If I go too, they’ll sound the alarm before you’ve gone thirty feet,Lucas explained patiently, although his heart was hammering. If Nikolai refused to cooperate, Lucas would die messy.Just lie still.
A rumble through their link as Nikolai wrestled with it, a wordless sound of denial.
Nikolai, this is the only way. If you don’t follow my lead, you will get me killed for sure, and maybe both of us. Once the dust is on you, I will take your place in the restraints. You must move to the wall and stay there until I distract the Bellatis. Then go. Cara and Aria are west of here. They are waiting with three Dragon shifter friends.
Lucas, I’m not leaving you.
Yes, you are. For now. Once you are free from the runes, you are welcome to come get me. Just try to leave the trees standing, okay?
There aren’t any trees.
There are trees, just not here.
This acknowledgment of his potential range of destruction seemed to penetrate the anger radiating off Nikolai.There is a darkness inside me, Lucas. What if I can’t control it? What if I really am a monster?
Lucas refused to let doubt cloud his words.I have faith in you, Nikolai. Are you ready?
The large, liquid eye rolled away from him, and then closed. The nose shifted ever so slightly in a nod.
Lucas spread the dust over Nikolai’s entire length. He had to break open another bead to finish the hindquarters.
Immediately, the body outlines blurred. Lucas blinked, but no matter how hard he focused, he couldn’t make Nikolai out. Something lay in the straw, but any details were gone.
It was better than he’d hoped. Basilisk dust was hard to come by, but Ash had raided it from Cara’s stash. It was scales from the creatures themselves, ground to a powder. It carried the confusion ability the species used to hide.
Lucas watched the Bellatis. They had stepped away from the entrance, and one gestured as he described something to the other. They were engrossed in their conversation.
Now, Nikolai.
The straw moved as Nikolai vacated the platform. Lucas didn’t waste time trying to follow his progress. He slid onto the platform and embraced his final morph of the day.
First, though, the manacles. Once he was in Unicorn form, he wouldn’t be able to put them on. So he locked them closed and stepped into them as he morphed. The neck, muzzle, and barrel restraints were the hardest, he had to push into them, but he managed it.
As his body expanded against the metal, he had the faintest quiver of reaction from Nikolai.I can get out at any time. Stop fretting.He raised his horned head just as the Bellati glanced his way.
The guard frowned. “Bloody kid left his cart in the middle of the way,” he said.
The other shrugged. “Didn’t even see him leave.”
Lucas deliberately avoided looking over to the wall, where a blurred shape hovered. Instead, he stood up, shaking his head. The chains clanged as they swung. “Thou two wouldn’t notice an elephant if it strolled by.”
“It talks,” one said.
The other strolled a little closer. “Fine words for someone in chains.”
“Galeran has chains on thou too,” Lucas taunted. “Thou just can’t see them.”
They both stiffened and came closer, stepping right into the cave. “We are with him voluntarily,” the Bellati said. “He leads us because we believe in his cause.”
The second one’s eyes flashed. “For years, the Elders kept the Bellatis confined to our home realm. Galeran has freed us.”
Lucas tossed his head and danced in place, his hooves ringing against the stone beneath the straw. “Well, from where I sit, thou are nothing but minions.”
He had their full attention.Go, Nikolai.
Lucas...
Go.
