RUJIN’S POV “You gave him the gold, Rujin.
You fed the wolf the sun,” my dragon beast spoke up hours later, after Koro fell asleep.
“Be silent,” I hissed into the empty room, and my fingers dug into the obsidian armrests, the stone cracking under the sudden spike in my temperature.
“Silence is for the dead,” the voice rumbled, growing louder, more rhythmic.
“And you, little spark, are finally beginning to burn.
Do you feel how the hybrid took it?
How did he drink the radiation like it was mother’s milk?
He didn’t just filter us.
He desired us and wanted to devour us and have more of our blood.” “He’s an asset, Ignis,” I whispered, using the name I had buried in the dark a lifetime ago.
“A tool to keep the Board from realizing I’m failing.
Nothing more.” Ignis, my dragon, burst out in laughter, and the sound was a roar of flame that caused the lights in the suite to flare a blinding white.
“A tool?
You lie to the world, Rujin, but do not lie to the fire.
You held him.
You let a hybrid have a glitch in the Great Design, put his teeth into your divinity.
And you didn’t strike him down.
You opened the gates.
You were lonely, little spark.
You were freezing in your own sun until he touched you.” “I was stabilizing my core,” I snapped, standing up and pacing the length of the room.
Every step left a charred footprint on the black stone.
“If I hadn’t let him take the excess, the Spire would be a crater.
I did what was necessary for the Syndicate and the damn realm that needs me” “The Syndicate?” Ignis’s voice turned mocking, a hiss of steam against ice.
“The Syndicate is parasites.
They are maggots crawling on the carcass of our power.
You don’t care for their quotas or their sectors.
You care that for the first time in twenty-five years, the screaming in our head stopped because a wolf licked the wound.” I stopped in front of the window, looking out at the frozen expanse of Kryos.
The city was a monument to my burden.
Every light down there was a debt I owed.
Every life was a weight on my shoulders.
“He hates me,” I said, my voice cracking.
“He’s waiting for the moment I sleep to tear my throat out.
You saw his beasts, Ignis.
You saw the Wolf and the Vampire.
They aren’t looking for a master.
They’re looking for a meal.” “And what a meal we are,” Ignis purred, his massive wings beating against the walls of my subconscious.
“Let him hunger.
A predator that doesn’t hunger is a corpse.
But did you see the violet frost?
Did you see how our fire changed when it hit his cold?
We are evolving, Rujin.
The Core is no longer a cage.
It is becoming a heart, and it will be the most powerful weapon ever forged.” “I am a freak.
He is an abomination, and together, we are a disaster waiting to happen.” “Together,” Ignis corrected, the word resonating like a gong, “we are the end of the Winter.
The Board knows this.
They saw the Pits.
They saw him throw our fire.
They are terrified, Rujin.
They thought they bought a cooling rod, and they realized they bought a second sun.” ” Mhh,” I responded with a nod.
“They will try to kill him,” Ignis said, his voice now cold and focused.
“The Sanction is already being drafted.
They cannot allow the Dragon to have a partner, as they want you to be solitary, desperate.
They want you under their thumb and to ensure they will always control you.
“I know,” I said, my jaw tightening.
“I saw it in Vane’s eye today with the realization that Koro is dangerous to keep, but too valuable to destroy.
They’ll try to separate us.
They’ll try to break the Thermal Lock.” “If they touch the wolf, we will show them the true meaning of the Sovereign’s Infero.
We will burn the vertical city until the bedrock melts into the sea.
You are the King of Fire, Rujin.
It is time you stopped asking for permission to breathe.” Ignis growled “I can’t just kill them all, Ignis,” I whispered.
“Nara…
the girl…
they have her.
If I move against the Board, they’ll kill the only thing Koro cares about.
He’ll never forgive me.
He’ll become the very monster he thinks I am.” “Then we play the game,” Ignis said, his form receding into the dark volcanic depths.
” Do not push him away tomorrow, little spark.
Do not put back the mask of the toxic master.
He has tasted the sun now and knows the truth about us.
Use the tether, not to drag him, but to hold him.” The Dragon’s presence faded, leaving me alone in the ringing silence of the suite.
I looked at my hands.
They were trembling.
The orange veins were still there, but they felt different, less like a prison and more like a map.
I looked at the door to where Koro slept.
I didn’t want to be a weapon anymore; I wanted to be the man who kept the wolf warm.
I walked to the door and pressed my hand against it, and I could feel him on the other side, the cool, steady thrum of his life-force.
He was the only thing in the world that didn’t demand I be a god.
He just demanded I be a man and be fair, but the world in Kyros did not work like that.
“Tomorrow,” I whispered to the door and used all the restraint that I had not to go to Koro and bury myself in him.
I turned and walked to my own bed, the heat in my chest no longer a scream, but a low, steady flame.
Ignis was right about one thing.
We were evolving, and I could feel the way Koro’s power had stabilized Ignis and the way our balance stabilized me.
I never expected it or even imagined it, but now the Syndicate had no idea how hot the fire was about to get.
What do you think?