"I'll handle Mikhail." Protective fury bleeds through despite my attempts at control. "Keep Lila out of it. Keep the Brotherhood out of it. This is between me and the phoenix."
"That's not how this works." Finality settles into Declan's voice. "You're part of the Brotherhood. That means we back you. But it also means you don't get to make decisions that affect all of us without our input. Tell her enough to keep her safe, Finn. Give her the choice to leave or stay with full knowledge of what she's facing. Or we will."
Declan's ultimatum settles between us like a stone. The Brotherhood will expose the supernatural world to Lila if I don't. They'll give her the information I've been trying to protect her from. They'll force her to make choices that could get her killed.
Unless I scare her into leaving first.
I know what I have to do. I don't have to tell her the full truth. I don't have to explain shifters and immortals and blood magic rituals. I just have to reveal enough to terrify her rational mind. I'll show her the dragon. I'll let her see exactly what she's dealing with. I'll watch her scientific worldview shatter as her survival instincts kick in.
She'll run. Back to the mainland. Back to her safe laboratory where things make sense. Away from me and the danger I represent. Away from Mikhail and the target she's painted on her back by asking questions about dragons.
The mate-bond screams denial, but my human side knows it's the only option that keeps her breathing. Better she hates me and lives than stays and dies the way Saoirse did.
The meeting breaks up after Declan extracts a promise that I'll "handle the situation" soon. I don't correct his assumption about what handling it means. I let him think I'm going to tell Lila the truth and bring her into the supernatural fold. The reality will become apparent when she flees the island and never returns.
Her scent trail leads east from the village center when I pick it up again. It's fresh and recent. She passed this way within the hour, heading toward the forest that borders the tidal pools where she collects samples. Moira mentioned she'd been asking questions at the harbor earlier, probably planning another sample run before dark.
It's perfect. The location is isolated with no witnesses when I reveal my nature and scare her badly enough that she runs.
But there's another scent on the wind.
Phoenix fire. Faint but unmistakable. The acrid burn of flame that never dies, immortal heat that marks Mikhail's presence as clearly as a signature.
He's following her too.
Protective fury erupts through my control. Every instinct screams to shift, to hunt from the sky with dragon senses and fire. But the forest is too dense for wings, and I need stealth more than I need power right now. I follow her scent and the bitter trace of phoenix fire into the darkening forest on human feet, my dragon coiled tight beneath my skin, ready to erupt the moment I find him.
Her jasmine scent grows stronger. So does the acrid burn of phoenix fire.
CHAPTER 5
LILA
The tidal pools hold secrets the open ocean refuses to share.
I crouch at the edge of a shelf carved from volcanic rock, watching bioluminescent algae cluster along specific depth gradients. The pattern is too precise to be natural, too deliberate. Someone has been cultivating these blooms, manipulating the marine environment in ways that require both knowledge and resources.
The question is why.
My sample vials clink against each other in my collection bag as I extract another water specimen, careful to maintain sterile protocols despite the fading light. The sun drops toward the horizon, painting the sky in shades of copper and rust. I should head back to the inn before full dark, but the data I'm collecting refuses to fit any natural model I know.
The algae concentrations follow a mapped progression, with the highest density in the deeper zones where surface light fades, tapering off in shallower and darker waters. The bioluminescence pulses in synchronized intervals that suggest chemical signaling between colonies. And the cellular structuresI've been examining under the microscope contain organelles that shouldn't exist in any known marine species.
Someone engineered this. Or something did.
The folklore Catriona mentioned comes back to me—stories about dragons living in deep waters around Skara. I dismissed it as local color, stories fishing communities tell to explain unusual phenomena. But what if the stories contain kernels of truth wrapped in myth? What if something is living in these waters that science hasn't cataloged?
I shake my head, annoyed at myself for entertaining fantasy. I'm a marine biologist, not a cryptozoologist. The answer to the algae blooms exists in chemistry and biology, not in fairy tales about mythical creatures.
Still, the question nags at me. What did I see in Finn's cave that night? The bioluminescent displays moved like they were breathing. The cellular structures defied classification. His eyes reflected the glow like polished gemstones.
A branch snaps behind me.
I freeze, instincts honed by years of solo fieldwork in remote locations screaming warnings. That wasn't the sound of an animal moving through underbrush—too deliberate, too heavy. The footsteps are human, trying and failing to stay quiet.
I set down the sample vial with careful precision, my hand sliding to the dive knife strapped to my thigh. The coastal path winds through a section of forest before opening onto the cliffs overlooking the village, dense enough for cover and isolated enough that screaming would accomplish nothing.
Another footstep sounds closer this time.
