Chapter 17
Mara
The trees swallow him. One second, K is there—jaw set, eyes locked on mine even as they drag him away. The next, the bend in the path takes him, and he’s gone.
Just… gone.
For a heartbeat, my brain doesn’t process it. Can’t. Won’t.
Then reality crashes down.
Oh, no. Absolutely not. You do not get to take him and just walk away.
I’m moving again. Sprinting toward the eastern path, boots slipping on wet stone.
“Mara, no!” someone shouts behind me. Andrei, maybe. Or Nicolae.
I don’t care.
My chest screams as I run. The old crash injuries lighting up with fresh pain. Something pulls wrong in my shoulder—muscle or tendon, doesn’t matter. I push through it.
K chose this. Chose capture so I wouldn’t die.
I’m not letting that be the end.
Hands grab me from behind. Strong. Rough.
“Let me go!” I twist violently, almost breaking free.
Andrei’s voice, close to my ear: “You cannot—”
“The hell I can’t!” I wrench my arm, feel his grip slip.
Then someone else has my other arm. A third person blocks my path forward.
Not gentle. Not ceremonious. Just practical restraint from people used to hauling livestock.
“Let me go, dammit! I’m not a freaking goat!” I snap.
“Stop!” Dragana’s command cuts through my rage. “Child, you will die before you crest that ridge. We saw what they carried. The weapons.”
I kick backward. Connect with someone’s shin. They grunt but don’t release me.
“Cool,” I snarl. “Then I’ll die sprinting instead of sitting here doing nothing.”
“You’ll be a body in the snow before dusk,” Andrei says bluntly. Still holding my arm, but his voice is gentle. Pitying. “No weapon. No idea where they went. They had vehicles waiting below. You understand?”
I hate him for being right.
Hate myself more for stopping.
My legs give out. If they weren’t holding me, I’d collapse.
The fight drains out of me all at once, replaced by something colder. Heavier. As if the strength is draining from me.
They release me slowly, ready to grab again if I bolt.
I don’t. Just stand there, staring down the path where K disappeared.
Gone.
Taken.
Because of me.
But if they came for me, why did they take him instead?
The thought nags at me.
Something warm trickles from the corner of my mouth. I touch my lip—split, bleeding sluggishly. Must’ve happened during the fight. An operative’s rifle butt or elbow, I don’t remember.
I wipe the blood away. Barely notice.
“There is a way,” Dragana says quietly.
I turn to her, hope sparking despite everything. “What way?”
“Not to save him now. You cannot.” She meets my gaze with those sharp, ancient eyes. “But to find where they take him. To bring help that can.”
“How?”
She gestures toward the eastern slope. “There is only one route to move heavy equipment from these mountains quickly. The lower cut, near the ravine. Where the old mining road runs.”
“Mining road?” My brain latches onto the concrete detail. Something actionable instead of despair.
Andrei nods. “From before the wars. Abandoned now, but the road remains. Wide enough for vehicles. It leads down to the highway, two hours’ drive from here.”
“You heard engines?” I say, remembering. “Before the attack. You said they came with transport.”
“Yes. Down there.” He points. “You can see it from the goat ridge. The road. Where they went.”
My mind starts working again. Practical instead of emotional.
I can’t rescue K alone. Can’t even reach him without getting killed in the process.
But I can find where they’re taking him. Get eyes on that road. Track which direction they went.
“Show me,” I say. “The ridge. I need to see it.”
Andrei exchanges a glance with Dragana. She nods once.
“I will take you,” he says. “But we go carefully. Those men may have left watchers.”
“Fine. Let’s go.”
Nicolae appears with my messenger bag. “You forgot this.”
I take it automatically, check the contents. Battered phone. Cracked iPad. But lower altitude might mean signal.
Might mean contact with the outside world.
With people who can help.
My hands work on autopilot as I fumble for the cable and plug my phone into my spare battery bank. Thank God I always have backup. Though I never thought it would be for anything like this.
Live, K’s voice echoes in my memory. You are what I come back for.
“Yeah,” I whisper to the empty path. “And you’re what I’m coming back with.”
The descent takes twenty minutes. It feels like twenty days.
Andrei leads, moving with the easy confidence of someone who knows every stone. I follow, ignoring the pain in my shoulder, the way my ribs protest with each jarring step. My chest feels like it’s constricting, a tugging sensation that makes my throat feel tight.
The forest thickens around us. Pine and scrub giving way to denser growth. We’re below the village now, following a deer trail that winds between massive boulders.
“There,” Andrei says quietly, pointing.
I look.
Through a gap in the trees, I see it: a wide cut through the mountainside. Graded earth, still visible despite years of disuse. Tire tracks in the snow—fresh, deep.
