Chapter 3
“I need your…
BAM.
Her lungs instantly seized, locking the air inside her throat.
Shocked. Mentally torn away from everything around her, a flash of blinding, explosive heat erupted behind her ribs, scorching her from the inside out.
Beneath the fire, a sickening layer of icy dread crept through her veins. Like frost tracing the edges of her heart, it was followed by the heavy, metallic taste of blood pooling in the back of her throat.
Then came the darkness. It didn't just fall lazily like a fuzzy blanket fresh from the dryer. It hit her like a ton of bricks–an avalanche of pain, horror, agony, and unrelenting misery. It molded to her every curve. Thick and suffocating, it sought to devour the Special One.
Her vision splintered into shadows as the phantom weight switched its girth to her limbs. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. Every nerve screamed with the terrifying, invisible sensation of being pinned to the floor and held down by unseen hands.
“RUN!”
It wasn't a request. It wasn’t a suggestion. It was a command roared with absolute supremacy. The word slashed through Sydney's mind, exploding into a million jagged shards that echoed into every dark crevice of her consciousness. It demanded her body obey. It demanded she run.
But she couldn’t. The pain was too intense.
Hit with an especially brutal wave of heat and phantom blood, Sydney doubled over, left arm around her waist and her right hand over her heart.
Gasping, trying to catch her breath, another slash of fire, an explosion of icy dread slammed into her chest. Her knees buckled. The world tilted sideways. She was falling, and there was nothing she could do about it.
But she never hit the floor.
Carrick’s arms caught her. Solid and unyielding, he lifted her to his chest.
“Garrett!” Sydney choked out, the name ripping from her throat, a hiccupping sob of utter exhaustion and complete horror.
From one beat of her heart to the next, everything moved at lightning speed.
Complete panic erupted around her. A chaotic blur of noise and motion, she caught a few sights and sounds but truly felt what was happening as a distant vibration against her skin.
Carrick was instantly in full Dragon Elder mode.
His initial calm, cool, and collected demeanor was gone.
There was no more of his gentle, caring tone of questioning when he’d asked, “Come in, Syd.
Tell me what's wrong?” It had all been wiped away by the pure, lethal instinct to protect one of his chosen family.
Hoisting her up into his iron-tight grip, he swept her inside the house. His sense of urgency and command filled the massive mansion. Ginnie instantly appeared at his side. Her presence was the sharp anchor they needed amidst the rising chaos.
Carrick didn't slow his action in the slightest. Laying Sydney down, his voice barked out in a rapid-fire interrogation born of pure desperation.
“What did you feel? Did you see him? Did he speak? Where is he, Sydney?”
Sydney opened her mouth to answer, to scream that Garrett was burning, that he was drowning in darkness, but the words were utterly scorched out of her.
Inside her mind, Kara was going absolutely ballistic. The Dragon Queen was spitting frantic orders, raging against the cage of Sydney's skull, demanding answers the young woman simply didn't possess.
“Two…” Kara’s voice hissed, a violent, trembling vibration that cut through the internal noise attacking Sydney’s brain. “Two of them,” the Dragon Queen repeated.
Sydney’s thoughts fractured. “Leviathan?” She anxiously replied through their mental link.
Frantically trying to force her physical lips to move, to tell Carrick something, anything, she gave up and mentally asked Kara, “Is Leviathan with him?”
“No!” Kara snarled, her ancient power flaring so hot it made Sydney’s vision blur. “Dragon. Ancient. Powerful. Hurt.”
“Okay,” Syd tried to snap, but fell short. “You don’t have to bite my head…”
A cold shockwave washed over her, bypassing her physical body, striking her soul, and stealing the words from her mind.
She knew Garrett shared his soul with Aodhan, Dragon King of the Gray Dragons, but he had been completely hidden, locked behind an impenetrable wall alongside Garrett's mind every time she’d touched her Mate’s mind.
She’d never been able to feel him– and neither had the Dragon Queen with whom she shared her soul.
That is… Until that very moment.
Something shattered. Was blown to smithereens and obliterated in every sense of the word. The inconvenient and invasive obstruction that had kept her from Garrett had broken, and through the crack, Kara hadn't just felt Garrett's agony–she had found the wounded Dragon King.
Sydney forced the air back into her lungs, fighting the residual burn in her chest, refusing to give in to the pain. Panting like a dog, she worked to slow her heart rate, calm herself, and get one full breath.
