Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
I couldn’t even have named which emotion was foremost as I slipped into Callum’s room and closed the door behind me.
Worry, that he wasn’t going to be okay.
Relief, that I no longer had to feel responsible for the chaos outside.
Anticipation…
But as I approached the bed, I quickly realized that it was empty. There was no sign of the auburn-haired dragon that I missed so badly it was an aching wound in my chest.
The blankets were rumpled, the pillow askew, but the dragon was gone.
No. Surely… surely that hadn’t actually been him outside.
I pivoted swiftly and reached for the door handle, ready to call for Ryker, when something grabbed me from behind. A hand fastened over my mouth, silencing my cries. An arm like a steel cable pulled me tightly against a powerful body. I could neither call for help nor fight my way free.
My brain tried to panic, but my body refused. It simply stopped struggling. And when I shut my eyes, I knew.
It didn’t matter that we’d been together only a little over a week. Nor did it matter that we’d been separated for most of it. I knew whose arms held me. I knew whose heartbeat echoed through my chest in counterpoint to my own.
“Callum?”
At least that’s what I tried to say, but the hand over my mouth muffled the word.
My captor paused. His hand lowered—only by a fraction, but it was enough.
“Callum, it’s me.”
The arms caging me went still, and for a moment it felt as if every muscle in his body tensed. He was poised and waiting… for something.
“Do you know me?”
Silence. I felt his chest heaving as if he was struggling for words, and then his breath on my neck. Warm and soft, ruffling my hair.
“It’s Raine,” I said quietly, wondering whether it was possible for a heart to crack under such strain. “Callum, I’m so glad you’re alive. Like Faris always says, everything else… everything else we can fix.”
I felt a surge of tension ripple through him, heard a low growl of frustration rumble through his chest.
What kind of poison could do this? Rob him of speech, of rationality, even of recognition?
That storm I’d sensed… It must have been the moment he awakened—disoriented, angry, and maybe even afraid. I needed to reach him, but in order to do that, I would have to lower the walls that were protecting me from the chaotic state of his emotions.
I could normally only feel those emotions when I was touching him, and the fact that I’d felt his turmoil from halfway across the city suggested that our connection had been heightened. If I dropped my walls now…
But it didn’t matter. Whatever happened, it was a risk I was more than willing to take for Callum’s sake.
And what was more, those walls might be dampening our bond. He might not be able to sense me, and if he felt threatened, there was a chance he would react in a way he would hate himself for later.
So before I could think better of it, before I could consider, or weigh, or even second guess… I took a sledgehammer to the protections that I’d built around my heart.
Brick by brick, they crashed down, and the storm rose once more, leaving me buffeted by the winds of thoughts and feelings that I knew were not my own. And at the center of it all, I felt more than heard a cry of anger and despair, carrying the taint of a deep and demoralizing fear.
For the merest fraction of a second, I opened myself up and touched that coiling darkness. Allowed it to resonate through me. Let myself feel it. Taste it. Understand it. Understand him.
Callum was a man of deep convictions and an even deeper sense of responsibility. But he was also a black dragon. A guardian and a protector, with a fierce love for his family and his people.
And he was so afraid that he’d failed. Failed at his job, failed to protect his hoard. Failed everyone he loved.
Failed me.
But this fear… It was not just a normal fear. It felt like a living thing—coiled around Callum’s heart and giving teeth to a part of himself that he’d defeated many times already. He might have overcome the poison’s effects on his physical body, but another battle still remained.
The battle for his mind.
And maybe it made me a fool, but I wasn’t willing to wait for anyone to tell me how dangerous this was, or warn me about the potential for catastrophe. I wasn’t ready to hear the risks or listen to anyone else’s doubts.
Because this was my battle. Callum was my mate, and I would fight for him, no matter the outcome, knowing that my family would always have my back.
Whether I succeeded or failed today, the fight beyond this room would continue, because it wasn’t just about me.
Blake would still be defeated. The missing kids would be found, The Portal would be fixed, and Ethan would be safe, because not a single one of my people would leave the others to face the pain, the sorrows, or the complications of life on their own.
For so long, I’d tried to face all my problems alone, hoping to stretch myself thin enough to defeat them all. But I never could. Time and time again, someone else had picked me up and set me on my feet. Someone had been my family.
So now I could face this fight, setting all other fears aside.
Even if this battle was my last, Ari and Logan would be taken care of.
Kes would be protected. And that made me brave enough to turn in Callum’s arms and look him in the eye.
Let myself sink into that stranger’s gaze and set my palm against his cheek.
“Don’t worry,” I said softly. “You’re in there, and I’m going to find you.”
And then I dove in. Past the broken walls, past the fear, past the storm, to the tightly coiled knot of emotions at Callum’s heart and the tangled threads of magic that made up our bond.
Where those threads had once glowed with power, they now lay dark and thorny. Flickers of power surged, but they did not welcome me as they once had.
I didn’t stop, and I refused to be afraid. Instead, I took hold of Callum’s shirt, and tugged his head down until his forehead rested on mine. He did not resist, as if somehow, he still knew I wasn’t going to hurt him.
“I won’t let you go,” I told him simply. “I don’t know what demons you’re fighting right now, but I won’t let this poison have you.”
