No.
That was a lie.
He did know where he belonged.
Wherever his fated mate was.
“All of us,” he agreed. “The shadow dragons spent too long alone at the end of the world. I don’t want Maggie to grow up alone like I did. It’s time we returned to live among others like us.” He squeezed Francine’s hand. “Should we manage to save the world, of course.”
She raised her eyebrows, her lioness flaring. “Shouldwe save the world?”
“Whenwe save the world,” he corrected himself.
49
Francine
Their theory about the other obsidian doors proved right. Somehow, her and Julian’s desperation to save everyone trapped in the fortress had created walled-off sections where the invaders had been fighting. As though the enchantment acknowledged they didn’t want the invaders dead but also didn’t want them wandering around loose.
One of the doors hid Vassilios Nikolaidis and a rat shifter Francine didn’t recognize. Julian greeted him as though they knew each other. “They saved my life,” he explained.
The evening was dedicated to planning. She’d never met her brother’s fated mate, but Chloe took the lead on discussing one of the major issues they now faced: how to ensure shifters everywhere were warned of the danger that had returned to the world.
Chloe was a bird shifter, bouncy and cheerful, with a strange habit of deflecting attention. Until Francine realized she was doing it, she kept finding herself looking away—at Lance, at Julian, at anyone except her brother’s fated mate.
Which was a problem, since she was giving the presentation.
She frowned, concentrating.
Chloe twiddled her thumbs. “The world’s smaller in some ways than it used to be. We can get places fast. Even faster if we’re traveling by kraken. But we’re still so secretive, even among ourselves. It’s not like there’s some worldwide shifter group chat we’re all part of. Ever since I foundmylittle bird, I’ve been trying to make connections online, but we’re all so splintered.”
“I thought you’d been having luck with that,” Lance said.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. Ninety-nine percent of the shifters I’ve communicated with are desperate for some sort of connection. But they’re scared, as well. We don’t know how many of us there are around the world, or what might happen if humans suddenly discover we exist.”
Maybe the way her brain kept fuzzing was nothing to do with Chloe. Maybe it was exhaustion, and the newness of the mate bond, and every other fucking thing that was happening.
Maybe it was guilt.
Mathis was sitting next to Chloe. They’d barely exchanged a dozen words since he arrived on the ice.
He’d changed so much since she last saw him, and she didn’t know how to apologize for letting that happen to him.
The meeting broke up. The Stymphalian birds left, rattling their wings in irritation and thinking of the open sky, and the conversation turned to immediate logistics. How to deal with the prisoners who were being held in the vestibule. How and when they would return to the outside world. TheQueen of the Pridewas apparently long gone, but it wasn’t the only ship they’d had to deal with. The conspiracy went further than just Eloise’s bloodthirsty plans.
And then it was just her and Mathis, and their mates.
Shit.
She clenched her fists at her sides, warring with her own instincts. Of which she now had far too many. Instincts to fight, to flee, to sneer and curse and bite and—
“Hey, Frankie.” Mathis gave her a smile that twisted halfway, where a scar ran through his lip.
She burst into tears.
“Ah, shit,” Mathis said, and she choked on a laugh, because how could she have forgotten he was bad at this as well?
“You’re here.” That didn’t make sense, did it? She shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut until the hot tears stopped. “First I thought you were fucking dead, then I found out the guy who promised me vengeance for your murder had spent the whole time torturing you—and now you’re here. You’re just—here.”
