“Release me,” I snarled.
Tears welled in her eyes. “He has one of my friends. Said if I failed to distract you, he’d carve out her heart. He was like a demon, his eyes black as pitch, possessed. The things he said… He was mad. There’s no telling what he might do to her.”
I gripped her shoulders in return, smoke rolling from my nostrils, flames straining for release. “And what do you think I will do to you?”
With a shrill screech, the woman released me.
I tore into the apothecary. “Sera! Where is she?” I roared at the clerk behind the counter. Blood trickled down his temple, and he held a cloth to the wound.
“A man. Slipped through the back door. Struck me. Took your lady.” He gestured to the back of the shop.
Rage ignited. I shot toward the door, blasting out the back and into an alley. Outside, nothing stirred. Not a soul around. Which way? If I chose wrong, he’d vanish with her.
I dropped the block between us. My chest burned hot, and I dialed into the sensation, delving deeper. Deeper. “Come on. Where are you?” The bond surged.Got you.
Right at the crossroads.
A scream rang out.Serafina.
My dragon slammed into my skull, claws raking my mind. Spiced apples. Her scent lanced through the night. I raced into a darker stretch of alley, hitting a dead end.
“No!” She was close. Right in front of me. Yet only a wall stood there.
Not for long.
I braced, drew deep, flames coiling in my chest. Fire erupted from my throat, a blazing torrent that struck the wall with thunderous force. Stone cracked, glowed, then split apart, crumbling inward under the inferno. Smoke and dust boiled around me.
Through the breach, I spotted her. For a heartbeat, I froze. Vines covered in red flowers thrust from the floor, twisting about Mortis’ legs. Serafina writhed in his grip, a dagger gleaming at her throat.
“Come with me,” Mortis crooned, “and he will reward us both. He’s even promised to make me a leader of his new army.”
“Let go of me, you bastard,” Serafina thrashed. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“I won’t lose you again. You have no idea how important you are to him.”
“Mortis!” I roared, leaping through the rubble.
“Thorne!” Serafina cried out, her desperate gaze stoking the fire beneath my sternum.
“Let her go.” Smoke rolled from my nostrils, my beast prowling below my skin. “Serafina doesn’t belong to the high ruler.”
“She belongs to me,” snarled a voice from deep within my psyche.
“You simpleton,” Mortis hissed. “You think this is still about some lowly Puritan lord?”
The ground quaked. The vines shuddered, holding the soil together as if the earth itself wanted to swallow them. Mortis’ soulless eyes shifted to devilish black. Shadows darkened his already pale complexion. The effect made him appear more corpse-like than alive. Claws sprouted from his fingertips.
Flark. I was not seeing this.Not again.
Images from my past threatened to drag me under, clouding my mind. Bodies in the hallways. Friends turned monsters. Smoke, ashes, and blood. Dead, they were all dead, and it was my fault. All my fault.
Serafina’s scream jolted my dragon, dragging me back to the present. Mortis. I needed to do something fast. My flame would shield her, even as it burned him to ash. The center of my chest heated.
Before I could let loose, Serafina’s flesh began to glow. What the hell?
“Dammit, you’re hurting me. Let. Me. Go!” Her voice thundered, light blazing from her body—brighter, hotter, until it eclipsed my own fire.
I shielded my burning eyes. Mortis’ screams pierced my ears. The crisp burn of electrified air filled my senses.
