Chapter 33
RONYN
I can see her. Darial’s voice is a whisper in my mind.
I hold my breath, waiting for him to continue.
She appears asleep or unconscious, wrapped in something heavy and covered with scales.
My stomach sinks. Kelan tenses.
Describe it, Kelan growls, fists tightening.
It shimmers, dark on dark. He pauses, considering. It looks like your skin, Kelan, like a piece shed from you.
Darial’s tone is dark with realization. I think they’re using a cloak made from your dragon skin, Kelan. That would explain why her magic’s bound. Even your shed skin carries your ability to bind magic.
Kelan snarls, his teeth lengthening in his human mouth as heat radiates from him. His voice is furious. They used my scales against my mate.
My anger mirrors his. The idea of our mate silenced beneath Kelan’s discarded scales evokes a primal response. Our bodies should protect her, not harm or subdue her.
But isn’t that what we did to her? We bound her magic and took away her strength.
I’m going to try to melt the window. Slowly. With controlled flame. If I do it right, it’ll soften enough to bend, and I’ll be able to make an opening large enough to get inside.
Kelan and I shift forward on our haunches.
Let us help, I say. We’ll smash our way in, and fight whoever remains—
No. Darial’s voice cuts through the link. If we all enter, we risk alerting the dragons inside, and she is tethered, possibly by magic we cannot break. Let me try first. If I need you, I’ll call.
Kelan’s wings flick open and shut again, trembling with restraint.
Fine, he growls. But if anything happens to her…
The connection with Darial quiets as he focuses on the window. We remain still as he releases a thin stream of fire. Even from this distance, I sense his effort and the precision with which he controls his power.
Minutes pass. I count each breath and heartbeat.
Then—
It’s working. Glass is softening.
I finally exhale.
Has she moved? I ask.
No. Still sleeping, I think. But the cloak… it pulses. She must be terrified.
My claws pierce the metal ledge beneath me.
Then bring her back, Darial, Kelan whispers. Bring her home.
The window bows, and Darial shifts, clinging to the window with his human hands. As he’s dropping through the window, the dragon who left minutes ago swoops in and lands on the roof.
“Shit,” Kelan says. “Do you think he saw Darial?”
We watch as he shifts and sprints for the stairwell.
“I’d say from his speed of entry, he did. And he’s telling the others right now.”
“Fuck,” Kelan says, running for the edge of the roof. He shifts as his foot leaves the ledge, his dragon form emerging with such force that the momentum pushes me back. I follow, leaping after him, my skin transforming into scarlet scales as I fly toward Aura’s window.
Kelan and I grip the building’s facade, our claws embedded in the steel ridges beneath the glass, wings flared for balance and hearts pounding. The wind buffets us, but we remain resolute.
Darial is inside. He lifts Aura from the bed, freeing her small body from that cursed cloak and then focuses on the golden tethers laced with dragon power. Her eyes flutter open, dazed and barely lucid, lips parting in a whisper I can’t hear.
She is alive. That’s all that matters.
We have her.
Darial tries to free Aura’s hands, but with a surge of magic, she dissolves the tethers herself. Darial guides her to the window, one arm around her back, the other braced on the sill. He begins to pass her to us, but—
The door behind him bursts open. Lythian screams, shrill and furious. Three male dragons surge in, bare-chested and eyes blazing. One roars, already halfway through his shift. “She is ours!”
Darial spins, pressing Aura behind him, shielding her with his body. His arms flare, golden scales crawling over his skin as he half-shifts. Flames burst from his gaping mouth, catching the silk-draped bed instantly. It ignites in a column of fire, followed by the curtains and rugs.
The room erupts in chaos.
Kelan growls, eyes glowing like twin coals. Now.
He lunges forward, reaching through the melted window to pull Aura into his arms. She screams as she falls backward into his embrace, her magic surging in reflex.
A torrent of golden light bursts from her, knocking the male dragons across the burning room.
One crashes into the wall, another into the mural, cracking its surface.
The impact splinters marble, sending shards of enchanted stone hurtling to the ground.
The painted woman fractures along the center, her face splitting as if prophecy itself is breaking.
I howl, the sound torn from my throat like a war cry and slam my claws into the reinforced glass. Cracks spread outward before they shatter. Slivers rain down as I widen the opening, heat radiating from my scales.
Darial stumbles backward, half-shifted, his golden claws scarring the scorched floor. Wings unfurl behind him as smoke coils around his legs. He snarls, flames licking past his teeth, then turns and dives through the fractured window frame as the ceiling collapses in a storm of fire and debris.
A burning beam crashes where he stood moments before. The velvet bed erupts into flames. Silk drapes ignite, and the entire penthouse becomes a pyre.
I launch after him, diving from the window, my wings spreading wide, red, and gleaming. Bone splits and reforms as my full dragon form emerges, spine lengthening, ribs expanding, tail lashing free. Heat vents from my lungs as fire trails behind me.
