“Fine,” I hissed, my fangs itching.
The humans surged forward, and I moved without thinking, spy training taking over my muscle memory.
One came at me with an electric bat. I sidestepped, caught his wrist, and twisted it. His bones snapped, and he screamed and dropped to his knees. I tapped the back of his neck with my fingertips, and venom sizzled into his skin.
He went limp, temporarily paralyzed.
Another swung a pipe at my head, but I ducked and drove my elbow into his ribs. I brushed my fingertips over his exposed forearm, and he dropped similarly.
All along the shore, it was the same.
Jesse, Tobias, April, and Kyle used non-lethal holds and knocked the humans out. Zuko and Rhyse fought with the same efficiency. Morgan and Koa darted in and out, healing snapped wrists and preventing permanent damage, as well as keeping our side standing.
We should have had it controlled, but we missed the sniper from the treeline. A bullet zipped directly toward my mate.
“Koa!” I shouted, but I should’ve known he wouldn’t dodge it.
He half-turned toward me as the shot hit him square in the chest.
Koa’s eyes went wide as it pierced his heart, phoenix fire bursting around him in a sudden blast, turning his body into a column of blue-gold heat.
White-hot pain slammed through my chest from the matebond.
I staggered, breath ripped out of me.
As Koa reincarnated, I met the gaze of the human who’d shot him.
He grinned.
Anger raged through me, and I barely saw the baton coming from behind.
The electric shock slammed into the back of my skull like a hammer made of lightning. My vision went white, then black.
“Rune!”my mates screamed in the distance, but it stretched and warped like it was coming from underwater.
“Get her blood,” a voice said, right at the edge of my awareness. “That’s the basilisk! Get a sample before they pull back?—”
“Human Resistance Network confirmed,” Jesper roared. “Kill them all!”
Black swallowed me, and then the nightmare began.
I knewit was a nightmare as soon as I recognized the room.
It was my room with white, icy decor I’d burned after breaking up with Darian. The strong scent of glacial amber invaded my senses as I lay on my back, wrists pinned above my head by bands of ice. My ankles were strapped down too, frost burning my skin where it touched.
I couldn’t move.
Just like before.
Darian hovered over me, greenish-blue eyes shining with a hunger that had nothing to do with affection, like I’d duped myself into believing.
“Relax,” he crooned. “You like it cold.”
“I don’t,” I protested, but my voice came out thin. It lacked the conviction it should’ve.
He smiled and pressed his hand to my chest, right between my breasts.
Ice slid into my lungs.
