THERON POV
I watched Elara step out of the shattered cage, and I barely recognized her.
Not because she looked different—though she did, with golden scales patterning her arms and collarbone like living jewelry, her eyes blazing with molten light, her hair moving in a wind that didn't exist.
But because of the power.
It radiated from her like heat from a forge, and through the bond we now shared—that life-thread she'd woven into me when she saved me from Morgana's poison—I could feel it. The sheer magnitude of what she'd become.
She'd fully awakened.
The first dragon tamer to reach this level in two centuries, according to the old stories. And those stories hadn't been kind about what happened to tamers who reached this peak.
But that was a problem for later.
Right now, I was just grateful to be alive to see it.
