Page 17

It wasn't just generic Dragon Enchantment. It was a specific, resonant vibration that hummed on a frequency so close to my own that my Bond with Sully practically vibrated in response.

Without a word, I began walking toward the shimmering barrier, my eyes locked on the pulsing lines.

"Hey! Did we learn absolutely nothing from the first electrocution?" Maisie yelled, jogging a few steps after me but keeping a safe distance from the discharge zone.

Yep, I ignored her, my Dragon Guardsman and Texas Ranger brain working at a furious pace. I stopped inches from the translucent purple light, watching the way the patterns shimmied and slid. "There’s Dragon Magic in those Wards."

I looked over, and Maisie was frowning. Her eyebrows were knitting together as she looked at the glowing wall. "Okay. Is that normal?"

"No," I said, my voice dropping into a dangerous whisper.

Inside my mind, Sullevan was far more disturbed. He was crouching low, his emerald eyes wide with realization. “Not simply Dragon Magic, Lad. It feels…”

“Yeah, I got that,” I cut him off, a cold knot forming in my stomach. “It feels like family– like a MacAllen.”

I didn't know how, and I didn't know why, but the Magical signature woven into the very foundations of the containment barrier carried an echo of my own bloodline. Before I could process the terrifying implications, the Hellmark pulsed again, violently and rhythmically.

The tether slammed into the barrier again. Instantly, the familiar Dragon Magic within the Wards answered the call. The purple geometry briefly thinned. The lines reshaped and parted around my physical form like a doorway recognizing a master key. For a split second, the barrier thinned until I could clearly see the desert on the other side.

Then, with a violent crackle of sparks, the Wards snapped closed again. The purple light instantly solidified into concrete.

Maisie stood frozen. She looked from the barrier back to me, her voice tight with sudden, grim understanding. "Your creepy Hell leash just knocked on the door."

I didn't turn around. Just answered over my shoulder, "And?"

"The door almost opened."

A heavy, suffocating dread settled in the center of my chest. Neither Sully nor I knew the full story yet, but the puzzle pieces were starting to align in the worst possible way.

“The tether is using something in us, Lad.”

“Our Magic?”

“Aye. And whatever Dragon Magic is woven into those Wards recognizes it.”

“MacAllen?”

“It feels like it.”

I stared at the barrier. “So, Hell just knocked using my name.”

“Aye.”

My stomach dropped. “And the door almost answered.”

A dark, definitive choice solidified in my mind. It was an instinct honed by a century of survival and a lifetime as a Dragon Guardsman, a Protector. I looked at the mark on my arm, then out toward the horizon of the fucking bubble that was my prison, and finally back at Maisie.

“If I am the reason Hell can breach this place,” I thought, as my jaw tightened. “I will leave. I will go back into the dark before I let that asshole, or anyone else, for that matter, use me.”

I had spent a hundred years in the Pit. I knew how to survive the endless fire, the torment, and the misery. I could handle going back if I had to.

What I would not survive, what my soul would never recover from, was becoming the literal door that let the monsters of Hell reach innocent people.

I couldn’t look away from Maisie. She was gorgeous, even with the dirt on her cheek and the fierce, stubborn spark in her gaze.

“Especially her,” I whispered to Sully. “I will do everything in my power to keep the dark from touching her.”

“No, Lad! We just got back!” Sully immediately objected, his voice roaring with absolute fury. “We do not return to the cage!”