Contents
Chapter 40
Overview
Aris and Raker reach an oasis, sharing a fragile moment before dawn. Cadoc arrives, flaunting Kira’s stolen sword and goading Aris into a duel that sweeps them onto his dragon. Over the burning City on Fire, Cadoc exploits Aris’s trauma, forcing a clash that cracks Kira’s blade; Aris drops her weapon, and Cadoc kicks her into the flames.
Summary
Aris and Raker reach a dazzling oasis after the desert. Exhausted and raw, they bathe; Aris notes their matching throat scars and the lingering truth that they remain enemies despite intimacy. They rest in a cave, and at dawn Aris refills water while Raker sleeps.
A dragon descends—the same that once attacked Aris’s. Cadoc steps from its landing site, taunting her with a paladian dagger and Kira’s purple-hilted sword, boasting he captured and “broke” Kira before taking her blade. Consumed by fury, Aris engages him, her training evident as she shatters his borrowed metals.
As Raker races toward the fight, Cadoc calls his dragon, which sweeps both combatants onto its back. They duel along the spine midair; Cadoc tires while Aris’s precision grows, drawing blood across his face. The dragon soars over the City on Fire, and the heat triggers Aris’s traumatic memories, briefly unbalancing her.
Cadoc escalates by drawing Kira’s sword, forcing Aris to avoid breaking it. The dragon dives, intensifying the flames and her panic. When Cadoc taunts her with Kira’s screams, Aris hesitates; their blades meet, cracking Kira’s weapon and loosening Aris’s grip. Her own sword slips to the scales.
Before Aris can reclaim it or call it, Cadoc kicks her from the dragon. She plunges into the City on Fire, swallowed by flames, and her body breaks upon impact, as a distant, anguished bellow echoes from above.
Who Appears
- ArisProtagonist; reaches an oasis with Raker, confronts Cadoc, duels on his dragon, is triggered by fire, disarmed, and kicked into the City on Fire.
- CadocAntagonist; arrives on his dragon, reveals he killed Kira and stole her sword, duels Aris, exploits her trauma, and kicks her into the flames.
- RakerAlly and enemy; shares a vulnerable oasis moment with Aris, awakens to the fight, races to help but cannot stop Cadoc’s abduction.
- KiraAris’s friend; appears via her purple-hilted sword and Cadoc’s account of her capture and death, used to unnerve Aris mid-duel.
- Cadoc’s dragonMount that snatches Aris and Cadoc, enabling their aerial duel above the burning City on Fire.