Chapter 20
Mara
By the time we’re back at the overlook, I’m shaking, adrenaline mixing with exhaustion and something else. Something that feels like withdrawal. My chest is screaming. Lungs on fire.
Eight days. That’s how long I’ve had K’s presence. And now the absence of it feels wrong. Fundamentally, terrifyingly wrong.
But I have what I need. Intel Viktor can use.
I just need to get him on the phone before my body decides to stage a full rebellion.
We move to higher ground where the signal might be stronger. My phone shows two bars flickering in and out.
Thank God.
“I need privacy,” I tell the brothers.
They nod and move off to keep watch, their faces grave.
I dial Viktor’s number with fingers that won’t stop trembling. Video call. I need him to see my face. To understand how serious this is.
He answers on the second ring.
“Mara.” His voice is sharp with concern. “Where the hell have you been? After your call yesterday—”
“I found him.”
Silence.
“Found who?”
“The man who saved me. The one who pulled me from the helicopter. Kept me alive for a week in the mountains.” I lean against a boulder, trying to keep my voice steady. “And the Syndicate has him.”
Viktor’s expression shifts; concerned to strategic in a heartbeat.
“Explain.”
So I do. The whole story pours out. K waking with no memory, just instinct and fire. The way he’d pulled me from the wreckage and flames. Brought me back from the brink of death.
His transformation—scales like molten gold, soaring wings, fire that answered to his rage.
The attack on the village. His capture.
When I get to the part about him being a dragon, Viktor goes very still.
“You’re certain.”
“I watched him shift. Saw him take down a Syndicate strike team single-handedly.” My voice cracks. “He’s one of yours, Viktor. And they have him.”
Ember appears in frame. Then Luke. Elena pushes in from the side, her face tight with worry.
“Which clan?” Luke demands. “Do you have a name?”
“He calls himself K. That’s all he remembers.”
“K?” Elena frowns. “That’s not— Wait. Just K?”
“Total amnesia. Woke up in the mountains with nothing. No idea what he is, no memory of his past.” I pull up the photos with shaking hands, start sending them. “But I have coordinates. I found their facility. Here. Look.”
Viktor studies the images, his expression darkening. “We have a ground team in Bra?ov with the Craven men. Ready to find you.”
“How fast can they get here?”
“We can mobilize immediately.” He’s already typing something off-screen. “ETA six hours.”
Six hours.
The hollow feeling in my chest expands like someone’s scooping me out from the inside.
Six hours of K locked in that facility. Six hours of him alone, maybe drugged, definitely restrained.
“I’m staying here till you arrive,” I hear myself say. “I can watch for pattern changes. Let you know if they move him.”
“Absolutely not.” Viktor’s tone sharpens. “You’re injured—”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine, Mara. You clearly need medical attention. Get back to safety—”
“What I need is to help get him out.” My voice breaks, and I don’t even try to hide it anymore. “He saved my life, Viktor. More than once. He brought me back and—”
I stop. Because what I was about to say—he chose me—sounds insane even in my own head.
Except Dragana’s words echo: Dragon fire does not bind itself to just anyone. It chooses carefully.
“He’s important to you,” Viktor says quietly. Not a question.
“Yeah.” The admission comes out raw. “He is.”
The silence that follows is loaded.
Finally: “Fine. But you stay back. Observation only. When we move in, you stay clear. Understood?”
“Deal.”
Elena leans closer to the camera, her expression soft with the kind of concern that makes my throat tight. “Mara. Please be careful.”
“Always am, babe.”
“No, you’re really not.”
Despite everything—the pain, the fear, the bone-deep exhaustion—I smile. A real one. “Fair point.”
“We’ll get him out, Mara. Whatever it takes.” Elena’s voice is gentle.
The call ends with Viktor confirming deployment details. Extraction team mobilizing. Six hours until they arrive.
I check the time. Just past noon.
Six hours might as well be forever.
We settle in to wait.
Nicolae shares food from his pack—dried meat, hard cheese, bread that tastes like sawdust in my mouth. I force myself to eat anyway because passing out from low blood sugar isn’t going to help anyone.
Andrei keeps watch through binoculars, calling out changes in guard rotations, vehicle movements, anything that might matter when Viktor’s team arrives.
And I sit. And think.
Which is dangerous.
Because when I’m not moving, not planning, not actively doing something, my mind fills with memories I’ve been trying not to examine too closely.
K’s hands on my waist, steadying me when the world spun.
The rumble of his voice in the dark, telling me that everything was going to be okay.
The way he’d looked at me in the stream, water running down his chest, his eyes hot with want he was too honorable to act on.
Now he’s locked in that facility, and I might never get the chance to find out what this thing between us is.
The pain flares in my chest—not the physical kind, though that’s there too. This is different. Deeper. Like something vital is being stretched too thin, pulled taut between where I sit and where he’s being held.
I press my hand to my sternum, trying to breathe through it.
“You feel it, yes?” Andrei asks quietly. “The pull.”
I glance at him sharply. “What?”
“The bond. It hurts when you are apart.” His expression is knowing. “The old ones used to speak of such things.”
“It’s not. We’re not—” I stop. Because what’s the point of denying it? “Yeah. I feel it.”
“Good.”
“How is this good?”
“Because it means he feels it too.” Andrei returns his attention to the facility. “He knows you are near.”
