Kinyi took off into the jungle, breaking through the thick, damp leaves and racing into the gloomy depths.

“Kinyi!” Tane shouted. “Wait!”

She didn’t. She ran through the jungle’s darkness, her sharper Draqon eyes showing the path of least resistance. She leaped over a rotting log and slid down a steep incline into a stream lined with rocks.

Before she could push herself back to her feet, Tane pulled her upright. “Hang on a second. It’ll take us days to run to that mountain.”

Another explosion ricocheted through the jungle.

He was right. There wasn’t time to run. What had she been thinking?

“So shift! Fly us there!”

He knew she wasn’t joking this time. His jaw clenched. “Kinyi—”

“No, I can help you!” Her heart pounded. She had no love for the Vilkas, but she knew they were the Draqons’ best allies, and if the humans were willing to attack the Vilkan mountain, the hive would be next.

“It doesn’t work like that.”

“I can help you control the madness.” She gripped Tane’s arm, her fingers practically clawing at his chest. He held her back with a firm grip. “If I’m on your back—”

“I’ll burn you alive.”

“No!” Desperation raged like wildfire in her throat. “You won’t. You can’t. I’m your mate.”

Tane shook his head sadly. “I can’t, Kinyi. Even with you. I can’t.”

“I’m a strong rider! The strongest at the hive. I can control you.”

Another explosion echoed through the jungle, and this time they heard the distant crashing of rock, the slipping and sliding of an avalanche from high up a mountain. Had they blown the top completely off? Had the Vilkas had time to mount a defense? How many shifters would die while they stood here arguing?

“Those humans are killing our best chance at winning this war,” Kinyi growled, getting up in Tane’s face. She had to crane her neck back to glare at him, but she managed. “Without the Vilkas and their ships, we won’t stand a chance. How many more Draqons will you let die because you won’t fight?”

The words struck him like solid blows. She saw their effect splinter across his face, slashing him deep in the oldest wounds of his soul. His violet eyes squinted against the pain. Through their connection, she felt the shame and terror as if they were her own.

But she held her ground. She lifted her chin higher and stared him down. “The time for standing by is over, Tane. It’s time to start righting some wrongs.”

He shuddered. A fine sweat broke out on his brow. His fear smelled stronger than the humir sap on the jungle trees around them. “I’ll kill you.”

“It’s a chance I’m willing to take. We’ll never make it there in time if we run, and we might not make it if we fly, but at least we’re trying. At least we’re flying into the fire and not standing here talking about it.”

“If I kill you, I’ll die too. There’s no way my madness can withstand the loss of my mate. It’ll be too much.”

She nodded, knowing in her heart the truth of his words. “Then let’s not die. Believe in me, Tane. I can ride you. I was made for you.”

His eyes met hers. Their connection turned steely inside her, unbreakable, unbendable. She met his gaze and held it, unwavering and uncompromising. She knew in all the best parts of her that she was meant to be the White Horn’s rider. Tane’s rider. She always had been.

She would ride him.

Even if he set himself on fire, she would ride him through the flames.

Another explosion sounded. Through the highest leaves, a fine ash trickled down, dusting Kinyi’s shoulders. It smelled like death.

“We have to go,” she said, not bothering to brush it off. “Now.”

Tane closed his eyes and pulled in a long breath. Finally, he nodded. “Step back.”

“I’m right here.”

“I want you to run if I can’t control the fire.”

She stepped forward and took his chin in her hands, forcing him to look at her. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right fucking here when you get your shit under control, got it? And when you do, I’m getting on your motherfucking back and we’re going to go kill some humans. So fucking shift already.”

His eyes flashed black, and that was all the warning she had.

He erupted. There was no other way to describe it. She’d seen countless shifts, but never like this. Never anything so violent. So explosive. So hot.

And not in the sense that it turned her on, though it did, but in the sense that when Tane’s body morphed—his massive wings unfolding from his back, his neck stretching out, and his scream ripping through the jungle— fire exploded over his body. The flames settled across his body, curving and curling around his scales.

The heat blasted her back, and after she’d regained her vision, she stared at a burning Draqon, the largest she’d ever seen. His scales were blacker than night, blacker than a burnt pile of bones. Silver etchings highlighted their brutal curves, slashing and curving over his body. His tail had spikes, as did his neck and the cone around his huge head, which snaked toward her, black eyes locking on her. And in the center of his scaled, reptilian head was a huge white horn that wrapped around itself, wickedly sharp and gleaming.

“Holy fucking shit,” she whispered, her heart pounding at the sight of him.

He threw back his head and let out a ground-shaking roar that seared her blood and turned her inside out.

This was the White Horn.

This was the legend that terrified her people.

This was her mate.

