Power ran in the blood, apparently. Orena was actually Rindek’s cousin, as well as his chosen mate. Not that he had much choice—the Torshin race was all but extinct. She was a good match for him, though. Ruthless, cunning, and vicious as hell.
There was no affection between them. Their mating had been based entirely on the effort to produce powerful offspring by concentrating their genetics. The jury was still out on Finn. But in their first son, they had achieved success.
Demeti wielded power without effort. He was set to outstrip his father within years, but the control thing was still beyond him. He let his emotions rule. Rindek may not have the same raw power, but he had a ruthless, cunning intelligence behind it.
It made him a very dangerous creature.
Of all the things that kept Ash moving forward, the biggest incentive to do so was the timelines that showed Rindek’s brain, tied to Demeti’s power, were responsible for chaos and darkness on an inter-realm scale.
If there was any way it could be stopped from becoming reality, Ash was determined to try. But he had foreseen the brutal path ahead, and he was no hero.
Of all the timelines he prowled, his own future was the most difficult to see clearly. But what he’d glimpsed was terrifying. If there was any other way, he would take it, and he searched constantly to find another solution.
But Fate, so far, was determined. If she was an actual entity, she really was a bitch.
Oren watched from the doorway as Ash stopped before Rindek and his too-talented son, and bowed his head. Rindek’s power permeated the room. Demeti stood with him, his energy an erratic, untrained echo of his father’s.
Ash knew what the Archmage wanted. But he wasn’t about to volunteer the information. He would make the bastard ask for it. It was the only power granted to him.
Rindek knew it too. He sent a surge of energy into Ash’s collar, enough to make the Dragon shifter gasp.
“You’ve had sufficient time to search. Tell me where the Mover is. Now.”
Ash had prepared for this. With any luck, the most promising timeline, which came to fruition in two days, would be the right one. And Rindek would finally bite off more than he could chew.
Most of the others he’d foreseen led to pain and darkness. But a few of those pushed through to the light on the other side. For that, he would risk everything.
So Ash swallowed, and told them where Dani was, and when she’d be there.
* * *
Dani waited over an hour for her chance to get into the shelter’s showers.
Ash still predominated her thoughts. It seemed that Dragons had become twisted into her life. She scrubbed her fingers over her two tattoos.
Dragons.
She’d hoarded her allowance for months to get the diving Dragon tattoo. The artist had been good—the Dragon running from shoulder to elbow on one arm was rendered in exquisite detail. The indigo one running above her right breast was a stylized version.
From childhood, she’d loved Dragons, reading many fantasy books that had them soaring through their pages. Seeing her first real one on the battlefield had been a shock. The reality was nothing like the fantasy.
Life was like that.
Ironic as hell that one had helped her transform while others pursued her. The real thing wasn’t nearly as romantic. Or was it? The big, scaly guy in her dreams wasn’t exactly attacking her.
He wanted to touch her—which was worse, really. A fight she could rise to. But no one touched her. An addendum to her “no testicles” rule.
Ash had understood that in a visceral way. He’d offered his hand, but only on her terms. And he’d withdrawn the second she no longer needed him.
Withdrawn very quickly. Dani’s heart twisted. She’d recognized that move.
He had a no-touch rule, too.
She pondered that as her skin prickled and itched and burned as though it were too tight. As though something inside wished to burst free.
Which it did. The beast needed to run.
It was her third full moon as a Dire. The furred part of her wanted to hunt and howl. But here in the city’s core, she was afraid to turn it loose.
