What caught my attention was Steven. He had slithered away from his boss and was now stalking towards us with a glowing red dagger in hishand.
‘Fly off with Sophie. She’ll keep you safe,’ Logan said, as he stepped in front of me holding a gun in one hand and his green glowing blade in theother.
I started my shift back to human. ‘No way. You die, I die, remember? We sticktogether.’
I knew that if he hopped on my back I could fly away and we would both survive, but there was no way we would leave the pack. I couldn’t live with that, and neither couldhe.
Logan looked back at me and growled. ‘Don’t make me cage you,’ hewarned.
I was in too much pain to acknowledge that. My body was still recovering from Eva’s little torture session, and I still wasn’t used to shifting. By the time I looked up, Logan had popped off two bullets at Steven’s chest, but Steven dodged one and the other he took in the arm, but he just kept walking quickly at my mate, wearing a maniacal grin. My mate. That word was weird and comforting at the sametime.
When I was finally fully shifted, I glanced up to see Ardan being wrapped in the roots of thick branches that had climbed up from the ground, Isaac standing over him, grinning. But then Ardan poofed away with his little parlor trick and reappeared right behind Isaac. The good druid was ready. He spun around, knocking the tip of his staff into Ardan’s chest, tossing him backward tenfeet.
With a roar, Ardan produced a basketball-sized globe of red fire and chucked it at Isaac. It was traveling at an alarming rate, and Isaac barely dodged it. Part of the ball clipped his shoulder, the rest dissipating when it hit the ground leaving behind a scorched mark in the earth. I noticed one of the crystals on the staff in Isaac’s right hand dimmed as crimson blood seeped from the wound on hisarm.
A grunting noise pulled my attention. Logan had Steven pinned, a green blade to his throat, just as Eva appeared beside me and handed me her long trench coat. “Wear this,” she told me. I numbly slid it on, covering my naked form and nodded to her. Then I reached down and picked up one of the old harpoons that had been in Logan’s wing. I had to let the pack fend for themselves, because Logan needed my help. Maybe together we could take outSteven.
It looked like Isaac was holding his own with Ardan, although just barely and if the good druid weren’t here we would be dead by now. I was going to stab Steven in the eyeball for what he had done to Logan. Stalking closer to the fight, my eyes on the prize, I cursed when the druid suddenly disappeared from underneath Logan and reappeared hovering right abovehim.
“Logan! Look o—” My warning came too late; the red glowing knife slammed into Logan’s shoulder, up near hisneck.
Time went still then. I could hear my breath coming out slowly, louder than it should be, as if all of my senses were hyper aware. My legs went weak as I looked at Logan hunched forward with the red glowing dagger shoved into his back. A searing pain sliced through my heart then as I realized what thismeant.
Logan’s green dragon magic began to lift upward from his body, and the burning pain in my chest increased, a pain so raw and unique it was akin to the same grief that had torn me open when my mother passed. My mate … was dying. Anger, fear, and desperation flooded every cell of my being as I ran forward with a cry on mylips.
“Nooo!” I shouted, lashing out with my magic, letting it go wherever it wanted, letting it befree.
A purple bomb exploded before me, saturating everything within a fifty-foot distance, including the trees. Logan, Steven, Ardan, Isaac, they all lit up like purple Christmas trees, then Ardan and Steven blinked out and they were gone. Isaac was brought to his knees, one hand on his staff, the other dug deep into the earth. He was staring at me with those golden eyes, but I cared nothing about any of that right now. The purple haze was fading as I ran, and when I reached Logan I ripped the dagger out of his back in one swift motion. Touching the blade burned my hand slightly but it was minor pain to the gaping hole that had opened in myheart.
Logan fell forward and I heard him grunt. With a little effort, I rolled him over. He was still breathing, but shallowly and wet, rasping as if his lungs were filling with blood. Everything within me screamed in protest. I’d just found him, I’d barely gotten to know him, and now … we would bothdie.
Logan looked around at the forest beyond me, and then at my face, as if he was having trouble focusing. He reached up to touch a piece of my red hair and trailed it between his fingers. “I dreamed about you,” he rasped. “Before I met you, I dreamed of this hair.” He trailed his fingers over my eyelids as tears leaked from the edges. “These green eyes.” His thumb then skimmed my cheek and found its way to my lips. “Theselips.”
I couldn’t bear it any longer. If we were going to die, we might as well die kissing. I’d only gotten to kiss him once, and all it did was make me want more. A lifetime of more. I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his as his hand came up around my neck and pulled me closer with surprisingstrength.
I felt something pull inside of my chest and squeeze my heart. It was happening. He was dying and I was dying with him. I reached up to touch the scruff at his face as a numbness spread throughout mybody.
He pulled back slightly, moving his lips to my ear and whispered, “You were worth the wait.” With those final words his hand slipped from my neck and his head crashed backward as the life left his eyes. I couldn’t speak, couldn’tbreathe.
The tightness in my chest increased until I was sure I was having a heart attack, then with a pop the pressure eased and purple magic flared from my upper body and lurched into his. Some of his green dragon magic was hovering just above his body. Now it began to settle back down as if magnetically pulled by my purple essence. I was about to sit up and adjust my position when a deep voice above mespoke.
“Don’t. Move.” My eyes flicked up to see Isaac watching me cautiously with those golden eyes. I froze, looking down again to see my magic had encased Logan. His own green magic was leaking out and merging with mine to make the most beautiful oceanic teal color I had ever seen. Hope burst inside of mychest.
“Can I save him?” I asked Isaac. I didn’t know if he would know the answer, but I had to speak it out loud tosomeone.
Eva’s voice called out from behind me. “They’re mates,” she toldIsaac.
I could see now that the entire pack was assembling around us. Nadine looked injured but alive, Gear still in his bird form and clutched to her chest. I continued to brace myself awkwardly over Logan as the purple and green magic danced and pulsed between us. Isaac bent down low and took a whiff of Logan’s hair.Okay.Weirdo. Then hestood.
Isaac addressed the pack: “His soul still remains. You know what they say about dragon mates, don’tyou?”
I heard Sophie reply, and was grateful she wasn’t dead: “They’re bound to each other. If one dies, they bothdie.”
Isaac gave her a once over and shook his head. “Wrong. The legend says that in order to kill a dragon mated pair, you must kill both. For as long as one lives, the other willsurvive.”
Just then, Logan took in a huge gasping breath and I burst into shocked tears. The purple haze was thinning out now, and Logan’s shoulder seemed to have stoppedbleeding.
“You’re alive,” I told him, smiling as the pain and numbness that had once claimed my body fadedaway.
