Page 19

FIFTEEN

DRAX

My dragon is close. So close. I can feel him.

I can smell him. The desperate need to see that he’s okay with my own eyes would be suffocating if I actually needed oxygen to live.

Roman and I join in Atlas’s attempts to clear the heavy boulders while Cassius slinks away to check for other ways in.

Picking up each enormous rock and heaving it behind me quickly becomes repetitive, mindless work, every part of me focused solely on getting to my mate.

Roman grunts with each stone he throws, the scent of his sweat getting stronger and stronger as we work. Atlas isn’t bothered. He doesn’t breathe any heavier and he doesn’t sweat; he just tosses one boulder after another away like they’re nothing.

“Uh, guys…” Roman stops, pulling his shirt up to wipe the sweat off of his face. “Is it just me or should we be getting somewhere by now?”

Atlas’s biceps bulge as he lifts another stone, and I huff in frustration. Is Roman right? Should we be seeing the other side by now? How deep could the mage have made this barrier? Is it even real…

“Shit,” I mutter as the realization rushes over me. “It’s a trick.”

I wait for the boulder in my arms to vanish now that I know it’s not real, but it stays put.

I can feel the sharp, uneven surface cutting into my skin, and my muscles strain slightly with the weight of it.

There’s nothing that gives it away as an illusion, except for the fact that it can’t be real.

There’s no way Rune had time to build a barrier dozens of boulders deep in this hallway before we found it.

Atlas grunts and, angling his shoulder down, he barrels into the barrier. The walls rattle and he stumbles back, rubbing his shoulder and glaring at the wall of rocks still standing firm between us and Mac.

“Rune’s magic must be incredibly strong. I’ve never seen an illusion hold like this.” There’s a mixture of awe and frustration in Atlas’s voice that mirrors the infuriating feelings swirling in my chest. “It shouldn’t even be affecting me this strongly. Gargoyles are mostly immune to mage magic.”

“I don’t think we’re dealing with an ordinary mage,” Cassius says, appearing suddenly behind us.

“Please tell me you found another way in?” I demand through gritted teeth, drawing my arm back and aiming it right at the wall of stone.

Atlas catches my wrist before my fist can connect.

“All you’re going to do is waste energy healing broken bones,” he mutters, giving me a small shove away from the barrier.

Cassius shakes his head in answer to my question.

“More barriers, inexplicably bare walls with no windows or doors anywhere in sight, winding hallways that lead to dead ends or just loop you back around to where you started. Auri would get a demon boner over this place if he saw it.”

“Fuck,” I roar.

I can feel Mac’s answering twinge of worry in the center of my chest.

We can’t find a way in . I know he can’t hear the words directly, but the frustrated resignation has to be coming through loud and clear.

“Rune isn’t hurting him, right?” Roman asks.

I rub my chest and shake my head. “I don’t think so. He feels annoyed, but not scared or in any pain.”

“Good.” Atlas breathes out a sigh of relief. “Why don’t we regroup, talk to Auri, and make a plan. You said you have a book Rune left in his cabin, right? Maybe there are clues in there that could help us get through his magic.”

I nod, still glaring at the damned illusion keeping me from my mate.

It feels wrong to leave him. He’s mine to protect.

Mine. Mine. Mine. I growl and rush at the barrier the same way Atlas did.

I connect with it like it’s any other solid surface, my bones cracking and my flesh tearing violently with the impact.

My body heals just as quickly as the injuries develop, but Atlas was right.

All I’ll end up doing is running out of energy battering myself against this immovable wall.

“Fine,” I mutter. “Let’s go home and regroup.”

Atlas pats my shoulder, and then with one last lingering look at the wall separating me from my mate, we slip into the void.

MAC

The bond in my chest quivers, then tugs tightly, stretching uncomfortably like a rubber band as Drax gets farther and farther away from me.

I sit up on the cot with a jolt. They gave up and went home?

Drax gave up and went home? My throat tightens and memories of the time I spent locked in a cage, watching my brother’s mate die from some kind of demon poison on a cursed blade, come rushing back to me.

Except then I had no doubt that my brothers were coming to save my ass.

It took, what, all of a few hours before my supposed mate decided I wasn’t worth the trouble?

I gasp for air. Are the walls closing in on me? Is Rune fucking with me? And why is the pounding in my ears getting louder and louder?

“Relax.” Rune’s voice suddenly cuts through the thundering sound with a calm authority that’s completely at odds with his youthful appearance.

I can almost feel the air vibrate around us in response to his words, fitting itself around me a little tighter like a weighted blanket.

