Imril slammed his fist into Mael’s chest, sending a bolt of power through his twin’s body.

“You know that doesn’t work on me,” Mael hissed, his fangs flashing as he grinned. “You have two of them, and I have none. Why don’t you share a little, brother?”

Mael’s shadows threatened to engulf him, but Imril retaliated with a burst of power, easily dispersing the shadow.

“I don’t share,” he hissed. He brought his fist around in a vicious arc and smashed the bastard’s face in.

Mael hooked his tail around Imril’s neck and squeezed tight, cutting off his air supply. Even as he grew dizzy, Imril noted with some satisfaction that Cerulean blood trickled from Mael’s nose.

Serves you right, bastard.

With a grunt, he cocked one leg and delivered a powerful kick to Mael’s stomach, sending his twin flying.

Imril rose to his feet, taking deep, gasping breaths. He rubbed his neck and cursed the Shadowbringer for having such an irritatingly powerful grip.

But Imril cursed his twin even more for the loss of his own tail.

He’d gotten even though. In revenge, he’d ripped off Mael’s wings.

No wonder the bastard wanted to kill him.

Clutching his stomach, Mael stood, but instead of attacking, he glanced over his shoulder, his black eyes narrowing. Power rolled off his body in waves, but where Imril’s power was white-hot light, Mael’s was darkness; the complete absence of light.

His twin was a living vortex, sucking energy out of the air itself. Wherever he went, Mael sowed darkness.

Something had gone wrong during their conception. Mael had inherited a little too much of the Dark, and Imril channelled excessive amounts of Light.

Energy. He made it, and Mael…

Imril hated to admit it, but he still didn’t understand how Mael’s fucking power worked. Mael needed vir just like any of the other Drakhin, but he could survive without it for very long periods of time.

And whenever they met, their powers simply neutralized one another.

Mael’s shadow writhed and stretched out above him like an extension of his dark soul, drifting toward the females.

“No,” Imril growled. His wings rose in anger as he dashed across the floor. The females huddled in the corner, Esania standing in front of the golden-haired one with her arms raised defensively, her green eyes burning with conviction.

She was bleeding. He only had to take one quick glance behind him to see that a trickle of crimson blood ran down her arm, and the smell of it—bold, coppery, slightly bitter—was like a drug.

How vulnerable these aliens were.

She was powerless here. Her soft hands and slender frame told him she was no warrior, and yet she protected the other female with every fiber of her being.

For a heartbeat, he locked eyes with her, remembering the way she’d clung to him so fiercely, the way she’d chastised him, her voice full of fury, as if she were the one in charge.

Imril couldn’t remember the last time anyone had dared speak to him in such a manner.

He couldn’t remember the last time a female wasn’t afraid of him.

And now Mael was trying to steal her from him, and unintentionally or not, he’d hurt her, and that was unforgivable.

“Listen to me very carefully, Mael,” Imril said, his voice going very, very soft. Mael, who knew him best, would understand that tone. And to think there was a time when they once fought side-by-side, back-to-back, protecting each other from the evils of the Hythra and their insane father. “They are mine. If you touch even a hair on either of their heads, I will tear your face from your skull and make you eat it, brother.”

Mael chuckled, a deep, menacing sound. “You can keep the green-eyed one, brother. Your scent is all over her. I can tell you haven’t touched the other.”

It was true. Although this new female radiated vir as strongly as Esania, her energy just didn’t appeal to him. It was like standing in a valley filled with a hundred tchirrin bushes, and finding that only one bore sweet fruit.

Esania had ruined him.

This was going to be a problem.

His hand reflexively went to his chest. The small pouch still hung there. Miraculously, it hadn’t been damaged during the fight. Mael eyed the thing with curiosity, a mocking smile flickering across his dark lips.

“They are both mine,” Imril hissed before Mael could say a word, stepping between his twin and the females. He extended his wings threateningly, blocking his brother’s path. He wasn’t interested in tapping into the new female’s vir in the slightest, but he saw how determined Esania was to protect her, and so he would not give her up.

