Oh fuck.
Freefalling from eight hundred feet is probably the most terrifying thing I could ever imagine, and I’d been through some scary shit. Even knowing Pearl would try her best to catch me did nothing to quell my nerves.
‘Demi!’Sawyer screamed. He must have picked up on my emotions and felt my terror. I ignored him, just focusing on breathing and not passing out when Pearl materialized just beneath me.
“Here!” Marmal shouted and I reached for her. With surprising force, I slammed onto Pearl’s back, sending her jerking to the left. Marmal latched onto me, planting both arms onto my shoulders to steady me. We nearly both fell off, but then Pearl was able to right herself.
Reaching out, I stroked her scales. “I’m so sorry if that hurt.”
Marmal looked at me with a halfcocked grin. “She said it felt like a deep tissue massage.”
I frowned. How the hell did an ancient dragon know what a deep tissue massage was? Shaking my head, I forced myself to focus. “Get me back up there. We might only have minutes before they get the shield back up.”
“You got it!” Marmal instructed her and then Pearl flapped her wings maddingly as she careened closer to the building now that the protective shield was gone. As we drew closer and closer, I readied myself for what was likely to be the most painful part of this process. Smashing the window open with my body. From what Sawyer said there was nothing heavy or dangerous inside that could be used as a weapon. No free weights or anything. That left me, hurling through the air like a ball—
“Do you want Pearl to smash the window with her tail?” Marmal suddenly asked, breaking my thoughts.
I looked back at Pearl’s tail. At the tip were six knobby horns of various sizes.
Oh … that was a better option.I wanted to facepalm myself but refrained. There was a crazy prison fight going on inside and I needed to help.
“Yes please!” I shouted, and seconds later the sound of shattering glass rang through the air.
Sawyer!
I sensed him before I saw him. Looking up from Pearl’s back, I pivoted and there he was, standing in front of the broken window, fingers curled deep into my wolf’s fur as she stood at his feet. Blood trickled down his neck from a wound at his ear and his chest heaved as he tried to catch his breath. But even still, he gave me a full panty-dropping grin, complete with dimple.
Holy fuck, I’d missed that smile.
“Demi!” he screamed, opening his arms.
I wasted no time. Standing on Pearl’s back, I jumped from the dragon in one leap, trying to keep all my shit together so I didn’t break down into sobs. It had been so long since I held him, smelled him,tasted him. We had a fucking baby together and he didn’t even know until recently. The second I crashed into his chest, his arms came around me like a vise.
“Holy hell, woman,” he rasped as I wrapped my legs around his waist, trying to get closer to him. His breath shuddered against me as I released the sobs I’d been keeping in. He squeezed me so hard it hurt, but I didn’t care because on some level it felt good. Being held so tightly against his shirtless body was the best damn feeling I’d had in a long time.
Pulling back from him a little, I looked up into his searing blue eyes and allowed our imprint to fully enmesh once more. I opened myself to him, every emotion, every experience I’d had since we had been apart. Having Creek, becoming Paladin alpha, surviving the Dark Woods, missing him. All of it. He just looked into my eyes and nodded. Then I felt him open. He’d kept so much from me. There was so much darkness in him now, I wasn’t prepared for it. He’d contemplated suicide so many times in our absence together. He was beaten daily by guards and other rival prison gangs. He’d been starved, electrocuted thousands of time, near death. My chest felt like a five-hundred-pound weight sat on it as he pushed his emotions into me, sharing all he’d been through. He almost lost his mind not knowing what had become of me. The only thing that kept him together and going was his new pack of friends and the hope that I was alive. A tear slipped down my cheek knowing he’d been through so much pain. Leaning forward, he kissed the tear, melting it into his mouth.
“I love you so much,” I croaked.
His lips landed on mine and I couldn’t breathe for a moment, couldn’t move. Was this actually real? Were we finally together? I moaned as his warm wet tongue slipped into my mouth and I tasted him for the first time in forever.
“Hey, lovebirds, a little help!” Walsh suddenly cried.
Shaken from our reunion, Sawyer pulled back from our kiss and set me down, then we both spun.
Crap.
I noticed Luka, Walsh, and two other guys. I was assuming they were the rest of his “crew.” One was fey and the other troll. They were all locked into a vicious fight with five guards. Fists pounded, blood flew, bodies cracked, all in an effort to wrestle the guns away from them. The other men in the workout room were in the corner pulling weapons off of the dead fey guards and arming themselves.
Great.
Luka, the vampire, had uncuffed himself, and now tossed a guard across the room as if he were made of paper. The guard hit the wall with a thud just as another fey guard lunged for Luka, blade drawn. Sawyer jumped into the fight and I felt my power surge within me. We needed to get the hell out of here—and we needed to get Sage. That shield could go back up any minute, trapping us all inside of it. I surged forward with vampire speed and slammed into the fey guard about to stab Luka. His body crashed against the wall and I took his head into my hands and twisted. The sickening crunch of his neck breaking rang throughout the room and I dropped him on the floor and turned. Two remaining guards were rushing toward me.
“Demi!” Sawyer screamed, panic in his face. The guards had guns raised.
A pulse of power flared to life under my skin and I flung my arms out, sending a shield of magic at them akin to a bomb blast. It looked like a wave of blue light, and when it slammed into their bodies, they turned to ash.
“Holy shit,” Sawyer breathed, looking at the two piles of ash.
