Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
Race crouched in the shadows of the mountain’s ledge, on the outskirts of Caelvyrn. He’d barely made it through a disintegrating portal, spent the afternoon and entire night searching in this godsdamn realm, and still no trace of Ash or fucking Skaldr.
Again, he scanned the area, trying to pick up Ash’s energy—one that had sucker-punched him in the gut the moment he’d sucked on her bleeding wrist—and nothing. Not even a ping. Just a blasted headache threatening to crack his skull.
The faint traces of Lemuria’s ancient magic surrounded him as if to keep him there.
Jaw tight, he shrugged off the sensation.
Fiiiind her! His dragon clawed beneath his skin, wanting to tear this place apart stone by stone.
You need to calm down, Race snapped. I will find her.
Once he did, his old friend Skaldr would wish he’d stayed dead.
Fuck. Michael could never know he’d lost a potential psionic female to dragons. It would be his damn head on the block.
Since he couldn’t get his claws around Skaldr’s throat, Race tracked Koal and Attor mentally, also searching for their pal. Their distinctive smells, tang of ozone and melted metal, grew stronger.
The moment Attor’s dragon form settled on the ledge and he shifted, Race slammed his fist into Attor’s jaw, sending him lurching back.
“You’re responsible for this shit, putting an innocent in danger!” he snarled. “Where did Skaldr take her?”
Attor grimaced and rubbed his jaw. “I don’t know.”
“You three were all in on this fucking fiasco to trap me here, yet you don’t know where he is?” he roared.
“Keep it down, Your Highness—”
Race grabbed him by his throat, his claws digging into flesh. “You want to breathe, don’t ever call me that.”
The male jerked free. “Things are dire, Eracier. Malcarion’s raping the land with his greed for more riches and power. The mines are collapsing. Dormant volcanoes reignite. Dragons are dying.”
“Not my problem.”
“Maybe if you see, you’ll believe.”
Race cut him a cold stare.
Attor exhaled roughly, blood dripping down his throat. “You’re so like your sire, a hardhead.” A wry smile appeared and vanished. “Eracier, if the females catch wind you are here, they will come. You are still a blood-borne royal.”
A furious flutter of wings, then a whoosh echoed nearby. Moments later, Koal leaped down next to them. “Nothing.”
Race kept his gaze fixed on the distant city and the ancient volcanoes dotting the mountainous horizons, a few sputtering flames. “If one strand of her hair is harmed, I will incinerate you all.”
“We’ll find her,” Koal said quickly. “The eastern peaks first.” He leaped into the air as his form folded into itself, wings bursting free. His massive coppery-gold dragon appeared, and he glided away.
Attor followed, his steel-gray dragon soaring off.
Fury scorching him, Race paced the ledge. Balls of fire fell from his palm, blasting the granite. His dragon snarled. Find her. Kill Skaldr.
It took several minutes to pull his rage deep into his gut.
Fly! his dragon trumpeted, yearning for Lemuria’s skies after so long away, but he couldn’t risk drawing attention. Malcarion’s forces were everywhere. And memories—memories he’d buried deep, clawed free—
The screams as bodies fell, the laughter, blood everywhere…
Jaw clenched, he shut it out. Ash was who mattered. If anything happened to her—
Burn it all, his dragon roared. She’s not Skaldr’s.
No, she wasn’t.
Once he found Ash and returned to Earth, she would be Michael’s responsibility. Until then, she was his.
Race scanned the skies again, the early morning still concealed in darkness. She’d been trapped in this realm too long. If the she-dragons caught her scent—
Dammit. Eyes shut, he sent his psychic senses out into Caelvyrn once more. The realm’s ancient magic whirled around him, blurred with chaos and pained energy. Wisps of it brushed against him, imploring—
No. He growled low. Not fucking interested in Caelvyrn’s ghosts.
Just Ash.
Screams, like glass shattering, pierced the night.
Race’s head snapped up, his dragon surging beneath his skin. She-dragons!
They were hunting.
Fuck! He had to find Ash before they did.
Furious shrieks broke the quiet, and Ash reared up from the pile of cushions where she’d fallen into a restless sleep, her heart pumping as if it would escape her.
She scrambled to her feet and dashed to one of the pillars at the entrance, ducking behind it.
Thank God no dragon could land on the small ledge.
She peered outside. The sky remained relentlessly dark, with occasional glimpses of moonlight peeking through enormous clouds.
But the acrid smell of sulfur made her stomach churn—even the heat seemed to have intensified.
Several dark shapes froze her in place, their scales flashing like jewels in the sporadic moonlight—sapphire blue, ruby red, and emerald. The she-dragons dove for one another, their snarls and bugling cries ripping across the city, vibrating through her bones.
