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My father’s tone is stern, but the look he gives me is wary.“Calm down, Aruan.”

Because losing control means unleashing my power, and we’ve all seen how that turns out.

My mother collapses on a chair.“I can’t carry on.I have to stop for a while.”

I pause in front of the window and grip the ledge hard.Elsie vanished not minutes ago, and already, it feels like forever.Too long.

I left her in my quarters to confront my mother, and the next moment, a dragon landed on my balcony and carried away my mate.I saw it happen through this very window, and I was powerless to stop them.Elsie flew away on the dragon before I had time to portal myself there.

It wasn’t just any dragon, either.I recognized the tear in its wing.It was the dragon Elsie begged me not to kill at the lake, the one she called Betty.Since that encounter, we discovered that my mate has control over the mind of not only that dragon but also of small insects like water dragons and all the pets in the palace.I have no doubt Elsie summoned Betty so she could escape, something she’d wanted to do from the moment her feet had touched the ground in Lona.

Who knows where she’s headed?She couldn’t have reached another kingdom yet, not even at the speed a dragon flies.The kingdoms are too vast.But every minute we waste is a minute she’s moving farther from me.I can feel her presence just like I did when she first appeared on Zerra, so she must be only a local portal away.

Gaia should be able to find her, but if we don’t act fast, the distance may become too far for my sister to handle, and then only my mother will be able to help me.However, in the queen’s current state, she may not be of much help.

I hate to admit it, but my father is right.My mother is still too weak after being poisoned and then wearing herself out by using her power extensively during the attack.It takes an immense amount of strength and energy to create portals, especially the powerful ones my mother is capable of making.

I spin away from the window.“Where the dragon is Gaia?”

“I’m here,” my sister says, hurrying through the archway.“I came as soon as I heard.Is it true?Did Elsie fly away on a dragon’s back?”

I curl my fingers into fists.As always, the gossip spreads fast.“Find her.She’s still within our kingdom.”

Gaia sits down on the daybed and gets to work.My father urges my mother to drink some honey wine to recover her strength, and with his help, she manages to take a few sips.

While Gaia opens portal after portal in various locations, my mother drifts off into a fretful sleep.That she does so is evidence of how worn out she must be.Normally, she abhors napping and never sleeps during the day.In all my life, I’ve never seen her doze off sitting up in a chair.My mother is much too regal to indulge in a practice she considers to be a weakness, not to mention a display of bad manners in the presence of company.

The sun is already low when Gaia finally begs for a break.I look at my mother, but my father discourages me from waking her with a shake of his head.

“Let her sleep a bit longer,” he says.“She’ll be better able to help you if she’s regained her strength.There’s no point in disrupting her rest before she’s recovered sufficiently.We’ll only prolong the search if she’s not strong enough to wield her power.”

The compulsion to find Elsie is overpowering, but I recognize that my father is once again right.What he says makes sense, not only in my mother’s case but also in my sister’s, so I fill a goblet with water from the decanter on the stone table and hand it to Gaia.

While she drinks and takes a moment to catch her breath, I stalk to the window and peer at the horizon.

The sky remains clear.There’s not a dragon in sight.Not that I expect Elsie to return.Why would she?She made it clear she doesn’t want the bond that ties mates together for life.

Her rejection is nothing new, but it cuts that much deeper now that we’ve mated.After I claimed her, I had to leave right away, and not just because I was impatient to question my mother about how Elsie ended up on Earth.I needed a moment to deal with Elsie’s reaction.Once the uncontrollable mating heat had dissipated, she regretted letting me fuck her.The dismay was written all over her face.And even if it hadn’t been, the mere fact that our mating bond didn’t strengthen as it should’ve told me how she felt about me.About us.

And then she escaped.Left me.

She ran the moment I turned my back.

This is so wrong.It’s not the way it’s supposed to be.

The sex was explosive.The intensity and pleasure I had with Elsie were unlike anything I’ve experienced.However, the bond was incomplete.Isincomplete.The mental and emotional tie that should’ve connected us irrevocably is the same as it was before the mating.In the hollow of my chest where I can only ever sense the thoughts and feelings of one woman, our connection remains unchanged, weak.

Where did I fail?

What went wrong?

It doesn’t make sense.

Taunted by the emptiness of the sky, I turn away from the window.“Ready to continue, Gaia?”

My heart is like a live volcano in my chest, about to spew liquid fire.

“I need another minute,” she says, wiping sweat from her brow with her sleeve.