Chapter 23
Emmett
My dragon was being a whiny bitch. I ignored him and forced myself to circle my territory again.
Go after her! Find her! Claim her!
If it were up to my beast, I’d be halfway to Darlington by now. So I focused on the trees blurring under my wings instead, refusing to let myself think. If I thought too much, I might actually listen and go after Elana.
I’d sent Cassian to handle things. The ifrits would talk, and Cassian would get answers. The demon hadn’t always been reliable, but the past few decades had changed him. I’d get my answer soon. Then I’d figure out what to do.
That didn’t stop the itch under my skin, or the way my dragon kept snapping at me to move. To find her. To fix this. Whatever this was.
This was a new emotion for me. It was like knowing I’d made the wrong bet in one of those games and challenges we dragons and demons partook in to keep away the boredom, except this was personal. This was my life, my mate, my future.
The thought of the games had me thinking about Gillisandra and her one-hundred-year sleep. She would be furious when she found out I’d gotten my hands on her secret egg and was now raising my child. All of her scheming had been for naught.
One hundred years. Melantha would be grown by then, stepping out on her own to rule a piece of this blue and green ball we called home. One hundred years. It was still a sizable chunk of a dragon’s life, but not the entire thing the way it was for a human. And that had me thinking of Elana again.
As my mate, I’d be able to share my long life with her, but only if I completed the bond.
I’d have to bring her to the nest built specifically for my mate inside my treasure horde and join with her there.
And more importantly, I had to bathe her in my fire as we joined.
Until then, the existing bond might gift her a decade or two, but that wasn’t nearly enough for us to spend together.
I had to get her back. I turned toward Darlington. Toward one infuriating, stubborn, maddening woman who’d walked away without giving me a real reason. If I pushed myself, I could make that flight in hours, land outside Desmon’s estate, shift, sneak in like I usually did, and find her.
That was a good plan, better than patrolling… Maybe I should…
No! Cassian was handling this. I just had to wait. Too bad waiting had never been my strength.
So I patrolled—anything to burn off this restless fire in my chest. My dragon wanted Elana. I wanted Elana. We were in perfect agreement on that point, and neither of us was handling this separation with grace.
I was lining up for another pass when my phone vibrated against my thigh.
The phone was still in my pocket—thank goodness for enchanted clothing that actually stayed put through shifts.
The vibration came again, and I recognized the pattern.
That was the custom alert I’d set for the playroom cameras.
It would trigger only for tall people. Anyone over five foot nine.
Elana was just about five eight, and she wasn’t here. It wouldn’t sound for Dizzi.
Which meant someone else was in there—someone who shouldn’t be.
I dropped from the sky, aiming for the middle of a pine grove just inside my castle’s inner walls. I shifted mid-descent to my mixed form, most of my scales peeling back to skin before my clawed feet hit the ground.
Cassian was already there, hailing me down.
“Not now. We have a situation.”
I pulled out my device and watched the screen. My blood turned to ice in my veins.
It was Leroy. The wizard paced the playroom like a caged beast, his fury stamped across his face. My thumb found the volume and turned it up.
“—our time is up. We have to act now.”
Who the hell was he even talking to? The question had me moving fast, closing the space between the pines and the front door. My gaze remained locked onto the screen.
“I have lost control of the demon,” Leroy snarled. “How could I have known that Sena had given him spells to ensure I freed the damned soul?” He spun, his boots thudding against the floor.
“What about the witch?” asked a voice I didn’t see. It was tinny, like it came through a speaker.
“The witch is gone too, and I don’t think she’s coming back. It’s almost as though someone warned her of our plan.”
What plan was this? Was this the thing Cassian had been suspicious about but couldn’t name? But that didn’t fit. Cassian had been wary of Leroy long before Elana ever stepped foot into my castle.
“The new guy’s going to be pissed.”
“I don’t care what this new wizard thinks,” Leroy snapped, his voice dripping with disdain.
“The witch isn’t even very powerful. If he wants this useless witch so much, he can go find her.
He wasn’t even in on this plan when the witch first came.
If I stay here, I’m only wasting my time and my magic, so I say I make my exit now.
We’ll recapture the castle later.” His tone shifted, sounding smug.
“I have the goblin girl. She’s been snooping around.
That alone will buy us support from the goblin clan. ”
Dizzi. I switched the feed over to the second camera hidden beneath the chair.
There, on the other side of the room, was Dizzi, bound in ropes of glowing magic that bit into her arms, a strip of tape slapped over her mouth.
Her eyes were wide, furious, and terrified all at once.
But it was Melly curled up in a ball inside a cage beside her that had my dragon rearing up, ready to burst out of my skin.
I broke into a run, fighting to hold the shift at bay. A full transformation would leave me the size of a barn, all wing and tail and bulk, useless in the narrow stone corridors ahead.
Please let me get there in time.
My body was covered in scales when I slammed open the door.
Cassian was already there, having magically transported himself in a puff of smoke.
But the demon was bound tight with shimmering bands of magic.
There was a portal in the middle of the room.
Leroy was already stepping through, the cage in one hand, and Dizzi tossed over his shoulder unceremoniously like a sack of potatoes.
Our eyes met, and the shock in his eyes was clear as day.
He had not expected to be caught in the act.
“How did you… No matter, you’re too late.”
And I was, because he was already stepping through.
I lunged for him, but the portal closed behind his form, and I was left with nothing but a handful of air. I stood in the playroom with the stench of brimstone burning in my nostrils, and my dragon roared.