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Why the dragon must this take so long?

We carry on through the night, my mother and Gaia taking turns to open portals but with no success.Eventually, my mother catches a few hours of sleep while my father keeps watch at her bed, and Gaia is forced to continue the search.

As the day breaks and time rolls on, my despondency grows.The memory of the last time I saw Elsie invades my mind.Reliving that moment is the cruelest torture, but I can’t stop punishing myself with those images that will haunt me for the rest of my life.I see everything clearly, as if it’s happening right now.

The dragon leaps off the balcony, shaking the ledge.Flakes of brick sealer and stone chips rain to the ground.The beast spreads its wings and dives down toward the cliffs before rising almost straight up.Elsie clings to its neck as it levels out close to the clifftop.The dragon makes a circle over the palace, and then it takes off in flight, heading south.

An invisible crack stretches between us.It grows and grows, ripping my heart straight down the middle and tearing out my soul.It gets bigger and bigger, reaching all the way to my bones.

As the dragon flies away with Elsie, ice settles in my chest, and everything inside me turns to stone.

Gone.What was always meant to be mine has been ripped from me not once but twice.

My ears start ringing.It takes a beat to realize the noise comes from within my head.As that roar gets louder, the ground shakes beneath my feet, and fissures snake up the walls.

“Aruan.”

The sound of my name reaches me through the haze that has taken over my reason.

“Aruan.”

My mother.

She’s awake.

I come back to my senses, calming myself with great effort.My mother sits upright in her chair with one arm stretched out and her fingers splayed.A circle of colorful lights dances in front of her.

Keeping the portal open, she says, “I found her.”

Chapter4

Aruan

The sight that greets me when I exit the portal in the center of a volcano makes me see red.Elsie is lying face-down on a platform, her delicate ankle clasped in the clutch of a Phaelix who’s sprawled out on his stomach behind her.

Killing rage blasts through my veins.Fury boils my blood.Another male is touching my mate.Hurtingmy mate.The blood that has dried in her hair at the back of her head makes my vision fray around the edges.

In a wink, my power fires through me with such force that it feels as if my skin is aflame.I’m blind to everything but Elsie and the male who threatens her.The offense tastes sharp and bitter on my tongue.He dared to lay his dirty claws on what belongs to me.He drew blood.My mate’s blood.

He’s dead.

I’ll make that scaly piece of filth wish he was never hatched.

Targeting on the male the rage that continues to build like an earthquake inside me, I take great satisfaction from his screams as I dissolve him from his feet up.

At the first screams, Elsie stops struggling and whips her head to the side.Her lips part as our gazes collide.

The Phaelix lets go of Elsie’s leg, withering and yelling until there’s nothing left of him, but I’m no longer paying him attention.All my focus is trained on the small, fragile woman with hair the color of a pale sunset and eyes like the turquoise sea.

Mine.

Forever.

No one touches her and lives to see another day.

A single glance conveys those notions rushing through my head and beating in my chest.Only she can read my thoughts.And she does.I feel it.I also feel her relief as well as her dread.

Locked in that stare, we’re frozen in the moment.Everything else falls away.Nothing exists but Elsie.