Sorry,offered Nikolai.
Our remote shredding requires some work.Aria. But she didn’t sound contrite.
It worked fine.Lucas felt hollow, like the energy had scorched him from the inside, and he shook so hard there was no way he could stand. But his mind raced with possibilities.
Can you do it again? If I got close to Galeran—
A burst of incredulity from Nikolai.Make you ground zero for the battle?His mindvoice was hardly more than a growl.Are you serious? I thought you were the smart one of our trio.
No sharding way.Aria, her mindvoice brooking no argument.For your info, Nikolai, I’m the brains of this outfit. And I’m telling Lucas to stay put. We’re coming for him.
Coming for him?This place is full of Bellatis. And Galeran. Don’t come here!
We’re on our way,Aria assured him. And please stop trying to kill yourself. If anyone is going to end you for trying to be a hero, it’s going to be me.
47
Lucas is okay.Aria, her mindvoice a soothing balm to his inner chaos.It worked.
We were damned lucky,Nikolai countered. He tried to slide his horn free, but Aria refused to let him do so.
Galeran’s repeated assaults had taken on overtones of the obsessed, his rage hammering away at Nikolai. It was all he could do to push his own aside. But the core itself was also pushing at him. Demanding he unleash his rage. The wind howled around him, and the ground shook.
In the center of it all, was Aria. Her life essence blazed through him, holding back the darkness. But for how long? Their link pulsed and fluttered in time with their hearts, as yet a fragile, unconsummated thing.
With his horn on her shoulder, Nikolai’s nose rested below the sumptuous curve of her breast. He inhaled, and her scent flowed over and through him. He took another deep breath, just as Galeran struck again.
The energy seethed, and sent fierce tendrils to scorch Nikolai’s soul, pressing him to set it free.
With her hands wrapped around his horn, Aria gasped.Shards. Is that what it feels like?Her hands slid along the sides of his face, the fingers caressing his hot skin, soothing everywhere they went.
Nikolai wrenched his focus back to where it was needed.We have to get Lucas out of there—and stop Galeran.The rage rose again, and black fog swirled off his skin.
Yes,Aria agreed, her fingers tracing light, warm circles along his jaw.But we need you to control the Perditor, too.She stroked his muzzle, the palms folding over his nostrils.Focus on me. See me. Feel me.She took a deep, slow breath.Shift for me, Nikolai.
His denial was automatic.No. Lucas needs me.
Another voice cut into the link.I am fine, big guy. Hanging out in my old cell, in some nice clean straw. The struggle, right now, is stopping the Perditor.
Lucas’s mindvoice was like a foglamp through the darkness. Aria seized on to it, and joined it, putting it behind the imagery of Nikolai as a human.
Feel me, Nikolai. Breathe me in. Touch my skin. And shift for me.
And to Nikolai’s shock, his body responded.
* * *
As Aria pushed Nikolai to shift, she found herself torn between suppressing the Perditor and taming her own inner beast.
Because her Dragon was raging through her soul, fueled by a hormonal surge that she couldn’t control. It focused on Nikolai with a predatory intensity. Aria was ravenous, but not for the usual meat. And it gave her a clear path to follow—if only she could entice the Perditor from its goal.
His doubt surged through her. He was out of control. Dangerous. And he knew it. But he also doubted her ability to stop him.
Yet reassuring silver now flashed through the black of Nikolai’s gaze, and Aria sensed the subtle alteration in his energy. Rage now had competition. And suddenly, she understood what Cara had been hinting at.
When she ran a hand over the side of his face, he shuddered. It came along with a pulse of something deeper and more primitive than rage. Aria was right; she knew she was. This was the way through.
But she struggled with her Dragon. It filled her mind with images of flying and diving, of being intertwined with another—but the sky was the one place Nikolai couldn’t follow her.