She was part of his domain now, along with Esania—his most coveted Esania—and Rau.

A chill engulfed Imril as Mael sent his power toward him, the shadows creeping across the floor, rising around Imril’s body like mist. Imril channelled his vir, sending it down his arms and into the waiting shadows, filling the dark vortex with his light.

But it wasn’t enough.

He was still far from being at full strength, and Mael… well, he didn’t know what the fuck Mael had been doing for the last three hundred revs, but he probably hadn’t been wasting away, asleep in the pit of a smoldering volcano.

“Back off, Mael. These females are mine.”

“Not if I steal them from you. I’m pleased though, brother, to find that you’re still alive. See, now I thought I could take the pleasure of killing you myself, but really, I can’t even do that.”

“What are you talking about?” He’d forgotten how irritating Mael could be. The Shadowbringer reveled in being cryptic; in speaking in half-truths and metaphors.

“If relax a little, we can talk. Why do you always have to be so stubborn? You can keep your precious green-eyed creature. Just give me the golden-haired one.”

“Leave!” Imril roared, losing patience. Mael always made him lose his temper. He threw a torrent of power at his twin.

Mael winced, but didn’t budge, his shadow rising to counter the light. The bastard was strong, and Imril wasn’t yet fully recovered. At this rate, he was going to deplete his small reserves of vir entirely.

Still, he threw another blast at Mael, and as his twin sustained the blow, he stepped forward. He was going to have to get inside Mael’s range. In his current state, he would eventually lose a power on power battle, no matter how long he held on.

Mael knew this.

Mael was trying to wear him down.

Imril flapped his wings, creating a powerful gust of wind. Mael laughed, and the shadows surrounding him appeared to grow even thicker and denser.

Imril grunted with exertion as he pushed on. His recently healed wound-sites were hurting again, and the torrent of power flowing from his fingertips was becoming weaker.

Keep moving.

He wanted to look over his shoulder and tell Esania and the other female to run, but he couldn’t afford even the slightest lapse in concentration.

Just keep moving.

He just needed to get within arm’s reach of…

He stopped cold.

A familiar sensation radiated up his back; warm, inviting, delicious. Imril stiffened, his eyes widening in disbelief.

It’s you?

Of course it was her.

He would know the taste of her vir anywhere.

A slender hand snaked its way up the back of his neck, reaching the part his armor didn’t cover, touching his true scales; his second skin.

It was enough. All he needed in order to absorb her vir was this touch.

Pure sweetness flowed into him, and he drank it in thirstily, absorbing it into his body and sharpening it into power.

“You have trained her so well already, brother?” Mael took several steps back, wrapping himself in a diaphanous raiment of shadow. “I thought I had seen everything, but this…”

Becoming a blur, Mael feinted to the right then went left, darting around Imril and Esania, going straight for the other human, his arm outstretched, his expression becoming rapturous.

“Nooo!” Esania howled, and the sheer anguish in her voice made him want to turn around and hold her, to fight to the death for her.

Imril tensed, preparing to launch himself at Mael once again.

But then he stopped.

Mael had stopped only a few steps away from the golden-haired one. For a moment, they stared at one another, transfixed.

Then the infernal female opened her mouth, bared her teeth, speared Mael with a hateful glare, and started to scream.

It was the very same scream Imril had been forced to endure as they flew through the skies. Not knowing what else to do, he’d lost patience and clamped a hand over her mouth, and she’d had the nerve to bite him, although her soft white teeth couldn’t make a dent in his armor-scale gloves.

But her shrill, irritating voice could harm his sensitive ears. He suspected she knew it.

Imril flinched. Mael flinched and cursed under his breath.

This was pure torture.

She really shouldn’t provoke Mael like this. Imril was going to have to...

Suddenly, Esania said something to her in a harsh, commanding voice, and immediately, the screaming stopped.

And Imril secretly loved the way his Source spoke, radiating authority and composure.

“Ah,” Mael said smugly.

“Ah, what?” Imril said, and his left eyebrow twitched in irritation. Nobody could annoy him quite like Mael. “For once, can you drop the cryptic shit, brother?”

