Chapter Thirty-Three
Tor
I stormed out of the tower, sparks of fury slipping through the cracks in my exterior, tipping everyone off to my mood.
“Surge,” I said, nodding sharply at the waiting dragon shifter. Behind him stood four other dragons, each handpicked by their leader, one of the best fighters in the entire storm clan. Like Surge, they all wore black from head to toe with few markings on the tight clothing.
“Torrent,” Surge replied respectfully, “I hear we have an issue?”
“Yes.”
I had several issues, but I wasn’t there to discuss my troubles with Mia.
She was my mate, and when we returned to the Manerium on Earth, I would show her.
She would have to see, then, that we were made for one another and cease her statements otherwise.
I would show her the mirror. Then, she would not be able to deny it.
To do that, however, we would have to deal with my sister.
“Rica has returned,” I said. “She severely wounded Ty while killing Tempest and the others. Perhaps she’s even returned to finish the job with Typhoon by now. What’s more, she had a Vorgan.”
I raised a hand to cut off his question. “I don’t know. Somehow, she had one. I chased it back through the Rift and pinned its corpse to the wall with a bolt of lightning. Nothing else would kill it.”
Surge nodded slowly. “That’s how your father killed the first one she brought.”
“The Vorgan is dead, but Rica is still out there. Who knows what other things she has set in motion. I don’t believe she would have done anything if she didn’t have a backup plan ready. This was a long time coming for her. She won’t accept failure.”
Surge nodded. “I understand.”
“Good, I’m glad. If it’s just Rica, this should be fairly easy. But something tells me it’s not.”
“It’s never easy,” Surge agreed. “If it is, something is about to go horribly, horribly wrong.”
Something already has, I thought, glancing back at the tower where Mia waited. Alone.
I clenched my teeth, tamping down my spike of anger as best I could. It was my fault, after all. I had rushed things, moved too fast without thinking of the consequences. And I was left with the smoking ruins of what I had thought was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
She wanted out. Not just of Storm Keep or the dragon realm, but out of my life, and me out of hers.
Most of me wanted to blame Rica and the Vorgan for ruining things, making her scared.
But it wasn’t that which had sent her running.
It was me. I should have strived to keep her in the dark about dragons for longer.
Instead, I’d yanked her into my world without pausing to think about how it might affect her.
I wasn’t sure how to fix it, either. That woman, she was my mate, of that I held no doubt. Too much about her made my mind and body come alive whenever I was in her presence. She was smart, kind, beautiful, determined, unbelievably brave, and more. In a word: perfect.
I had screwed up, but I wasn’t going to let her go. Not without trying one more time to prove the truth to her, to show her the future she could have. That she deserved. To be respected and feted, loved and longed for, and so much more. All I needed was a bit more time.
“When do we leave?” Surge asked.
“Now,” I said. “Ty was wounded when I left, and I’ve already spent too long here. If Rica came back, he would have been too weak to resist her. She would have finished him off. I can’t have that happen. I can’t do that to him.”
I hadn’t admitted my worries to anyone because I didn’t want them to think I was weak, but I knew Surge didn’t give a fuck. He’d been helpful to my father and had pledged himself to me after the God-King had summoned my parents. I could admit to him that I feared for the life of my best friend.
There was only one thing that would have pulled me away from his side, and Rica had taken it from me.
“We’ll be there in time,” Surge promised. “He’ll be alive.”
“I hope so,” I said tightly.
Surge looked behind me, alerting me to someone approaching.
“Are we leaving?” Mia asked.
I turned. She was no longer dressed in the bathrobe. “I see Liz lent you some of her clothes.”
“How did you know?” Mia asked, looking at her gray shirt and light gray pants, the cuffs and hems rolled up to reduce the size.
“Liz fell in love with someone from Iron Clan,” I said. “Because of that, her love for the color gray is … legendary.”
“Oh. I see. Well, yes, she did. It’s nice to be in something a bit more forgiving than a robe. Especially if we’re going to be flying again.”
“We are,” I confirmed. “Surge and his men are ready to go.”
“Is anyone else coming?” Mia asked.
“Liz and another group will follow in two hours,” I said. “Enough time for us to secure the manor or retreat through the Rift, depending on what Rica has done in our absence.”
“Okay.” Mia didn’t sound like she particularly cared.
She just wanted to go home and probably forget all about her adventures in the dragon world.
How could I blame her when they’d all been so traumatic, in one way or another?
My ire notched up another level as I thought of all that she’d been through since agreeing to come to be my “cleaner.”
“Get them in the air,” I said to Surge, who ordered his men aloft with the wave of a hand.
Four navy-blue storm dragons took off as one several moments later, the wind from their launch stirring up the clothing and hair of the three of us remaining on the ground.
“See you up there,” I told Surge as he moved off to initiate his change.
