And that meant I had to let Haki go.
As we banked toward the academy building, I detected activity out the back—that must be the gate that just opened. Sebastian, the instructor in temporary charge of the academy, was having a busy night.
Haki, however, directed us to the other gate. The one he’d arrived through. He landed in the surrounding meadow and transformed to human.
I did as well. I wanted, more than anything, to go with him.
He paced close to the gate, which responded to the crystal in his blood and lit up like a supernova. I followed him, and he moved to embrace me, a full-body hug this time. One hand gripped behind my neck, pulling me into him. I returned his embrace, feeling the prick of his talons extending from his fingertips. A couple sank in past the skin, and I winced. He wasn’t calm about this either.
As he pulled back, his face twisted.
“Talakai, I’m so sorry.”
Sorry for what? I squinted at him. His image blurred, and I blinked.
“She has Kala.” His eyes pleaded with me to understand.
And with blinding clarity, it all came together. Far, far too late.
There was only one person I would ever let close enough to take me down. Haki had accomplished the impossible.
Which Xumi had known he could.
The gate fluoresced, and through it came Dragon shifters in human form.
I was one hell of a fighter. Even with my body failing me, I broke the arm of one. But the others swarmed me and held me down.
Just as the blackness rose to take me.
1
Anna
Icy, bone-penetrating cold, and the sensation of being yanked rapidly through time and space...
Gate travel was still very new to me, but it seemed my awareness of the dynamics involved was reaching new levels. I blinked as Sebastian tugged me forward, and my feet touched stone. Buildings appeared on each side of me. The gate had spat us out into a dimly lit back alley.
“Bloody gate,” Matt muttered, shaking himself like a huge dog.
Maybe a wolf was a better comparison.
“Cover up,” Sebastian ordered, yanking his hood high.
We weren’t alone in the alley. Two hulking forms watched from the shadows. I squinted at them—was their skin gray? And it looked leathery, not humanlike...
Matt’s big hand squeezed my own. “Gate guardians. The gatekeeper bloke will be in the office, somewhere.”
Both Matt’s Aussie-accented voice and muscled presence were reassuring. Although considering his dislike of gate travel, I was pretty certain he was as much a foreigner here as me.
I pulled my hand free. He still wasn’t recovered from the last time my skin had extended contact with his. Memories flooded me—of his hard body, our panting breath as we joined, and his musky scent. The thought sent a flush of heat straight through me, followed by a fierce longing.
But the monster deep within me had taken something that should have been beautiful, and almost turned it into a tragedy. I’d come far too close to sucking his life essence to nothing.
The perpetual knot inside my gut twisted painfully.
“You okay, Angel?” he asked as he shot me a look. He’d yanked his hood up around his rugged features, but his eyes glowed emerald from the shadows.
“Yeah, I’m good.” I tugged my own hood up around my head. My ponytail pushed at it, but there was sufficient fabric to fall forward from my face.
