Deep-throated chanting rang in my ears, the sound shattering my nirvana.
The ground rumbled, and a chill washed through my bones.
Darkness approached, a storm that drove away all that was bright and lovely. It reached out, grasped and tore, leaving behind only a hollow void.
I ached to run, escape, but I was trapped.
And it was too late.
The earth cracked.
Blackened roots slithered out like living nightmares, twisting toward me. One circled my leg. Its thorns pierced flesh and muscle, sending fire racing through my veins. I cried out, thrashing. Another lashed my wrists and slithered up my forearms. Barbed daggers stabbed my skin, snaking around my throat.
The Dark One had me in his clutches.His foul presence coiled around my soul, a parasite that sank its hooks deep. He wasusingme to siphon magic from Hathor’s sacred arbor, twisting it into something vile.
Acrid tears washed away my previous joy. No. This couldn’t be my fate. To be used to bring about the destruction of a great kingdom.
Desperation clawed at my chest. I threw my head back and unleashed a scream of pure anguish—one that tore through the night, through the heavens themselves.
And then—
A roar answered.
Not just any roar.
A bone-chilling, rage-fueled war cry.
My heart leapt as the sky thundered.
Pounding wings hammered the air, relentless, unstoppable, the sound like battle drums. I peered up, meeting a pair of fiery blue eyes. Blood poured down my dragon’s powerful torso, his scales drenched in crimson. His mighty wings—torn, tattered—carried him to battle.
“Thorne,” I whispered, worried he was a hallucination, afraid to hope.
“Close your eyes, my love.”His voice poured over me in the sweetest of caresses. The supernova deep within his core ignited. His massive jaws parted, flames crackling at the back of his throat.
He’d either save me or end me. Either way, I would be free. A strange sense of peace washed over me, and my straining muscles gave up their useless struggle.
If this was my fate, then let me meet it in the embrace of my dragon’s fire.
Alaric’s curses rang out, along with a great whoosh of wind, the sound like a tidal wave crashing against the rocks.
Liquid fire exploded from Thorne’s powerful mouth, pouring in a molten stream. The crackling inferno rained down on top of me, the sheer force of the blast battering my frame, the heat staggering. My blood sang, invigorated by the beast’s unimaginable power.
Nothing could survive such a deluge, save for a dragon’s true mate.
Piercing screams cut through the chaos. The hands that gripped me incinerated, turning to ash. A hellish screech rent the night—the dying wail of the general’s monstrous steed.
Peering through the smoke, I caught sight of The Dark One’s general awash in fire. His withered flesh charred, becoming crimson embers that floated away on the breeze.
As the fire died, the soil beneath me rumbled. From deep within the earth came a sound—a horrendous, keening roar. The Dark One bellowed his rage. The air trembled with it, the vibrations rattling my bones. I clamped my hands over my ears and shuddered as the feral cry clawed at my soul. Then…
Silence.
Frozen in place, nude body trembling, I glanced around me. The pentagram I had lain upon was gone, erased as if it hadnever existed. The sinister vines that held me captive had withered to nothing.
Where the general and his monstrous steed had stood, only a smoldering mound of noxious ash remained.
Trees splintered and cracked, and I spun as Thorne’s massive dragon fell from the sky. The brutal impact rattled the earth. “No. Thorne,” I yelled, snapping out of the icy shock.
