Page 137 of A Kingdom of Shadow and Ash

Above, Nyx roared, twisting in the air, the great beast’s blue eyes wide with instinctive terror as she tried—desperately, hopelessly—to reach her.

And then—

Green light.

A hundred bolts of magic collided into her.

The explosion that followed silenced the world.

Nyx’s agonised cry was not a sound, but a wound carved into the very air itself. The sky tore apart with it, the great wyvern ripped in half by the force of magic, blood and flesh scattering in the wind, turning into rain.

Mal watched it happen.

Watched the beast she had loved, trusted, shared her soul with—

Vanish.

Her scream ripped from her throat as she fell, fell, fell.

And in that moment, the witches had not just killed a wyvern.

They had created a monster.

There is nothing worse than discovering a terrible truth and knowing that no matter what you do, the world will never be the same.

I am going to destroy absolutely everything.

Everyone will hate me for it.

But it is the only way.

Tabitha Wysteria

Ash watched in horror as Mal fought to climb higher, pushing Nyx towards the heavens, a desperate attempt to outrun fate itself. The sky around her shuddered with magic, green tendrils of smoke slithering through the air, hunting her like starving wolves.

On the ground, he had landed mere moments ago—his sword drawn, his breath ragged—as he positioned himself between Kage, Wren, and the two valkyrians, shielding them from the witches closing in like a storm on the horizon.

But all else fell away when he heard the roar.

Nyx’s scream ripped through the sky, splitting apart the battlefield like a war horn of death itself. Ash’s head snapped up, his blood running ice-cold at the sight above him—Mal struggling against a figure who had materialised out of green smoke, a specter pulled from the depths of a nightmare.

Ash's first instinct was to leap onto his dragon, to launch himself into the sky and tear through anyone who dared lay a hand on his wife. He opened his mouth to demand Wren, Kage, and the valkyrians flee before the witches turned their magic upon them.

And then—

His entire body locked into place.

She was there.

Standing only a few feet away.

The past stole the breath from his lungs.

A face he had once known too well, a face that had haunted his darkest hours and devoured his dreams with whispers of betrayal.

Adara.

His soul staggered. He had not seen her in years—he could barely even recall the last time his eyes had beheld that terrible beauty.

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