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All around us the crimson bond shimmers and sparkles then is slowly absorbed inside us, part of us forever. Unbreakable.

But something else is rising inside me.

It starts as a pulse low in my spine. Then heat—molten and alive—slithers through my veins. Not like the shift to wolf. No. This is different. Older. Wilder.

My heart stutters.

She pushes her hair out of her face and stares down at me, panic flaring in her eyes. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

I brace my hands on her waist holding onto her as the fire builds, pressure growing, expanding, until I can’t contain it. Until my skin tightens. My bones ache. Like I’m trying to hold back a storm meant to decimate worlds.

“Amber,” I choke out, voice hoarse. But I don’t know what I’m warning her of.

She straightens her spine, her hands gripping my face, eyes wide. “I think it’s the magic,” she whispers. “Vortex’s magic.”

And then the fire ignites.

It’s not pain. It’s power. Raw and ancient and endless. It floods me, bursts through me like a second heartbeat. A second self. A memory that isn’t mine roars through my blood—lightning splitting a sky, wings spanning across the stars, fire that doesn’t burn but devours.

And beneath it all—a growl.

Low. Relentless.

Familiar.

For a second, I think Fury is back. But this is not Fury.

A presence coils in the pit of my soul. Not a wolf. A beast with wings. With fire in its lungs and hunger in its heart. It stretches inside me like it’s been asleep for centuries and finally smells blood in the air.

My back arches. My fingers dig into hard ground beneath me. My skin prickles as if trying to split open.

Amber presses her palm to my chest and breathes, “Talk to me. Khaos.”

Her voice grounds me and I come back to myself a little. But I don’t speak. I can’t. I feel like I’m shattering, and something new—something unstoppable—is forming in the wreckage.

Fury is gone.

But I suspect the dragon is awakening.

Chapter 50

Scores to Settle

Finally, I feel his heart slow. Whatever freaked him out has gone quiet. For a moment there, I thought he was going to explode with whatever was inside him.

Is it the magic? Will it help us?

I close my eyes. My body is still buzzing. I never suspected sex could be like that. So intense, so wild, so mind-blowing. I’d like to say I can die happy now but that would be a freaking lie.

I don’t want to die.

I want to have mind-blowing sex with Khaosti for eternity. But I suppose some things are just not meant to be.

I hear something shift in the cell behind me and freeze. Then a rock hits me on the shoulder, and I yelp and sit up. “What the…?”

“Grimlet not looking. Grimlet doesn’t want to look. But I heard a scream.”

And he came to rescue me. “Er…yes, something scared me. But everything is okay now.”