And, the world went black.
Now, I woke up here.
Wherever “here” was…
I went to lift my hand. That was when I noticed I couldn’t lift my hands.
Furrowing my eyebrows in confusion, I looked down and noticed that my wrists were restrained along with my ankles. Distantly, I noticed that someone had taken off my coat and boots at some point, leaving me chilled and barefoot. Straps made of swirling shades of blood red gripped my wrists and ankles so hard they cut past my sweater sleeves and leggings intomy skin. A matching orb was over something on my stomach. When I stared closer at it, I realized that it was a wound that you could see through a bloodied hole in my sweater. Disconcertingly, I realized it wasmyblood, where I could clearly see how it shimmered like someone had spilled gold dust and crushed opals into my bloodstream. All of my clothes were soaked through with blood in spots, but those patches were dried, turning black and stiff. I could feel it hardening on my arms and legs and crusting on my face and hair. But this was still fresh and glistening, the edges damp, sticky, clinging to my skin, and inking its way further out. My breath caught in my throat. I felt like I was looking at someone else’s body.This couldn’t possibly be mine. This couldn’t be real…
The pain reminded me how very real all of this was.
Every part of me was crying out in agony so intense I couldn’t even scream. It felt like my blood was on fire. It was hot, searing and burning me alive from the inside out. At the same time, it was sharp, slicing and shredding me until I worried how much of me would be left, if any at all. It never let up. It never eased. It was the worst pain I had ever experienced.
But, it was familiar.
I remembered this pain. I would never forget it. It felt just like Zaria’s blade. It felt just like the shard of blood magic in the Vault. It was all of that, but so much worse. I tried to find a weakness in the magic’s hold, but the more I struggled, the more the restraints made me bleed, the more the magic sank under my skin, the more agony I felt. When one of the straps touched a patch of scales on my wrist, I felt like I was being electrocuted with a bolt of acidic lightning instead of the usual pleasurable sensation I was used to feeling when my scales were touched. Around my neck and against my chest, my necklace burned like a curse. The long, golden chain was tangled in places and caked with blood. The obsidian pendant hung heavy and low, pulsingwith heat like it had absorbed fire that sought to burn me faster than the blood magic did. It was so fucking hot and angry, worse than when I had stumbled into Quinn’s dad’s office with the dragons’ remains.
I roared. My tail went to snap behind me, my wings wanting to flutter, but I quickly realized that they were restrained to the chair behind me by similar magic. My wings were bound to the back of the chair, and my tail was tied tightly to a leg of the chair.
I growled, hating being restrained by the magic created from my own kind. It was unnatural and cruel and?—
Wait.
It was quiet and empty in my head.
I stilled at the thought. My dragon? Where was she? I was partially shifted, but I couldn’t feel her within me anymore. She should be roaring right now, fighting to shift fully to escape from our restraints. Instead, I didn’t feel her presence at all. It was like before I got my memories back. My dragon was… she was nonexistent. The only voice in my head was my own, and I had never felt so alone. How was I a dragon right now without her here?
Worse of all, I could no longer feel my mating bond.
Quinn and I had only mated a few weeks ago, but it had felt like that tether had always been there. It was quiet and steady like background noise within me. Our line hummed between us with thoughts soft as a sweet kiss goodnight and emotions pressed gently into my hand. Like my dragon, I couldalwaysfeel Quinn. It was like we were both in bed together, snuggling against each other. When I rolled over, her arms wrapped around me automatically for us both to go back to sleep. But, now, when I reached for her, I found only cold sheets. Our mating bond… it was just… gone. Severed.
There was nothing.
“Quinn?” I said, barely above a whisper as my throat was raw from dryness and disuse. I cleared my throat before trying again, louder this time. “Quinn!”
It echoed back at me, thin and wrong, but that was the only response I got. Not the ghost of her. Nothing else.
My heart began to thrash in my chest, each beat striking like a drumline of fear. The panic rose so fast, so sudden. If I couldn’t feel her, couldn’tsenseher… what did that mean? Where had she gone? Was she?—?
No.
“Quinn!” I screamed this time, loud enough that it tore through my throat like sandpaper.
The only answer was my own voice.
Quinn… Quinn… Quinn…
I fought the urge to jerk against my restraints, scared of them touching my scales again and causing too much pain. Instead, I shouted, my throat tightening with desperation. “Is anyone there? Help me! Please!”
Again, nothing but an echo, a hollow version of myself thrown back at me.
No dragon.
No Quinn.
I was alone.
Truly alone.