Mael turned in their direction, studying Esania in great detail for the very first time. “Huh. Now I understand why she protects the other.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Did you not notice, brother? Were you too busy soaking yourself in your submissive little female’s vir to hear the second heartbeat? But you always loved the power games, didn’t you?”

“Remind me to kill you in the most agonizing way possible,” Imril snarled. “She is not exactly the submissive type, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“Oh, I know. Females rarely are, but I enjoy goading you. It’s far too easy.”

“Mael, your attempts to goad me have always been pathetically misguided and utterly predictable. For once, can you spare me these tedious games and get to the point? What is this second heartbeat?” Seething, Imril tried control his anger. Esania was still behind him, but her hand was no longer on his neck. She swayed on her feet. The scent of her blood surrounded him, mingling with her vir. What a drug she was. Fearing she might collapse from exhaustion, he took a step backward so they were side by side, so he could catch her in case she wavered.

“It isn’t my fault if you’re slow-witted at the best of times,” Mael said, and Imril wanted so badly to wipe that infuriating smirk off his black lips. “But for once, I will be quiet, because I want you to listen.”

“What?”

“All that time spent lording over your gilded court has made you forget, hasn’t it? Your senses have become dull, Imril. For once in your life, just listen.” Mael’s expression was perfectly sincere. Imril couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen his brother like this. Perhaps when they’d been younglings, before they’d discovered the world outside the ship, they might have spoken without pretense and malice, but time had made them old and bitter, and the rift between them had turned into a chasm.

For a moment, Imril forgot about the bad blood and took Mael’s advice. He went still and truly listened, opening his senses to the sounds that flowed around him.

He heard Esania; the rapid patter of her heart, the uneven rasp of her breathing. He heard the gentle caress of the wind outside. He heard the soft back-and-forth flicking of Mael’s tail. He smelled her, her sweet feminine musk tinged with fear, the acrid-yet-addictive smell of her blood. He felt the now-familiar, comforting warmth of her powerful vir.

And he heard the golden-haired female’s heartbeat too, pounding alongside the faint patter of another.

A tiny thing.

Shit.

How had he not picked up on it earlier?

“She is with child,” he murmured, a feeling of reverence coming over him. He, who had been created by the most unnatural means, could only dream of such things.

“How observant of you, Lightbringer,” Mael hissed.

“Did I ever tell you that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit?”

“Frequently. But it’s too much fun to use, especially on you.”

Imril became aware that the two females were staring at them with looks of pure apprehension on their faces. Esania tensed, as if trying to anticipate his or Mael’s next move.

He didn’t want her to feel so afraid. He wanted to reassure her that even though Mael was partly insane, he knew Mael, and no matter how crazy his brother was, he would never harm a female who was with child.

A pregnant woman was an incredibly rare phenomenon, a miracle, to be protected at all costs. In Drakhin history, there had been so very few. Although he and Mael were incapable of reproducing, the second generation could… if they found the right partner.

Chances of such a thing were extremely slim.

This golden-haired human radiated pure, joyous life. He could almost feel the innocence of the tiny being growing inside her.

He shuddered. He’d been so close to draining her. If not for Kunlo’s metal armor and the powerful memory of Esania’s rich vir, keeping him from tapping into her directly…

No wonder Esania had protected this female so fiercely.

Part of him wanted to thank Mael for his violent intervention, but he was still on bad terms with his twin after hundreds of revolutions of incessant fighting, so he simply eyed the Shadowbringer warily, trying to figure out his motive.

He glanced at his Source, noticing the pallor in her cheeks, the dark circles under her eyes, the way her jaw trembled ever so slightly.

And yet she stared straight ahead, clear-eyed, fearless, her hands hanging loosely by her sides.

Ready to spring into action at any moment.

Something inside his ancient heart unraveled just then, and for the first time, he saw her as more than just a servant.

He wanted to tell her that she was his now, and that both she and her friend were under his protection, but he didn’t have the words.

How frustrating.

“You don’t even know what she is, do you, brother?” There was Mael again; softly-spoken, insidious.

