Page 22 of Possessed by the Dragon Alien (Zarux Dragon Brides #6)

SEVENTEEN

Nena pressed her back against the cool metal wall and tried to quiet her breathing.

The familiar blue advisor’s robes felt comforting against her skin.

The hood pulled low over her face gave her a sense of protection.

These garments had gotten her through the thick of Axis corridors before.

Hopefully, they would again. Thirty piks had felt like a lifetime when they were planning, but now that they were actually moving through the corridors of Axis Central, every second stretched like pulled thread.

Madrian moved ahead of her with the fluid grace of a predator.

His gray uniform made him look like any mid-ranking official, rather than one of the Twelve, and the dark cloak draped over his shoulders did its best to conceal his wings.

But even folded tight against his back, the massive span was too large to hide completely.

Anyone looking closely would notice the telltale bulk beneath the fabric.

The corridor smelled of recycled air and metal polish. Every footstep was too loud, every breath too harsh. Nena’s heart hammered against her ribs as they passed beneath surveillance nodes. Their red lights blinked like watchful eyes.

“Clear,” he said softly, motioning her forward.

They’d already passed three checkpoints by taking maintenance corridors and service shafts.

The narrow spaces made her feel claustrophobic, and the constant hum of machinery vibrated through the walls.

Madrian knew this place better than she’d expected.

He navigated every turn, every hidden passage like he’d memorized the entire structure.

Which he clearly had.

The thought sent a chill down her spine that had nothing to do with the cold, recycled air. How many mig -cycles had he spent here? How many missions had he planned from these halls? How many people had he hurt while believing he was doing the right thing?

Her palms felt damp inside the advisor’s gloves, and she had to resist the urge to wipe them on her robes. The fabric rustled with every movement, sounding impossibly loud in the confined space.

She pushed the questions away. Whatever he’d done before, he was choosing differently now. That had to be enough.

A soft chime echoed from somewhere behind them, followed by the sound of boots on metal flooring. Madrian’s hand shot out, catching her wrist and pulling her into an alcove barely wide enough for the both of them.

His body pressed against hers, solid and warm. She could feel his heart beating against her chest, steady despite their circumstances. Even now, as they were trying to escape , he didn’t seem to know how to panic.

“Patrol,” he said against her ear. His breath tickled her skin.

The footsteps grew louder. Multiple guards, moving at a steady pace. Not searching, just routine patrol. Nena held her breath and tried to make herself smaller.

The beam of a handheld scanner swept past their hiding spot, barely missing them.

“All clear on level seven,” a guard said. “Moving to eight.”

The sounds faded. Madrian waited another full pik before stepping back.

“We’re close,” he said. “Two more turns and we’ll reach the service elevator that leads to the docking level.”

Nena’s mouth felt dry, but she managed to speak. “What if Rien isn’t there yet?”

“She will be.”

His certainty should have been reassuring, but something in his expression made her stomach twist. This wasn’t confidence. This was the absolute faith of someone who’d never been let down by his subordinates. Ever . Why? Because failure meant death. No one willingly defied a high chancellor.

More Axis conditioning.

They moved through the next corridor without incident, but as they approached the final turn, Madrian suddenly stopped. His hand went to the weapon at his side.

“What is it?” she asked. They were running out of time. Multiple delays due to roving guards had made this journey much longer than it should have been. Every pik that went by meant the net was closing around them.

“Someone’s there.” He bared his teeth in a white flash of annoyance. “Guard. He’s not moving.”

Nena strained to listen but heard nothing. Whatever senses he possessed, they were sharper than hers.

“Stay here,” he said.

“No.” The word came out before she could stop it. “We stick together.”

For a moment, she thought he’d argue. Then his mouth curved in what might have been a smile. “As you wish.”

They crept forward. Around the corner, a single guard stood beside the service elevator. He appeared young, maybe barely out of training, and he looked bored. His attention was on a small device in his hand instead of his surroundings.

Madrian studied the scene with predatory focus. “I can take him down quietly.”

The cold way he said it made her skin crawl. She caught his arm before he could move. “Don’t kill him.”

His eyes met hers, and for a moment she saw something flicker there. Confusion, maybe. Like he couldn’t understand why it mattered. “I’ll do what’s necessary.”

