As dramatic entrances went, it was hard to top. Back pressed against the wall, Aria’s talons extended, ready to do battle.
A form stepped out of the concealing black fog. Tall enough that he could have been a Legion Dragon, he had to duck slightly to come through the doorway, and his shoulders filled the span. The shirt clinging to his muscled torso was stained with blood along one side. His long hair floated around him with a life all its own, and it shimmered a gray the color of steel.
It could have led her to believe he was aged, except his impossibly perfect face was smooth and unlined. Through his threadbare clothing, every visible contour of him appeared to be carved of marble—and his expression defined it. Cold. Remote.
Then she saw his eyes.
The irises stopped her heart. At times they were so pale a gray they were almost colorless, but they swirled with black, as though the fog was as much within him as without.
Because he wasn’t walking through the black fog, it was comingfromhim. It drifted off his skin and arced around him, poised to do battle.
Aria should have been terrified, and she might have been, except that she knew him. But had this gorgeous man really been in her dreams? How was that possible?
Because ithadbeen him, she was sure of it. And it became the indisputable truth when his gaze met hers. The pale gray expanded from the pupils outward, pushing away the black.
Then he smiled.
It was as though the sun had emerged through roiling storm clouds. A pulse of relief, followed by admiration, flooded her. Aria’s heart flipped right over and she found herself smiling back.
The brows, which were black rather than gray, dropped as he examined her. “Are you okay?”
The voice was impossibly deep, and the words were in Formal, although he shared Lucas’s weird inflections, and he added a strange clicking sound partway through the sentence. Aria managed a nod as she answered him. “I think so. Just shook up. There’s been so much energy flying around, and most of it hasn’t been good.”
The frown deepened. “Yeah. Sorry about that.”
She stared at him. “That was you?”
The mouth straightened into a grim line. “Not all of it.”
Aria forced her legs to work and pushed herself off the wall. “We have to get out of here. Demeti is a monster.”
His gaze only grew more intense as she approached. “Is that the white-haired bastard with the red eyes?”
She stopped a few feet from him. “The Torshin. Yeah. Nasty piece of work.”
A muscle twitched in his smooth cheek. “A Tor-shin?” The last part of the word disappeared in a weird glottal stop. “He is gone. Opened one of those doorway things and got away.”
Demeti was gone? He’d fled, rather than defend what he’d built here? Aria swallowed. Demeti was powerful. But that he’d run away implied that whatever this guy was, he was stronger.
And that was unsettling as hell.
Aria wasn’t sure she wanted to get any closer, but her body had already made the decision for her—she found herself standing on shaking legs in front of him. Her fingers flexed as she fought the urge to touch. First Lucas, now this guy—what was up with her? She’d never had these inclinations before.
She met his piercing gaze. Unafraid. Or perhaps delusional. She wasn’t sure which. The shoulder of his shirt was shredded and soaked in blood, but the exposed skin appeared intact. Maybe it wasn’t his blood?
His eyes dropped from her face to the collar around her throat. If he could chase off Demeti, could he remove it? The thought of being able to shift to Dragon and fly away...
“Can you get this thing off me?” she asked.
His eyes unfocused for a moment, and a single swirl of black passed across them as he stared at the collar. “I have never seen anything like that. It is woven into your life essence.”
Aria swallowed. “That doesn’t sound good.”
His mouth straightened. “It’s not. I have some talent for healing, but I’m not sure I can get it off without damaging you.”
“Yeah, maybe we’ll leave it for now. I’d like to get out of here before Demeti comes back.”
The tall figure straightened. “I don’t believe he will be back.”