“What, and you do?”

“I stayed far away from your scorched-earth war, Imril. I did not get infected. While you were sleeping, I was watching the skies. I saw my Shadowring torn down. I saw the Hythra crash into the Crater of Za. I saw the seasons change and the skies open up and the floods return to the Ardu-Sai. And when I finally reached the crash site of the Hythra, I plugged my soul back into those cursed metal cells and stole her memories.” He grinned. “Hythra’s dead, you know. Killed by a Vradhu of all creatures. The ilverium cells still retain her memories, though. They’re imprinted into the DNA. I stole a fragment. I know everything, and you know nothing.” Mockingly, he held out his hand, and a tendril of molten metal emerged from his palm and writhed around before disappearing beneath his shiny obsidian skin. A bitter laugh escaped his lips. “Once you have been bonded, a piece of the monster always remains with you.”

For once, Imril didn’t challenge his brother’s words. He remembered the moment when they’d finished their duel, both thinking they’d lost, and Hythra had chosen his brother as its new Master.

How Mael had screamed and fought.

And what chaos he’d wrought when he finally broke free of the cursed ship and landed on Khira. He and Imril had fought again and again and again, light and darkness locked in an endless cycle of violence and destruction.

The Shadowring… that had been Mael’s doing too.

“I will make you a deal,” Mael said, his lips still curved in that dark, infuriating smile. Bringer of shadows, keeper of secrets, sower of chaos. That was Mael. “Keep the females together until the birth. Make sure the golden-haired one has everything she needs, and keep her safe. I will not touch her until I deem her to be ready; until it is safe to do so, but when she has had her child, I will come for her. She is to be mine.”

Such certainty… is she his…?

No. Impossible.

Beside him, Esania stiffened, and she shot Mael an eviscerating glare, as if she understood perfectly well what he was saying.

“I refuse,” Imril said flatly, taking a step forward. The power rippled around his fingers; he was ready to turn it into a death-blast if Mael made a move. “She is under my protection.”

“Then we are going to have a big fucking problem.” Mael and his shadows became a dark blur as he moved across the floor, and suddenly the Shadowbringer was standing close to the pregnant female, so close he could probably almost inhale her vir.

But not quite. He stayed just outside the radius of absorption.

Imril cursed under his breath. “Don’t you dare lay a hand on her, Mael.”

Esania started to move, but Imril put a hand on her shoulder. He turned and met her gaze. Stay.

She glared at him, breathing heavily. A torrent of harsh words dropped from her lips, and she grabbed his wrist, pointing at Mael, a furious, imperious expression crossing her features.

Her eyes blazed. He didn’t understand a word she was saying, but he swore she was telling him to kill Mael.

No, not telling him; she was ordering him.

Imril’s eyes widened.

Mael chuckled.

Za’s curses, this female was stubborn.

If the situation weren’t so serious, Imril might have found it terribly amusing. Here he was, the Overlord, the Lightbringer, the destroyer of half his cursed race, the one who had torn Mael’s wings from his very back, being ordered to kill his brother by an impudent female.

And he still wore a bag of tchirrin berries around his damn neck.

All traces of her exhaustion had disappeared, and her vir glowed brightly, as if fueled by the strength of her anger alone. She reached out and grabbed the back of his neck, lending him her power once again.

Glorious vir filled the deep chasm inside him. Imril’s arousal flared, and his monstrous heart swelled with an emotion he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

He hadn’t thought he was capable of feeling this way again.

This is where it starts.

Strangely, her vir seemed stronger and more plentiful than last time. Her stamina was impressive.

Imril channelled her energy into power, building up a massive charge within his body, concentrating the energy into a single focus, ready to be unleashed if Mael made just the slightest misstep.

The air around him began to crackle. His fingers tingled. His vision took on a golden tinge, and he knew his eyes would be blazing with pent-up energy.

“I warned you, Mael.” His voice reverberated with power.

Mael ignored Imril completely, a strange look flitting across his face.

Did Mael’s expression… soften just now?

Stranger things had happened.