“Tane,” she said, holding out a hand. Her voice was firm and calm, like she wasn’t staring down an insanely gigantic Draqon with fire rippling across his scales and the pungent odor of madness choking the air. “It’s me. It’s Kinyi.”

The Draqon growled, his entire body shuddering. But his black eyes blinked at her, the second eyelids dragging over his gleaming eyes. A lick of fire curled out from his mouth and flicked up the side of his face. Even from a distance, the heat was intense.

She fought the instincts that screamed at her to run.

“I’m here,” she said instead, meeting Tane’s eyes. He stood at nearly twice her height, his body almost as large as the clearing they stood in. She’d never practiced vaulting onto a height as tall as his shoulders because no other Draqon was as large as him.

He shook his massive head. The white horn cut through the air like a knife. It could impale a person clean through. But when Tane exhaled, only smoke shot out of his nostrils, and the fire along his back simmered out.

“That’s it,” she crooned. He relaxed further at the sound of her voice. She took a step closer. “I’m here. You know me. You know my smell. Focus on that, Tane. Focus on me.”

She approached close enough to run her palm along the wide bridge of his snout. He lowered his head against her chest and let out a long huff. Skin to skin, she felt him trembling. Through their connection, she sensed his hold on his control was tremulous at best.

But they had to get moving. She knew all too well just how little time the humans’ ships needed to destroy lives.

“I’m going to—” she started.

A resounding boom rocked through the jungle, followed by a straight-line burst of wind. The trees groaned beneath the force, their branches swaying overhead. In those bare patches of light, Tane’s black eyes went blank, his fragile grip on his control lost.

She dove away from him just in time.

A tree cracked and shards of bark flew like projectiles through the air, slicing her skin as she tucked and rolled away from Tane. Against her back, a blast of heat seared her shirt, singeing the fibers to her skin. She scrambled to her feet and swung around to face Tane.

He spread his wings wide. They beat against the surrounding tree trunks as if he wanted to take flight but couldn’t find the room. He thrashed to the side, knocking into another tree and ripping its roots from the ground. He threw his head back and let out an ear-piercing scream that had Kinyi clamping her hands over her ears.

And the fire.

The fire spread from the edges of his scales, across his back, and down his legs. It caught the foliage around him and sparked into countless mini fires. Embers flew from his mouth and lit the jungle floor’s moss.

When he roared again, acid and fire spewed from his mouth. The combination instantly roasted half a tree and a large section of the ground, turning the plants and roots into burnt husks.

All too easily, Kinyi could imagine how all those Draqons and Arakids had died on the mountain. How there had been nothing left of their bodies after the fires had died down.

“Tane!” she shouted above his wild thrashing. “Tane, look at me!”

His long neck snaked toward her. The dull look in his jet-black eyes sent her diving out of the way.

Acid sprayed on the ground where she’d been standing. Some splashed onto her pants and instantly burned through the material and her skin. She kept the grimace from her face with a low hiss through gritted teeth.

“Tane, stop this right now. You’re fine. You’re not going to burn this entire jungle to the ground. The Katu aren’t that bad.”

Instead of shooting acid at her again, his head shook the other way, his eyes clenching shut. The fire along his body flickered, almost blinking out. Without a constant heat source, the smaller fires he’d started died out almost as quickly as they’d begun thanks to the dampness of the jungle.

“That’s it,” she said, keeping her voice light. “Remember, the Katu are friends, not kindling.”

A puff of air left his nostrils. When he looked back at her, nothing but smoke curled from his mouth.

“There.” She dusted the wet dirt off her hands. Mud filled a few cuts along her palms, and she had to clench her fists quickly before he saw how her fingertips trembled, but she managed to level a steady look on him. “Now, we’re going to the Vilkas’ mountain and you will unleash all that fire on some humans. Okay?”

She moved quicker this time, advancing toward him with a certainty she couldn’t risk thinking about too much or she’d be too scared shitless to do what she had to. This was Tane, her mate. She could ride him. So what if he caught fire easily and was ruled by madness? He seemed perfectly sane right then.

She laid her hand on his shoulder, his scales rippling beneath her hand. His body was ice cold even though it had been on fire moments ago.

“I’m getting on, but I need you to lie down. You’re too big.”

His head twisted around to look back at her, and she winked.

Their connection was still fragile, and when she searched for it deep inside, she tasted only the metallic taste of his madness at the back of her throat. But she knew where it should be, where it was waiting. She sent a steady wave of reassurance down it and out her hand.

Shuddering, he bowed, his wing closest to her sweeping out along the ground and wrapping around her back. As she stepped onto the back of his front leg, he eased her up by gracefully arching his wing joint. She settled on him, her legs spreading wide. His cool scales felt like ice beneath her. She leaned forward and ran her fingers along the larger scales of his neck.