The grim-faced, gray-haired shifter nodded in response, not needing any further words or commands. I watched him go. Mia moved to my side, though there was still a large gap between us that was wider emotionally than physically.
“That’s still really neat,” she said in a soft voice as Surge the human disappeared into Surge the dragon, his body shifting and changing in seconds, scales replacing skin, snout for nose, and more.
“Yeah,” I said with a grunt. “Are you ready?”
She nodded. I had told her before coming out there that she would have to ride on my back to return to the Rift and Earth. The news had shaken her at the time, but she seemed to warm to it now.
“Good. Then climb on my back,” I said, crouching a little lower for her.
“What?” She didn’t make a move toward me.
“The easiest way to do this is if you climb on my back now,” I explained.
“Oh. Okay.” She hesitantly jumped onto my back, holding tight with her arms and legs.
I inhaled sharply, clenching my eyes, trying to control myself.
I’d thought I could handle her body pressed against mine, but I was second-guessing myself.
The heat of her body was amplified, especially the fire burning between her legs.
I doubted she was aroused, but it didn’t matter.
I could feel it, and my body crackled with fresh power as I sought to contain my reaction.
“You good?” she asked, her voice more than a little throaty and hoarse.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one feeling some kind of way. That helped, knowing she was suffering, too. Despite her words, she couldn’t just shut off the connection between us like it was a tap. So we would have to get through it together, which was ironic enough to make me smile.
“Good enough,” I said gruffly, then reached into myself and unleashed the magic that would allow me to return to my true form.
“Whoa!” Mia yelped from my back. “Holy crap. Okay. Wow. Ahhh. Crap. This is not easy!”
I settled down on all four legs, my wings spread wide and high, ready to take off.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, looking back at her. She was seated perfectly at the base of my neck. “Everything looks fine.”
“It’s like a bucking bronco back here! When you were shifting, it went this way and that way. There’s no way this is the easiest. I nearly fell twice.”
“It’s either that or climb all the way up my wing,” I said, not giving her further room to moan. I wasn’t in the mood for it. “This is faster and easier. You did great. Now, lean forward, and hold on tight. We’re going to take off.”
“Got it,” she said, plastering herself to my neck.
Fuck. I immediately regretted my words, but there was no other way safe enough for me to risk her. Whether she wanted to split or not, I still knew how I felt about her and what she was to me. I wouldn’t risk that any more than I absolutely had to.
Grimacing at the shock of pure desire that raced through me at her renewed contact with my scales, I launched us into the air.
Mia screamed at first but then got herself under control, the noises turning more to sounds of awe as Storm Keep shrank below us, and we joined the formation of other dragons.
The wind swept up around us as we called it, and we surged forward on the wings of a storm, propelled toward Mount Drakonus by my fury and the power of the other five dragons working together.
That teamwork allowed us to reach the Rift in short order, descending through the giant tunnel with ease, not having to shrink our formation at all.
The hole in the mountain swallowed us with thousands of feet to spare on either side.
Down we went, to the very depths of the mountain and the Rift itself.
Surge must have issued orders ahead of time because two of his men immediately shifted and went through to scout it out before Mia and I had even landed.
I didn’t waste any time following them down, though, resuming my form so that I was ready for a fight if word came back that there was trouble on the other side.
“Clear,” one of them said, popping back through and surprising me.
I started to reach out and put an arm around Mia to calm her but stopped halfway.
She wouldn’t want that. Not then. So I let it awkwardly fall while I stared straight at the Rift.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her look at me, then look away, but I couldn’t tell what it was that had passed behind her eyes. Not that it mattered right then.
“Let’s go, then,” I said, urging us through.
I went first, followed by Mia, then Surge, and finally his other two men. We spread out around the circular room while the two shifters who went ahead moved deeper into the house's basement.
There was a shout from the hallway.
“Get down!” I hissed, throwing myself in front of Mia, blocking her from anything that could come from the door and summoning twin blasts in my palms.
“False alarm!” one of the scouts called. “We found Ty.”
I got to my feet but stopped rigidly. I wanted to go to Ty, but my place was there. With Mia.
“Bring him here,” I said, but there was no need. Ty was already rounding the corner.
Mia gasped, recoiling. Though we’d been gone several hours, Ty was still a mess of cuts and wounds. They were healing, he looked much better than when I’d left him, but he was still very much in recovery mode.
“I’m glad you’re alive,” I said, accepting his brief embrace. “I’m sorry I had to leave you.”
Ty looked at Mia and grinned. “Don’t be. I’m glad you finally found something more important to you than me.”
I cringed as Mia shied away. Ty frowned, and I made a tiny gesture for him to drop it. He shrugged, but his expression was already sobering.
“What is it?” I asked. “What happened?”
“We have a problem,” he said. “A big problem.”