Page 78 of Red Dragon’s Heart

“It’s okay,” Maddie said. “We planned for that—we just need to stick with the timetable. Assuming the rest of the plan works?” She got up and stood in front of the window, so no one on the outside could see in.

Zak concentrated. His blue t-shirt disappeared, and he replaced it with a red one. He and Maddie looked at each other and smiled, and then he changed it back.

Plan B was a go.

They had an hour before the plan was due to kick off, so everyone on the outside could get into place. Just before seven o’clock, Zak made his jacket disappear and conjured an identical-looking one.

The only difference was, this one was from his closet back at the castle, and had stuff in the pockets. Explosives, a detonator, and a couple of other useful things.

They got Troy to stand in front of the door while Zak fastened the explosives to the wall behind one of the chairs. He was about to usher Maddie and Troy behind the furniture in preparation for setting the charges off, when Troy hissed.

“People coming,” he whispered, and sneaked a look out the door. “Fuck. It’s that Larkin guy, and two security guards.”

“Dammit,” Zak whispered. “I still can’t reach anyone—there’s no way to tell them to hold up. We have to detonate in less than three minutes.”

He slipped the jacket off and put it around Maddie’s shoulders. Then he gave her a quick, hard kiss, gestured Troy back, and stood in the middle of the room, between Maddie and Troy and the door.

The clock on the wall was ticking towards seven. The door opened and Larkin entered, followed by the guards.

Larkin carried a small metal box, which he opened to show a syringe. He said to Zak, “I’m going to inject you with an inhibitor, in order to take you over to the lab. If you fight, my men hurt your human friends.”

“You can’t damage them—Chisholm needs Maddie to be able to work, and Troy as leverage over her.”

“There are plenty of body parts they can take without affecting her ability to do chemistry.”

It was all Zak could do to control himself after that. He calmed himself down by mentally promising that one day he was going to kill this bastard. The security team started to move further into the room. Zak blocked them, one eye on the clock.

The big hand ticked up to the twelve. The security guards’ headsets began to squawk—Zak and Maddie’s backup team had started their diversionary attack on the perimeter.

Zak threw himself horizontally at Larkin and the security guards, knocking all three of them down. Larkin dropped the syringe box as he fell, and the syringe rolled across the carpet.

One of the guards reached for Troy, punching him in the side. He gasped and went pale, and Zak kicked the guard in the face.

Maddie tipped the table on its side and pulled Troy behind it while Zak fought the dragon and the guards.

Larkin was crawling across the floor, scrabbling to get the syringe with the inhibitor. Zak couldn’t stop him—he had to stay between Maddie and Troy and the explosives.

Maddie pulled the detonator out of the pocket of Zak’s jacket, and hit the switch. There was a small fiery ‘boom’ that knocked everyone backwards, and smoke filled the room. The chair hiding the explosives had been destroyed, and there was a three-foot hole in the wall. The guards were unconscious.

But Larkin wasn’t. Zak staggered to his feet and tackled the other dragon. He felt the needle go into his arm, and Larkin pumped the inhibitor into his vein. He punched Larkin in the face with all his strength.

Behind him, through the hole in the wall, Zak heard the ripping sound of a rift opening. Larkin tried to throw a spell at the gate, and Zak hit him again.

He could feel the drug taking hold; it was harder to move, and he was starting to feel woozy. A glance at the rift showed Kira just on the other side of it, fighting to hold it open, while Rebel jumped through. She shot Larkin, the bullet from her magically augmented gun glowing blue.

She only managed to wing him, but between that and Zak holding onto his fucking legs, he couldn’t stop Rebel from hauling Troy to his feet and handing him through the gate to Kira.

Maddie hesitated.

Zak could feel his legs going numb, and his dragon strength leaving him. There was no way he’d make it out. He’d get them all caught. “Go!” he yelled. And then mouthed, Please.

Maddie gave him one agonized look, and stepped through the gate. They were gone.

Chapter 33

Maddie stepped out of Eric’s prison into the same flat, featureless plain she’d seen through Kira’s gate back at the castle. It stretched as far as she could see in all directions, miles of gently waving grass, with an odd no-color sky overhead.

There was light, but it didn’t seem to be coming from any particular direction because there were no shadows. And no sun in the sky.