Oh, shit. Ash stumbled backward, further into the darkness of the cave before they smelled her. Her spine hit the warm granite wall. As the three swooped closer to her hiding place, the heatwave they emitted stole the breath from her lungs.
Mother of all PMSing reptiles. She clapped her palm over her mouth, not daring to move, to breathe as they trumpeted again. Flames hit the pillars and streamed inside in a ferocious roar, licking frighteningly close.
No. She squeezed her eyes shut, heat searing her. Where the hell had Skaldr gone, leaving her in fucking danger?
So much for his bloody assurance she was safe as long as she stayed out of sight.
The she-dragons bugled and swooped closer again, wings beating furiously, sending more hot air into the cave, their cries echoing across the heat-drenched land.
Gasping, feeling as if she were burning from the inside out, Ash sank to the ground and slumped against the hot stone. The dusty cushions, silk wall drapes, carpet, hell, even her thermal top and parka had been reduced to cinders in the blast.
Another volley of flames, and she would be incinerated—
A terrifying roar pierced the air, echoing off the cave walls. Ash froze, her heart thundering so hard against her ribs that it actually hurt.
The she-dragons surged off, banking hard toward the sound.
Ash’s gaze fixed on an enormous form blotting out the moonlight, wings wider than an airplane, its scales gleaming blacker than midnight as it soared closer.
Like death incarnate, and far more enormous than the jeweled ones, the black wheeled around the other three, its blast of flames washing over the smaller dragons in a fiery arc.
The sapphire dragon lit up like Guy Fawkes, and it roared, taking to the skies and disappearing into the distance. The emerald followed with a bellow. But the ruby one dove for the black—
A thunderous roar erupted, flames enveloping the ruby. Shrieks of agony tore through the air as the she-dragon spiraled down into the sparking ebony river, streaks of red, revealing its molten core.
Christ. Ash pressed her fist to her hammering heart.
While she wanted to skewer Skaldr for bringing her here, she prayed he would come for her before that black dragon decided to burn down this mountain cave with her inside. Because Race obviously was a lost cause—
A growl snapped her out of her wallowing. The gigantic obsidian dragon, dominating the dark sky, glided through the air, then turned and swooped toward her hiding spot.
Fuuuuck. Her lungs threatened to shut down as the creature’s head lowered to peer inside. Its eyes, the size of saucers, burned like banked hellfire and fixed on her with predatory intensity.
Bile scorched her throat. She had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
This was how she died, roasted alive by a bloody dragon in a godforsaken cave.
“I swear,” she rasped, lungs burning, “if you torch me, I’m haunting your scaly arse.”
Magic crackled through the air like lightning. The dragon’s colossal form rippled and folded impossibly fast into itself, scales melting away into skin, wings shrinking into shoulders—
Her mind couldn’t process what her eyes were seeing. Where the beast had been, Race stood, his long silver hair gleaming in the darkness.
Terror gave way to relief.
“Race!” She darted toward him, flung her arms around him, and held on tight as the tears broke free.
He wrapped his arms around her. “I have you.”
Then it hit, and fury erupted. Ash jerked free, pulled back her fist, and punched him hard in the jaw.
“Ow!” she groaned, shaking her hand, quite certain she’d broken half the bones in it, while his rock-hard dragon skull seemed perfectly intact.
“You absolute swine,” she gritted out. “You’re a bloody dragon!”
“Shifter,” he corrected, not fazed at all by her punch.
“Because of you, I’m in this sodding mess!” She dashed her tearstained face with her fist, blood blazing through her veins like wildfire.
“I told you to go inside.”
“I was inside,” she snarled, “when your bloody friend snatched me—”
Her jaw nearly hit her chest as the clouds drifted apart and moonlight seeped inside.
Good lord. He’s stark naked.
Silhouetted in the light, his tall, powerful body—all hard muscle and raw sensuality—stole the breath from her lungs. Damn, even his semi-erection looked impressive. Of course it did. Her face heated, and she dragged her gaze up to his.
His lightly tanned skin gleamed in the dark, begging to be touched and petted. Ugh.
“You’re naked,” she muttered, her hands clenching.
He arched a brow, his eyes gleaming with amusement. “I am. It’s what happens when I shift forms.”
A pair of black trousers appeared in his hand, and he pulled them on, hiding that sinful body.
Inhaling more hot air, she wiped her damp brow and marched the breadth of the cave. “All I wanted was to find out about my past, but you just had to haul me away from the Himalayas, and then that madman snatched me.”
“Ash—”