Above Cadin

  Isaac flew over Cadin’s rooftops with Yu clinging to his neck, her cheek pressed to his shoulder as she tried to catch a scent on the wind. The city below looked wrong—too quiet. No shouts. No steel. No smoke columns rising where a war should be.

  “Anything?” Isaac asked, eyes scanning streets and alleys.

  Yu inhaled again, brow tightening. “No.” She pulled back slightly, confused. “It’s like there’s no one down there.”

  Isaac didn’t like that at all.

  Then the air vibrated.

  A faint buzz—like a hornet nest inside the sky.

  Isaac’s head snapped up.

  Too late.

  Something streaked into view and detonated near them with a violent flash. The blast swallowed the sound of the world for a split second—and then slammed into their bodies.

  Isaac and Yu were launched sideways.

  They crashed through the upper floor of a building and tore down into stone and splintered wood, the impact collapsing walls and burying them under rubble.

  Silence.

  Dust.

  Then movement.

  Yu’s voice cut through the debris, sharp and pissed. “Shit… they ripped my dress, Isaac.”

  Isaac coughed and pushed upward. Stone shifted as his strength surged. He heaved a slab off his back and climbed out, dragging Yu with him. She was already brushing dust off herself, eyes narrowed, fuming.

  “I’m going to eat the head of whoever did that,” Yu growled.

  Isaac didn’t answer right away.

  He was listening.

  A faint sound—breathing, whispering—too controlled to be civilians running, too scared to be soldiers. He turned and ripped aside a chunk of collapsed wall like it was paper.

  A group of high elves was hiding inside the wreckage.

  Their eyes were wide. Faces gray with dust. Hands shaking around small weapons they didn’t look ready to use.

  Isaac raised an open hand immediately, palm out.

  “I’m not here to hurt you,” he said, voice low. “Get out. Leave. Before—”

  The buzzing returned.

  Isaac’s eyes widened.

  “Down!”

  A second bomb screamed through the air and hit near the hiding elves.

  It exploded.

  The high elves didn’t even have time to scream.

  One moment they were there—frozen, terrified—then the blast tore them apart. Blood and smoke and stone fragments filled the air.

  The shockwave threw Isaac and Yu back into the rubble like dolls.

  Yu’s breath hitched.

  Then something in her snapped.

  Her eyes went black.

  Heat rolled off her body. Her back arched. Wings began to tear out into existence, the outline growing, swelling—dragon flesh forcing its way through restraint.

  Isaac pushed himself up, coughing, eyes wide as he watched her.

  “Yu—”

  She didn’t answer.

  She transformed.

  A giant dragon surged out of the wreckage with a furious roar, shaking dust off the ruined street. Yu launched into the sky like a missile, following the trajectory of the bomb back to its source.

  Isaac stared up for half a second—then looked down again.

  At the dead high elves in the rubble.

  At the quiet city that had just revealed its trap.

  His jaw clenched.

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  “No…” he whispered.

  He lowered his head, breath shaking once.

  “Damn it.”

  Cannon Tower

  Yu reached the cannon tower as it was being loaded again.

  A massive barrel angled toward the sky, crews moving like ants under panic orders, chains clanking, winches screaming. Yu didn’t hesitate—she slammed her weight into the structure and tore into the pillars one by one. Stone cracked. The tower groaned.

  She inhaled.

  Black breath gathered in her throat like smoke turning into hunger.

  “FIRE!” soldiers screamed.

  The cannon launched.

  The shell flew straight at Yu’s open mouth.

  She swallowed it.

  No struggle. No flinch. Just a heavy clunk sliding down her throat as if it was nothing.

  Then Yu unleashed her breath.

  A wave of black heat washed through the tower’s top platforms, eating steel, flesh, and screams in one sweep. Soldiers died where they stood. Others tried to run and didn’t make it three steps. The entire structure shook, burning from the inside as if the tower itself was choking.

  Far away, Isaac watched the cannon tower break apart under her fury.

  And he didn’t feel relief.

  He felt the trap closing.

  Ruined Street

  Shields rose around Isaac.

  Spears leveled.

  A ring of soldiers tightened in silence, disciplined, coordinated—like they’d trained for one target only.

  Isaac stepped forward.

  They rushed him.

  He moved first.

  A blue flash from his eyes cut two men clean through their armor. Isaac slipped between the falling bodies, grabbed a spear mid-thrust, and used it to yank its owner forward into a knee that folded him. He didn’t stop to watch anyone hit the ground. He was already turning—elbow to throat, palm strike to chest, one soldier lifted and thrown into another like a battering ram.

  Metal clanged. Bodies piled. The circle broke.

  Isaac kept walking.

  Commander’s View

  A commander watched from a half-collapsed balcony with a larger platoon behind him. His expression didn’t change as his men died below. He held his hand out.

  A soldier knelt and offered a blood-soaked sack.

  Inside—an arm.

  Selene’s arm.

  The commander stared at it for a moment like it was a tool, then nodded once.

