Page 102 of Feathers and Scales

Nearly kneeling, she pushed up and jumped backward. Her blades slid free of his, and she tossed her dagger at his wing. He whipped to the side, dodging in a blur. She ducked under his other wing. As he turned back, she came up from behind and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. The other circled his waist, embracing him from behind. Only coldness pressed against her skin. A tear wet her face.

“I am sorry, Fotios.” It was time to call in her ace.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“What I should have done years ago. Teaching you my Angelic name.La-ish-arum…” As the syllables took shape in her mouth, whispered into his ear, energy tinged the air. The Angelic Summoning coiled along her spirit and the link that bound her to Daxton. The distinction between their spirits had blurred—fused at a level that let her Summon him. “…dese-rub.”

The link vibrated and snapped.

A bronze dragon appeared before them and rose to its full height, casting Izzy in a shadow.

Daxton.

“What did you just do?” Fotios’s elbow slammed into her temple.

Pain exploded, disorienting her as she fell to the ground. The heat of Daxton’s fire blazed into the room.

A blast of Fotios’s indigo light crackled against the inferno. The black fire singed an edge of Fotios’s wing, turning it to solid ebony stone. He screamed and ran for the cavern’s opening.

Daxton shot after him, a fox chasing a mouse into a hole. Izzy scrambled to her feet, needing to see them. Near the entrance, Daxton reeled backward, flinging Fotios into the air of the cavern.

Fotios snapped his wings out, but crashed, back first, into the wall. Rubble crumbled to the ground. The dragon whipped around; a red gash glistened across the bottom edge of his snout.Oh no.She grabbed the gun she’d dropped.

Fotios launched himself at him.

Daxton deflected a blow to his neck with a sweep of his tail. Fotios feinted left, but Daxton obstructed his path and blew fire. Another flare of powerful indigo light from Fotios acted as a quick barrier against the flame.

Fear clogged Izzy’s throat.I can’t get a clear shot.The gun trembled in her hand.

Every time Fotios tried to land a hit, Daxton dodged. Their bodies slammed into the wall, and the glass towers—each one cradlingFotios’s relics—shattered in bursts of light and sound. Shards shot outward, slicing the air. Her memories, once preserved in crystal and bronze, fractured with every blow. The scent of old parchment and scorched metal filled the air. What had been sacred was now rubble, like her relationship with Fotios.

Fotios had Daxton on the defense, unable to make an offensive blow with his need to keep Fotios from escaping. Pain ripened along the link. Daxton’s shoulder seeped blood from another deep gash. Izzy gritted her teeth. Cold ice glazed over her mind.I won’t let Fotios hurt someone else I care about.

Energy shook the air, and she gave in to it. Her featherless wings stretched out on either side of her. Knitting yellow power into her wings, she kicked off the ground and flew at Fotios, gun ready.

“Izzy, don’t!”

She caught a slap from Fotios’s wing as he spun to meet her advance. The impact knocked her back into the air. He lunged after her. She swooped into the cave wall. The air from his sword brushed her face. She gasped, feeling a painful nick against her cheek.

Dipping under his next swing, she flew up and shot him in the chest. Black light flashed between them.

“Isi…” He wheezed and stared down. Ebony stone fractured across his chest. He grimaced wryly. “You were always good with inventions.”

The compliment tugged at her fond memories. “Fotios. Please stop.”

He shook his head. “Not until you learn the truth. Logic built that gun, not emotion.” Fotios raised his blade.

She folded her wings and dropped. Fotios dove after her, but Daxton grabbed his torso in his powerful jaws.

Fotios yelled, swinging his iolite sword in a desperate, wild arc that missed Daxton. At the rear of Daxton’s throat, a deep, internal rumbling intensified, and Izzy saw a warning in his eyes: blue light mixedwith black, like a furnace ready to consume. This was the dragon’s black flame, the power that petrified Archfiends like Medusa.

Fotios’s own eyes, once so full of cruel malice, now met Izzy’s gaze, and for a fleeting, horrifying moment, unadulterated terror froze his face.

A wave of profound sadness, mixed with the chilling recognition of his fear, washed over Izzy. Her hand, still gripping her pistol, stretched out instinctively toward Fotios. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, the words a raw ache in her throat, wanting to stop Daxton even if it was wrong, even if it meant letting the monster escape. But it was too late. The decision had been made, the momentum irreversible.

Daxton unleashed his breath, and a blinding wave of black fire erupted from his jaws, not a typical flame, but a consuming darkness that seemed to suck all the light from the cavern. It enveloped Fotios in its petrifying embrace.

Izzy watched, transfixed, as the fire consumed him, not burning flesh, but turning it into stone. Fotios’s skin, where the flames first touched, turned ashen, then solidified into dark, gleaming ebony. The transformation was agonizingly swift yet excruciatingly detailed. The ebony fractured across his chest. His indigo blade fell with a faint clang.