The air pulsed and burned. It was so hot that sweat instantly covered my arms and neck. The ground shook. I sucked in a deep breath and looked up—and flinched. The gigantic black dragon, the one that had to be twice the size of the others, stood beside Silas with little flames billowing from his mouth and nose. His scales trembled. He stomped his massive feet and shook his body. Silas grunted again, this time a little louder, and the black dragon’s purple eyes blazed with panic and rage.

“The Unseelie sliced his face on this side.” I gestured to the wound. “I don’t know if his eye was damaged or not⁠—”

“Let me see,” a familiar male voice came from out of nowhere. Prince Thorne crouched beside Silas’s head and cursed in a strange language. He pressed his pale hands to Silas’s light-gray scales and magic sparkled between his fingers. “Just breathe for me.”

The black dragon growled.

Thorne peeked over his shoulder and arched an eyebrow. “Can you not shift?”

The black dragon huffed and shook himself like a wet dog.

Thorne grumbled what sounded like another curse and looked back to Silas, then lifted his hands. The gray scales were still sliced straight down the side of his face through his left eye, but the bleeding had stopped.

Tenn landed beside the black dragon, and the second he pressed his hand to the black scales, the tremble eased. But Tenn’s mismatched gaze was locked on Silas and Thorne. “Did he lose his eye?” His voice was low and rough like sandpaper.

“Let us hope not.” Thorne grimaced. “Okay, Silas, can you open your eyes for us?”

I felt the air around me whoosh toward him, then he slowly opened his eyes. The golden color was a little duller than it had been before but there wasn’t a wound on his actual eye. His eye moved around like he was checking to see if it worked.

Tenn hovered above Silas’s head, then held two fingers up. “How many fingers?”

Silas grunted twice.

Tenn nodded. “Good. Thorne?”

“I protected the wound on his scales so they’d stop bleeding and put a protective layer over his actual eye. But . . .” Thorne scrubbed his face, but not before I saw that look, the same one Esther’s parents had worn when I checked on her. The face that told me he was hiding something. Thorne gently put his hand on Silas’s head. “Elan will know how to help you both further. For now.”

Tenn landed back beside the black dragon. “Okay, get back to Issale. Please. And let us know when you’re safe. I . . . don’t like the situation we’re in and I’ll breathe better knowing you’re safe. Okay?”

The black dragon nodded. He bent down and nudged Silas’s side with a grunt.