As if summoned by Nova's presence alone, a fleet of wild dragons burst through the snow haze above — flying in a formation so tight and precise it resembled a military regiment. But they were wild. Untamed. This was a sight so rare most believed it impossible.
Rex's eyes widened with awe.
"They fly in phalanx formation. Wild dragons only do that when they recognize power."
For the third time, Fin and Jax looked at him like he'd sprouted a second head — shocked he had any knowledge.
The leader broke formation first.
It descended in a tremendous surge of wings and ice-crystal wind, landing before them with a quake that shook the frozen ground. Its scales were unlike anything Rex had ever seen — gold and silver overlaid with a sapphire pattern along its belly and back. It was larger than Onyx, more ancient-looking, and far more dangerous.
Rex stepped forward, voice lowered.
"Bow," he ordered without hesitation. "And do not break eye contact. Dragons take it as a threat."
They all bowed at once.
Except Nova.
Before anyone could stop her, she sprinted forward at Alpha speed, planting herself directly in front of the massive dragon.
"Nova—" Fin snapped—
Too late.
Jax began to bow out of instinct, but something anchored him mid-motion. His eyes flashed sapphire, bright and blinding. He moved just as fast as Nova — straight toward the dragon.
He reached her, stepped around her, and placed his palm against the dragon's forehead.
The reaction was instant.
A pulse of sapphire light exploded outward, so bright the ice walls reflected it like mirrors. The dragon reared back, lifted its head to the heavens, and unleashed a roar that shook the entire expanse.
Instead of fire, a column of pure ice blasted from its jaws — a freezing beam that rippled frost across the ground.
"Gods be damned," Hyran breathed, eyes lifted to the glowing creature.
The dragon swung its massive head back down and stared at the four men standing behind Nova and Jax. Its posture turned aggressive — wings flaring, talons digging into the ice.
But when its gaze returned to Nova, it stilled.
Calm.
Controlled.
Not hostile.
Rex stepped forward, eyes never leaving the dragon.
"Ice dragons were hunted to extinction over a thousand years ago," he explained, voice steady. "None have been seen for ten generations." His gaze lifted to the shimmering sapphire patterns along its scales.
"They lived alongside fire dragons. For a fleet this size to survive here… there must be warmth, green land, or a protected cavern system somewhere in the Expanse."
The dragon lowered itself — and bowed.
To Jax.
Rex's brow arched. "Jax is its bonded."
Hyran chuckled, "The amount of bonds in Shadowclaw. What is in the water there?"
Aeron laughed at that.
Rex commented, "Somewhere in the Thorne lineage lies a high-blooded dragon line."
Behind them, Fin muttered under his breath, irritated beyond measure, "Am I the only one without a dragon now?"
Hyran and Aeron exchanged amused glances.
Dangerously close to laughing.
And the dragon — massive, ancient, alive — kept its head bowed to Jax like he was the only one in the world it recognized.
Jax stood perfectly still as the dragon lowered its enormous sapphire-and-silver head toward him. The trance still held him, eyes glowing like frozen stars. His hand rose on instinct alone, fingers brushing the dragon's snout.
Jax inhaled sharply.
The dragon's name fell from his lips in a low whisper, like something spoken from memory he never knew he had.
"Sapphrix."
The dragon rumbled, bowing his head once in acknowledgment. A ripple of sapphire light flashed across his scales — a dragon's acceptance.
Nova stopped mid-stride and turned at the sound of Jax's voice. Her eyes glowed bright silver.
Jax met her gaze, still half-lost in the trance, and spoke in a voice that resonated like two layered tones — his own, and something older.
"He knows where you are going," he said. "And so do I."
Jax mounted Sapphrix, as if he'd been a dragon rider his whole life. Sapphrix took off immediately.
Without warning Nova sprinted at Alpha speed toward a section of the split ice-mass.
"Nova!" Fin called after her, already breaking into an Alpha sprint. Rex was right beside him, pace matching his perfectly, both of them tearing across the ice.
She darted toward the far end of the split plateau, the place where the ice wall didn't merely break but sheared clean, like an ancient cliffside cut by a god's blade. Something beyond that wall pulled her, instinctive and sharp.
Aeron and Hyran followed — Aeron's cloak snapping behind him, Hyran already calculating something with mage-precision. Hyran stopped abruptly.
He lifted his hand, gathered magic, and conjured a portal so clean and steady it hovered without even a shimmer.
Aeron skidded to a halt beside him.
"Well if you're too tired to run, I'll go with you." He muttered, and stepped through.
Hyran only rolled his eyes and followed.
Above them, Jax's eyes still blazed sapphire in a trance. His dragon and Nova seemed to be headed in the same direction. The dragon banked toward her instinctively.
High above, Sapphrix followed Nova's path effortlessly, his sapphire-and-silver scales shimmering in the broken light.
Rex's brows shot up in the middle of the run. "He is tracking her."
