Chapter 4 #3
Her voice wasn't loud, but it possessed a cold, sudden weight that made him freeze. His thumb hovered over the call button. He looked up, his jaw tight. She saw in his eyes that his Warrior instincts were screaming at him to move, to recruit, to build an army.
“We are not calling anyone,” Sydney said, stepping directly into his line of sight.
Carrick’s brow furrowed, a dangerous flash of irritation crossing his features. “Sydney, this is a Demon Lord. You just admitted he tasted your Power. We aren't playing games here. You cannot go into The Abyss alone.”
“I’m not stupid, Carrick.” Syd huffed with frustration.
“I have no intention of going alone.” Her voice was steady and unyielding as she countered, “But we cannot broadcast this.
Think about what Garrett has been doing out there in the dark.
Whatever is blocking Leviathan, whatever Garrett and Aodhan have done to keep the Clan hidden, it has cost them everything.
He can barely reach me. His own soul has been buried so deeply I couldn't find him.”
She stepped closer, her gaze locking onto Carrick’s with out-and-out intensity.
“If we pull the alarm and mobilize the entire Dragon Guard, we could undo whatever they’ve sacrificed to keep us hidden.
We don’t know how Leviathan intercepts information.
We don’t know who is watching or listening from the shadows.
If we scream to the Heavens that Garrett is alive and we’re marching on The Abyss, we hand the enemy exactly what he wants on a silver platter. ”
Carrick stared at her. His chest rose and fell in heavy, calculated breaths.
“This has to be a need-to-know operation,” Sydney pressed on, the authority of the Special One ringing clear in her tone. “A ghost unit. You, me, Ginnie, and Gunnar for the coordinates. That’s it. We don't even tell his brother, Grey. Not yet. We keep the circle small, tight, and completely dark.”
Silence descended on the room, thick and heavy.
Sydney braced herself for the pushback. She expected the stubborn, protective Dragon Elder to roar, to tell her she was being reckless, to command her to stand down.
Instead, Carrick slowly lowered his phone.
He stared at her, really looked at her, as if seeing her clearly for the first time in years.
The frantic, defensive energy he had been radiating suddenly dissolved, replaced by a profound, quiet awe.
He had finally realized that she wasn't the vulnerable child he had helped raise and protect anymore.
She wasn't just a girl hiding behind a prophecy.
She was talking like a commander. She was thinking like a seasoned Dragon Guardsman– like the Special One she was born to be.
A slow, grim nod pulled at Carrick’s jaw. The pride in his eyes was lethal. “Need-to-know,” he repeated, his voice dropping into a low, respectful register. “Ghost unit. No coincidences, no paper trails.”
He locked his phone and slid it into his pocket, the subtle nod of one commander acknowledging another. “Let’s go get our boy.”
“Pack the gear,” Carrick instructed Ginnie, his voice clipping with a newfound urgency. “I’ll get Gunnar back on the line and see if he can give us a baseline vector for that distortion. Once we have the coordinates, we move.”
Sydney grabbed her jacket from the back of the chair, her fingers trembling against the leather. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”
Carrick stepped directly into her path, his massive form completely blocking the doorway. “You’re not going anywhere yet, Syd.”
“Carrick, we just agreed we don't have time to waste…”
“We don't,” Ginnie interrupted, stepping up beside her Mate and gently but firmly taking the jacket out of Sydney’s hands.
“But you’re soul-deep exhausted, Sydney.
You just got blasted twice through the Mating Bond and then deliberately shoved your entire consciousness back through a metaphysical meat grinder. Look at your hands. You’re vibrating.”
“I’m fine,” Sydney lied, her voice cracking as a wave of sudden, dizzying fatigue washed over her brain.
“You’re no good to Garrett unconscious,” Ginnie said softly, her eyes full of an unyielding, maternal truth. “Carrick needs time to untangle Gunnar’s lead anyway. Take thirty minutes. Eat. Shower. Close your eyes. If you collapse out in the field somewhere, we all fail.”
Sydney opened her mouth to argue, to scream that every second wasted was a second Garrett spent burning in the dark. She turned her thoughts inward, looking for backup.
“She’s right, my girl,” Kara murmured, the ancient Dragon Queen sounding uncharacteristically quiet, her majestic golden form curled tight in the recesses of Sydney’s mind.
“Traitor,” Sydney thought back, a bitter sting of betrayal hitting her chest.
“Our fire is low,” Kara countered, completely unfazed. “Rest. We will need every spark.”
Sydney let out a defeated, ragged breath. She hated them all because they were right.
