isolation ch

heartbeat echoing in his ears. They fed him once a day-stale bread, lukewarm water, barely enough to keep him alive-and the guards never spoke to him,

his palm never

ng at it, tracing its curves with his fingers, trying to understand what it meant. The old man had said he was inverted. Serap

day, they r

e his way back to the servant quarters on legs that trembled with every step. No one stopped him. No one spoke to him. It

waiting

apped around a cup of cold tea. He looked up when Kaelen entered, and

alive,"

ali

ey said you used dark magic. They sa

't know what I did. I don't know what happened. I just-" He stopped,

d reached under his cot, pulling out a small, cloth-wrapped bundle. "You

were empty

rius had taken her to the training yards-and the other dragons were sleeping in their roosts, their scales gleam

ght around his thin shoulders. He looked worse than he had in the servant quarters-gaunt, exhausted, his pale ey

," the ol

told

ot of things. Y

But I saw the mark. I felt the po

reach his eyes. "The truth. Everyone wants the truth un

ot eve

the shadows that clung to his skin like a second cloak. "My name is Aldric. I was once a scholar in the I

dwings. The book in the library s

r. "The Aetherium Dreadwings are not like other dragons. They don't breathe fire. They devour mana. They feed on the very essence that give

rembled. "Why we

ld. The Emperor of that time made a pact with it-a pact sealed with the blood of Null children. In exchange for power, he would feed the Monarch mana. And the only way to ensure the Monar

The voice that had called to him. The power

not. They went into hiding. Waiting

of Aldric like wate

h. He told him about the Great Purge, when the Emperor ordered every Dreadwing and every rider to be hunted down and killed. He told him a

im about Kael

as the last of her kind-the last rider to bond with an Aetherium Dreadwing. Your father was a scholar, lik

ightened. "What h

nt them down. They fought. They died. But before they died, they hid you. They left y

prop

ond with the last Dreadwing. The one who will destroy the Abyssal Monarch and fre

breathe. His parents. His parents had been Dreadwing riders. His pa

eve in prophe

d. "Neither did I. But then I met y

w wh

t you are the one. That the fate

found the

voices, the crackle of mana-powered weapons. He turned, his heart lurching, and saw a doze

bbed his a

abou

portant. Yo

abandon the only person who had ever told him the tru

tables, toward the hidden door that led to the

can

en before. "I've been running for twenty years. I'm tired of runni

turned

rd the clash of metal and the crackle of mana and the sou

pounding. The tunnels were dark and cramped, lit only by the faint glow of the mark on his

n he he

ugh the tunnels. Aldr

eding! The Abyssal Monarch is coming

ly. There was a sickenin

r, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The mark on his palm burned, hott

were gone. Everyone who had e

in the Abyss wa

ophecy was

yes. He looked at the mark on his palm, at the shadows that curl

time in his life,

ng to bond with it. And he was going to destro

o the tunnels, toward the Whisp

ables, Aldric's final wor

y is b

king until he reached

arrying whispers that might have been voices or might have been nothing at all. The sky above was clea

sky

And Kaelen knew, with a certainty that went beyond l

o the edge o

own into th

he j

ess swallowed him. The mark on his pa

elow, something

the voice whispered. I

eyes and let the

pering Abyss, the last Aether