  “Open the cage,” he said quietly. “Then send the platoon.”

  The soldier sprinted toward a guarded enclosure. Several men stood around it with spears and chains. The lock was undone. The door creaked open.

  Something stepped out.

  A lean creature with green eyes and a collar around its neck. Shirtless. Covered in deep, strange markings—carved into skin like old punishment. Its face was blank. Not calm. Not angry.

  Empty.

  It walked forward slowly.

  A soldier shouted and whipped it.

  “Time to hunt!”

  The creature blinked once… twice… three times.

  Its eyes changed color with each blink.

  And then it was gone.

  Not running.

  Not hiding.

  Just… vanished.

  Rooftops

  Arrows rained down on Yu in dragon form—volleys so thick they turned the sky into a dark swarm. Yu roared, wings beating, but they kept coming. The arrows clattered off scales, some sticking, some snapping, annoying her more than hurting her.

  Then something smiled from the shadows.

  A man with white hair stood on a rooftop, watching her like she was entertainment. His eyes narrowed—and his pupils pulled thin, reptile-like.

  He crouched.

  And jumped.

  The leap was wrong—too far, too fast. He dropped down building faces like gravity was optional, then launched again and caught Yu by the tail mid-flight.

  Yu jerked in shock.

  The stranger laughed. “Let’s dance, sweetheart.”

  He yanked.

  Yu—a giant dragon—was thrown like paper.

  She slammed through a section of roof, skidding across broken stone, rolling once, twice—then stopping in a crater.

  Yu snapped back into humanoid form, pushing dust out of her hair, staring up like she couldn’t believe what just touched her.

  She looked at him.

  He was still smiling, toothpick in his mouth, hands in his pockets like he wasn’t in the middle of a war.

  Yu’s eyes narrowed. “How dare you put your hands on me.”

  The man shrugged. “Pretty bold for a lizard in a dress.” His smile sharpened. “We can end this quick if you behave.”

  He licked his lips—his tongue was too long, too animal.

  Yu’s expression turned cold. Recognition clicked.

  “You’re not an elf,” she said. “You’re a damn rex-type beast.”

  The man’s grin widened like she’d complimented him. He pulled one hand from his pocket. His nails lengthened into black claws.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Name’s Jack. Dinosaur bestial.” He tilted his head. “Paid to bring you down.”

  Yu laughed once—short, mocking. “I’m a dragon, you idiot. You think you can—”

  “I think I can do this.”

  The toothpick dropped from Jack’s mouth.

  His jaw widened. Teeth filled his mouth—too many, too sharp. His chest expanded, and he released a roar so violent it turned into a weapon.

  A crushing soundwave slammed into Yu.

  Her arms flew up on instinct. The air shook. Her ears rang like knives. The force shoved her back step by step until her legs buckled and she hit the ground hard, breath knocked out of her.

  Jack watched her clothes tear further under the pressure, amused.

  He smiled like a predator tasting control.

  “Now that’s better,” he murmured.

  Ruined Street

  Isaac kept moving.

  Soldiers rushed him in waves, desperate now, angry now—too late. Isaac tore through them anyway. A skull cracked under his grip. Another man tried to raise a shield and a blue beam punched through it, burning straight through flesh and armor. The smell of blood and scorched metal followed him like smoke.

  Then—

  A sound.

  Not a horn. Not a bomb.

  A voice.

  “Isaac…”

  His body froze for half a heartbeat.

  “…Isaac… Isaac…”

  It wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be. It slid into his ears like a needle.

  Isaac turned, breathing hard, eyes flashing left and right, searching through dust and ruined walls.

  And then he saw her.

  The world narrowed.

  Kate stood in front of him, smiling, wearing a white dress that didn’t belong in a battlefield. Her hair fell clean over her shoulders, untouched by smoke. Her skin looked warm. Alive.

  For a second, Isaac forgot how to breathe.

  “Hello, my love,” Kate said softly.

  Isaac’s lips parted, but no sound came out. His hands trembled at his sides.

  “…No,” he whispered. “That’s not possible.”

  Kate stepped closer. Each step felt wrong—like the war was being pushed away to make room for her.

  “They brought me back,” she said, voice gentle. “From DNA.”

  Isaac’s eyes widened, panic rising under his ribs. “They…? Who is they?”

  Kate’s smile stayed in place. “The high elves.” Her tone turned almost pleading. “They don’t want to fight, Isaac. They just want freedom.”

  She lifted her hands slowly, like she was calming a wild animal.

  “So they brought me back to warn you,” Kate continued. “Please… stop the killing, my love. End this.”

  Isaac shook his head once, small and violent, like his mind was trying to reject reality.

  His vision blurred.

  Because it was her.

  Kate.

  Right in front of him.

  Not in roses and coffee. Not in a bed. Not in a dream he could blame on Limbo.

  In the middle of Cadin.

  Beautiful.

  Breathing.

  Smiling at him like she’d never died.

  And Isaac stood there trembling—caught between the urge to fall into her arms… and the fear that this was exactly what Fall wanted.