, revealing the patterns underneath—complex violet designs that looked like dragon wings spreading across my skin.
"Impossible," he whispered. "You're not a Zero. You're a Void Mage. The last of the Ashveil Dynasty."
"What? No, I'm nobody. I'm nothing—"
"You are the descendant of Lady Elara Ashveil." His voice turned rough. "The woman I was bonded to. The woman who was murdered along with her entire family three thousand years ago by the very Academy you're trying to steal from."
My head spun. Nothing he was saying made sense. "I don't understand—"
"Your blood woke me because it recognizes mine. We're connected through the old bond—dragon and Void Mage, partners who shaped reality itself." He released my wrist. "Someone tattooed a Zero over your real mark to suppress your power. To hide you. Probably to keep you alive while every other Ashveil was slaughtered."
I looked at the violet marks on my wrist, trying to process this. "So I'm not powerless?"
"Powerless?" He laughed, sharp and bitter. "Girl, you have the most dangerous magic type in existence. Void Magic lets you bend reality, manipulate probability, touch alternate dimensions. Your ancestors could make kings bow and armies vanish with a thought." He leaned closer. "And some fool tattooed a Zero over it to keep you weak and helpless."
Rage boiled through me. Someone had done this on purpose. Marked me as nothing, thrown me into the slums to die, taken everything from me—and I never even knew.
"Can you remove the seal?" I asked. "Can you give me my real power back?"
"Eventually. The seal is complex. Breaking it too fast would kill you." He studied me carefully. "But there's a bigger problem. By using your blood on the altar, you triggered a contract ritual. Your life is now bound to mine. If I die, you die. If you dismiss me, the chains return and I'm imprisoned again."
"So we're stuck together?"
"Until one of us dies, yes." He didn't sound happy about it.
"Then help me save Kael. Please. You said the Academy murdered your bonded partner. They're the same people who took my brother. Help me get revenge on them while I help you stay free."
He considered this, his gold eyes calculating. "You want to make a deal with a dragon?"
"I want to save my brother and punish the people who ruined both our lives." I met his stare without flinching. "I know I'm weak right now. I know I'm just some girl from the slums. But you're stuck with me anyway because of this contract. We might as well work together."
A slow smile spread across his face—predatory and dangerous. "You have courage, I'll give you that. Fine. I'll help you save your brother and teach you to access your sealed power. In return, you help me destroy the Academy that imprisoned me."
"Deal."
"One more thing." He caught my chin, forcing me to look at him. "My name is Drakthar Nyx Void-Born. I am the World-End Dragon, and I have burned entire kingdoms for lesser insults than three thousand years of chains. People will fear you just for standing beside me. Can you handle that, little Ashveil?"
I thought of Kael. Thought of all the years of being treated like garbage. Thought of finally having power to protect the people I loved.
"I can handle it."
"We'll see." He released me and walked toward the shrine doors. They swung open at his approach. "Come. We have fifty-eight hours to plan a raid on the most powerful magical institution on the continent. And you need to learn at least basic control before you accidentally destroy a city block."
I followed him out into the Dead Forest. The moment we crossed the threshold, I felt it—a golden thread connecting my heart to his, pulsing with shared life force.
We really were bound together now. His life was mine. My death was his.
Behind us, the shrine doors slammed shut with a sound like a tomb sealing.
"One question," I said as we walked. "Earlier, before I woke you—I heard a voice say 'finally, she's coming.' Was that you?"
Drakthar glanced back at me, his expression unreadable. "I've been awake in those chains for three thousand years, little Ashveil. Watching. Waiting. Calling to the one bloodline that could free me." His smile was sharp as broken glass. "I've been waiting for you specifically. I felt you the moment you were born."
Ice ran down my spine. "You... you've been watching me my whole life?"
"Every moment of it." His gold eyes burned. "Every beating you took. Every time you stole food for your brother. Every night you cried yourself to sleep. I felt all of it through the bond."
"Then why didn't you help me?" Anger flared hot in my chest.
"I couldn't. Not until you came to me. Not until you chose to wake me yourself." He stopped walking and turned to face me fully. "But now you have, and I promise you this—no one will ever hurt you again. Not while I live."
Something in his voice made my breath catch. It wasn't kindness. It was possession. Protection. A dragon's promise to guard what belonged to him.
"We should keep moving," I said, because I didn't know how to respond to that.
As we walked through the Dead Forest together—human girl and ancient dragon, bound by blood and contract—I couldn't shake the feeling that I hadn't just freed him.
I'd awakened something that had been planning this for nineteen years.
And I still wasn't sure if that was salvation or doom.