Multiple vehicles. Heavy ones.
My pulse quickens.
“The road runs east,” Andrei continues. “Toward the border. Then south to…” He pauses, searching for the English. “To the city. Bra?ov, maybe. Or further.”
I pull out my phone, releasing a sigh of relief when it powers on. One bar of signal flickers in the corner.
Thank God.
“I need to make a call,” I tell Andrei. “It might take a while. And I might need privacy.”
He nods, understanding. “I will watch. You have ten minutes before we must return. Longer and Dragana will send others.”
“Ten minutes. Got it.”
He moves away, giving me space.
I stare at the phone screen. One bar. Maybe enough. Maybe not.
I pull up my contacts. Find Viktor’s number—the emergency line, encrypted, meant for exactly this kind of situation.
My finger hovers over the call button.
What do I say? Hey, sorry I’ve been dead for a week. Turns out I found an amnesiac dragon who saved my life and then got captured by the Syndicate because of me. Can you send a rescue team?
Yeah, that’ll go over well.
I take a breath. Hit call.
The line rings. Once. Twice.
Please pick up. Please—
“Mara?” Viktor’s voice, sharp with disbelief. “Is this—? Are you—?”
The line crackles. Goes dead.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
I lift my phone in the air and wave it about, desperately seeking signal.
A bar flickers.
Yes!
I dial again. Viktor answers immediately. “Mara?”
“Yes, it’s me!”
“Good,” he says. “I’ve called for the others.”
Great. An audience.
But what the hell. I work better that way.
“Fine,” I say. “I just wanted to check in so—”
“Mara?” Viktor’s voice is breaking up. “Mara, can you hear me?”
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! If this call drops again, so help me—
“I’m calling you back from the satellite line,” says Viktor. “Get yourself someplace with better signal.”
Great. Does he expect me to climb a freaking tree?
“No sweat,” I say a second before the call drops again.
Dammit! I glance around and spot a rocky outcrop that juts up above the others.
Tucking my phone under my chin, I painstakingly clamber up it until I reach the top, my back pressed against the rough, flat surface.
Minutes drag by as I try to find a stable position. A call comes through. Video.
Ambitious.
Viktor’s craggy features fill the screen. I see others in the space beyond him.
I grin despite everything. “Hey, kids. Miss me?”
The room behind him erupts. I catch glimpses of movement—Caleb, Elena, Dorian… all the usual suspects. Questions come over one another, relief and anger bleeding together.
I hold up a hand. “One at a time, people. I don’t have long.”
My eyes flick to where Andrei stands watch at the base of my rock perch. Making sure we’re still alone.
Viktor steps directly in front of the camera, blocking out the others. “Mara, where are you? Are you injured?”
“I’m fine.” I shift position, trying to find an angle that doesn’t make my shoulder scream. The lie is obvious from the way I wince. “Banged up, but fine.”
I search the faces behind Viktor until I find her. Ember. Safe. Alive.
Relief floods through me so sharp it stings.
“You made it out,” I say, my voice softening. “I knew you would.”
“We thought you were dead,” Ember says, her voice breaking. Luke’s hand finds hers, anchoring. “The fall—”
The grin I force onto my face doesn’t reach my eyes. I know it doesn’t. “Takes more than a mountain to kill me.” I manage a wink. “Though it came close.”
“God… Mara…” Elena now. Tears streaming down her face. I’ve never seen my best friend cry like this. “I thought… I was…” Her voice chokes. “You died. I thought… you died.”
My throat tightens. “Chillax, babe.” I keep the grin in place even though it hurts. “If I’d had a glimpse of the afterlife, I’d already be TikTokking about it.”
The cough hits before I can stop it. Harsh, wet, rattling in my chest. I try to smother it, but when I pull my hand away, there’s a dark stain on my palm.
From my split lip, probably.
I wipe it quickly on my pants. Hope the camera quality is too poor to catch it.
Caleb steps forward, one arm around Elena’s shaking shoulders. All business, despite the emotion tightening his jaw.
“What’s your location?” He barks it like an order. “We’ll send a team—”
“That’s the thing.” I readjust my phone, trying to block the landscape beyond the rough stone behind me. Don’t give them landmarks. Not yet. “I’m not ready to come back yet.”
Silence crashes through the connection.
“What do you mean, not ready?” Viktor demands.
“I’m onto something. Something big. Can’t leave until I’ve seen it through.” Until I know where they’ve taken him.
“That’s not your call to make.” Caleb’s voice is firm, clipped. I see the vein pulse at his temple. “You’re Craven personnel—”
“With respect, Caleb.” I try not to snap. “I’m making it my call.”
I shift again, then flinch. There’s a dark stain on my left side that is spreading slowly.
What the hell?