Fin didn't slow. "What does that mean?"
"It means one of two things," Rex answered, breath steady despite the blizzard. "Either Jax is commanding the dragon through the bond… or Sapphrix recognizes her as his true bonded equal to Jax. The same way Onyx did."
Fin's jaw tightened, the admission he would never speak aloud humming under the surface. He wanted a dragon. And he wanted that dragon tethered to Nova.
Rex continued, "But I have never heard of two dragons recognizing the same person as a true bonded. Not in any lineage, any record, or any legend."
Ahead of them, Nova was already sprinting along the sheer plateau wall, running so close her fingertips brushed the ice as she passed. Silver light flared beneath her cloak with each step. Sapphrix flew directly above her, wings cutting through the blizzard, eyes locked on her in a way that made Rex's breath catch.
Without warning, Sapphrix dipped sharply.
The dragon began to descend in a controlled dive — not reacting to Nova, but anticipating her. Knowing where she would stop before she stopped.
Nova halted with an abruptness only an alpha could manage, pivoting toward the thousand-foot wall of ice.
Sapphrix hit the ground a heartbeat later in a blast of frost, talons cracking through the frozen earth. Ice rippled outward from the impact.
The dragon's massive head lowered.
His eyes never left Nova.
Behind Fin, a portal snapped open, its edges rippling like heated glass. Aeron stepped out first and Hyran behind him.
Jax slid off Sapphrix's back then, his boots crunching onto the ice. His eyes were blazing sapphire, no visible pupil, the trance still gripping him. His breath fogged the air in sharp bursts.
He blinked once.
Twice.
His eyes flickered back to hazel as he exhaled. He rested a steadying hand against the dragon's jaw, grounding himself.
For a moment, he looked dazed, disoriented… then awareness returned, sharp and precise. His spine straightened.
Rex called, "You take a dragon for a ride there, Gamma?"
Jax grinned, shaking frost out of his hair.
"Took one for a spin and didn't get blasted off this time. Personal best."
Rex barked a laugh.
Fin did not.
Nova lifted her hand and pressed her palm against the wall of ice.
The surface responded instantly.
Ancient runes ignited beneath her touch — brilliant, spiraling patterns racing upward the full thousand feet like veins of frozen lightning. The ice hummed, the ground vibrated, the air cracked.
And then Sapphrix inhaled.
A deep, guttural draw of breath that made every single person freeze.
Before anyone could speak, Sapphrix unleashed a violent plume of glacial breath — a devastating torrent of ice aimed directly at Nova.
Fin shouted her name.
Rex swore violently.
Even Aeron jolted.
Hyran merely stepped back with the resignation of a man who had lived too long.
Jax, however, moved like something feral.
He sprinted toward her, eyes blazing sapphire again, boots skidding on the ice. He reached her an instant before the breath hit, arms locking around her waist as he tried to yank her backward—
Except she didn't move.
She couldn't move.
Her body was locked to the wall by the runes' magic.
The dragon's ice slammed down over them both like a frozen tidal wave.
Fin's face went stark white and Rex's heart stopped cold in his chest.
Both of them nearly bolted in.
But, through the matebond, Nova felt fine.
That was the only reason Fin didn't sprint into the blast like a rabid animal.
Rex stood rigid beside him, hands clenched, jaw tight.
Jax stayed wrapped around her even after realizing the ice wasn't hurting either of them. His arms remained braced, as if any second it might turn deadly.
The frozen plume finally stopped.
Sapphrix lifted his head, satisfied.
A hairline fracture cracked through the ice wall followed by another. Followed by a chunk shattering inward, revealing a massive doorway carved into the heart of the plateau.
The dragon looked at Jax, then at Nova… then launched himself skyward in a powerful sweep of wings, circling once before disappearing into the blizzard.
Fin exhaled shakily. "Gods above…"
They stepped through the newly revealed entrance.
Inside, dim light flickered from the far end of a long, narrow corridor. As they walked, torches along the walls ignited in sequence, flames flaring bright blue against the ice.
Nova took one step forward, body tensing, preparing to sprint again.
Hyran — who clearly had no intention of running another mile through ice tunnels — immediately snapped his fingers and opened a portal directly in front of them.
They stepped out on the other side before Nova could move an inch.
She turned her head toward Hyran, silver eyes glowing, expression unreadable.
Hyran lifted both hands. "I was only helping you. I swear."
Nova said nothing, simply turned and faced forward again.
Rex snickered quietly. "Yesterday… she jumped floors in the library. I had to grab her each time."
Hyran nodded solemnly. "Yes. The mage-librarians will not shut up about it. One of them fainted. Two filed formal reports. And all are arguing about whether she violated seventeen or twenty-three arcane safety bylaws."
Aeron nodded, as he'd been working with Hyran that morning in the Redmoon library. "They are still discussing it. Loudly. One of them brought charts."
Fin groaned.