Her wards had finally been exhausted.
The dragon swiped with mighty talons, scattering the demons on the roof with a roar.
With one heave, the beast pulled the roof off, jumping to the lower level. The dragon jumped again, her bulk causing floors to rumble and quake beneath them. Fire and yanked stones opened the way down.
Chainbreaker. Where is your friend?
Elizabeth flattened herself on the dragon and closed her eyes. She focused inwards, looking for Caspian’s consciousness. Pushing her mind out into the fortress, she searched through all the auras present. She had grown so used to Caspian’s presence and his aura these past few months that she was certain she would be able to find him.
Caspian!she thought, projecting her thoughts like a beacon, hoping he would hear her and answer.I came back for you. I’m not leaving without you. It’s me, Elizabeth!
No answer.
She snapped her eyes open. The dragon swatted at an onslaught of demons, arrows glancing off her scales.
Hurry,the dragon snarled, losing her patience.
Go to the lowest level,she said, hoping to guide the dragon to where she thought the dungeons would be found.
The dragon ripped through floors, breathing fire on any demons unfortunate enough to be in their path. Elizabeth struggled to focus while the world collapsed around them.
She only had seconds before they would have to leave, and she would never get another chance to get him back.
She closed her eyes and thought of everything that made her think of Caspian—his face, his bitter and angry aura, shadows crossing his features, the tender way he kissed her fingers. His beautiful, but terrifying, demon form, and how she felt when she was with him. The images centred her.
She cast out her mind.
Far down into the depths of the castle and off to the left, she felt a mind that was familiar in a way that she couldn’t describe in words.
A vision came to her. Caspian, in his demon form, his abdomen crisscrossed with cuts and scars, head downcast. His wrists were chained, and his head was bowed, as if he thought no one was coming for him.
There,she said, shoving the image across her mental connection with the dragon.
When a dreadful roar, the beast ripped open the floors until she stood perched atop the dungeon cells.
There were four cells. One was empty; the second held a large, horned demon; the third held an old woman in tattered clothing—her eyes widened in surprise as she beheld Elizabeth and the dragon—and the fourth cell held Caspian, exactly as she had pictured him.
I see him.
The old woman gripped the bars, looking pleadingly at her. Elizabeth’s eye flicked to her and saw that, despite her age and imprisonment, her eyes remained sharp. She looked human.
“Who are you?”
The woman tried twice to speak, her voice hoarse and scratchy. “Selena.”
“Are you mortal, Selena?”
The woman nodded, her limbs skeletal. “Yes. I was captured long ago.”
Elizabeth clambered down the dragon’s foreleg and rushed to Caspian’s cell, then darted a concerned look at the gray-haired woman. “I’m here to save my friend, but I swear we will try to help you if we can.”
Two was not part of our deal,the dragon growled.Who is this mortal who seeks to use me as a packhorse?
“Keys are over there,” Selena said, pointing helpfully to the hall.
Elizabeth ran for them.
A demon appeared at the end of the hall, and upon seeing her, ran forward, and grabbed the keys off the wall before she could reach them. The demon slashed at her with long claws.
