Chapter 1 — **PROLOGUE**
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She dreamed of flying, as she had every night since the fall. The cold wind cut through the leather armor that shielded her body, creeping down her neck like icy water over rocks. She soared over the Ashen Peaks, where dragons once nested in forgotten lairs, the mountains draped in fog with the dark tips of pine trees jabbing the shadowed sky, one gnarled branch resembling a skeletal hand reaching for her. The wind howled in her ears, carrying the sharp scent of pine as she glimpsed a ruined tower piercing the mist below. Cradled in a smooth, curved claw of a draconic beast, she felt invincible, untouchable—yet bound by the grip that could crush her in an instant. For a fleeting second, wonder surged within her, until the fire from the beast’s glowing belly flared anew, its heat searing her face.
There was no moon. No stars. The only light that touched her came from that infernal glow beneath her, casting flickering shadows on her trembling hands.
*_Nêrys._*
When she closed her eyes, the thundering voice echoed in her mind, stirring a pang of loss—a memory of scales and smoke she couldn’t grasp. The fire burned her eyelids, warring with the icy cold in her veins, a battle she could not win. Her vision shimmered, reality blurring into the haze of fever. The wind’s chill deepened, seeping into her bones, until it became the cold of death licking down her throat.
“Take this, damn you. Swallow it. It’s all I have left to heal you…” A rough, trembling hand pressed a potion to her lips, bitter with the scent of ancient herbs brewed under the Blood Moon. The voice rasped, thick with grief, but the words faded into a hollow echo, swallowed by a rush of pain. It twisted her belly and speared into her chest, coiling around her heart like a serpent of flame. Her heart thundered, a desperate drumbeat echoing in her ears. Fear clawed at her mind, sharper than the cold—fear of falling, of failing. A single thought pierced the agony: *I cannot die here, not yet.*
Then everything went silent.
Her heartbeat stopped.