Suddenly, his twin said something, and it took Imril a moment to register that he was speaking in another language.

Silence descended upon the room. Above them, the wind eddied and swirled, entering through the broken window. Esania’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Silence.

Then the pregnant one replied, meeting Mael’s gaze for the first time, her voice tremulous.

Imril couldn’t understand her question.

Esania was shaking her head.

“You,” Mael replied simply. His Shadow pooled on the floor, becoming a dark circle that radiated outwards, swirling at their feet.

Alarmed, Esania stepped forward, moving into Mael’s radius so that her vir naturally drifted toward him. She was acting on instinct, sacrificing her own safety for that of her friend’s, and she didn’t know what she was doing.

One more step, and she would touch the Shadow, and if she did that, Mael could kill her with a thought… if he so wished.

He might just do it, too, just to spite Imril. He would never forgive Imril for taking his wings, depriving him of the joy of flight.

Mael reached out and tasted a little of Esania’s vir. Her eyes went wide in shock as he drew the golden energy into his body, smiling. It twisted in the air before flowing into his hand, just like that.

Slowly, deliberately, he turned, and met Imril’s gaze.

He inhaled deeply. “Yours, brother?”

And smiled.

Something inside Imril snapped. He moved past Esania and attacked Mael, wrapping his hand around his twin’s neck, using his wings to propel himself forward, slamming Mael against the wall.

He squeezed. Mael gasped, his black eyes widening.

Imril’s hand crackled with the power. It bled from his eyes and even his nose and mouth, turning his breath golden. “Do not do that again. Ever.”

“Y-you’re quite taken with this one.” Mael coughed even as Imril tightened his grip, his power burning into the scale-hardened flesh of his twin’s neck. His brother didn’t wear any Drakhin armor. In typical Mael fashion, he’d turned up bare-chested, wearing only his shadows and a pair of loose black pants.

“It seems I am.” Perhaps he was only just realizing it, but the euphoria he felt when touching Esania’s soul… he didn’t want to share it with anyone else.

Drakhin didn’t share their vir-slaves, but this was different.

She’d brought him back to life.

She’d quickly understood what he needed and offered herself freely, vexing him in the process.

She protected her own.

She wasn’t afraid of him.

And when Mael showed up uninvited, she’d quickly become his ally, even though she couldn’t understand a word of what was being spoken.

Quick. Clever. Brave.

What kind of female was this? Where had she come from?

“Already so obsessed, and you don’t even know what she is. I’ll tell you, brother. They are human, and just like our father, just like us, they are not of this world. If you don’t release me right now, I will thrust my shadow into her mortal body and kill her in an instant.”

Imril growled, but released Mael at once, fully believing his brother’s threat.

“Just give me a moment so I can speak with my female,” Mael said quietly. “Then I will be gone.”

“How do you know their language?”

“Earthian, Imril. That’s what it’s called. It took me a long time to reach the Crater of Za, to climb into that infernally hot cesspit and steal a tendril of knowledge from the Hythra. I have her memories now. The Hythra understood Earthian. Tch.” He shook his head. “Her last Master, that Vradhu lunatic, didn’t understand how to use her vast intelligence properly. She could have made things so much easier for him. Perhaps I should give it to you.” Something appeared in Mael’s palm, a writhing blob of dark grey Ilverium.

A small drop of the dead destroyer.

“What are you talking about?”

Before Imril could react, Mael pressed his palm against his forehead.

Hot molten metal writhed against his bare scales, forming thousands of tiny needle-like points that penetrated his skin, burrowing through his forehead, lancing his skull, twisting into his brain.

He screamed and dropped to his knees as pure agony engulfed him.

Mael laughed. “There you are, brother. Thank me later, when you have taken back your hollow fucking empire.”

Imril’s vision grew dim. Voices swirled around him, but only Esania’s urgent, steady voice cut through the fog.

“…Imril, get up, please!”

How does she know my name?

He swayed…

Wait… I can understand her?

And had just a fraction of a heartbeat to curse his own weakness before his vision went dark, leaving his shattered empire at Chaos’s mercy.