No. You guys have been a real education.His face started to lengthen, the spiral horn emerging from his forehead.
Hey,complained Lucas.Enough dilly dallying. Hurry the hell up, you two.
Dilly dallying?Aria asked.
Never heard it called that,Nikolai commented. The instant he dropped to four feet, Aria grabbed his mane and swung onto his back.
Let’s go get him,she said.
* * *
In the cell not far from the room filled with gore, Lucas writhed in the straw.
Impossible to shut Aria and Nikolai out of his mind, even if he’d wanted to. And he didn’t want to. If these were his last few moments alive, what better way to go out than in the thoughts and experiences of his bond mates.
They were that; he accepted it now. What had passed between Nikolai and himself was too intense for any other explanation. And Aria—he had followed her, irresistibly drawn, from the moment they’d met, despite it leading him into nothing but trouble.
The potent emotions that flowed between Aria and Nikolai spilled into the holes blasted in Lucas’s soul, and the raw edges healed. They weren’t gone, not yet, but for the first time he believed they could be.
As his body twitched and arched in vicarious ecstasy, he folded himself into that greater whole. And Aria’s plan was working. Lucas fed her his strength as she wound the strands of her mental presence around the Perditor, and the seething emotions within Nikolai reshuffled, finding a point of balance. As it did so, the bond between the three of them tightened, reforming them into something new.
A triad.
It was at once wonderful and terrifying. Lucas gasped and trembled with the power of it. When Aria bit Nikolai, he crested and erupted right along with them. And then lay, trembling, in the straw, reaching out to them along the link. Their voices in his head seemed totally natural now. And they pulled him in, made him a part of their whole.
It was like coming home.
As he sat in the darkness and contemplated his next move, voices drifted to him along the tunnel. He tensed before pulling himself into the shadows near the cell entrance.
He recognized one voice—Demeti’s brother—and he had a woman with him. They must be standing outside Nikolai’s chamber.
“He’s gone. He’s really gone.” The Torshin sounded more shocked than grief stricken. Maybe his kind didn’t experience brotherly bonds.
“If I hadn’t felt the energy—it was like someone tapped into the core. But Nikolai’s not here.” The woman sounded puzzled.
“Maybe Demeti tried something dumb,” Finn said. “Do you think the Morph died too?”
“I’m not sure.” She didn’t sound all that interested, either. “Look, I’m sorry about your brother, but we have to get back. Galeran wants a gate ready to go to the other cave complex. With Demeti gone, I’ll need your help.”
Finn didn’t answer, but Lucas heard their footsteps retreat back up the tunnel, and breathed a sigh of relief. His heart pounded, but it wasn’t so much from Finn and his companion being only feet away from where he hid, but rather from what had happened between Aria and Nikolai.
A few minutes later, Aria was a warm presence in his mind.We are on a cliff that overhangs your cave. The Watchers are helping Nikolai to cut Galeran off from the power.
Lucas caught a glimpse of a group standing amid the driving snow, looking down at the cave complex. It was the first time he’d seen it from the outside—sharp spires of rock rose above the main entrance, partly blocked with wood barricades among frosted stones.
Through the link, he sensed the struggle between Nikolai, the Watchers, and Galeran.Galeran’s controlling Nikolai through runes on the inside of each wrist,Lucas told them.
The Unicorn could only growl his frustration. It was Aria who answered,The control runes. We need to disable them, to break his hold over Nikolai. Nikolai is fighting him now, but it may not be enough.
How do we disable them?
A pause, as she consulted Cara.They have to be disrupted. A cut through them with a knife will weaken them. Removal will disable them.
Removal?
A rush of words from Aria.But you can’t do it. Any Bellati can kill by sucking the life energy from you. Even without Nikolai’s power, Galeran is lethal. Only a Dragon, or a Watcher, might be able to stand against him.
The surrounding sky grew dark, and lightning flashed. Her contact broke off, but the stone shuddered around Lucas.