She stroked him, long and slow, until she felt him breathe beneath her. Through their connection, some of the madness lifted like a dense fog, and she felt his heartbeat mirror hers.

“There you are,” she whispered, closing her eyes and feeling him within her. “See? You were right there all along.”

His body rumbled with a growl. Power surged up through her, through their connection. It was so great she knew it could undo them both, but she wrapped it in a tight ball in her stomach and held it fast.

When she opened her eyes, she no longer smelled the metallic madness.

“Let’s fly,” she said.

She barely had time to lean down against his neck before he crouched and kicked off with his back legs, tucking his wings against his sides and rocketing straight up through the opening in the clearing.

With one beat of his massive wings, they cleared the treetops and angled toward the mountain.

Kinyi leaned around his neck, squinting to look far ahead. Her hair streamed behind her, and the wind cut at her clothes. She wished for a pair of tight leathers and a bow, but she wasn’t equipped for this ride. It was nothing like how she’d imagined her first time would go.

It was better.

She opened the connection and let all that rightness, all her joy and happiness, flood into him.

Madness was just a state of mind. This—flying with him—was everything.

She tightened her legs against his sides and forced herself to focus on the mountain. They weren’t far away now, and she could just make out the specks of metal dipping and flying around the mountain peak beneath the moonlight. Fireballs lit up the night sky around the mountain, raining a torrent down on the Vilkas’ home. Smaller artillery fire peppered the various flight decks where the Vilkas had mounted their defense.

“Some of these ships might be Vilkan,” she said, not bothering to shout. She spoke it mostly down their connection and felt the words reverberate into him. “We have to be careful who we bring down.”

In response, Tane angled upward to get above the highest ships.

They broke into the cloud cover, draping themselves in shadow-ridden puffs of darkness. Tane flew them on sound alone. Here, lost in the clouds, Kinyi let her heart beat wildly. She was flying into battle on the back of the most powerful Draqon she had ever seen in her entire life. This was what she’d been waiting for. Sure, he was a little crazy, but that didn’t bother her. Hadn’t all the unmated males back at the hive called her insane?

The clouds parted, and Tane sliced down to the side, skirting the edge of the fight so they could get a good view of what was happening.

The mountain was blown apart. Huge chunks of rock had been blown off, revealing the Vilkas’ precious city within. Entire flight decks were gone. Fires burned, and small rock avalanches cascaded down the tall mountain peak.

But on the few flight decks that remained, the Vilkas were mounting a good defense, firing at the ships with their gun turrets. In the air, smaller ships spiraled in and out of the humans’ larger shuttles, maneuvering too quickly for the humans to shoot down. One ship led the shifters, and it dive-bombed the humans like a kamikaze warrior.

And then, in the midst of the ships, were the Draqons.

Kinyi easily spotted Zayd and his Queen, Niva, in the center of the pack. Niva fired off one explosive arrow after another, bringing an entire ship down on her own. Maxsym’s purple and green scales flashed in the moonlight, circling on the edges of the Draqon swarm, coordinating their attack like a true Swarm Master. He had a mate on his back.

Kinyi smirked. Who the hell would willingly choose to mate that egocentric asshole?

She pitied the poor girl.

“Let’s get in there before they have all the fun,” she said to Tane.

Tane swung his head toward the outskirts of the fight where a Falconer flew back and forth, firing shot after shot at the mountain. It was the source of the explosions, and none of the Vilkan ships or Draqons could get past the smaller ships to bring it down.

Tane dove straight for it.

Kinyi could do nothing but hold on and watch their backs, tracking every enemy ship.

Tane opened his mouth, and she felt the fire build inside him. A moment of hesitation shuddered in the connection. He doubted himself, his control. He sensed the madness right at the edges of his mind, and he was terrified.

“Take it down,” Kinyi whispered against his scales, pressing her lips against the ridges of his neck. “I’m with you.”

The fire built deep in his belly, and Kinyi felt the warmth of it in hers. She smiled.

Tane roared. The fire and acid combination blasted down onto the Falconer, covering the entire ship’s hull in one breath. Tane dipped and circled, coming back for a second pass before the human’s ship had even recovered. The pilot didn’t have a chance to right himself before Tane opened his mouth a second time and turned the ship into a melting, smoking clunker that crashed straight down into the valley beside the Vilkas’ mountain.

As soon as the Falconer fell, the humans pulled up, banking hard into the sky and retreating.

Kinyi glanced at Maxsym to see if he would call for them to follow, but he signaled to let the humans retreat. She growled and twisted around to watch the last of them disappear into the cloud bank she and Tane had used for cover.

She turned back around and saw flames licking down Tane’s neck.

Before she could open her mouth, the fire consumed his entire body—and hers.