Chapter 28
RONYN
The wind howls past my wings, as below, the world blurs into endless forest, dark lakes, and jagged mountains.
We’ve flown for hours, searching for any sign of Aura’s magic, but there’s nothing.
Hours spent in anger and exhaustion, scouring old hiding places, confronting those who once served us, fought us, or owed us blood debts.
We’ve found nothing.
No trail. No scent. No glimpse of reddish-brown hair, golden skin, and glowing runes or terrified, defiant eyes.
Aura is gone, and every passing hour increases our hopelessness. Losing our mate has made my dragon vicious and unstable.
I dive without warning, fire spilling from my throat as I level an old ruin perched on a cliff. Darial screams in my mind. That place is empty! Don’t waste your energy. I don’t care. I tear through the roof and torch what’s inside. Releasing my fury is the only way to keep myself sane.
Kelan lands hard beside me, shifting in a flash of obsidian flame. “Get control of yourself,” he snarls. “You’re wasting strength.”
I shift too, relieved to be a man again, and leash my dragon’s rage. “She could be anywhere,” I growl, my voice ragged from too much roaring and not enough sleep. “We should be tearing down every city—”
“We checked all the old dragon enclaves,” Darial says, joining us in his human form, his face pale and eyes bruised with exhaustion.
“So what?” I roar. “We give up?”
Darial flinches, then levels me with his golden stare. “No. We go back.”
I rear like he’s struck me. “Back? Back to what?”
“To the only thread we have left that connects to Aura. Ahya.”
The name silences me because thinking about that child’s cries, her red curls clutched against Aura’s chest, the way Aura handed her back before running into the woods like she knew it was her last goodbye, makes something inside my heart bleed.
“She’s a child,” I mutter. “How can she help—”
“She’s Aura’s child,” Darial cuts in. “And you’ve seen how she reaches with touch and through visions. Aura knew when Ahya was in danger. They’re connected somehow. Maybe we can use that connection to search for our mate.”
Kelan nods slowly. “We’ve done all we can here.”
My fists clench. I’ve been consumed with rage, guilt, and the hollow ache of loss. All I could think about was destruction. To go back now seems like a waste of time we don’t have, but my alpha has spoken. I rake a hand through my hair and snarl, “Then let’s go.”
We shift again without words. Wings explode from our backs, and we launch into the air like twin bolts of fury flanking Darial’s golden blaze.
Back to Blackwood Forest.
Back to the only spark that links to Aura.
And if there’s any sign of her…
We’ll find it.
We’ll follow it.
And we’ll bring her home because the alternative is too painful to consider.