The Temple of Cinders stood inside the volcano above the citadel.
The ancient doors opened only for the ruling dragon bloodline or someone carrying dragonslayer magic.
Melody possessed neither.
Varos carried her through.
Nick and Jodi reached the temple with royal guards, but green flames blocked the entrance.
“Dragonslayer fire,” Jodi said.
“Can you cross it?” Nick asked.
“Yes.”
“You would have to go alone.”
“I have been alone before.”
The words struck him, but he did not argue.
Jodi stepped into the green fire.
Inside, Ember and Ava were bound on opposite sides of an obsidian altar. The Crown of Cinders floated above them—an iron circlet wrapped in living flame.
Melody stood between the girls with a silver dagger.
Varos watched from an upper platform.
“You should have remained in the human realm,” Melody said.
“You should have stayed away from my daughters.”
“Our family spent generations hiding your blood while you wasted it dreaming of marriage to a merchant.”
“You wanted Paul.”
“I wanted everything you had.”
Jodi laughed bitterly.
“You took a man who was ashamed of me.”
“I took proof that I could.”
Melody revealed that she found Elara’s forbidden family records years earlier. The writings identified Jodi as the last dragonslayer heir and possible fated mate of the Burning Lord.
Melody followed her through the gate under a glamour. Varos helped conceal her presence.
She planted the poison, used Jodi’s old engagement ring to weave false memories into Nick’s mind, and created the illusion that he knowingly chose to imprison Jodi.
“Why let me escape?” Jodi asked.
“I expected the human kingdoms to kill you when your pregnancy revealed itself.”
“You knew?”
“I knew before you did.”
Melody planned to claim the twins once their powers awakened.
Paul helped her watch Jodi’s cottage in exchange for gold.
“He opened the window?” Jodi asked.
“He believed I was taking them to a safer home.”
Jodi’s anger became strangely calm.
Paul had betrayed her again, but this time his cowardice endangered her children.
The enchanted raven had belonged to Varos from the beginning. He led Jodi into the Dragon Lands because Nick’s curse was killing the realm.
They needed a dragonslayer capable of suppressing it until Melody could control the crown.
Jodi had been used from the moment she found the silver key.
Melody raised the dagger over Ember’s palm.
“We need only a little blood.”
Ember spat in her face.
Melody lifted the blade.
Ava screamed.
The temple doors exploded.
Nick entered in his full dragon form.
He was enormous, with black scales, silver horns, and wings that filled the chamber. The curse burned through him in blue cracks, but rage had broken the barrier preventing his transformation.
Varos shifted into a gray dragon and attacked.
They collided above the altar.
Jodi ran toward her daughters.
Melody slashed the dagger across her arm. Dragonslayer poison coated the blade, turning the wound black.
Jodi fell to one knee.
“Your touch may stop his fire,” Melody whispered, “but it cannot protect you from your own blood.”
Ember and Ava screamed simultaneously.
Fire erupted from both children.
Ember produced silver flame.
Ava’s burned crimson.
The twin fires wrapped around Jodi without harming her. The poison evaporated from her wound.
Their combined power shattered their chains.
Ember tackled Melody’s legs while Ava seized the fallen dagger. Jodi rose and struck her cousin hard enough to send her across the altar.
Above them, Varos tore into Nick’s wounded wing.
Nick crashed onto the platform.
The curse consumed his scales.
Jodi ran to him and pressed both hands against his chest.
The blue fire vanished.
For the first time, she felt the curse itself—a twisted chain of magic anchored inside Nick’s heart.
The curse was connected to her bloodline.
One of Jodi’s ancestors had helped create it after Malrec corrupted the first dragonslayer guardian.
It could be broken only if the final dragonslayer freely joined her life force with the dragon lord’s—not as a servant, healer, prisoner, or sacrifice, but as a chosen equal.
Nick opened his eyes.
“Do not do it.”
“You don’t know what I’m doing.”
“If breaking the curse binds you to me, stop.”
“The realm will die.”
“I will not purchase it with your freedom.”
The old Nick would have demanded salvation.
This Nick was willing to burn rather than claim her without consent.
Jodi understood that the bond would not imprison her. It would unite them only while both continued choosing it.
“I am not doing this because you need me,” she said.
“Then why?”
“Because despite everything, I never stopped loving you.”
She kissed him.
The Slayer’s Brand returned across her face in brilliant silver lines.
Power erupted through the temple.
The curse tore free from Nick’s heart and became a serpent of blue flame. It circled the chamber, screaming with Malrec’s ancient voice.
Jodi seized it with both hands.
Nick rose in dragon form and breathed black fire.
Dragonslayer light and dragon flame struck together.
The serpent shattered.
Across the Burning Realm, the poisoned rivers cleared. The dark sky turned gold. Dragon eggs that had remained dormant for a century began hatching beneath the mountains.
Nick’s burning ended.
Varos attempted to escape.
Ember raised both hands. Silver fire wrapped around his wings and dragged him down.
Ava held the poison dagger near his throat.
“Do not move.”
The dragon lord’s uncle stared at the two five-year-old girls.
“I surrender.”
Melody crawled toward the Crown of Cinders.
Jodi reached it first.
The crown descended into her hands without burning.
Melody screamed.
“It belongs to me!”
“You wanted its power without understanding what it protects.”
Jodi placed the crown on the altar.
Living fire surrounded Melody.
Every lie she planted appeared above the court as a visible memory: hiding poison beneath Jodi’s bed, bribing Paul, weaving false scenes into Nick’s mind, ordering the twins’ abduction, and planning to kill Jodi after taking her blood.
The royal guards witnessed everything.
Melody collapsed.
Nick shifted into human form and approached his daughters. The curse marks had disappeared from his skin.
He knelt.
“I failed your mother before either of you were born. I cannot change that. If you allow me, I would like to become your father in more than blood.”
Ember looked at Ava.
Ava whispered, “Can he still become a dragon?”
“Yes,” Nick answered.
“Can we ride on his back?” Ember asked Jodi.
“Absolutely not.”
Nick nodded solemnly.
“Your mother has spoken.”
Ember considered him.
“You can stay.”
To Nick, those three words mattered more than his throne.
The family had survived the temple, but the conspiracy was not finished.
Paul had helped abduct the twins.
Rowan provided Melody with information.
Elara concealed the records that might have prevented everything.
Jodi would have to return to the human kingdom and confront the family that had chosen Melody over her at every turn.
This time, she would not return as the ashamed woman they abandoned.
She would return carrying the true fire of the dragonslayers—with the Lord of the Burning Realm at her side.