Page 64 of Magic Claimed

FIFTEEN

I couldn’t even have namedwhich emotion was foremost as I slipped into Callum’s room and closed the door behind me.

Worry, that he wasn’t going to be okay.

Relief, that I no longer had to feel responsible for the chaos outside.

Anticipation…

But as I approached the bed, I quickly realized that it was empty. There was no sign of the auburn-haired dragon that I missed so badly it was an aching wound in my chest.

The blankets were rumpled, the pillow askew, but the dragon was gone.

No. Surely…surely that hadn’t actually been him outside.

I pivoted swiftly and reached for the door handle, ready to call for Ryker, when something grabbed me from behind. A hand fastened over my mouth, silencing my cries. An arm like asteel cable pulled me tightly against a powerful body. I could neither call for help nor fight my way free.

My brain tried to panic, but my body refused. It simply stopped struggling. And when I shut my eyes, I knew.

It didn’t matter that we’d been together only a little over a week. Nor did it matter that we’d been separated for most of it. I knew whose arms held me. I knew whose heartbeat echoed through my chest in counterpoint to my own.

“Callum?”

At least that’s what I tried to say, but the hand over my mouth muffled the word.

My captor paused. His hand lowered—only by a fraction, but it was enough.

“Callum, it’s me.”

The arms caging me went still, and for a moment it felt as if every muscle in his body tensed. He was poised and waiting… for something.

“Do you know me?”

Silence. I felt his chest heaving as if he was struggling for words, and then his breath on my neck. Warm and soft, ruffling my hair.

“It’s Raine,” I said quietly, wondering whether it was possible for a heart to crack under such strain. “Callum, I’m so glad you’re alive. Like Faris always says, everything else… everything else we can fix.”

I felt a surge of tension ripple through him, heard a low growl of frustration rumble through his chest.

What kind of poison could do this? Rob him of speech, of rationality, even of recognition?

That storm I’d sensed… It must have been the moment he awakened—disoriented, angry, and maybe even afraid. I needed to reach him, but in order to do that, I would have to lower the walls that were protecting me from the chaotic state of his emotions.

I could normally only feel those emotions when I was touching him, and the fact that I’d felt his turmoil from halfway across the city suggested that our connection had been heightened. If I dropped my walls now…

But it didn’t matter. Whatever happened, it was a risk I was more than willing to take for Callum’s sake.

And what was more, those walls might be dampening our bond. He might not be able to sense me, and if he felt threatened, there was a chance he would react in a way he would hate himself for later.

So before I could think better of it, before I could consider, or weigh, or even second guess… I took a sledgehammer to the protections that I’d built around my heart.

Brick by brick, they crashed down, and the storm rose once more, leaving me buffeted by the winds of thoughts and feelings that I knew were not my own. And at the center of it all, I felt more than heard a cry of anger and despair, carrying the taint of a deep and demoralizing fear.

For the merest fraction of a second, I opened myself up and touched that coiling darkness. Allowed it to resonate through me. Let myself feel it. Taste it. Understand it. Understandhim.

Callum was a man of deep convictions and an even deeper sense of responsibility. But he was also a black dragon. Aguardian and a protector, with a fierce love for his family and his people.

And he was so afraid that he’d failed. Failed at his job, failed to protect his hoard. Failed everyone he loved.