CHAPTER 185: SKY HUNT

Draken

The wind tore past my ears like screaming arrows. Every beat of my wings was a thunderclap in the storm-choked sky. I held Vesper tight in my arms as we soared above the ruins of the valley, the remnants of the ritual site now nothing more than a scar of fire and blood beneath us.

But our eyes were fixed on something much worse.

The serpent.

It moved through the sky like a mountain with a pulse—its scaled body coiling through the clouds, so massive it cast a shadow over entire towns. Its abyss-forged body shimmered with an oily sheen, black as tar with veins of pulsing red energy that throbbed like a heartbeat.

We had never seen anything like it.

And it was heading north

Below us, scattered squadrons of soldiers and city guards fought to hold back the tide of smaller abyss monsters still spilling from rifts, doing what they could. But this... this was no fight for them.

"This is madness," Vesper said, her voice sharp against the wind. "Shouldn’t we have stayed at the ritual site? We could’ve taken more of them down—bought more time!"

I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t take my eyes off the beast. "More keep pouring out. You saw it. It’s endless." We both looked back at the eye in the sky, it looked like it had no plans of closing soon. Black ichor kept pouring down from it. And no one knows how many stupid people will try to drink it this time. I looked ahead, "Staying there would’ve been suicide."

She scowled. "And this isn’t?"

"That serpent is something other soldiers won’t be able to take down. If we don’t take it down, we’re just throwing bodies at a tide." I looked at her then. "The guards can hold their own against the lesser ones. They’re trained for it. But that thing?" I pointed as the serpent let out a roar, shaking the clouds apart. "There’s no one else who can even get close to something that big and survive. Not unless they have war experience like you and me."

Vesper fell quiet, her hair whipping in the wind, eyes locked on the serpent’s distant shape. Its body was starting to descend, crushing hillsides as it slithered closer to another town.

She narrowed her eyes. "You have a plan to kill something that size?"

"The bigger they are," I said, adjusting my grip on her as I angled upward, "the harder they are to cut. And the more difficult it is to find their core."

She looked at me, frowning. "So?"

I smirked. "You’re a serpent too. I figured you’d know how to kill one."

That earned me a glare—and the smallest twitch of a smile, "You little!" Her eyes sparked with fire. "Fine. Then we do this together."

We rose higher into the sky, the serpent now fully visible in the distance, its colossal head winding toward the mountains near the capital. Its eyes were massive glowing pits, and in its maw—flashes of red flame boiled like magma.

Whatever it was planning to do next... we had to stop it before it did.

Vesper adjusted in my grip, drawing her twin blades—both already burning.

I beat my wings once more, hard. The air shook. The clouds parted.

We flew straight toward the beast.

"We’re running out of time," Vesper muttered, gripping my arm as we closed the distance.

I could feel her muscles coiled like a spring. Her eyes never left the serpent.

Then, suddenly, she turned to me.

"Draken. Transform."

My wings beat once, confused. "You’re still in my arms."

She looked at me and, for a moment, there was no trace of fear. Only fire.

"Then throw me into the sky. Straight toward its head. I’ll land the first strike. You shift while I’m in the air."

I blinked. "You’re serious?"

She smirked. "A monster that size is bound to have a core just as massive. And it’s not going to die unless it’s burned from fire that size too" Her eyes glinted with firelight. "We need your breath. We need Dragon fire."

I hesitated only for a second. Then I nodded.

I banked hard, the wind howling past us. The serpent noticed—its massive, glowing eye rolling in its socket to watch our approach. Its maw widened, sparks of crimson energy flaring inside.

"Ready?" I called.

Vesper braced. "Do it."

I spun in the air, building momentum—and then hurled her with all the strength I had.

She soared like a flaming arrow. Her body twisted midair, arms spread, blades drawn. Wind rushed past her as she shot toward the serpent’s enormous face, her silhouette burning like a comet.

I didn’t wait.

I dropped back, hovered for a second—and then let go.

The fire inside me exploded outward. My limbs stretched. Bones shifted. Scales ripped through skin like molten armor. My wings expanded to the size of a battlefield, catching the wind like thunder. Horns curled back from my skull, my jaw lengthening as fangs emerged, sharp as blades.

In seconds, the air was filled with the roar of a fully-formed dragon.

The sky shuddered.

Below me, I watched Vesper collide with the serpent’s upper body like a divine weapon. Her blades plunged deep into its scaled flesh, and with a mighty spin she ignited the wound, tearing it open with fire.

The serpent screamed—a sound that cracked the clouds and made the heavens bleed. Its head reeled back, exposing the thick, glowing veins beneath its throat.

That was it.

I beat my wings once, launching forward like a meteor.

***

Aelin

Rael was right.

I had been holding back. All this time... I’d been afraid like a normal person. But what I hadn’t realized fully—until now—was that I wasn’t a normal person

It chained me.

But not anymore.

The moment the Abyss worshippers returned—slithering through the shadows, laughter curling from their twisted lips, blades glinting with dark intent—I stopped trembling.

I stilled.

I focused on the pulsing rhythm beneath their chests—the corrupted energy, the cores.

As they came near me to torture me, to break my mind even though I was already in tatters, I reached for my power, trusting it more.

With a whisper of a spell and a flick of my fingers, I connected my palm with their cores and attacked. The first fell with a cry—his core shattered like glass. The second turned to run, but I caught him in the chest with a flickering brand of flame, my magic burning straight through him.

I turned every last one of them to ash.

When the air settled, nothing remained but the scorched outline of their bodies and the quiet hum of my own power thrumming under my skin.

And still—I wasn’t done.

I knew there was more.

I closed my eyes—and in my mind, I saw it clearly:

My room. A few days ago.

That moment.

I was standing before my desk, my fingers hesitating over the scroll Seraphine had given me.

She’d said only I could read it, but I hadn’t read it for days even after she gave it to me, but I knew I had to

So

I unrolled it for the first time.

There were no instructions there. Just a symbol, intricate and otherworldly—spiraling lines woven around a central flame.

And below it, a single spell.

The language was the same as the ancient book.

Now, in the middle of the blood-soaked circle they had thrown me into again, I sat up, on my knees. I remembered that scroll with painful clarity. I remembered the symbol.

So I drew it on the earth. With my own blood.

My finger trembled as I painted the lines. Around and around, curving with reverence and instinct. The cold earth soaked it up greedily.

Then I opened my mouth.

And I spoke the spell.

Each word felt like it came from every lifetime I never lived.

I didn’t know what would happen but I had to see through it.

The trees around the clearing bent inward.

The blood on the ground glowed.

And then—

Everything went white.

The sound vanished. The wind stopped. Time cracked.

For a moment I wasn’t in my body.

I was everywhere.

I saw the sky shift. I felt the ocean pulse. I touched the outer edge of a storm not yet born. The world opened—and I stepped through something within myself that had been locked until now.

And then—

black.