My breath hitched, and my power surged through me as my dragon demanded that I shift and protect my mate.
Mate?
Yes. My mate.
The word echoed through my mind with primal certainty. Seranni was my dragon’s mate, the only one who would ever heal my heart and the one my dragon had claimed. The only one I would ever love.
The one I would protect at any cost.
I had to keep her safe.
No matter what.
Zaorak reached for the larder door, his fingers brushing the handle—
“Zaorak,” I growled, dropping down from the rafters to land with a heavy thud behind him.
He froze, turning slowly to face me. His lips twisted into a sneer, his eyes gleaming with unholy delight.
“Myname,” he hissed, “is Topaz.”
I shook my head, still unable to understand why he was loyal to the mage.
“You’ll always be Zaorak to me,” I shot back, my claws flexing at my sides. “What do you want?”
His hand lashed out, faster than I could react, closing around my throat in a vice-like grip. He lifted me off my feet with ease, his strength overwhelming.
“The mage wantsyou, Onyx.”
Chapter 12: Seranni
I clamped my hands over my mouth, desperate to stifle the scream rising in my throat.
My breath came in shallow gasps, my chest tight with fear as I watched the scene unfold from my hiding place in the larder. Kael and the other dragon chimaera, Zaorak—no,Topaz, as Kael had snarled at him—stood locked in a violent standoff just a few feet away. The air between them felt electric, crackling with tension and primal fury.
Zaorak’s massive hand shot out, seizing Kael by the throat, and I nearly lost my composure. My fingers dug into my face as I bit back a cry. The sight of Kael dangling in the air, struggling for breath, was unbearable.
I cursed myself for being so stupid. I knew the mage was bad news, but I had fallen for his lies anyway.
Why did I think I could trust Rindais?
Because I’d wanted things to work out for me, for once.
I’d let my wishful thinking get the better of me, and now Kael would pay the price.
I was the one who’d brought the mage’s henchman into our lives. I had to help Kael.
But how?
Zaorak’s voice, low and taunting, cut through the haze of my self-recrimination. “I will take you home to the mage and prove thatI’mthe best of his dragons,” he growled, shaking Kael like a rag doll.
Kael’s hoarse laughter filled the room, a defiant sound that sent a chill down my spine. “Why would he need me when he hasyou?” he rasped, his voice like broken glass. His lips twisted into a mocking smile. “Oh no, don’t tell me you’re not good enough for the mage anymore?”
Zaorak’s face contorted in fury, and my muscles tensed as I watched him tighten his grip around Kael’s throat, his eyes ablaze with malice. Every instinct screamed at me to flee, to find safety in the shadows and leave the monsters to their fight. But I knew that running was not an option. Not when Kael's life hung in the balance.
But what could I do against someone like Zaorak? He wasn’t human, not anymore. He was faster, stronger, and utterly without mercy. The mage’s experiments had stolen his sanity, turning him into a creature of pure destruction. I was no match for him.
And yet, Kael was fighting. Despite the odds, despite the obvious pain coursing through him, he was fighting with everything he had.