“Deep breaths,” he commands, setting a tray on the nightstand and then sitting down on the edge of the bed near me.

I don’t know what’s more humiliating, the fact that my mate immediately decided he didn’t give a shit that I’m being held prisoner or that my captor caught me having a panic attack like I’m a chihuahua instead of a powerful dragon.

“That’s better.” Rune pats my knee approvingly as soon as I manage to get my breathing under control. “Did something set you off?”

I start to shake my head but then decide maybe the best way to convince Rune to let me go is to just be honest with him.

“Just realizing I’m fucking useless. My ma—” I clear my throat.

“My colleagues went home. You were right, they couldn’t get in, and I don’t know how hard they even tried.

And the stone walls in here are kind of reminding me of this time I was held captive and almost killed by a different demon.

Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, the stone walls also kind of remind me of a different time I was the prisoner of a witch too.

” Rune gives me an amused look, and I shrug. “I get myself into a lot of trouble.”

“Hence feeling useless?” he guesses, and I nod.

“Well, I can fix one of those issues, at least.” Rune moves his hand off of my knee and places it on the center of my chest, the same place I can feel the invisible tether I have to Drax.

I recoil instinctively, and he gives me a lopsided, patient smile, like someone trying to convince a child to cooperate.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you, and it would take a hell of a lot more magic than I can spare right now to unweave your bond, so that’s safe too. ”

Unweave…

Before I can ask if he means he could break our mating, I feel a little tug on my dragon and then a pulse of fiery heat through my body, rushing straight into Rune’s hand.

Something about him seems like it expands, but I can’t tell exactly what.

It’s almost like watching someone take a deep breath, but more than that.

It’s like his whole body is filling up, not just his lungs.

He snaps the fingers of his free hand and suddenly the stone walls and sconces disappear.

I blink rapidly as my eyes adjust to the new room around me.

Instead of looking like we’re in a cave, now it looks like a five-star hotel, with floor-to-ceiling windows and clean white walls.

“How…?” I shake my head and get up off the bed to rush towards the window.

It’s not a view of Tokyo outside though, it’s a pink sky sunrise over Paris.

The Eiffel Tower is in the distance, and the classic Parisian architecture gives me the ache of home as I look out over it.

A bird flies past the window, and for just a second, it seems to freeze in midair before it continues on.

“Sorry. The view might glitch now and then. I’m using a lot of magic to keep this place locked up tight so your ‘colleagues’ can’t waltz right in and take all my shit.”

“Glitches…” I murmur, realizing what he’s saying. We’re still in Tokyo, he just gave me a view I would like better. He gave me a room I would like better. “What kind of person kidnaps someone, but goes out of their way to make sure the prison cell is to their liking?”

“A truly chaotic neutral person.” Rune chuckles.

“Still trying to get a read on you though, dragon. Sounds like you get yourself kidnapped a lot, which means you piss a lot of people off. But are you chaotic good or chaotic evil?” I don’t think he’s actually asking me, just musing to himself, so I don’t bother to answer.

I turn back towards him and eye the tray he set down. There’s a bowl of what smells like tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich on a plate next to it.

“I thought you might be hungry,” he says. “Eat, and we’ll talk more in the morning.”

Rune stands up and leaves, closing the door behind him. I suppose the room is an improvement at least, but having a better view isn’t much of a consolation for the ache still heavy in my chest. Drax left me. He gave up so fast.

I sink down onto the bed and close my eyes, feeling the threads of our bond.

I thought you would come for me . As embarrassing as it is, I let him feel the full weight of the disappointment and rejection throbbing inside me. And then, Drax responds. It feels like a warm, comforting hug through our bond, the reassurance I needed more than the change of scenery.

They didn’t give up on me. He didn’t give up on me. They just needed a better plan than battering themselves against Rune’s illusions and magic. The knots in my chest loosen and I stroke my energy along our connection, like I’m stroking my fingertips over his arm.

I sit back down on the bed and pick up the sandwich to nibble on it, closing my eyes every few bites to feel for Drax again. And every time I do, he’s right there, like he’s holding on to our bond as tightly as I am right now.

My dragon is lethargic and hard to reach, but even he purrs from the comfort of Drax’s invisible presence. He won’t give up on me. He’ll come for me.

I finish eating and set the tray aside again before laying down in bed. It’s a large, comfortable king bed now, but if I try hard enough, I swear I can still feel the rickety cot underneath the illusion.

The lights go out and I gather the blankets around me, imagining I can feel Drax in bed next to me, stroking my hair and whispering promises to find me and bring me home.