Chapter 37
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
Luka’s beast roared and twisted in his belly as Dashiell forced Izzy forward, stumbling toward the boat… and then she dug her heels in.
She’s going to do it.
Do what? He didn’t know, but he trusted his beast. He started to run before he even knew what he was running toward.
Everything happened slowly, as if they were stuck in resin. The sand shifted and slid beneath his feet. Scales solidified over his body, and his beast howled, but all he could see was Izabel.
She ducked away from Dashiell, spinning, her cloak flaring out behind her.
The needle blade sliced up her throat, across her cheek, and into her hair as she threw herself away from him.
She grunted as she turned, blood pouring down the side of her face, but she didn’t flinch. She faced Dashiell head-on.
Luka’s beast howled with her. Pain and terror poured from him; he already knew how this was going to go.
Dashiell was an excellent soldier. As Izzy spun, he danced behind her. She tried to duck, but he tangled his hand in her loose hair and dragged her to her knees. “Stop!” Dashiell bellowed.
Luka skidded to a frantic halt. How many more times could Izzy be cut before it was too many? His beast roared, and he desperately began ripping off armor. He needed his drake. Izzy needed the beast.
Dashiell braced, his feet spread wide, bracketing Izabel. He lifted his dagger, eyes locked on Luka. “If you start to shift, I will kill her!” His lip twitched into a sneer. “You might kill me, but you will still be too late.”
Izzy twisted her neck to look up at Dashiell despite the hand he’d fisted in her hair. She lifted one hand, fingers bent in the unmistakable broken sword. “Fuck you.”
And then Luka saw them. Talons. Beautiful, curved, and wickedly sharp.
God of Chaos. She has claws!
Dashiell laughed viciously. “I knew it! Two sets of talons. Do you have any idea what you’re worth? Gods, do they grow back? Can we harvest them forever?”
Luka roared, opening himself to the power beneath the mountain.
It was so close. Heat and magic and something more.
A sleeping awareness. Its call rushed through him in a torrent, impossibly potent.
Every instinct in his body screamed, but he didn’t dare shift.
If he was lost in the change, how would he help Izzy?
What would Dashiell do to her in those few seconds? “Don’t hurt her! I’ll do anything!”
Izzy sagged into the sand. Her tears mingled with the blood on her face as she let her head drop.
Dashiell opened his mouth—
And then Izzy exploded upward, arms sweeping out. She slashed at Dashiell’s inner thighs, ripping toward the vulnerable arteries.
Dashiell bellowed, his breeches sliced through, but she hadn’t cut deep enough.
The traitor still stood. Dashiell lifted his knee like a born brawler and smashed his foot into Izzy’s back.
She collapsed onto her hands and knees with a pained grunt, but she didn’t stay down.
She spun around, pushing herself into a panting crouch, spewing curses.
Dashiell followed. He slid the dagger to his left hand and bunched the right into a fist, ready to deliver the blow that would knock her from the fight. He was so certain of success that he didn’t even bother to go for his sword.
Now was Luka’s chance. He hurled himself at Dashiell, flying through the air at his exposed side. But Dashiell had already launched himself at Izzy, and she had flung herself forward to meet him.
All three of them met with a violent crunch. Dashiell screamed as Izzy’s claws raked the inside of his arms, and then he screamed again as Luka’s claws pierced his side, all the way through his leather tunic and into the soft flesh below.
Luka roared and hauled Dashiell away from Izzy.
He ducked his head and crashed into the underside of Dashiell’s chin with a ferocious head strike.
He freed his claws before the sergeant could shake off the daze, picked him up, and threw him bodily across the sand and into one of the metal poles.
Dashiell collapsed, bloodied and unconscious.
Luka took a step toward him, raising his clawed hands, ready to tear his throat out and finally end this threat, when he heard Izzy sigh, soft and sad.
He spun back toward her just as she crumpled slowly to her knees.
Blood and dirt streaked her face, and one side was already swelling.
Her right hand hung limp, claws still extended and mottled with gore.
But worst of all, her left hand gripped Dashiell’s dagger where it was embedded in her side, just below her ribs.
Luka wanted to collapse onto the dirt with her. Panic like he had never known flooded him, and he stumbled over to her. Gods, what should he do? What could he do? “Don’t—” His voice cracked. “Don’t pull it out.”
“I know.” Izzy’s lip twitched into a sad smile despite her obvious pain. She blinked toward Dashiell. “Tie him up.”
Luka shook his head. “I can’t leave you.”
“Just for a minute,” Izzy rasped. Her lip twitched. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Gods. Don’t….” He swallowed heavily. “Don’t say that.”
