13. Saving Her Dragon #3
The heavy silver and iron cuffs shattered into a thousand harmless fragments of green smoke.
Garrett lunged forward, slamming his bare palms flat against the stone wall of the hidden compartment, while on the exact opposite side of the masonry, Han slammed his massive, razor-sharp claws against the barrier.
One soul. Two distinct beings, moving in absolute, flawless alignment. Nothing could stop the power.
The stone wall cracked, a sharp, splintering boom echoing through the cavern. They hit it again. And again.
BOOM.
The artificial separation exploded. The stone wall disintegrated into empty air, and Han rushed through the threshold.
The instantaneous, majestic restoration of the Bond of Man and Dragon King slammed through the Mating Bond.
The false closet was gone. There was no door, no void, and absolutely no place left in existence where Leviathan could ever lock Garrett away from Han again. They were whole.
The destruction of the architecture ripped through Leviathan.
Something black and rotted tore free from the collapsing foundation, dragging a torrent of emerald-black energy with it. Whether it was part of his soul, his Magic, or something even older, Sydney didn't know.
She only knew the Demon Lord screamed. Not in fury. In pain.
Garrett and Han struck from inside. Sydney and Kara hammered the Beast of the Abyss with White Dragon Fire. Beyond the tether, Carrick and Alastair continued pounding the road while Ginnie's Magic slammed the thresholds shut.
Leviathan was being torn away from Garrett piece by piece.
Right before the entire pathway collapsed into absolute nothingness, Leviathan executed a brutal tactical retreat. He let out one final, spitting snarl, violently tearing himself free by sacrificing the embedded piece of his own Magic.
The connection to Garrett was permanently severed. The bridge snapped like a high-tension cable. The Demon Lord survived.
Sydney could feel the distant flicker of his presence before the road collapsed completely. Badly injured. Driven out. Structurally crippled, and his presence vanished from the Heatherton Homestead entirely– that was enough for her.
Garrett stood at the edge of the collapsing cavern, his eyes tracking the retreating shadow. For a single second, the old Guardsman in him, the traumatized Warrior who needed absolute vengeance, wanted to sprint through the fray to chase the monster down.
The minute Sydney recognized what her Mate was thinking, her hand locked tightly in his.
Han was whole, purring like a massive furnace within his chest, and the road was disintegrating around them; she wasn’t letting him be baited into another fight by a narcissistic asshole who was old enough to know better but too stupid to keep his damn mouth shut.
As Garrett looked down at her, Sydney saw the truth. He chose her. He let the monster run rather than risk losing her to a useless pursuit. She could not have been prouder.
Then Leviathan had to open his mouth one more time.
“Coward,” the Demon Lord’s fading, distant voice hissed from the void.
Garrett didn't even blink. "No," he whispered into the collapsing Darkness. "I'm done letting you choose my battles."
From one heartbeat to the next, the psychic architecture shattered into a million points of dust. Instantly, Ginnie's golden lifeline tether pulled tight around Sydney's ankle, yanking her backward through the Spiritual Plane with the velocity of a freight train. Garrett’s form began to rapidly disappear from her grasp, the lavender light blurring in the center and darkening at the edges.
For one horrifying, breathless second, she thought she was losing him to the void again.
“GARRETT!” she screamed. “COME BACK TO—”
Sydney's eyes flew open.
She dragged in a massive, desperate gasp as bright Texas sunlight filled the room. Her body convulsed on the mattress as her lungs fought to remember how to breathe.
The bedroom was in absolute chaos. Darcy's monitoring equipment still let out a high-pitched whine as the red warnings rapidly recalibrated back to green.
Ginnie was sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed, her hands steadying the glowing silk thread, while Carrick stood over her, his chest heaving, his eyes still glowing with the residual white-hot fire of his Dragon King.
Grey was hovering right at the edge of the mattress, his face tight with the worry of an older brother.
Sydney scrambled to her knees and turned around on the sheets. Her eyes instantly locked onto Garrett.
He was lying flat on his back. His eyes were tightly closed, his features completely motionless.
"Garrett?" she choked out, her hands trembling as she reached for his shoulders.
The room held its breath. Nobody moved. The silence stretched for one long, agonizing beat…
Then, Garrett inhaled a deep, steady breath. His eyes fluttered open, the irises a rich, clear, brilliantly vibrant lavender. He was present. He was entirely there.
Before she could even utter his name a second time, Garrett’s large hands snapped out.
He grabbed her by the waist and violently yanked her down against his chest, pulling her into an embrace that wasn't sexy or playful– it was pure, raw, desperate survival.
He buried his forehead deep into the crook of her neck, his broad shoulders shaking as he held her with a strength that anchored her to the earth.
Sydney wrapped her arms around his neck, her tears finally flowing freely as the Mating Bond flashed with the vibrancy and life of their love.
There was no static. No freezing void. No empty closet.
Through the link, she could feel Han resting completely against Kara, their ancient Dragon energies intertwined without a single line of interference.
Everything was exactly where it belonged.
Grey stepped closer to the bed, his voice a low, rough rumble. "Leviathan?"
Garrett didn't release his grip on Sydney, but he lifted his head slightly. His lavender eyes met his brother’s heavy gaze. "Gone."
"Dead?" Carrick pressed.
"No," Garrett said, his voice turning solid and certain. "But he's not inside me anymore."
The victory settled over the room like a warm blanket.
Dr. Darcy Thorntree systematically began ripping the electrodes off the headboard, her tablet finally displaying a perfect, flawless waking baseline.
Ginnie let out a soft laugh, gathering her silk thread, while Carrick slowly sheathed his ancient blade back into its scabbard and released it back into the ether.
Garrett slowly loosened his grip, allowing Sydney to sit up and get onto his lap, though he kept his large hands resting firmly on her hips. She felt him looking inward, dropping his consciousness into the vast, fiery spaces of his own mind.
He searched the perimeter. He scanned the coordinates of his own soul.
Pure joy flooded through the Mating Bond, flowing from Garrett into Sydney until she could barely breathe around it. There was no hidden compartment, no stone pillars, and no black shadow waiting for the clock to strike 3:42 AM.
Han settled into the warmth of their shared soul with a deep, contented rumble. “Just us, lad.”
Looking at her Mate’s face, a profound, overwhelming wave of peace washing over his features, Sydney squeezed his hand.
"What?" Garrett asked as he opened his eyes, smiling a real, genuine, unburdened smile that reached all the way to his eyes for the first time since his rescue.
"Nothing," Sydney murmured.
Raising an eyebrow, he traced her lips with his fingers. "Nothing?"
As he pulled her against his chest and locked his arms around her, she looked deeply into his eyes and winked. "Not a thing. That's exactly the point, my love."