“Madrian.” Her chest tightened. She narrowed her eyes and pinned him with her gaze. “He’s just a youth. Don’t. Kill. Him.”

“Very well,” he said finally.

She nodded and released his arm. “Go.”

What happened next took less than a pik , but Nena saw every detail with crystal clarity.

Madrian moved like liquid shadow. The guard never had a chance to cry out or reach for his weapon. One moment he was standing there, the next he was on the ground with Madrian’s arm around his throat.

But then something changed. The controlled takedown became something else.

Madrian’s grip shifted. His muscles bunched with lethal intent.

The guard’s eyes went wide with terror and his hands clawed desperately at Madrian’s arm.

Madrian wasn’t letting go. Wasn’t changing his tactics to incapacitate the guard, but leave the young male alive.

“Stop.” Nena’s voice cracked across the space between them. “Madrian, don’t do this.”

Madrian froze. For a heartbeat, she wasn’t sure he’d heard her. Then his grip loosened. He brought his free fist up and clocked the guard on the head. The young male went limp, but he was clearly unconscious, and very much alive.

Madrian straightened slowly, dragging the unconscious guard into a nearby storage compartment. When he turned to face her, his expression was carefully blank, but she caught the flash of something dark in his eyes. Something cold and foreign and chilling.

“Are you all right?” she asked, wrapping her arms around her middle.

“Fine.” He straightened his clothing, smoothing the small wrinkles and correcting the sharp lines of his uniform. “We should move.”

But Nena didn’t move. She stood there looking at him, seeing the way his hands shook slightly as he sealed the compartment door.

“Madrian.”

“I said I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.”

He stopped pretending to check the corridor and met her eyes. “I almost killed him. Even after I told you I wouldn’t.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Because you stopped me.” His voice was rough. His eyes were a turbulent, stormy gray. “Not because I chose to stop.”

The pain in his words made her chest ache. She stepped closer, ignoring the way he tensed. “No, you did choose. You heard me, sure, but you could have ignored me. You didn’t, and that young guard is alive. That counts for something.”

“Does it?” He looked down at his hands like they belonged to someone else. “I’ve been trained to kill efficiently and without hesitation. It’s as natural to me as breathing. More natural, maybe.”

“It takes time to change a lifetime of training,” she said. “It’s not a switch that can be just turned off at will.”

“What if it can’t be changed? What if this is who I am?”

She thought about the way he’d kissed her in his quarters. The gentleness in his touch, the wonder in his eyes when she’d told him she trusted him. That hadn’t been the Axis weapon she’d been with. That was Madrian.

“It can be changed,” she said firmly. “I know because I’ve seen who you really are.”

Before he could argue, she reached up and pulled his face down to hers. The kiss was quick, just a brush of lips, but it seemed to ground him.

“Come on,” she said. “Rien’s waiting.”

But as they moved toward the service elevator, a cold knot of worry settled in her stomach.

What if the Axis conditioning ran too deep?

What if what the Axis had turned him into couldn’t be undone?

She’d seen the pure, emotionless ice in his eyes when his arm had tightened around the guard’s throat.

It had taken her voice to pull him back, but what if next time she wasn’t fast enough?

What if there was no next time for someone else?

She pushed the thoughts away. The high chancellor was not who Madrian was. She had to believe that, because the alternative was unthinkable. She could not bind her life to that of a male who might, at any point, calmly kill someone he didn’t like.

The service elevator took them down three levels to the docking bay. The doors opened to reveal a vast space filled with ships of every size and design. The air smelled of fuel and hot metal, and the constant hum of machinery vibrated through the floor.

“There,” Madrian said, pointing toward a small, but sleek silver ship nestled among a sea of spacecraft. “Bay 7-2B.”

They moved between the larger vessels, using them for cover. Nena’s heart beat hard against her ribs as they passed technicians, pilots, cargo handlers. Any one of them could sound an alarm if they recognized Madrian.

But no one looked twice at them. They were talking on communicators, hurrying to or from their ships, or otherwise just busy with their own schedules. She and Madrian were just another couple making their way through the organized chaos of the docking bay.

Rien was waiting beside her ship, dressed in civilian clothes that made her look younger than her usual formal attire. She spotted them coming and activated the boarding ramp.