Izzy swayed, face slowly draining of color, except for the puffy red of rising bruises and dark streaks of drying blood. “I don’t… want him at our back.”
“Okay. Wait for me. Just….” He spun away frantically. Scales shivered up and down his spine, spread wider to cover his whole body, and then faded, as if he was shifting back and forth, drake to man to drake to man. “Just wait for me.”
“Always.” Her whisper nearly broke him.
Luka sprinted over to the sailboat and strode through the freezing, churning water to climb aboard.
He pulled a coil of rope from a short post in the stern and threw it to the beach, all while desperately running his gaze over the inside of the boat, searching for something—anything—that would help Izabel.
There were some sealed casks and the cage.
Nothing for wounds. No bandages. No medicines. Nothing useful.
He climbed back out of the boat to splash back to the beach while the storm-winds howled through the narrow entrance. His beast roared the entire time.
He glanced toward Izzy. She was still kneeling, but her shoulders had curled inward. Her eyes were closed as she waited. Gods. He ran to Dashiell where he lay unconscious.
Kill him. Kill him! his beast chanted in his head.
But Luka couldn’t, not without knowing who Dashiell planned to meet with his horrifying cage.
He had to know who else was involved so he could end this sick trade.
He bound the unconscious man quickly but securely at his hands and feet before pulling his sword from its scabbard and throwing it as far out into the deep water as he could.
Then he sprinted across the damp beach to fling himself to his knees in front of Izzy.
He reached out his trembling hand, hardly noticing the claws that were simply part of him now, and stroked her cheek. She opened her eyes and looked at him. The sapphire rings around her irises gleamed dully. Her pulse fluttered erratically as she breathed in shallow gasps.
“I think… this might… be the end,” she whispered.
“No. No, it’s not.” Luka kept his hand on her cheek—the connection to her too-cold skin was a lifeline he couldn’t let go—as he swung his head, frantically searching for help he already knew would never come in time. His eyes burned with tears as his throat tightened. This couldn’t be happening.
Shift. Let me take her, his beast demanded.
Take her where? She couldn’t move with the dagger in her side, and pulling it out would almost certainly kill her.
Even if pulling the blade out didn’t instantly cause her to bleed to death, he couldn’t fly her out through the cave mouth into the storm.
The shock of icy water and violent rain would finish what the blade had started.
He couldn’t carry her back up to the temple on the rocking, lurching hoist, even if it made it to the top.
And she wouldn’t make it through the night without help.
“I love you,” Izabel murmured. “I always have.” She took a shuddering breath. “I wanted… a life with you.”
Tears spilled out and slid down his cheeks as he cradled her face.
“My Izzy. I was so terrified of loving you, in case you left me. I didn’t think I could survive it.
But now, I realize that I would go with you anywhere.
Anywhere.” He choked. “And if you go where I can’t follow, I will still love you.
Wherever you are, for however long, you will be my heart. ”
Give her to me! his beast roared, loud enough that Izzy’s eyes widened. You must trust me.
Luka didn’t want to. He wanted this time with Izzy. But he hadn’t listened to his beast before, and that had been a terrible mistake. This time, he would trust.
“I’m coming back.” He pressed a soft kiss to Izzy’s lips, and then he pushed himself away and tore off the rest of his clothes.
She watched him, pupils wide and face pale, but with faith in her eyes, as he gave himself completely to the drake.
He shifted faster than ever before. Power, heat, love, and the mysteries of the mountain flooded him.
Every fiber, every muscle, every part of him awoke.
The pain was sharp and bright, and then over.
He stretched out his wings, and his beast lifted its great maw and howled out its fury, despair, and fear.
And then he tasted it, the sacred magic of the mountain.
“Do you trust me?” the beast rumbled.
Her eyes locked on his. “With my life.”
“Can you pull out the blade?” he rumbled. “We can’t move you with it in. It would cut you more.”
A bright ring of sapphire flared around Izzy’s pupils, dominating her eyes with gleaming color.
Scales settled over her face, sapphire and silver armoring her body as she slowly nodded.
Then she closed her eyes, wrapped both hands around the hilt of the dagger, and drew it out with a tortured groan.
She dropped it on the sand and pressed both hands into her side, but blood was already spreading through her fingers and dripping onto the sand.
She’d fought to save him. Now he would fight to save her. He kicked the blade into the frothing water; then he gently gathered Izzy in his claws, pulled her close to his huge chest, and launched into the air, aiming for the dark hole in the wall of the cave.
For the first time in his life, Luka followed the call and flew for the heart of the mountain.