A groan wrenched from his throat—a sound of agony that tore at my heart, but I did not back down.
“You are mine, Callum-ro-Deverin, and I will do battle with whatever tries to take you from me. Whether it’s your mom, or Blake, or the entire Shapeshifter Court.
There is nothing I won’t try. No one I won’t fight.
So if you’re hiding from this—hiding from our bond—know that I won’t stop coming.
I won’t stop digging. I won’t stop trusting that you’ll come back to me. ”
He began to shiver—first almost imperceptibly, then in earnest. Powerful tremors shook his body, from his broad shoulders to the strong arm that still wrapped around my waist.
“I know you’re scared,” I murmured. “I know this poison is trying to tell you that you’ve failed. But you haven’t failed until you give up, and I know that’s not you. You promised to fight for me. For us. So come back,” I pleaded. “Take my hand. Remember me.”
I had no idea what I would do if this didn’t work. If all of our history together was just… gone. The thought of it tried to stop my breath and brought hot stinging tears to my eyes, but I pushed through.
“Remember how we met,” I insisted. “That night at The Portal, I didn’t even like you. I was afraid you might hurt my family, so I didn’t trust you, and I know you didn’t trust me, either. And then you made it worse when you tried to blackmail me.”
It seemed so long ago that we’d looked at one another with anger or distrust. So long ago that we’d existed as no more than employer and employee.
“But you have to remember how many times we’ve saved each other—enough that we’ve had to stop counting because it doesn’t matter anymore.
Not when you’re mine to save, and I’m yours.
And I am yours, Callum. No holding back.
You’re stuck with me until the breath leaves my body and my heart stops beating, and maybe even then there will be a part of me that won’t let go, for as long as either of us lives. ”
I had no way of knowing whether our bond was truly complete, but if I’d had the means, I would have made it so in that moment. No questions, no doubts. This man, this dragon, was mine.
“So you can’t quit. Because right here, right now, I’m claiming you. This is it. No going back. Not for either of us. Whatever this poison tries to take from you, it’s going to have to beat me too. Do you hear me, Callum? It’s going to have to defeat me too!”
I had no one to tell me what to do. No idea how mate bonds truly worked. But with our foreheads pressed together, my tears hot on my cheeks, and his hand trembling where it rested on my neck, I reached out and touched that strange kernel of raw emotion that he carried somewhere within him.
It was the very heart of our bond, and I poured my own magic into it—a fierce, sharp torrent of power that blazed through the shadows, scorching the lingering doubts and piercing to the heart of the darkness that smothered him.
In that moment, my magic was neither fae, nor elemental, nor siren, nor shapeshifter—it was simply raw power, burning with determination and driven by the fear of losing him forever.
And just as Callum had found me in the middle of a tornado and saved me from the howling winds, I found him in that storm of poison and self-doubt and refused to let go.
The maelstrom tore at me, shredding my mind and my will with the stinging claws of fear, but I held on. Clung to my memories and my certainty that after all we’d been through, no poison, no assassin’s blade, was going to take him from me.
I had no idea how long we stood there, locked together, grappling with that unseen enemy. It could have been mere minutes, hours, or even days. But eventually my power began to ebb. My strength began to fail. I knew my knees were about to buckle, and I still could not tell if I’d done enough.
“Callum. Can you hear me?” I gripped his shirt collar like a lifeline—the only thing holding me up. “Do you know who I am?”
I felt his chest rising and falling beneath my hands, as if he’d run a thousand miles to reach this point. Felt his hand squeeze my waist, and then…
The storm died.
The winds were cut off.
Everything that raged at his heart suddenly went silent, and I heard a hoarse whisper.
“Raine.”
Tears erupted and ran down my face, unchecked.
“Yes. It’s me.”
He collapsed—dropped to his knees and slumped over, catching himself with one hand, while the other wrapped around me to keep me from falling.
For a moment we hovered there. I was resting on his forearm, barely holding my own head up as I reached out to tilt his face towards mine. Waiting for those gorgeous amber eyes to open, while searching for any sign that he was going to be okay.
“Callum?”
He nodded, but slowly, as if every motion hurt. His eyes finally opened. He was still breathing hard, but with a sense of release. And then he looked at me.
There was no glow of magic in those amber depths. Not even a spark of power. Only a deep well of recognition and a sense of connection so profound that I nearly gasped aloud.
And yet, there was no smile on his lips, no hope on his face. Only a sort of lost emptiness.
“Callum, what’s wrong? Are you still in pain?”
He clenched me to him suddenly, pulling me to his chest and tucking his face into my shoulder, his arms shaking as he held me.
“You’re real,” he whispered. “You’re really real this time.”
“Of course I’m real.” I gave in to temptation and touched his hair, running my fingers through the disorderly auburn strands with fierce relief. “And I’m not going anywhere. Callum, I’ve fully accepted our bond.”
He didn’t react at all. Not with excitement, not with relief, only a quiet sort of despair.
“What is it?” I pulled back, took his face between my hands and forced him to look at me. “You’re scaring me, Callum. What is it?”
His eyes fluttered closed. “I can’t feel you,” he said hoarsely. “I can’t feel anything. The bond, the dragon… all of my magic and my connections to my people and my family. They’re just gone.”