The Torshin came through last, holding the gate until the entire pack had passed. He dragged Aria through with him. The Dragona seemed only half conscious, and an alarming amount of blood now poured from her nose and ears.
Lucas’s lips peeled back from his teeth and stayed there as Demeti’s gaze locked on his. The Torshin smiled as he raised his hands.
“I see we have a guest,” he said as his hands began to glow. “Did you really think you could disguise yourself from someone who reads life essences?”
The Dires still in the hall exchanged confused glances but cleared the path between the Torshin and Lucas with frightening speed. Lucas snarled and leaped toward Demeti...
The energy blasting from the Torshin slammed him backward into the wall and held him there while wave after wave coursed through him.
Somewhere amid the assault, his body gave up on the Dire guise. As his brain filled with white fire, his natural, slim, defenseless form slumped to the cold hallway floor.
Demeti loomed over him. “What a delicious morsel you are.” The crimson eyes gleamed. “I have never met a Morph, but I am excited to add one to my little zoo.”
Lucas’s gut clenched. He recognized that sick gleam in the Torshin’s crimson gaze, and a shudder passed through him.
Then the hands lit up again, and Lucas knew nothing more.
10
Aria drifted in a world of agony.
A scrambled mess of images flitted through her brain. Mervok, teaching her to fight. Danao, who’d taught her to fly by letting her hold on to his tail. The handsome young duke she’d met in a bar and who ended up showing her a thing or two about her own body. And a series of blurry, half-formed visions of Udo and a guard whose energy wasn’t what she expected...
When she reached for clarity, it eluded her. Instead, she was engulfed in darkness.
Stars shone overhead, but her feet were surrounded by a strange swirling fog—strange because it wasn’t pale and wispy, but rather dark and shot through with small bursts of reddish light. Like miniature crimson lightning strikes that tickled her skin, but didn’t hurt.
As she walked forward, the fog rose around her until she couldn’t see the ground that gave slightly beneath each step, as though she trod upon thick moss. Her nose detected a musky scent, underlaid with the ozone odor of discharged energy.
Her heart began to race, but it didn’t feel like fear. Almost—anticipation? She struggled to quantify it as the scent lured her onward.
The lightning running through the fog increased until the flashes dazzled her vision. So much so that she closed her eyes, navigating by scent alone. Dragon shifters did not have the same acuity as a Dire, but her nose was keen enough for the job. The musk grew stronger, winding its way into her heart and soul like a siren’s song.
She couldn’t have turned away if she wanted to.
When the discharged energy increased, she opened her eyes. It danced over her skin, outlining every contour in strange, reddish light. Her hair stood on end, and she couldn’t hold on to her scales—they dropped one by one, leaving her standing smooth and naked to the world.
As she contemplated the strangeness of that, something snorted. So close that she flinched.
The red lightning vanished, and the dark fog cleared. Standing only feet from her was a four-legged creature.
Her brain struggled to put it into context—she’d seen images of something similar from the human realm. A horse? Much taller than her, with a glossy black coat and a mane and tail of a stunning, steely gray color. Every hair of it moved as though the strands had minds of their own. The creature stood on four slim legs, with a powerful body, a graceful, arched neck, and narrow head. Incredible, steel-gray eyes peered past the spiral horn that graced the center of its forehead.
Wait—she didn’t remember the horn in the images. This wasn’t a horse.
A Unicorn. This was a sharding Unicorn.
They were the most elusive of the Cryptids, more myth than reality. Yet she knew that was what stood before her.
Why was she dreaming of a Unicorn? She reached out, half expecting it to pull away. But it permitted her to touch the silken muzzle.
The second she made contact, she was awash in emotional energy—surprise and curiosity vied with swirls of something deeper and more powerful that she struggled to define. They pulsed not only over, but clear through her. Her body quaked as they shot straight to her core, and she gasped, her knees buckling. Her heart threatened to burst from her chest.
The Unicorn stepped closer, placing his nose beneath her arm, as though to hold her up. Her vision swimming, Aria gazed up—only to see the entire form shimmer.
The head pulled away from her, leaving her swaying, but then an arm shot out to grab her. An arm—attached to the most gorgeous man she’d ever laid eyes on. Tall—he was the height of a Legion Dragon, nearly seven feet. Not as heavily muscled, but each one clearly defined, sculpted around broad shoulders and narrow hips.
Breathless, she stared upward into the same incredible gray eyes, but now set in a face so perfect that it couldn’t possibly be real. The features were cold, remote as he gazed down at her through tangled, steely locks that fell to nearly his waist.
