The idea both excited and yet scared the hell out of me.
Was it even possible for a man like Thorne to feel the same?
I was still debating that question when the safe little world we’d created fractured.
“Thorne!”Alaric’s voice boomed through the mental link like a thunderclap. His roar rattled the foundation of the mountain.
I jolted upright, heart slamming into my ribs. The peace froma moment ago, obliterated in a burst of fear. “What was that? Are we under attack?”
“I hope not.” Thorne was already moving, leaping from the bed with inhuman grace.
I slipped out on the other side, dragging clothing over my body as another feral bellow split the night. The entire mountain rumbled. Loosened pebbles rained down on our heads.
My pulse pounded in my ears. “Alaric is back. Maybe he returned injured?”
Thorne cursed, hopped on one foot as he yanked his pants up, and charged for the door. I barely managed to settle my shift over my bare skin before I tore after him into the corridor.
Another bellow cracked like lightning, rumbling through my bones.
“Where’s it coming from?”
“Hold on.” He held up his finger while his dragonflame glowed. “This way.” He raced down the hallway we’d used when entering his royal suite.
The air thickened as we neared the throne room. Shadows pooled in the corners, as if something ancient and malevolent had been unleashed. A heaviness bore down on me, my legs like stone, and I dragged them forward. An icy presence lingered behind those doors. Hungry. Consuming.
I’d sensed it once before.
Another roar—ragged, raw—rippled through the space, and I hesitated at the sound.
“Thorne, wait. There’s something—”
I reached for his shoulder. Too late.
He burst inside, and I stumbled in after him.
And froze.
Alaric lay sprawled before the dais, his massive form writhing. His muscles spasmed, claws gouging deep into the stone. His craggy face twisted in agony. A tortured beast, barely clinging to sanity.
I shivered as an icy chill scraped down my spine. His snarls were more than pain—they were the sound of the damned being torn apart. Shadows pooled, dark and oily, as if they fed on his suffering. Which was crazy. I had to be seeing things.
“Stay back,” Thorne ordered as the dragon’s deadly tail whipped through the air. It cracked against the floor, leaving fractures in its wake.
“Do you think the hunters…” I grasped the arm Thorne had thrust out to block me.
“I don’t smell blood—only brimstone.” He shook his head, expression grim. “Wait here.”
Thorne raced down the steps of the dais to his brother’s side. “Alaric! What’s happened?” His question was firm, commanding, but threaded with something that made me ache for him.Fear.
“Bones…shattered.”The dragon’s voice was a jagged rasp, thick with torment.“Scales…incinerating. So much pain!”he snarled, shooting fire as he roared.
Flames blasted up the atrium walls, and the cobwebs ignited. The effect was as though hell itself sought to consume the dragon.
Shoving aside the urge to run, to hide, I darted across the platform and down the steps, stopping at Thorne’s side.
He turned to me with tears glistening in his eyes. “I don’t know what to do.”
The panic I witnessed in him shattered my heart. No matter their differences or history, Thorne genuinely cared for his brother.
