“You do not want to get into the middle of this,” Zhi warned.

Xing raised his sword and, screaming, charged his sister. He shot forward even without wings, as if the Eastland dragons could manipulate the very air around them. But his sister was equally quick, slapping him hard with her paw as she moved aside.

Now that she had her paw raised, Aidan could see her claws, which had been hidden behind fur until unleashed. And her claws had torn a large hole through her brother’s armor and into his flesh.

Crying out, Xing spun away from her and his sister went after him. He had armor and weapons. She had her claws and a mother’s rage.

She grabbed her brother and yanked him up with her as she lifted her body higher. She turned with him, then threw him down.

Xing couldn’t catch himself as he fell, landing hard in front of the palace.

The Empress landed next to him and circled around him, snarling.

He tried to pull himself back up, but she went up on her hind legs and, with her front paws, wrote flame-covered runes in the air.

The runes flew into her brother, sending his dragon body skittering into the Empress’s beautiful flowers.

“My son,” the Empress growled at him. “You took my son!”

She began to chant in an ancient language, one so old and dark that even Aidan, with his lack of magicks, had to back away, and the Empress’s offspring and his mates moved with him.

Magicks swirled around her, through her, until they exploded out of her in a blinding light, ramming into her screaming brother.

He flipped over and over through the flowers, leaving nothing but burned ground behind.

Aidan thought the power would send Xing off the Empress’s territory completely but she clenched her paw and Xing abruptly stopped. He tried to scramble to his feet, but was held in place by her clenched paw as the Empress pulled back the other.

Xing began screaming and in horror, Aidan watched the scales on Xing’s back tear open, his spine following, slowly ripped from his body until his screams finally ended and his body stopped moving.

The fighting ground to a halt and everyone fell silent, while the Empress dropped to her knees, her rage waning.

That’s when Aidan caught sight of the Eastland Riders for the first time.

“That’s Batu,” Ju said from behind Aidan. “Batu the Iron Hearted. Leader of the Eastland Riders.”

“What’s he doing here?”

“I really don’t know.”

Batu moved away from his troops and into the garden, stopping to stare down at Xing’s body before looking at the Empress.

They watched the Empress, all of them too fascinated and terrified to move.

“Batu the Iron Hearted,” the Empress said, her gaze cutting over to the Eastland leader. “Here to fight for my brother?”