Page 86 of Claimed by the Savage Dragons

‘Well, at least you have a dragon to break out of your skin now,’ he snarks

‘Fuck off, Brax.’

‘He’s not answering,’ Brax says with a frown.

‘Try him again.’

He nods and I wait, watching him as he puts the phone to his ear.

‘Nothing,’ he says after a moment. ‘The phone goes straight to voicemail. It’s off, or dead.’

Or maybe he’s dead.

We share a grim look, and I pray to the universe that our mate is okay.

‘First Bron and those fucking orders and now this? I don’t like it at all. We need to get back,’ Brax snarls, his dragon coming to the surface quickly.

‘If we’re found in Stormriders’ airspace before the banishment has been lifted, we’ll never be allowed back.’

‘I know the law!’

‘What if we?—’

‘Your phone! Is it Drey?’

Drax looks down at the name on the screen. ‘No. it'sDel.’

He answers it and puts it on speaker.

‘Is this line secure?’

He makes sure the software on the phone is enabled. ‘Yes.’

‘Where are you?’ the doctor asks.

‘Borderlands.’

‘Tor with you?’

‘He’s here. We’re done with the mission. We’re trying to get new orders from Drey, but he isn’t picking up.’

The other end is silent. It crackles ominously. ‘He’s not going to,’ she finally says. ‘Not right now anyway.’

Something happened, then.

‘Aziel made his move,’ I say quietly, and Brax nods in my periphery.

He asks the question we dread but have to know the answer to.

‘Is Mari alive?’

Silence. Crackle. Silence.

‘Yes,’ she finally says, and we both let out breaths of relief. ‘I need you to bring me a plant. It grows there in the Borderlands.’

‘A plant? Are you fucking serious?’ Brax snarls.

‘Dead. I need it. Pink flower. Grows close to the ground. Looks moss-like. Bring it to that lab we used to go to in the summertime before the Fall. Remember it?’