But it wasn’t easy. Standing at her side, Carrick’s massive frame radiated a tight energy.
He was vibrating on the inside. He appeared still as a statue.
However, he was anything but… The true Dragon Guardsman, the Warrior he’d been from the very beginning, before he became a Leader and an Elder, that man needed the facts…
just the cold, hard, unembellished evidence to prepare, to plan, to strategize what must come next.
“Please speak to me, Sydney.” His voice was dangerously low. She could feel the steely undertone he was keeping tight to the vest. He was working hard, for her, to be the loving, caring man she’d always known.
.
“The bond,” she gasped, shaking her head as Ginnie pressed a cold cloth into her hand. “It’s been getting stronger. Before the Ancients invited me into the Hall of Knowledge, I could feel Garrett. I was ready to go to him, Carrick. I was ready to pull him out of whatever hellhole he was in.”
Carrick’s eyes narrowed. She could feel him tracking every nuance of her expression, the tone of her voice, and her body language. He was making sure she was telling him everything, while also keeping a close watch on the young woman he thought of as family.
“But you didn’t go to him.”
“No. I trusted Shavon and the Ancients,” Sydney said, a bitter edge of regret cutting through her exhaustion.
“She told me Garrett would be okay. She told me to wait. And in reality, I believed the Ancients knew what they were doing. So, I went to the Hall of Knowledge. I spent hours researching Dragonkin and my place in it.”
Finally able to take a deep breath, she filled her lungs, held perfectly still for a single beat of her heart, then exhaled.
Looking Carrick right in the eye, she continued, “But the second I returned, I reached out for Garrett. There was nothing.” Shaking her head and tightly clenching her hands together, she added, “Absolutely nothing but a vast chasm of zip, zilch, nada.”
Ginnie exhaled a soft, sharp breath, but Carrick remained utterly still. Syd saw the wheels turning in his head. He was taking in all the information, indexing what she had told him so far, and waiting for more.
“Listen to his thoughts,” Kara snapped. “We need to know what he’s thinking… what he’s planning… what…”
“No way,” Syd shot back. “You know I don’t do that shit in the best of times, and I’m damned sure not doing it now.
” Pausing for the briefest second, she added, “And you better not try it, either. Carrick is no young, inexperienced Shifter. He’s a Dragon, a renowned Guardsman, and more powerful than pretty much everyone.
He’ll spank your ass and send you packin’, my friend. ”
“Whatever,” Kara huffed.
Leaving the Dragon Queen to stew, she returned her focus to Carrick.
“I tried everything,” Sydney pressed on, her voice rising as the frustration and fear bled back in.
“Every method Kara and I know. We threw everything we had at it.
I couldn't see his spirit. I couldn't trace his Magic. I couldn't locate Aodhan, but then again, I hadn’t been able to feel the Dragon King any other time either. It was a total blackout.”
“Until two minutes ago.”
Looking directly into Carrick's eyes, her gaze locked onto his. “He broke through. But he didn't call for help, Carrick.” She exhaled sharply and shook her head. “Nope. Not even a little bit. He told me to run.”
The room went deadly silent.
Sydney watched Carrick closely, bracing for the inevitable pushback. She expected him to rationalize it. She expected him to ask if she was sure, or if it could have been a distorted echo from the trauma.
After all, he was the most renowned and revered Dragon Guardsman in the world. His experience surpassed all who still walked the earth. Out of all Dragonkin, he knew the psychological tricks a broken bond could play.
But Carrick didn’t question her. Not for a single second.
Instead, a chilling transformation swept over him. The panicked, protective friend vanished, replaced instantly by the cold, calculating precision of a Dragon Guard Warrior.
His shoulders squared. The frantic energy radiating off him suddenly collapsed inward, locking down into a terrifyingly controlled stillness.
Sydney saw the recognition in his glowing blue eyes. He knew exactly what it meant when a Dragon Guardsman used his final, dying breath to command his Mate to run.
It meant the battle was already lost.
It meant the threat wasn't just coming for Garrett anymore… It was coming for her.
The terrifying stillness of Carrick’s warrior mode hung heavy in the air. Sydney could practically hear the tactical gears turning in his head as he calculated their next move.
She’d seen him like this before, but she’d been a child… And had only been a bystander. Now, she was the epicenter of conflict.
From the corner of her eye, Syd saw Ginnie step closer, the movement breaking the eerie silence of the moment. She wasn't a warrior, but the sharp, analytical focus in her eyes showed she was processing the information through a completely different lens.