Why am I here?
Well, if I go right back to the moment when freedom presented itself…
“I’m here because I escaped my cage,” I say, suddenly drawn back to that mysterious moment when the magical seal across the bricked walls hadpoppedand I could finally cut through the stone to reach the other side.
“I’m here because something or someone broke the magical seal that had kept me imprisoned for twenty-three long years, but I’ve never known who or what?—”
I take a sharp breath.
Wait a minute.
I’ve been sensing that same magic ever since the dragon shifters arrived: Thepopin the air when they fly.
The change in air pressure around my cell had the same impact on my ears.
I’ve never known what happened on the other side of that bricked wall because I couldn’t see through it. I heard a male voice and a female voice and then there was a burning heat across the bricks that I could feel all the way through to my side.
The panthers were on the other side of the wall at the time.
They saw what happened.
They couldn’t tell me before, simply because they couldn’t speak to me in anything other than snarls and hisses and purrs, but now Anarchy can tell me.
I take a chance to spin to her, only to find her already focused on me.
“Yes,” she says, her pale-blue eyes bright. “It was a dragon shifter.” She hurries on. “Actually, an angel and a dragon shifter. Two creatures of powerful light magic fighting each other. The dragon’s fire burned across the chains that shackled us and at the same time, the flames cut through the wall that imprisoned you.”
How ironic.
I spin back to the dragon master. “I’m here because light magic set me free.”
I dare to close the gap between Ryuji and me, watching the way his scales glisten as I approach, a defensive mechanism.
“A dragon shifter set me free,” I say. “And now you, another dragon shifter, have the power to decide what happens next.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Ihave to convince Ryuji to leave us in peace.
I need this time—just a little bit of time—to plan a way forward that will keep my new family safe.
Drawing myself upright and taking advantage of Ryuji’s intense silence, I issue a challenge in the form of a question. “You have sworn to destroy dark creatures, but I ask you this: How do you know that’s what I am?”
“A dark creature?” He falters a little. Not much. But his sudden uncertainty is undeniable. After all, he said himself that a wolf with wings is unheard of. It has to be making him question his assumptions about us.
“Well, only a dark creature associates with other dark creatures.” He points to each member of my family in turn, starting with Lucian. “Dark angel, dark elf, shadow panthers, and…” His eyes narrow at the keeper. “Something else. But most certainly of dark magic.”
I’m not surprised that he accurately identified the shadow panthers since he claimed he’s heard of everything, but I’m gratified that he can’t seem to label the keeper.
“And me?” I persist. “What of me?”
Ryuji scowls. “I will concede you are a mystery.”
Another ‘something else’.
“And I will concede there is darkness within me,” I say, knowing that subterfuge will get me nowhere. “But I challenge you to deny that there’s darkness in you, too.”
He huffs but doesn’t refute it.
