“Oh, fuck,” Asher said, grabbing his axes and moving in front of me as Darian went for his stars. Kade growled and sprang forward as I shifted into my dragon form. My wolf shifter met Vasken halfway across the clearing and the pair of them became a mess of claws and teeth. One of Vasken’s paws lashed out, managing to clip Kade’s face, and my wolf went tumbling to the ground. Kade was on his feet again in an instant, but I roared, letting the sound vibrate through to the very ground at my feet.
Moving around Asher and Darian I lumbered forward, my talons flicking up the dirt. Vasken hissed and snarled, no longer advancing as he stared at me with wild eyes. Every instinct I had was telling me to destroy the shifter. To make him pay for touching my Kade, but as I moved forward, the image of Vasken writhing on the floor while Queen Izla stepped into the portal filled my mind, and my dragon’s rage and desire to squash the little pest was soon replaced with a sad clarity. This was Queen Izla’s friend and someone she had cared about. Someone myancestorhad cared about. I still hadn’t had much time to digest this newest discovery about myself, but the knowledge was enough to temper my beast. Vasken paced in front of me before snarling and leaping into the air, his front paws outstretched like he wanted to scratch out my eyes. I flicked my head, driving my snout against his side and sending him flying into the dirt.
Before he could rise again to his feet, I was there, a large paw pressed firmly against his side as I held him down. He scrabbled in the dirt, determined to free himself from my hold, but I opened my mouth, fitting his head between my teeth and he fell still, his heart thundering.
“Don’t!” Lyr cried out, but I stayed as I was, letting the little creature know just how fucking lucky he was that he was still alive.
My mates appeared by my side, followed by Lyr, her mates, and the other shifters.
“He doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Lyr said, her pleading gaze going from me to my monsters like she knew that if anyone could stop me it would be them.
Locke didn’t look the least bit upset at the idea of me eating the male, but Kade and the others watched me intently.
“Raine, lovely, I think you’d better let him go,” Darian said calmly beside me, but I didn’t move. I mean, I wasn’t stupid. If I released Vasken, he might attack my monsters again, and I wasn’t about to let that happen.
“He’s here for the king,” Lyr explained like she thought if she kept me talking it would distract me enough that I wouldn’t eat her friend. “He wasn’t trying to hurt anyone.”
Vasken remained still in my hold, and with every passing moment, his heart rate slowed a little more.That’s it.
Lyr took a step closer to me, but Locke lifted his hand and she halted. “Wait,” he said. “Let’s see what happens.”
Vasken started scrabbling in the dirt again, but I huffed a puff of smoke onto the chimera’s face, and he stilled, his chest heaving. I stayed like that for a long while, and slowly Vasken’s heartbeat continued to slow.
No one moved around us like they were afraid that any sudden change in their position would startle me into tearing the chimera’s head off, but that’s not what my dragon wanted. It wasn’t whatIwanted.
I closed my eyes, thinking of how I’d seen Vasken in the vision, bleeding as Queen Izla dropped beside him in anguish. He meant something to her, and he’d lost himself without her here. It was no wonder he was obsessed with the idea of keeping the king trapped. After what I’d seen, the king was obviously a monster on the inside before the queen changed his physical appearance.
I’m not sure how, but as I thought of that image, I could feel the chimera’s mind close to mine. I focused on sharing the image with him. Locke had spoken about how the gargoyle, Garan, could send mental messages to him, and I tried to do the same with Vasken.
I felt the moment our minds touched, and Vasken let out a pained sound in my hold. It was as if seeing the memory had actually harmed him. Lyr shot forward, panic flashing in her eyes, but I released the chimera and stepped back before she made it to me.
No longer restrained, Vasken roared and whined, but he didn’t lift from the ground. Asher rested his hand on my side as we all watched the chimera’s skin begin to ripple and shift. The chimera’s snake hissed before it disappeared, and then there was a naked man on the ground instead of the giant beast.
Vasken sobbed quietly in the dirt, his bony shoulders shaking, and I shifted back quickly, not wanting my massive dragon form to be the first thing he saw while in human form.
“Vas?” Lyr said softly, slowly dropping to her knees beside him as Dean, Soren, and Nic stood guard over her. She rested her hand on Vasken’s shoulder, and he turned his head to her, wincing up at her in the bright light. “Shadow girl,” he rasped, his voice scratchy from disuse.
“Thought we wouldn’t see you again for a minute there,” Soren said with a tentative smile.
Dean dipped his head. “You are a welcome sight.”
Vasken’s eyes were vacant like he still couldn’t make sense of the scene around him, but as they helped him stand, his gaze landed on me. My monsters shuffled closer like they were still afraid he would attack, but I returned his stare knowing it for what it was. He wasn’t exactly thanking me, but there was acknowledgment there as if he knew what I’d done for him, and he was glad there was someone else out there who understood his pain.
I smiled, feeling a little proud that my dragon had done something good, and Lyr linked her arm with his and led him away.
CHAPTER 24
~ Raine ~
“Whatisitthatyou’re tryin’ to do again?” Asher asked, looking completely bewildered.
I stood with my arms raised toward him, my brow furrowed in concentration, but when nothing happened, I groaned. “Seeing Locke use magic to create that mirror wall in the mountain got me thinking about my own abilities. Since turning into a dragon, I haven’t used my magic.”
“And you’re afraid your powers are gone,” Darian said as he watched me with inquisitive eyes. “Could it simply be that you haven’t needed to use them?”
Dropping my arms, I turned to him. “I mean, maybe?”
Darian rubbed his chin. “Every time you’ve used your magic in the past it’s been when you were in a dire circumstance. There’s been less of those instances since you obtained your creature form.”
