Lucas looked tense as hell as he took up position behind me. I closed my eyes and focused on Rafael. On the way he looked… the way he smelled…
And then, I reached.
The resulting white noise was a relief.
Snap.
Miracle of miracles, I landed on my feet. At first, the golden light was so bright I didn’t see them. Lucas stumbled into me, and I swayed as I focused on Rafael.
He stood before Isobel with his hands locked on her face. They glowed with red and blue energy, and the power surging around them had their hair whipping as though in a gale. It forced every one of my hairs to become fully erect.
But even as I steadied Lucas, I saw red light flood from the watching coven to Isobel. It swallowed every hint of the blue around Rafael. He shuddered, and fell to his knees. Isobel’s eyes lit with triumph, as she placed her hand on his head, and pushed the energy into him until he slowly bowed to her.
Oddly, she didn’t acknowledge Lucas and me at all as she released him and backed away. Her eyes flashed wildly, before she sank the fingers of both hands into her hair.
I was totally unprepared when she threw her head back, and screamed a horrible, soul-wrenching shriek.
“Grab Rafael!” Lucas urged.
He startled me out of my shock. Lucas hung onto me as I lunged for Rafael, seized him by the arm—and visualized Havoc. The static swirled around us…
Snap.
When the golden light cleared, there they were. Havoc, his huge Dragon hunched in pain. Vali, in human form, staring at me in astonishment. And on his knees nearby, Marcus, with dark scales dropping off a body that caused my breath to leave me.
Kiko stood beside him, eyes wide. “Riley!” She dropped her cloak, sprinted over, and folded me in her arms.
It pushed me into Rafael and almost bowled him right over. He slumped on the grass, rubbing his head. He avoided meeting my eyes as he asked, “Who is this?”
“Kiko,” I said. “She’s my friend.”
Rafael didn’t reply as he wrapped his arms around his bent legs. The fingers clutching his knees turned white with pressure.
Havoc heaved a sigh—relief? Hard to know with the pain pulsing off him. Marcus’s head snapped up, and his eyes met mine.
They flashed white, and then dark, and then purple, before settling on the brown with their sunbursts of gold. My heart flipped right over, and all I wanted to do was run to him.
But all he did was offer a weak, “Hey, Riley.”
Kiko turned on him. “That’s the best you can do?”
His dark brows dropped as he picked up his cloak and pulled it on. “I am deeply relieved that she managed to get herself and Rafael out of there before Isobel got to them.”
Seriously? I crossed my arms over my chest. “Isobel did get to him,” I snapped. “But when I got there, something was wrong. She was in pain, and we managed to get away.”
“This is Rafael?” Kiko interrupted, her gaze sweeping over him from feet to hairline. Pausing, I noted, on the way, but as he was sitting with his knees raised and his face sunk into his hands, it was hardly a prime assessment position. But she still offered a, “yummy.”
I wondered if he smelled as good to her as he did to me. I also wondered if she would still think so, if he’d done to her what he’d done to me.
I kept a full pace away from him and asked, “Did you manage to hurt Isobel?”
He looked up, and I had to remind myself he couldn’t be trusted—because my first reaction to the pain in his eyes was to want to wrap my arms around him.
But I held my distance as he whispered, “I tried. Gave it everything I had. But she took it and laughed at me. And then—everything changed.” His gaze slid past me, to the body of the twitching bronze Dragon. “Brock.”
“Yeah,” Havoc growled. “That bastard won’t be flying ever again.”
“He’s mated to Isobel.” Rafael’s voice was barely more than a whisper.