Fly high, Kelan instructs, and we twist, arching toward the clouds.
Behind us, the others roar in rage, and then the enemy dragons leap from the shattered windows.
Tael shifts with a bellow, bronze scales glinting and fangs snapping. Brax and Loriek follow, their roars rising in unison. Their bodies twist mid-air, human forms transforming into monstrous power. Wings flare and flames sear the sky as tails whip behind them.
Their wings beat like war drums, sending shockwaves across the rooftop. Glass shatters in neighboring towers. Car alarms sound below as people scatter, unaware of the battle above that is cloaked with dragon magic.
Between clouds and skyscrapers, the sky becomes a battlefield.
Darial’s golden flame scorches the sky as he collides with Tael.
Their bodies slam together with a thunderclap that rattles nearby buildings.
Talons rake across scales, screeching like blades on iron.
Kelan banks left, shielding Aura with his body, his massive black wings moving them with precision. I pursue the female.
Lythian dives like a predator, her silver scales glittering.
She is enormous, older than the rest of us, her wings edged with scars, and horns sweeping back like crescent blades.
Power radiates from her. Her claws slice through my flank, but I twist and send fire into her face.
She howls, reeling back as her wings falter.
I roar and ram into her midsection, our bodies spiraling downward. Her tail wraps around my throat, constricting. I snap at her neck, my teeth scraping her silver scales, tasting her metallic ashy blood.
She howls, recoiling as her wings fail.
Darial and Tael tumble past us in a blazing tangle, locked jaw to shoulder.
Tael’s claws rake along Darial’s foreleg, and bone flashes white beneath torn golden scales.
Darial answers with a blast of white-hot fire that scorches Tael’s bronze wing membrane clean through.
The dragon screams as he lists hard to the right, barely correcting before crashing into a rooftop antenna that splinters under his weight.
Loriek streaks toward Kelan from above, jaws wide. Brax isn’t far behind.
Kelan senses him at the last moment and rolls mid-air, tucking Aura beneath his chest. Loriek’s teeth sink into Kelan’s shoulder. Black scales shatter under the force, and blood pours over Kelan’s side.
Kelan responds with fury, slamming backward into Loriek and driving him into Brax and both of them through a glass skybridge. The structure collapses, sending steel and glass into the street below. Kelan bursts free from the debris, roaring, with Loriek tumbling behind him.
Aura, in Kelan’s arms, stretches one glowing hand past his chest.
A blast of magical energy lashes toward Lythian, catching her in the shoulder.
The magic burns, striking Lythian and detonating in golden light. The silver dragon screams as scales fracture along her wing joint. She tumbles sideways, shrieking.
Her injured wing folds incorrectly, and she spirals, barely catching an updraft before crashing into a nearby rooftop. The concrete collapses beneath her and she tumbles sideways, shrieking. The others follow, rallying to protect her.
They vanish into the clouds, wounded, and howling.
Leave them, Kelan barks. We’ll take our revenge another day.
Even as he speaks, blood runs down his flank. His wingbeat falters, then steadies.
I spit fire in fury, every muscle ready to disobey, but when I notice Aura’s wounded wrists, desperation replaces my anger. I must focus on tending to my mate. There is nothing more important.
Her magic flickers weakly around us, supporting our flight with warmth that steadies Kelan’s wounded wing and eases the pain in my flank. Even exhausted, she does her best to help us.
We fly high and fast as the city lights blur below. We don’t land until we have crossed three boroughs and are nearly undetectable by magic.
Kelan lands on another of our buildings, one without our names displayed in bright lights, collapsing to his knees with Aura in his arms. I land next, roaring in pain, blood dripping from my side. Darial crashes into the garden planters, his wing crumpled and one arm bent at a severe angle.
Aura scrambles from Kelan’s arms and crawls to Darial. “Your arm—”
He grits his teeth, suppressing a cry of pain.
“Let me,” she says, voice breaking.
Magic floods her palms. She presses them to his wound, and light pulses around her. Flesh and bone mend in seconds. He gasps, clenching and unclenching his fingers.
She crawls to me next. “Ronyn…”
“It’s a scratch,” I say, though I'm shaking from the pain as my blood runs hot and fast from my wound.
She presses her lips to my temple, her magic weaving through my skin and sealing it effortlessly.
“Kelan,” she gasps, crawling to heal his wound with urgent care.
When she finishes, she stands, hands trembling. She wears only a gold shift, her body glowing in the moonlight as her runes shimmer like distant stars.
Kelan steps forward with tears in his eyes and places a reverent hand on her stomach.
A soft golden light answers from beneath her skin.
Darial joins him, and then I approach. We fall to our knees before our mate and queen, awestruck.
The warmth we feel is life.
Three lives exist in the belly of our mate.
Black. Gold. Scarlet.
We embrace Aura, breathing a collective sigh of relief.
She is our miracle and our future.
She is home, and no one will ever take her again.