Mate,my inner beasts rejoice, pleased and wild and ravenous over her at once.
But where is she? All I see is sky.
When I sit up, I take in more chaos. There are others in this strange purple place—fae. Their alarmed cries and shoutsof pain echo with confusion as they attack one another with unfocused eyes. The field beneath my sarcophagus buckles and rolls, though I feel no true motion. My hair stands on end as powerful, bright red blood magic glows all around for a moment, yet the distortions remain—thanks to Nivarrah, I realize.
Nivarrah’s awakening is ill news, for her mind became unstable long ago from Veld’s cruelties toward her. The fae scientists performed many experimental magical administrations on Nivarrah in pursuit of a way to break their ill-fated bond. Thalo believed that if they could free her from her ties to the cruel incubus, she could be rehabilitated and perhaps use her impressive illusory magic for good one day.
The fae believed they were nearing success with her, hence why she was sealed away to preserve their work within her.
Now Nivarrah stands nearby, weaving chaos into the realities of those caught in her magic web, but her furious glare is fixed on the incubus beside me—the same one I suspected of meddling before I awoke.
Only, unlike me, Veld did not volunteer for the experiments the fae administered to him. His presence in the lab was a form of service in reparation to the fae people, demanded by the merciful fae king himself after Veld forced himself upon the fae king's niece, Luritha.
Nivarrah was sentenced to the same reparative punishment for violently slaughtering Luritha in a jealous fit after learning her incubus had been unfaithful. They're a pungent pair. I have never known anyone to break their mates' very spirits the way those two have broken one another. It does not please my inner beasts or me to have awoken near them.
"At long last, it worked," Veld murmurs, his gaze following something in the distance.
The leathery-winged, tailed nuisance looks as monstrous as any other incubus I have met, with his pointed teeth and claws.He still wears the black fae clothes provided by the scientists in the laboratory long ago, while I wear nothing since I was freshly shifted before Athanis healed and sealed me away.
"You were harnessing our dreams to call aid," I realize.
“Indeed. We were under for far too long, so I sought one who would listen. I did not realize the one who would finally hear my efforts would be so...mouthwatering."
Nivarrah hisses angrily nearby, but my attention follows where Veld has been looking.
There is a doe fleeing from us. She is caught in Nivarrah’s confusion, unable to truly escape as she bounds one way, then another, before narrowly avoiding the magic spells of confused fae fighting amongst themselves.
But the instant I see her, my heart tries to gallop free.
Mate,my inner beasts echo.
Seeing my mate run fills me with the same excitement as when I begin a hunt. Elated by the idea of running with my mate even in this chaos muddying the world around us, I rise at last. Vaguely, I am aware of the leather bracelet Athanis left me sliding off my chest to fall into my sarcophagus once more.
Then I leap forward, shifting to race after her.
9
KAENON
My wolf formhowls as I rush toward my mate. I can no more stop his sound of excited triumph from escaping me than I can stop all the wind and tides in the world.
But his howl must frighten my mate, for the doe’s white tail flicks in a show of alarm before she turns and darts in a new direction. This time, despite the wavering, amethyst-toned world around us and the shouting of disoriented, fighting fae, she begins to gain some distance as she runs for a treeline several bowshots away.
She is sleek and graceful in her escape—a swift and lovely doe with a tawny white-spotted coat.
She is faster than my wolf, which excites him. He enjoys a good chase.
But I am eager to catch up with her quickly so that she is not harmed in the mayhem Nivarrah is yet crafting in this place, so I urge my most reliable, fastest beast to take over. My shift is so smooth that when I leap, my wolf’s paws leave the ground only to return as cloven hooves a moment later.
Faster in this form, I draw closer to my fleeing mate. Her scent taunts me, weaving in and out of the false scents Nivarrahis spreading here. I ache to be surrounded by the scent of my mate, somewhere safe where I can calm her spooked animal.
Just before my mate reaches the treeline ahead, there is a shout of alarm from behind us. A flash of orange magic barrels past me before my mate is suddenly knocked off her hooves—forced to shift back to her two-legged form as she rolls painfully across the barren ground with a pained cry that rips at my soul.
No!
Wrath rips through me, my body shifting in an instant to the next beast who demands control to put a stop to Nivarrah’s magic and protect our mate. Bones twist and elongate, reshaping themselves as scales surface to armor me. Obsidian talons sprout as wings rip free from the scales of my back, vast enough to blot out the green sky when I spread them and beat the air, rising quickly so my growing form does not harm my fallen mate ahead.
Heat bursts from the long neck of my black dragon as he finally roars, making our wrath known to all the figures I see below when I arc back around to face them.
