I try again, harder this time. I picture the flame. Heat. Light.
Still nothing.
A fractured sound tears from my throat. “What did you do to me?”
The words echo harshly off stone.
Darial takes a step toward me, then stops himself. “Aura—”
“You took it,” I snarl, backing away until the stone presses hard against my back. “You took my magic.”
Kelan’s jaw tightens. “We sealed it inside you where it can’t hurt you anymore.”
His words are a knife to my heart.
“You had no right,” I spit. “That was mine. It’s the only gift I’ve ever been given. The only thing that’s ever kept me alive.”
Ronyn’s voice is low, edged with steel. “And it’s the thing that will get you killed.”
I shake my head violently. “That’s a lie. It keeps me safe. This is about control. It’s always about control.”
The betrayal is stark. They told me I could trust them. I let them sleep around me, and confessed my deepest, darkest secrets. Instead of protecting me, they’ve strippedme of my power.
Kelan moves closer despite my glare, his presence even more forceful without the magic flowing through my veins. “We had to do it. Other dragons felt the magical pulse,” he says. “They’re coming, and they’re not like us.”
“They will take you,” Darial adds softly. “They will use your magic until you’re burned out.”
I laugh manically. “You expect me to believe that? After everything? That they will do worse than this?”
Silence answers me.
I turn away from them, heart pounding and hands shaking as every instinct screams for me to run. I need to put distance between myself and these men who smile gently while cutting pieces out of me.
“I need air,” I say hoarsely. “I need to pee and—”
Darial nods immediately. “Of course. I’ll—”
“No,” I snap. “I need privacy.”
I move past them before they can stop me, slipping through the mouth of the cave into the cold dawn air. Frost clings to the rocks, glittering faintly as I begin the careful descent down the rocky slope.
Before me, Blackwood Forest spreads like a thick green carpet. This newly formed cave has completely changed the landscape. I stare into the canopy below, already fearful of what lurks there. Bears and wolves ready to recapture me. Dragons in human form, waiting to ambush me. And I'm powerless.
A maniacal laugh bursts from me as I consider how Bruno and Anatol would react if they discover my magic is gone and I'm useless to them. Maybe they’d release me. Maybe they’d kill me in fury.
Six feet.
That’s all I descend before the world roars.
Before I can scream, an enormous arm wraps around me, and I’m ripped from the rock face with frightening ease.
I scream as the wind tears at me, and the ground drops away. The forest spins beneath us, green and endless. Blackwood is reduced to a blur of murky shadow. The dragon’s scales are pitch black, drinking in the sun, his wings vast and powerful as they beat through the air.
Fear coils tightly, making me breathless. The claws tipping the arm I’m held in are sharp and vicious, but they’re careful too, and underneath my terror, something else forms.
Awe.
The sheer power of this beast, and the impossible grace of its magnificent, bulky form leave me wide-eyed. The care with which he holds me, talons positioned so I’m cradled rather than trapped is gentle and considered.
