His mind raced as he tried to distract the Torshin. “Galeran’s efforts are going to blow this place to smithereens. If you want to live, I’d be running for the hills right about now.”
Demeti snarled at him. “Galeran won’t risk himself. As long as I stay close, I’m safe.”
“You aren’t close now,” Lucas pointed out.
The eyes glowed blood red. “Then I’ll have to cut my fun short.”
His muscles were in spasm, but Lucas managed to roll off the raised platform. The next bolt caught him with a glancing blow, spinning him into the wall. His head hit hard, and darkness hovered at the edges of his vision.
As plans went, this one was going about as expected...
* * *
Aria’s wings burst from her back as she ran into the driving snow. She’d always been adept at shifting form, but now her terror for Nikolai had her accelerating it madly.
A surge of raw panic and desperation in her mind, both borne on an emotion that twisted her heart.
Aria, you have to stop him.
Her shock was absolute.Lucas.It was Lucas. It sounded just like him, only he was speaking in her mind. The urgency in his mindvoice kept her moving, and she spread her wings, catapulting herself through the air.
I’m on my way.She pushed the words with her mind, not sure that it would work. But then she sensed his wordless relief.
Her Dragon eyes swept the mountain pass for Nikolai. Unicorns were not horses. They were much, much faster. He was already halfway to Lucas. He wasn’t galloping through the deep snow, he was melting a path clear through it, a display she’d never before seen.
Her beast focused on him with a single minded and fierce determination. A Unicorn might be fast, but a Dragon was faster. And Lucas’s desperation echoed through her, lending speed to her wings.
When she dove, her focus narrowed to the point of obsession. With talons curled into fists, she hit him hard. It knocked him sideways, sending the snow fountaining around them like a wave.
For a long-legged creature, he was remarkably agile. He let his momentum carry him through a roll, and right back onto his feet.
It wasn’t Nikolai that faced her. Black fog swirled off his skin, and the red lightning shot from it, striking the rock all around him and hissing as it vaporized the snow. His eyes were pitch black.
Perditor.
Her heart caught in her throat as she regained her feet, mantling her wings over her back in an instinctive defensive move. Because his power loomed over her like a mammoth fist.
Her jaws opened. “Nikolai. Stops.”
He was magnificent, and terrifying, all at once, with his gleaming black hide and his thick mane whipping in the wind. The horn shone almost blue in the darkness, and the black fog grew thicker by the moment.
A surge of raw pain from Lucas shuddered through her, and she saw its impact in the fury of Nikolai’s gaze. With a sinking heart, she doubted words alone were going to reach the man inside the beast.
But she could try... so she pushed the words to him with her mind, just as she had with Lucas.Nikolai, you have to stop.
The Perditor tossed his head at her. Not a trace of silver showed in his gaze, and as more streaks of red lightning shot through the fog, the ground beneath them trembled.
Aria gathered everything inside her that was Nikolai—the longing she’d felt since that very first dream, the raw craving to be with him, that unrelenting certainty that they belonged together, that he was, in reality, a piece of her—and fed them all into a single, influential pulse along the link.Nikolai. Please come back to me.
The thick gray mane danced in the wind, and for a moment, she thought he hadn’t received any of it, that the Perditor was too aroused to give ground. But then, one single word growled through the mindlink.Lucas.
Yes, Lucas. We will help him. But not like this. You meet Galeran in this state, and you will kill us all.
The ground shook again. He was fighting it; she sensed the chaos and the conflict within him. But he groaned, a very human, tortured sound, and the merest trace of silver appeared in his eyes.
Another pulse of pain from Lucas almost undid all her hard work, but Nikolai snorted steam, and asked a single question.
Then, how?
