“Vervain?” Katila sat forward.
I looked up slowly, savoring the moment, and let my dragon come forth. I let her shine out of my eyes and set them to burning.
Katila gasped and drew back. “No. This isn't possible.”
“You should run now,” I growled, scales coming to the surface of my skin. “Not that it will do you any good.”
Katila didn't run. He yanked the Pasha from his neck as he stood to face me.
Damn it, Vervain!Al shouted.Run!
Alaric had never sounded so afraid. That fear broke through my dragon's dominant nature and echoed into my heart. I jerked to my feet, fire rising inside me, but now it was only a defensive measure—something to hold him off while I ran. I blasted Katila with it.
Katila went transparent.
A ghost. The motherfucker was a ghost.
My flames went right through him. The only thing that remained solid was the Pasha, and it only glowed in the flames. The couch, however, caught fire.
With a growl, Katila waved at the couch and the flames went out. Whatever territory we were in, he had full control of it.
He's taken souls!Alaric shouted.An entire territory's worth. Run, Vervain!
Fuck.
I ran.
Which way?I screeched in my head.Where's the tracing point?
Straight ahead. That door. Take it.
I ran for the door opposite the terrace.
“Where are you running to, little dragon?” Katila growled, his voice gone deep.
The door in front of me changed into a steel wall. I stumbled to a stop.
Vervain!
Tell the others where I am, Al. Get help!
No reply. I assumed he had gone to get help. But then I remembered that I was the only one who could hear Al. Me and Aradia. Aradia, a half-God-half-Fey woman, had been an avatar for Alaric in the past. He would have to go to her first, then get her to go to Pride Palace. But the wards were new, and Aradia didn't have the chant.
I was on my own.
“If I have to drain your magic, I will, my Queen,” Katila said. “But you will not escape me again.”
I turned to face him. “Great job on the seduction.”
Katila grinned. “I think maybe you will respect this more than conversation. He flung the Pasha out. It unraveled from its noose shape and cracked like a whip.
I still had my star. It didn't always work, pretty much only when it chose to, but I didn't think it would let Katila drain my magic. Normally, I asked for its help and directed it with a specific request, but before I could do that, a powerful rage gathered inside me. It built and built in seconds, then blasted out of me in a blinding glow.
Starlight. The Trinity Star hadn't failed me!
Katila went tumbling backward and the steel door behind me flew off its hinges. I glanced over my shoulder to see an Asian garden with a pagoda in its center. That was the tracing room. It had to be. But Katila was down and my beasts wanted to tear into him. It took all I had to turn away from Katila and run. It was a good thing I did. Even as I ran, he got to his feet and gave chase. I could hear him behind me. The ground began to roll.
I leapt into the air, wings sprouting from my back.
