I focus on enhancing the parameters of my partial shift, changing my throat to become more dragon-like. It takes intense concentration, but just like I did on the day I got out of Wargate when I struggled to ignite my flame, I focus on contracting the muscles in my throat to move the fuel inside me into the right area. The moment I have enough in place, I use my magic to ignite it. Flames shoot out of my mouth, setting the vines ablaze, and as soon as they’re charred and brittle enough for us to push through, I smother the flames using my magic.
I’d happily let this entire place burn if there weren’t innocent people down here, but catching Lance will have to be enough.
Although putting out my fire was probably a waste of time, because as we race after Lance, following the trail of blood, there are flames visible through some of the open doorways we pass. I don’t know whether Ember or another fire fae started this, perhaps in an attempt to destroy evidence, but it’s definitely spreading.
I jerk Raj to a stop and quickly absorb my scales back into myskin so I can sign. ‘Is someone helping the others? They’re in cells. They’re in danger from the fire, especially with the ward in place.’
He tugs his balaclava down. ‘The cells are unlocked and Ethan, Jet, and Cal are getting them out. Skye can handle Nyoka, so our job is to catch this bastard.’
He presses a swift, firm kiss to my lips before covering his mouth and nose again and resuming the chase. Reassured, I bring my scales back and rush after him.
Lance continues to leave more spells to delay us, always further ahead in this maze than we can see, until we finally catch up—only for him to turn yet another corner, putting him out of sight of Raj’s gun. The next corner leads us abruptly onto a staircase just as Lance disappears through a doorway at the top. We take the stairs two at a time, bursting through the ward into the pink-tiled bathroom.
My dragon’s strength flows through me now that we’re not fighting against the effects of the ward to stay connected. I’m not quite at full strength, likely because of the weapon, but it’s enough for my scales to ripple with the urge to fully shift. Since I can’t do that in such a confined space without risking Raj getting injured, we rush out into the main warehouse.
Ayo is lobbing concussion balls at two airborne fae while Kit fires at them with a rifle. Lance uses a burst of magic to shoot a small rock at the button which retracts the huge loading bay doors—the nearest exit—causing the magic in his wings to finally splutter and die, his magical tank now depleted. His wings flap with purpose, lifting him unsteadily into the air and towards the rising doors.
I don’t fucking think so.
I sprint after him, embracing my full shift as I go. As soon as I’m in my winged form I snatch him out of the air, trapping his arms by his sides and ignoring his attempts to wriggle free. As tempted as I am to crush his wings and his puny body, I’ve learnt my lesson. I hold him out to my tiger instead.
Raj immediately lifts his rifle and shoots Lance in the centre of his forehead.
It’s honestly a beautiful sight. After checking that Ayo and Kit have stopped the other two, I examine the unconscious, vulnerable fae in my paw. I dreamt of revenge so many nights in my cell, mentally concocted so many ways I could get back at Lance for kidnapping my sister and stealing three years of my life.
Crush him, barbecue him, eat him… but the best revenge plans involved taking everything from him. Destroying his career and reputation the way he destroyed mine.
Harley encouraged me to focus on rebuilding my own life instead, and although he wasn’t wrong about that, seeing Lance lying there covered in blood, his criminal activities exposed, is really fucking satisfying.
I set him down near the loading bay and shift back to my biped form, my own blood still covering my skin from the slowly healing wounds caused by his thorns. Raj slams into me, tugging his goggles up and balaclava down before kissing me like he wants to fuse us together. I ignore his rifle digging into my chest and the destruction around us, holding him as flush to me as I can while our tongues tangle and my dragon vibrates with approval. I pour every ounce of love I feel for him into the kiss, and he kisses me back just as passionately.
We only part when someone punches me hard on the shoulder. Kit gesticulates wildly at the flames leaping up behind toppled racks towards the back of the warehouse.
It’s clear through the open loading bay doors that there’s no one in the car park, and the only people up here are us and multiple unconscious fae, which means my siblings and the other shifters kept captive down there must be trapped along with Skye, Nyoka, and the rest of the pack, otherwise I’d have expected them to be out by now.
Shit. With the ward still in place, they’re as vulnerable as humans.
Raj backs away towards the ladies’ toilets. ‘I love you. I need to help get the others out. Don’t go anywhere.’
He and Kit rush off before I can sign those three words back to him, but that’s okay. There’ll be plenty of time for me to express the depth of my feelings when this is all over.
It’s easy for me to locate Ayo by the royal blue glow of his magic, visible beyond multiple racks and boxes strewn about. I hurry over to where he’s sending a water spell at the flames like a firehose shooting straight from his palm. The fire has reached the lab I was in and is leaping up from the hole I made when I first shifted.
The basement ward is clearly visible across the hole, so I spend a minute or two analysing its construction now that I have the opportunity. Once I’m confident I know how it works, I remove Ayo’s phone from the pocket on his vest, hold it in front of his face so that it unlocks, then rapidly type the specifications of the ward so that he can bring it down. It’s the fastest way for us to help, because this fire is spreading too rapidly for my dragon and I to put out even with Ayo’s water spell to assist.
When I thrust the screen in front of him, he reads it and gives a sharp nod. He stops his magical firehose and stares at the opening in the floor. It takes several long minutes before there’s the sensation of something rupturing beneath our feet as the ward disappears, immediately followed by huge cracks forming in the concrete floor. Racks start to sink right across the warehouse, and flames leap up from new locations.
Suddenly, Milo bursts through the floor in dragon form about thirty feet away. He climbs out then reaches back in to snatch up Jay and the creepy green-eyed shifter. Zara is the next to shift, climbing out from the hole Milo made and carefully picking up two more shifters. They head towards the open loading bay doors, although they’ll have to burst through part of the wall to get out because we’re too large in our winged forms to fit through the existing opening.
I type a message telling Ayo to get out of the building, hand his phone to him, then back up and shift into full dragon form. I need to do what I can to fight this fire.
Ayo frowns up at me, shakes his head, and raises his water spell higher, but then one of the widening cracks makes a rapid beeline towards where he’s standing. His moonstone glows and his magic flares as he cuts off the water spell and tries to levitate himself, but when his feet stay on the ground and his eyes widen at the huge crack that’s almost reached him, I snatch him up and carry him away from the danger.
I dart a longing look at Lance’s office where my hoard still is, but that part of the warehouse seems relatively out of danger at the moment and my bass guitars will remain safe as long as the walls Ayo anchored the ward to remain intact.
Resigned to going back for my hoard later, I stop next to the hole Milo made because Ethan has climbed out with Val and she keeps pushing him away every time he tries to help her. The problem is, she can barely stand up, let alone make her way across the obstacle course that’s now the warehouse floor. After Ethan and Ayo have a quick conversation and Ayo gives his mate a thumbs up, Ethan turns to her again.
She smacks away the hand he offers her, but when she takes a few steps forward she abruptly passes out. He catches her before she can hurt herself, and I hold out my paw in case he’d prefer for me to take her. He passes her to me and runs off, so I carry Ayo and Val out through the dragon-sized hole my siblings have made in the wall surrounding the loading bay doors before carefully setting them down outside with the others, well away from the warehouse.
