Horror infused me.No!In that moment, every one of my denials went up in smoke. Theymatteredto me. Not just Riley. Marcus and Rafael—
But Rafael’s raised hand held the flames back. He had to be using Nikolai’s power to do it. Even from where I battled, I saw how he shook. The flames crackled and snapped like a living thing, and his arm bent as it pushed ever closer…
Above the sizzle came Marcus’s roar. It started in a living throat, and was answered by the wind. It was heard from the other side of a stone wall as first a whistle, and then a howl. The entire building shook, and the windows shattered, letting the tempest inside. An instant later, the outer wall disintegrated, and we were all swept up in a storm the like of which I had never experienced.
Fire and wind blended into a lethal tornado that enveloped all of us. It shrieked through the building, taking everything and everyone with it. I flung my Dragon self over Sebastian, letting the flames scorch over my scales as the room filled with screams of anguish.
Havoc!Riley yelled in my brain.
My scales smoked and scorched—I reached up to my neck and peeled one back. Fang tumbled into my talons. I offered her to Sebastian, who cradled her against his chest as I began to push my way through to Riley.
The Drake’s fire burned at me, far more lethal than any Dragon flame, scorching away the scales almost as fast as my Deranger could regrow them. The air was so hot I could barely breathe, and Sebastian, sheltered beneath me, gasped and staggered, clutching poor little Fang. I mantled my wings over us, groaning as the membranes burned away.
The agony nearly consumed me.
With the walls down, lightning surged through the room, a continuous barrage of bolts focusing on the Fire Drake. But they bounced off before they got there, as if it were shielded.
Bodies lay everywhere, scorched beyond recognition. And then one rose from the carnage.
Finn.
Standing untouched amid the inferno, he was using his tremendous power to shield himself, Isobel, the escaping coven—andthe Fire Drake. His cruel crimson eyes gleamed as Marcus redirected the lightning to him. But they bounced away without harming the Torshin.
Then he focused his bolts against Rafael, and began to fire them rapidly.
I saw them hit Rafael’s energy shield. He still had one hand around Isobel’s throat, and under the combined assault of flame and energy bolts, the shieldbuckled.
“No!” I roared the denial. I opened my jaws and sent my own fire toward Finn, but it splashed uselessly against the Torshin’s shields. And the Fire Drake, sensing its victory was at hand, increased its assault on Rafael. The flames reflected harmlessly over the shield protecting Isobel to scorch his hand, Anna’s hair—and the side of Riley’s Storm Drake head.
Her pain pierced straight through the link. Marcus sent more lightning licking across the floor, striking Finn’s shields and ricocheting off them. The Torshin’s eyes gleamed as he flung his head back, and laughed. His people had created the Drakes all those years ago. He was immune to Marcus’s power, and now he raised glowing hands and sent another forceful pulse toward my people.
Mypeople. Mymates.My beast, monster, and human united in that moment.
MINE.
I needed to rip Finn apart. To get to Riley. But they were too far away…
With a shriek, something dropped from the sky. A yellow missile, talons extended.
Vali. Alone.
She was thirty feet up when the Fire Drake set her ablaze. Her scream rent the air, but she didn’t waver. At the last second, Finn diverted his blasts, but he was too late.
Vali slammed into him at full speed. They both vanished in an explosion of dust and flame.
Her own distinctive Dragon life energy snuffed out as she hit Finn. My heart—that traitorous thing that refused to lie quiet—gave a great, pulsing wrench as it did so. Such a brave sacrifice, and as my last link to my brother was extinguished in flame, I flung my head back, and roared.
For just an instant, everything stopped. Even the Fire Drake paused in his barrage.
When the smoke cleared, I saw that the momentum of Vali’s dive had blasted a crater straight through to the floor below.
It was then that Isobel uttered a single, thin cry, and shuddered. Her life essence imploded before vaporizing altogether. A burst of red-hued energy swept through all of us.
When Rafael’s hand opened, she crumpled to the floor.
The Fire Drake shrieked.
“Go, go, go,” urged Sebastian from beneath me.
