The second Conjunction came seventeen years after the first.
Seraphina stood on the same terrace where she had faced the Voidwalkers before, watching the stars begin their alignment. This time, she knew what was coming. This time, she was prepared.
But preparation only went so far.
The crack in the barrier had grown over the past weeks, despite her best efforts to repair it. Whatever the Voidwalkers had done, whatever new method they had discovered, it was working. And when the stars aligned, when the barrier was at its weakest, they would come through.
"All forces are in position," Kestrel reported, joining her on the terrace. "The Dragon Lords are ready. The civilian population has been evacuated to the shelter zones."
"And the new Dragonbound? The students from the Academy?"
"They're with their dragons, prepared to reinforce any weak points." He hesitated. "Seraphina, if this goes wrong—"
"It won't."
"But if it does—"
She turned to face him, her eyes bright with determination. "It won't. Because we've spent seventeen years preparing for this. Because we have more Dragon Lords now than we did before. Because I'm stronger than I was, and so are you."
"And if that's not enough?"
"Then we'll find another way. We always have." She took his hands. "I'm not going to die today, Kestrel. Not after everything we've built. Not after everything we've fought for."
He kissed her, fierce and desperate, and she tasted the fear beneath his resolve.
"I love you," he said when they broke apart. "Whatever happens."
"I love you too." She squeezed his hands. "Now, let's go save the world again."
The battle began at dusk.
The Voidwalkers came through in a wave—not just the Lords this time, but countless lesser creatures, a tide of darkness that seemed to fill the sky. They were more numerous than before, more prepared, more determined.
But so were the defenders.
Dragon fire lit the sky, meeting the darkness in explosions of light and shadow. The Dragon Lords fought with the skill of veterans, their mounts diving and wheeling through the chaotic aerial battle. And at the center of it all, Seraphina and Pyre blazed like a star, their merged power pushing back the darkness wherever it threatened to overwhelm.
Through the bond, Seraphina felt everything—every dragon, every rider, every moment of triumph and despair. She was the axis around which the defense turned, the beacon that guided her forces through the chaos.
The Voidwalker Lords emerged last, three of them, their many eyes fixed on Seraphina with an intensity that bordered on obsession.
"The Guardian," the first one said, its voice a chorus of whispers. "We have waited so long for this."
"You'll be waiting longer," Seraphina replied, raising her blade. "This barrier won't fall. Not while I live."
"But you won't live forever. And when you die..." The Voidwalker smiled, showing teeth that weren't quite teeth. "Your successor will not be as strong. Your successor will not have the ultimate bond. And eventually, inevitably, we will prevail."
"Then I'll just have to live forever, won't I?"
She attacked, and the battle was joined.
The Voidwalker Lords were more powerful than before, their forms more solid, their darkness more absolute. But Seraphina was more powerful too—seventeen years of ruling, of training, of maintaining the barrier had honed her abilities to a razor's edge.
She and Pyre moved as one, their merged souls giving them speed and precision that the Voidwalkers couldn't match. Fire and light met shadow and void, and the sky itself seemed to tremble with the force of their conflict.
Hours passed. The battle raged. And slowly, painfully, Seraphina began to gain ground.
The Voidwalkers were strong, but they were not invincible. And when Kestrel joined the fight, his blade flashing beside hers, the balance shifted further.
"Your mate is impressive," one of the Voidwalkers observed, its voice laced with something like respect. "But he cannot save you."
"He doesn't have to save me." Seraphina smiled, fierce and wild. "He just has to fight beside me."
Together—the three of them, Seraphina and Pyre and Kestrel—they drove the Voidwalkers back. The crack in the barrier began to close, pushed by Seraphina's will, sealed by her blood and her power and her refusal to surrender.
And when dawn finally broke, when the stars completed their alignment and the barrier stabilized, the Voidwalkers were gone—driven back to the darkness from which they had come.
They had won.
Again.