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“You will see what my nothing can do,” Nox says. “You will suffer for the longest time, knowing and seeing and feeling all mynothing. You will regret everything you ever did to me.”

Now I feel sorry for him again. He’s spent a lifetime feeling powerless, and finally he gets to show Ornix what he’s made of. It’s kind of cute in a way, or it would be if he wasn’t trying to take over an entire world right now.

“I’m going to give you a chance to undo this foolishness, boy,” Ornix says. “I do not want to have to use my power on you. You will suffer for this, of course, but it does not have to be a complete erasure if you do not force it. Turn off these walls, and?—”

“Never,” Nox cuts in. “I’ll never let you go. It’s the one thing I will do, no matter what. I’ll hold you prisoner, and I’ll…”

I peek around the corner to see what is happening, and I am very glad I do, because it’s just in time to see Ornix walk through Nox’s electric barrier as if it wasn’t there.

“What the fuck!” Nox’s yelp of surprise is hilarious enough to make me snort out loud. I clap my hand over my mouth, hoping neither of them heard me.

Fortunately, Ornix is busy pinning his nephew up against the wall by the neck and staring at him with what I have to assume is an expression of contained yet somehow unbridled fury.

“I warn you. Over and over. Time and time again. And you never learn, because you never really listen.”

Nox makes a sort of choking sound indicating that he cannot breathe. I wonder if I’m about to see Ornix kill him outright. It’s clear that my mate’s powers far outstrip anything Equinox can put together using human technology.

Ornix snaps his fingers, and all of a sudden all three of us are back in the dragon realm. I didn’t even see a portal form, and I didn’t know that Ornix had even seen me. How did I get brought with them? Does he just sense me? Or am I some kind of fuck-filled part of him now, so full of his seed that he doesn’t even need to know where I am to know where I am?

I feel guilty, like I did something wrong. I guess I did. I guess I kind of cooperated with Nox. Fuck. Am I in trouble? I decide to slink away to another part of the castle. Ornix has taken us to the dungeon, and I’ve had enough of these underground walls for quite some time.

“Don’t. Move.” Ornix grinds the words out, and I know they are not directed at Nox. That instruction is for me. I freeze in place, immediately obedient because I just saw the craziest shit I have ever seen. I did not expect Ornix to just walk through Nox’s barriers like they didn’t exist.

They hurt. A lot.

“Do you have the seal, boy? How long have you been plotting this?”

Now free from Ornix’s grasp, if nothing else, Nox shakes himself and tosses his hair in what has to be the most pretty-girl expression of not giving a fuck about being caught. He knows he’s fucked. I know he’s fucked. I suspect I am… god. My ass is still throbbing internally from the last time I defied my dragon master and that was just for not wanting to attend class. The punishment for treason is going to be so much worse, I’m sure.

“I suppose there’s not really any point in pretending anymore,” he says.

“No. There isn’t,” Ornix grinds out. “Tell me everything and tell me now.”

“Fine,” Nox says, folding big, scaled arms over his chest and still somehow managing to look like a petulant little boy compared to Ornix, who is ancient and unamused. “Of course I have the seal. Of course I’ve been plotting against you my whole life. Of course I tried to convince your mate to leave before she could be bred. You killed my father. I’m the most obvious villain that ever villain-ed, and you couldn’t see me. I have no idea why.”

“It’s because you’re nice most of the time,” I interject. I can’t help myself. Obviously everyone knows I’m here now, they can seeme and also I’m pretty sure Nox just confessed to manipulating me, which I don’t love for myself.

“Well, let that be a lesson to you, little human,” Equinox purrs at me. “Being nice most of the time does not mean someone is not also a beast from a hell dimension bent on destroying you down to the atomic level.”

Ornix hasn’t responded. His presence is heavy and grave, so fucking solemn that I wonder if something has broken that won’t ever be healed.

“I don’t want to have to hurt you, Equinox. Give me the seal.”

“It doesn’t matter if I give you the seal or not. At this point, we both know that the game has been playing for too long for you to let this go. I’m a threat to your throne, your crown, your kingdom. You won’t be able to handle me living.”

“I am not going to kill you, Nox.”

“No? What are you going to do?”

“I am going to banish you. You can go back to your human world and live among them. You can build your empire there. You can live a human life. I am not going to kill you. But I am going to strip you of the essence that made you here. I am going to make you human.”

Equinox looks suddenly frightened, but he shakes his head. “That’s not possible.”

“Of course it is. If longevity can be bestowed, it can be removed. You see, nephew, I have lived much longer than you. I know deeper magic. You have made yourself master of modernity, of technology, of the little trinkets and toys humans used to amuse themselves. But the deeper magic evades you. Even the electrictrickery you use to make a portal is weak. You do not know who you are beyond the pain of your formative years. You have not reached back to your ancestors. You have not sought the wisdom of the past. And so you have no counter to what I am going to do to you next.”

Ornix is fucking terrifying when he is being logically brutal. I can see Equinox regretting every decision he ever made—and I can equally see that he realizes it is far too late to backtrack now.

He throws the seal to Ornix. “Here. Take it. Whatever. What cell do you want me in? Sorry, Melissa. Looks like the two of us are stuck here for the rest of our lives.”