Chapter 35

Heart of the Inferno

The world disappeared the moment Evelynn touched him.

Not metaphorically.

One second she stood inside the massive claws of the Dragon King suspended above a burning sky.

The next—

fire swallowed everything.

Not ordinary fire.

Dragonfire.

Ancient. Endless. Alive.

Evelynn gasped sharply as heat crashed through her body hard enough to stop thought itself. Black flames spiraled endlessly around her beneath a dark red sky while the soulbond tore completely open between her and Kael.

No walls left.

No separation.

Only him.

The dragon’s heart.

The inferno at the center of everything Kael had spent three centuries trying to control.

Evelynn stumbled across black stone floating in a sea of fire while distant dragon roars echoed endlessly through the darkness around her.

Or not around her.

Inside him.

Every emotion here felt too large for human understanding. Rage burned like collapsing stars. Grief stretched endlessly across the firestorm. Loneliness echoed through the inferno like an abandoned kingdom.

And somewhere deep beneath all of it—

Kael.

Drowning.

“Kael!”

Her voice vanished beneath roaring flames.

The fire reacted instantly.

Black dragonfire surged violently around her, towering higher like something testing her presence inside this place.

The soulbond pulsed painfully.

Warning.

The dragon did not want her here.

Unfortunately for the dragon, Evelynn had already survived enough emotionally catastrophic situations to become unreasonable.

She kept walking.

The deeper she moved into the inferno, the more memories surrounded her.

Not visions this time.

Fragments.

Pieces of Kael scattered through the fire.

A younger Kael laughing beside Lyriana beneath sunlight.

Kael kneeling alone beside burned ruins after the war.

Kael sitting sleepless on the Black Citadel throne while dragonfire crawled beneath his skin for centuries.

Three hundred years of isolation.

Three hundred years of guilt.

Evelynn felt all of it.

And finally understood something terrible:

Kael never believed he deserved survival after Lyriana died.

The dragonfire around her exploded suddenly.

The inferno shifted violently.

Then she saw him.

At the center of the flames.

Not the dragon.

Kael.

Human-shaped again, kneeling alone upon black stone while chains of dragonfire wrapped around his body like restraints forged from rage itself.

His head remained lowered.

Motionless.

The fire around him burned so hot it warped the darkness itself.

Evelynn’s chest tightened painfully.

“Kael.”

He didn’t move.

The soulbond trembled violently now, overwhelmed by too much emotion colliding at once.

Evelynn stepped closer.

The dragonfire chains immediately tightened around him.

A low roar echoed through the inferno.

Warning.

The dragon again.

Evelynn ignored it.

“You need to wake up.”

Kael finally lifted his head slowly.

Gold eyes.

Not violent anymore.

Empty.

That somehow frightened her more.

“The city burns,” he said quietly.

His voice echoed strangely here.

Like something half buried beneath fire.

Evelynn stepped closer again. “Then stop it.”

A bitter laugh escaped him.

“I can’t.”

The dragonfire surged violently around them.

Kael looked away toward the endless inferno stretching through darkness.

“You should not have come here.”

“You say that every time I save your life.”

No reaction.

Nothing.

The emptiness in him hurt worse than the rage.

Evelynn finally reached him and grabbed the burning chains around his wrists despite the fire immediately scorching her skin.

Pain shot through her hands.

She ignored it.

Kael’s eyes widened slightly. “Evelynn—”

“You don’t get to disappear into this.”

The inferno shook violently.

Dragonfire roared upward around them.

The dragon hated her touching the chains.

Good.

Evelynn glared directly into the firestorm surrounding them. “I’m getting very tired of emotionally unstable dragons trying to self-destruct.”

Another roar thundered through the inferno.

Huge.

Ancient.

The dragon appeared then.

Not physically.

Worse.

Its presence filled the entire inferno at once. Endless black scales moving through the firestorm around them while massive gold eyes opened somewhere beyond the flames.

Watching her.

Judging her.

The soulbond nearly shattered beneath the pressure.

Kael immediately tensed. “Leave.”

“No.”

“It will kill you.”

Evelynn looked up toward the massive burning eyes surrounding the inferno. “Then it can get in line.”

The dragonfire exploded.

The chains around Kael tightened violently enough to drag him partially toward the flames.

Pain flashed across his expression.

Real pain.

And suddenly Evelynn understood.

The dragon wasn’t imprisoning him.

Kael was imprisoning himself.

All this time—

the chains came from guilt.

From grief.

From believing he deserved to suffer forever for surviving the war.

Evelynn stared at him in disbelief. “You never forgave yourself.”

Kael looked away immediately.

Answer enough.

The inferno darkened around them.

Not rage now.

Sorrow.

Endless sorrow.

Evelynn’s throat tightened painfully. “Kael… Lyriana loved you.”

The fire trembled.

“She died because of me.”

“No,” Evelynn snapped sharply. “She died because kingdoms betrayed both of you.”

The dragon roared again.

Violently this time.

The inferno cracked beneath them while black fire surged across the skies overhead.

Kael closed his eyes tightly like the words physically hurt him.

“She asked me to protect them.”

Them.

Lyriana.

The child.

Evelynn stepped closer until the fire nearly swallowed them both.

“And you did.”

Kael’s eyes opened sharply.

“No,” he whispered brokenly. “I failed.”

Evelynn grabbed his face before he could look away again.

The soulbond exploded.

Every emotion between them collided at once—grief, rage, loneliness, love, centuries of pain crashing together beneath the inferno.

And through all of it—

Evelynn forced the truth into him.

“You survived.”

The fire stopped.

Just for one impossible second.

Evelynn held his gaze fiercely despite tears burning her eyes now.

“You survived the war. You protected Black Citadel for three hundred years. You carried grief no one else could survive and you still kept this world standing.”

The dragonfire chains trembled violently.

Kael stared at her like he didn’t understand the words.

Like no one had ever said them before.

Maybe no one had.

Evelynn’s voice cracked slightly.

“You are not the monster who destroyed the world.”

The inferno shook harder.

The massive gold eyes surrounding them narrowed.

The dragon listened now.

Kael’s breathing became uneven.

The soulbond pulsed wildly.

Then finally, quietly, he whispered:

“What if I become him again?”

Evelynn pressed her forehead against his.

And answered with the only truth left.

“Then I’ll drag you back again.”