32. Chapter 32
Izzy’s whole body vibrated with the need to move as she stood on the porch of the barracks, watching dragon shifters assemble. They were going after Daxton. He couldn’t roam free as a Lost dragon. The pit in Izzy’s stomach sank as the sun crested the horizon and a fresh breeze blew over her.
Just as she had all morning, she concentrated on the wound in her mind where the link had once been and willed Daxton to hear her. Come home.
She didn’t know how to fix this, but she couldn’t let him destroy himself. But as the Hunters stood before her, planning to bring him down, Izzy couldn’t help but feel he’d already sealed his fate.
Silence stretched over the Hunters. A static charge filled the air, and they turned away from the barracks.
In the distance, a flying being soared through the Illusion. Bronze scales reflected the sun as the dragon approached. A flutter stirred in Izzy’s chest, and she gripped the railing so hard her fingers numbed.
Daxton had returned.
“The plan is to incapacitate—not kill,” Silas yelled to the crowd.
One by one, they shifted to dragons in a strobe of blinding lights and launched into the sky in shades of red and gold. Izzy wanted to yell at them to stop, but her limbs were too heavy to move. She was out of her league and could only watch with horror building in her chest.
Daxton swooped under the first dragon’s attack. Another rammed into his side. Izzy may not have had the link, but she felt the hit wheeze through her. Daxton whipped around and bit their tail.
Heat built behind her eyes. They were going to destroy each other.
On and on this went, but like Silas had said, their attacks acted only to weaken him. With each injured Hunter, Izzy didn’t understand why they didn’t just kill him. The penalty for a Lost dragon was death. It was the logical answer. But even her own heart didn’t want to listen.
Emotion wasn’t the enemy here. It was strengthening them. She watched it in the way they took each hit but came back for more. They helped one another—taking turns or taking blows for a more injured dragon. The balance between strategy and heart took her breath away.
She burned with the same hope that drove them. Maybe they could save him.
With each move, Daxton’s determination only seemed to strengthen. And the attacks on both sides became more severe. Blood and tissue ran from gaping wounds on his body. Izzy could hardly watch.
He took a jagged tail to the face and lost height. Two dragons dove at him from above. Their shoulders rammed into his back.
He fell.
Her chest burned, and she ran off the porch. Tremors shook up her feet as he slammed into the ground. That same empathetic pain stabbed through her, and she stumbled. He lay without moving. She had to help him.
As she drew closer, his right eye opened to a slit. His gaze locked on her, and he lunged. A dragon bit his back leg to stop his advance. Another clawed at his side. Izzy’s heart tore in half as he wobbled under the pain. They were going to kill him.
“Stop hurting him,” she yelled. Frenzied yellow energy burst from her being and knocked the assailing dragons back.
Striding closer, she kept a wall of energy around Daxton and herself.
No one else would harm him. The heat of his dragon rushed over her, and the hostility in his gaze should have warned her away, but she kept approaching—drawn to helping the man that had saved her.
When his ragged breaths whirled her hair, she stopped.
Reaching forward, she touched the warm scales of his snout, just below a bleeding gash over his left eye.
He bared his teeth at her, and that distrust broke the emotions from her fragile control.
Tears welled in her eyes, and the agony from his injured state tore through her.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered hoarsely. “Please, come back to me.”
He growled, and the hair all over her body stood on end. She clenched her teeth, determined to see this through.
“I may have taken the link from you, but the peace with your dragon wasn’t just about me, Daxton.
” She pressed both hands into his snout, willing him to listen.
“I will not act like I know all the answers, but from what I’ve gathered, you need balance with your dragon.
It’s not about controlling with fear, but about harmonizing your rational and emotional sides.
Right now, both sides are too emotional, and resentment is clouding your connection.
Accept the childhood the dragon stole from you, and the dominant dragon you were born to become.
I only gave you peace because it’s what both your rational and emotional sides wanted. You just have to find that again.”
The dragon blinked. Something familiar swirled in the dragon’s bronze iris—Daxton.
“Please shift back,” she said. “If not for me, do it for yourself, and everyone here willing to fight for you.”