Nova shook her head with a genuine laugh, and a bold grin. "You're welcome for the near-death experience."
Onyx steadied and his great body rose smoothly above the cloud line. Around them, the other dragons fell into loose formation—Velkaris gleaming bronze at the point, the others fanning out like shadows on starlight.
Jax turned slightly, peering down through a thin tear in the clouds. His trained eyes scanned the ground where the Caelborne Fields used to be. He froze.
There was nothing.
No trees. No stone. No soil. Just a vast, glassed crater still glowing faintly at the edges—void annihilated, every trace of the enemy gone. Twenty thousand soldiers, dark mages, beasts—erased from existence.
His throat went dry. Holy crap.
Rex lifted one hand, motioning forward—arm raised, fist clenched, then swept down and forward in the all-clear. Formation. Return to base.
The dragons glided in perfect unison beneath the stars. Adrenaline began to fade. The cold bit through armor and into bone. Nova leaned back against Jax, her body relaxing for the first time since takeoff. Her eyes grew heavy, lashes fluttering as exhaustion crept in.
Jax felt her weight settle against him, her breathing soft and even. He smiled faintly, one hand tightening around her waist as Onyx carried them through the high, endless dark.
"Rest," he whispered. "You've done enough for one night."
Below them, the world they'd just saved smoldered in silence. Above, the sky stretched wide and clear—the dragons flying home like ghosts through the stars.
The camp came into view as a scatter of dim lights on the horizon—lanterns and watchfires glowing faintly against the deep blue of pre-dawn. The flight began to descend, wings tilting in perfect sync as the air grew warmer, thicker, full of the scent of earth and smoke.
Jax glanced down, the familiar outline of the Redmoon encampment forming below, and felt a quiet wave of relief. He looked at Nova—still curled against his chest, her breath slow and steady, her hair tucked under her cloak.
"Nova," he whispered, voice soft near her ear. "We're almost back."
She stirred, blinking sleepily. She straightened with a wince from her ribs being bruised. "I didn't mean to fall asleep on you," she muttered, rubbing her eyes.
Jax chuckled, shaking his head. "I wasn't complaining."
The dragons broke formation one by one, spiraling down toward the field. It was still dark—no hint of dawn yet—but they'd made it back well ahead of schedule.
Onyx touched down first, his claws sinking into the dirt with a low thud that rolled through the ground. The others followed, wings folding, bodies settling into watchful stillness.
Fin was there before anyone else—pacing the field, eyes scanning the horizon. The second he saw her, he was already running.
"Nova!"
She barely had time to slide off Onyx before he caught her, pulling her tight against him. He didn't care who saw, didn't care that soldiers were watching. His arms closed around her like he'd been holding his breath all night and only now remembered how to exhale.
"Did you miss me?" She grinned at him.
"Yes." He said loudly. He buried his face against her hair, voice low and rough. "Next time, I'm going with you. No questions."
She gave him a quick kiss before wrapping her arms around him. It caught him off guard for a moment—twice in one night—and he couldn't help but grin.
Behind them, Jax cleared his throat and called out, "Thanks, Fin. I'm okay too."
The line was so perfectly dry that even Ragnar Redmoon, watching from a few paces back, barked a laugh.
Nova turned, hiding a small smile against Fin's shoulder.
"Welcome home, Jax," Fin said without looking up, still holding her close.
"Yeah, yeah," Jax grumbled, but there was amusement in it.
They walked together toward the Redmoon tent—Fin's arm around Nova, Jax trailed behind.
The night wasn't over, but the danger was. And as they crossed into the warm light spilling from the tent, the camp finally began to breathe again.
Ragnar Redmoon didn't even wait for them to finish stepping into the tent. His gravel-deep voice cut across the low murmur of the gathered officers.
"Well? Was she able to hit one?"
Rex grinned, tugging off his gloves, bronze dust still smudged across his jaw. "Oh… she hit one, all right."
A few laughs rolled through the tent. Even Nova couldn't help it; her smile broke through, small and weary but real.
"After she fired," Rex went on, "we climbed to max altitude in a hard ascent vector—standard evasive pattern—but it didn't matter. The blast radius still caught us. Blew every damn one of us off our dragons and clean off formation."
Laughter rolled louder now, the kind that came from relief rather than humor.
Rex chuckled, shaking his head.
Jax raised a hand, deadpan. "For the record, ten out of ten do not recommend the view from below a dragon."
Fin, standing just behind Nova, slid a hand to her waist and pulled her gently back against him. His expression didn't match the laughter; his jaw was tight, his body still coiled.
"There's something else," Rex said, tone dropping.
The laughter died down. The weight of what they'd done settled over the room like smoke.
Rex looked at his father, then around the room.
"The field wasn't empty. At least twenty thousand enemy troops on-site—dark mages, beasts, war constructs, everything Ashbane's fifth and allies across the seas could summon. They were staging for invasion."
He paused, letting the words hang before finishing quietly, "There were zero survivors. Entire force neutralized."
The tent went still. The magnitude of it hit like a slow-moving shockwave.
Fin's arm tightened around Nova, his lips brushing the top of her head. She leaned back into him, eyes half-lidded from exhaustion.
Ragnar gave a low whistle. "Saints," he murmured. "That's one hell of an opening shot."
No one argued.
"The Nightfall Shot," Jax said.
Murmurs rippled through the tent.
"Nightfall Shot."
"Gods… fitting."
The name settled over the room like a mantle, heavy and undeniable.
By the time they made it back to the larger Shadowclaw tent, the sky was just beginning to lighten at the edges.
Nova collapsed onto the bed fully clothed, eyes closing the instant her head hit the pillow.
Fin followed a heartbeat later, lowering himself beside her. He pulled her on top of him, one arm wrapped securely around her waist, and dragged the blanket over both of them.
The camp outside buzzed faintly with the news of what had happened, but inside that room, there was only stillness—the deep, dreamless kind earned by exhaustion and the knowledge that, for tonight at least, the world was safe.