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Looking at her again, I forced myself to analyze her through my own eyes rather than the Magic of my Dragon King. After all, it was no use. Sully was no good to me at that moment. The Old Man had gone gaga, and I refused to deal with him.

I had bigger fish to fry.

Another look, and I saw that she was staring right back at me. Her mouth was slightly open, her wide eyes reflecting the eerie, purple glow of the containment sphere floating in the distance.

Strangely, she wasn't looking at me with the frantic, mindless terror of a victim. She was cautious. Deeply confused. But not freaked out in the slightest.

Oh! And of course, because all the planning in the world can’t beat dumb luck, the woman was heart-stopping, jaw-droppingly beautiful.

Even covered in charcoal dust, sand, and what looked like paint grime, there was a fierce, striking vitality to her. Her dark brown eyes sparkled with mischief and Magic. Her porcelain skin looked as soft as silk, and from what I could see, her body had gorgeous curves in all the right places.

She. Was. Stunning. And I needed to get a grip.

Focusing my senses, I reached out to read her energy.

It was faint, deliberately suppressed, but beneath the surface lay a reservoir of pure, Ancient Magic. It didn't belong to the Earth, and it didn't belong to the Sky. It was a perfect, harmonious blend of both.

Sully purred, the sound vibrating in my chest as he breathed, “Alicorn.”

My eyebrows shot up. “An Alicorn? Are you serious? Like the Mythical offspring of a Unicorn and a Pegasus?”

“Aye.”

“I thought they were extinct, or at the very least, tucked away in highly guarded, secretive enclaves. What the hell is she doing around a Hellmouth in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert?”

Seeking answers, I took a single, deliberate step toward the ridge.

The woman instantly jumped to her feet and stepped back, her fingers gripping the stone so hard her knuckles turned stark white.

“Go easy,” Sully warned, his tone shifting to something surprisingly gentle. “She’s afraid.”

“I can see that.”

“Then make her feel safe.”

I had to laugh at the bitter irony of it. I had spent the last hundred years surviving as one of Hell’s most terrifying instruments of War, Mammon, the Demon Lord of Greed, and adapting to a Realm of pure malice. Now, the very first thing demanded of me was to remember how to be gentle. How to make a woman feel secure.

I was screwed.

The silence stretched between us, heavy and absurd, until the woman finally seemed to find her voice. She looked at me, her brows knitting together in an expression that was a mix of intense skepticism and sheer bravado.

I glanced down at my ten-foot, horned, battle-armored Warrior Dragon form. Yeah. That probably wasn’t helping.

Before I had a chance to think about my next move, Sully began pulling back his Ancient White Dragon Magic. My scales receded, my height returned to normal, but the armor he had manifested remained in place.

"Are you just going to keep staring at me?" she called out, her voice crisp, carrying a distinct Texas drawl that hit me like a breath of fresh air.

I blinked, genuinely caught off guard by her bluntness. Shifting my weight, my heavy armor clinked, and I answered with total, unvarnished honesty. "Probably."

The woman let out a sharp, incredulous breath, tossing her head slightly. "Well, that's not creepy at all."

A faint, rusty amusement flickered in my chest. The banter was rough, my social skills completely buried under a century of survival, but her complete lack of meek submissiveness was refreshing. She was trapped in a cage with a Dragon and a plethora of disappearing Demons, and she was still giving me attitude.

As the adrenaline of the fight began to fade, the reality of my situation settled heavily onto my shoulders. I looked past the gorgeous woman toward the glowing boundary line of Wards.

I didn't know where in Texas I was. I didn't know how or why the Hellmouth had been opened, or why it had spit me out like a nasty piece of gum. I didn't know if my brother Guy was alive, or if the Dragon Guard even existed anymore. I didn't know what kind of broken, unfamiliar world I was stepping into– or what Keevandrie had been doing in my absence.

I had absolutely nothing. No coordinates, no allies, and no plan.