I shoved against Luke’s talons, nicking my shoulder.“What have you done?”I snapped. “He was weak—so weak! I could’ve finished it!”
I tried to jump out of his grasp, and nothing happened.
I froze.
Nothing.
I tried again. No fade. No power. Just…nothing.
My stomach turned to ice.
My legs trembled as I clung to one of Luke’s talons, the height and exposure suddenly terrifying in a way it had never been before.Mortality.It tasted of panic and ash in my throat. I looked down at the world beneath us, and my pulse raced.
And worse… I looked up.
Waiting. Knowing.
He’d be back.Of course, Harvest would be back. He had to know—hadn’t he sensed it?
My powers weregone.
Tears pricked my eyes, blurring the edges of the sky.
Helplessness clung to me like a sickness. I hated this—
I hatedbeingthis powerless. Weak. Vulnerable.
And worst of all?
I hated that the only way to save the world—and my family—was by killing the only person who had ever trulysavedme.
“Harvest is going to come back!” I screamed, falling to my knees in Luke’s massive palm. “Why haven’t they returned?”
Luke’s wings flared and thrust hard. He tucked them tight to his sides and dove. The wind rushed past with a deafening howl. The moment we were close to the ground, he opened his wings again, slowing our descent before landing in the grass.
He dropped me gently.
By the time I stood, he was already shifting—becoming a man again.
A very naked one.
But I didn’t glance down. My eyes stayed locked on his face, on the tension drawn tight across it like a blade about to snap.
Because I was seconds away from shattering.
“Harvest won’t return until the crossover opens,” Luke said, flexing his shoulders like they ached—though I knew he couldn’t feel pain. He was still covered in deep cuts and open wounds, healing before my eyes. The damage he’d taken as a dragon had followed him into this form.
“I’m mortal.” I snapped, gesturing to myself. “He will.”
Luke remained eerily calm. “He won’t. You scared the shit out of him. I smelled it in the sky. What you said earlier—it was true. If you’d taken his head, we could’ve kept him immobile. He knew it too.” Luke paused, gaze sharpening. “And he only dares to get that close to me… because of you.”
“Why?” I asked, voice tight.
“Why, what?”
“IknowI’m your weakness. You let them shred you to pieces for me.”
He stepped closer, those deep red eyes boring into me. “Then why ask why?”
