The tunnel stretched into the darkness, and I followed the walkway. The overflow tunnels appeared at regular intervals, and we went past two places where large doors could be dropped to stop the flow of water or divert it down other channels.
We were headed toward the storage cisterns. From there, there would be access to the upper levels.
Or so Haki said. I hoped rather fervently that he was legit. He’d seemed it, but we were taking a helluva risk here.
“Quite the system.” Jacques’s voice echoed down the tunnel.
“Yeah,” Anna agreed.
We’d just passed another of the partition doors when something exhaled.
I froze. The scent of Dragon was potent, but then it had been all the way along.
Then, from behind Jacques, the Dragon shifter rose from the river.
He was only halfway to beast when I spun. Anna, still gripping my tail, was slung into the wall. Jacques yelped and dove past me.
The Dragon’s eyes glowed at us as he filled the tunnel, his wings pressed up against the ceiling. And behind it, the door spun into place, cutting off the flow of water and blocking our exit.
Lights I hadn’t even noticed sprang to life along the ceiling. The water drained away, revealing two more of the shifters standing in human form. They gripped their tailspike swords.
Crap.
The word fell succinctly into my brain, so clearly Anna’s that I didn’t even question it. My ability to guess her thoughts might have been much more than I’d assumed, but this was the first time they had formed an actual word.
But I’d bitten her. On a full moon.
It meant something to Dires. Not just emotionally, but physiologically. And if we were truly Fated, then this was a natural progression.
The two Dragons closest to us were an odd bronze color, and one of those demanded, “Who the shards are you?”
The other one followed up with, “Where is the Bellati?”
Their presence here, and the demands, shed a rather alarming light on things. Either Haki had betrayed us, or he had himself been used. They clearly hadn’t expected us but had, rather, been awaiting Sebastian.
We were no match for them, and I knew it.Run,I sent.
A burst of shock when she received it, but she only hesitated for a second before bolting along the walkway.
Jacques uttered a strangled groan, running after her with an excessive degree of panicked hand waving.
I brought up the rear.The next overflow,I added.I’ll boost you.
The reason the Dragons didn’t seem concerned about us running away became immediately obvious—we rounded a curve and ran into three more.
I snarled, and leaped straight at them, off the walkway and down onto the wet, slime-covered tunnel floor. Anna pulled her sword and took a step after me.
Go!I mentally yelled to her.I’ll follow you.
No!Still on the walkway, she raised Talakai’s sword, and parried the huge tailspike from one Dragon. I sank my claws into his shoulder and spun him away, but barely dodged the strike from his neighbor.
The nearest overflow tunnel was only feet away—but could she reach it? Maybe if Jacques boosted her...
One Dragon jumped onto the walkway and advanced on Jacques, who pulled out a long knife and bared his teeth. But his eyes glinted with desperation.
We’d caused this. We’d believed Haki when he said we could sneak in this way.
I leaped on Jacques’s assailant from behind, but my claws simply sparked off the scales. No Dire could stand against a Dragon. The only thing that brought the odds even close was the fact it was too confining for them to shift to beast. The one that had done so was guarding the closed doorway, but he was so compressed by the walls that he could barely move.