The next twenty minutes passed in a strange, muted blur of decompression.
Ginnie practically forced a plate into her hands.
Somehow the Necromancer had known her favorite meal was a turkey sandwich with extra mayo and crisp lettuce, a handful of crunchy BBQ chips, and a small square of dark chocolate.
She also knew that Syd loved nothing more than an ice-cold Diet Coke– the bubbles were always just enough to clear the heavy fog from her eyes.
Afterward, she stood under a blistering hot shower, letting the water pelt her aching shoulders until her skin turned pink. She scrubbed the smell of phantom blood and sulfur from her hair, desperately trying to wash away the memory of the weeping black stones.
Dressed in a clean, oversized T-shirt, she finally lay down on the small cot in Ginnie’s study. Pulling the heavy blanket up to her chin, she intended to give herself exactly twenty minutes of darkness.
Closing her eyes, she exhaled deeply and waited for sleep to come.
But it never did.
The quiet of the house was supposed to be a sanctuary, but in the stillness, the universe grew terrifyingly loud. The second her eyelids shut, the darkness behind them didn't feel like a normal room anymore. It felt vast.
Empty.
And right there, vibrating at the very edge of her perception, was the tether.
It was faint—hardly more than a whisper of static, a ghost of a vibration humming against her soul. But it was there. Pulling. Bleeding. A slow, distant ache into her chest.
Garrett.
Sydney’s eyes snapped open, staring up at the dark ceiling as her heart hammered against her ribs. There would be no sleep tonight. The hunter had the scent, and the prey was calling from the dark.
Sitting upright on the edge of the cot, Sydney pulled her knees tight to her chest. In the quiet of the room, the tether hummed. It was a phantom wire vibrating in the dark, pulling at the raw edges of her soul.
Everything inside her screamed to reach back. She wanted to throw her consciousness right down that line, to wrap her Light around Garrett, to tell him she was coming, to tell him he wasn't alone anymore.
But her hand froze over her chest.
“RUN.”
The word echoed in her mind, a stark reminder of the trap they were walking into.
Leviathan had felt her. The monster had tasted her fire.
If she reached out to comfort her Mate right now, she wouldn't just be sending a message–she would be lighting a beacon in the pitch-black waters of The Abyss, leading the Demon Lord straight to their home, straight to Carrick, straight to Ginnie.
For the first time since the connection broke, Sydney did the hardest thing a Mate could do…
She deliberately closed herself off. She pulled her Magic inward, folding it tight behind her ribs, forcing the Mating Bond to go completely dark.
It felt like tearing a piece of her own flesh away, leaving an empty, agonizing ache where Garrett’s presence should be.
She had to let him remain alone in the dark. It was the only way to keep him safe.
That was her sacrifice.
A heavy, suffocating silence fell over her mind. Sydney closed her eyes, fighting the hot sting of tears against her eyelids.
“He is still there,” Kara’s voice murmured, breaking the quiet.
Sydney swallowed the lump in her throat, her shoulders trembling. “I know, Kara. I can feel the phantom pain.”
“No, Mo Nighean Shònraichte,” Kara corrected softly, using the ancient, intimate tongue of Dragonkin. “Listen closer. Past the pain. Past the fire.”
Sydney stilled. She stopped breathing. Locking her physical senses, she plunged her awareness into the deepest, quietest well of her soul. She listened to the void where the Mating Bond was supposed to be.
And then, pulsing through the invisible wire... she heard it.
Thump-thump.
It wasn't a physical sound. It didn't belong to her own lungs or her own chest. It was a microscopic vibration traveling up the tether, bypassing the blackout, slipping past the guard of the Demon Lord.
Sydney’s breath hitched in her throat. “Is it Garrett? Is it Aodhan? Who is that?”
Kara didn't answer. The Dragon Queen thoughtfully held the space. Her golden presence wrapped protectively around Sydney’s heart as they both waited in the dark.
A long, agonizing silence stretched out before her.
Then, it came again.
Thump-thump.
It was weak. It was desperately faint, like a dying ember fighting against a freezing gale, but it was unmistakably alive.
Slowly, the sharp, predatory smirk from earlier vanished from Sydney's face. A new smile touched her lips. This one was soft, fragile, and deeply painful, born of a love that had survived a journey through the dark.
“Hold on, Garrett,” she whispered into the empty room.
The tether vibrated one final time. From the depths of the Void, a completely different sound pulsed back through the connection. Not a hollow beat, but a soft, rhythmic, reassuring echo.
Ba-bum.