The thought should be comforting.
Instead, it makes everything worse.
Because if K can feel this pull, this ache, then he’s down there hurting too.
“I’m coming,” I whisper to the empty space between us. “I swear to God, K, I’m coming.”
The words feel inadequate. Too small for what I’m trying to say.
But they’re all I have.
I resign myself to waiting.
The hours crawl.
The sun tracks across the sky—too slow, always too slow. Every minute that passes is another minute K is in there. Another minute the Syndicate has to hurt him, break him.
My mind won’t stop spinning worst-case scenarios.
What if they’re experimenting on him? The Syndicate has a track record of trying to exploit supernatural abilities. They did it to Elena’s mom, Lila, for twenty freaking years. What if they’re using that suppression tech to control him? What if they’re—?
“Stop,” Nicolae says gently. “You torture yourself with thoughts like these.”
“I can’t help it,” I say, not asking how he knows what I’m thinking. It must be written all over my face.
“Then think of better things. Think of when you see him again.”
When. Not if.
The certainty in his voice steadies me slightly.
I close my eyes and try to imagine it. Viktor’s team storming the facility. Finding K. Getting him out.
The moment when I see him again—alive, safe, free.
The way he’ll look at me.
The way his arms will feel when they close around me, solid and real and warm.
The way his fire will wrap around us both, finally, finally completing whatever circuit got interrupted when they tore him away.
My chest aches with wanting it.
Not just his presence. Not just his safety.
Him.
“Mara.” Andrei’s voice cuts through my thoughts. “Look.”
I open my eyes.
Mid-afternoon now. The sun slanting golden across the valley.
A vehicle approaches the compound—different from the others. Sleek, expensive, definitely not military.
Two men exit. Well-dressed. Moving with the kind of authority that makes my nerves jangle with recognition.
Leadership. Has to be.
They enter the main building with purpose, and my gut clenches.
“Something’s happening,” I breathe.
Nicolae passes me the binoculars. I focus on the building they entered.
More activity now. Guards moving with increased urgency instead of their usual bored rotations. Lights coming on in sections that were dark before. The entire compound shifting into higher alert.
Whatever’s happening, it’s big.
And it involves K.
I know it. Feel it in the same place where that hollow ache lives.
The pain flares in my chest, sharp enough to steal my breath.
Andrei notices immediately. “You are unwell.”
“I’m fine.” But my voice shakes, betraying me.
“We should take you back to the village—”
“No.” The word comes out harsher than I mean it. “I’m not leaving until Viktor’s team arrives. Not until I know K is out.”
“Even if it costs you?” Andrei asks quietly.
Live. You are what I come back for.
“He didn’t leave me,” I say. “I’m not leaving him.”
And on top of it all is the solid sense that I have to be near him.
The brothers exchange one of their loaded glances but don’t argue. Just return to watching the facility.
My phone buzzes. Text from Viktor.
ETA 90 minutes. Hold position.
Ninety minutes.
I can do ninety minutes.
Except the activity at the compound is increasing. More vehicles repositioning. Guard shifts changing with unusual frequency. The whole place radiating tension I can feel even from here.
Something’s definitely happening.
Something that can’t wait ninety minutes.
“I need to get closer,” I hear myself say.
Both brothers turn to stare at me.
“No,” Andrei says flatly. “Absolutely not.”
“Just to see better. Maybe there’s a weak point in their security, something Viktor’s team can use—”
“You can barely stand,” Nicolae interrupts, and he’s not wrong. My legs feel shaky, my breathing shallow. “You will get yourself killed.”
“I’m not sitting here doing nothing while they… While he’s—”
My voice breaks.
Andrei and Nicolae exchange another one of their wordless conversations. Then Andrei sighs, the sound heavy with resignation.
“We go together. You stay behind us. And if I say we retreat, we retreat immediately. Agreed?”
I nod, not trusting my voice.
We work our way down toward the fence line once more. Fifty yards from the fence, Andrei signals us to stop.
Close enough to see details through the chain link. Too close to be safe if anyone looks this direction.
I study the compound through the binoculars Nicolae hands me, searching for… What? A miracle? A weakness? Some sign that K knows I’m here?
And then I see it.
The men from before leaving the building. Speaking in short, sharp bursts. A pair of operatives joins them, carrying what looks like a large wooden chest embossed with gold. Something ceremonial.
The older of the two men looks back at the building, and then instructs the operatives to move the chest. He points toward an entrance that looks like it leads underground.
What the hell are they up to?
I only realize I’ve taken a step forward when Andrei grasps my arm.
“Back,” he says urgently. “Now.”
“They’re up to something—” My voice comes out desperate, pleading. “I saw them planning something. It involves him, I know it does!”
“And you cannot help him if you are dead.” Nicolae’s voice is sharp, cutting through my spiral. “The Aurora team will get him out.”
The logic is irrefutable. I hate it, but it’s true.
I can’t storm that facility alone. Can’t fight my way through guards and suppression tech and God knows what else. I’m not a warrior. I’m a tech nerd with a conspiracy theory TikTok who got way too deep in dragon politics.
But K is right there. I know it. Can feel it.
Hold on, I think desperately. Just a little longer. Viktor’s team is coming. We’re going to get you out.
I’m not leaving you.
I’m not.
I just hope that we get to him in time.