Page 24

Chapter 24

L ila

“The Shard?” Allard’s—no, Talon’s face hardens, eyes darting down the corridor. “Are you out of your mind?”

“As long as they have it, they’ll never stop hunting Elena.” My voice scrapes against my throat. “They’ll use it to find her, to control any dragon they can reach.”

“We don’t have time—”

“Make time.” I straighten my spine, ignoring the tremor in my limbs, the sweat beading along my hairline. Prison hasn’t broken me; I’ll be damned if fear will now. “I won’t leave that thing in their hands.”

Hargen’s eyes meet mine. Something passes between us—understanding born from years together.

“I know where they keep it,” he says. “East wing, sublevel storage. Creed’s private vault.”

Talon curses, the sound sharp in the sterile corridor. He checks the bloody graze on his arm, then the ammunition in his weapon. “If—and I mean if —we do this, we move fast. One shot at it. Then we’re gone.”

“I’ll go,” Hargen offers. “You two head for the extraction point.”

“Alone?” Talon’s laugh is knife-edged. “With that shoulder? You won’t make it halfway.”

Hargen’s jaw tightens, hand unconsciously moving to the hastily bandaged gunshot wound. Blood seeps through the white gauze, turning it crimson. A reminder of the price he paid for my cooperation.

“We go together,” I decide. “All of us.”

Talon studies my face for a heartbeat before nodding once. “Lead the way, Cole.”

We move through empty corridors silently, each accidental footstep setting my nerves jangling. My body protests with each step, muscles shrieking from confinement, but I push through. Pain is an old friend—the only constant companion I’ve had for all this time.

Hargen guides us through service passages, avoiding the main thoroughfares. His breathing is labored, face pale beneath a sheen of sweat, but he doesn’t slow. Determination is etched into his expression, and he moves with a purpose I haven’t seen from him before.

“Almost there,” he whispers, voice strained.

We reach a security door reinforced with metal and magic. I feel the wards humming against my skin, ancient safeguards designed to keep the unwanted at bay. Designed to keep me away from what is rightfully mine.

Talon moves to the keypad, fingers flying over the surface. “My clearance should—”

“Won’t work.” Hargen shakes his head. “Only Creed and Emerson have access.”

I step forward, placing my palm against the cold metal. The wards recognize me, recognizing the blood that connects me to the relic inside. “They designed it to keep me out,” I say, a smile stretching my cracked lips. “But they used my blood to create the lock.”

Magic burns through my veins, familiar yet somehow stronger since the extraction that nearly killed me. My blood sings to the wards, calls to them, demands entry.

The lock surrenders with a hydraulic hiss.

“How the hell—?” Talon begins.

“They should’ve killed me when they had the chance.” I push the door open with a satisfied smile.

The vault beyond is surprisingly small, sterile white like everything in this cursed place. Security panels line one wall, monitoring systems glow blue in the dimness. And there, suspended in a containment field at the center—the Shard.

After all the pain it’s caused me, I’d expected to hate the sight of it. Instead, I feel… recognition. A sense of belonging.

“We need to hurry,” Talon urges, checking the corridor behind us.

Hargen approaches the control panel, hands moving with the certainty of someone who’s observed this process many times. The containment field flickers, then dies. The Shard drops into his waiting palm.

I take it from him, fingers closing around the warm crystal. Power surges up my arm, fierce and familiar. The Shard recognizes me, desires me as much as I’ve learned to hate it. But there’s something different now; the connection feels less invasive, more balanced.

“Got it,” I breathe, tucking the Shard into the pocket of my prison-issue pants.

“Now we move,” Talon says, leading us back into the corridor.

We retrace our steps, moving faster now as we hear the alarms that begin to wail through the facility. Someone’s discovered the bodies. Or the missing prisoner. Or both.

“Two levels up,” Talon says as we reach a stairwell. “Then we’re out.”

My legs burn as we climb, each step taking more effort than the last. The Shard pulses against my thigh, lending me strength I shouldn’t have. Hargen falls behind, his injured shoulder making the ascent torturous.

I drop back to his side. “Stay with me,” I urge, slipping my arm around his waist.

“I’m fine,” he grits through clenched teeth but leans into me, anyway.

We emerge onto a maintenance level, pipes and conduits running along the ceiling and walls. The exit lies ahead, so close I can taste freedom on my tongue, sharp and sweet.

“Almost there,” Talon calls back, weapon raised as he scans our path.

A slow clapping stops us dead in our tracks.

“Well done, Reeve.” Creed steps from the shadows, a dozen guards at his back. “Or whatever your name really is.”

My heart leaps into my throat, the taste of freedom turning to dust in my mouth. Creed’s scales glimmer beneath his skin, rage poorly contained. Blood stains his uniform—it’s a small consolation when I sense that it’s his. His eyes fix on me, then slide to the bulge in my pocket.

“I suspected your loyalties were compromised,” he continues, addressing Talon. “Too much interest in our witch.”

“Step aside, Creed.” Talon’s voice is ice and steel. “This doesn’t have to get bloody.”

Creed’s laugh is razor-sharp. “Oh, but it does. It really does.” He gestures to the guards. “Kill them. Her first. Then bring me the Shard.”

Everything happens at once.

Talon shoves me behind a concrete pillar as gunfire erupts. Hargen presses against my other side, his breathing ragged in my ear. The Shard burns against my thigh, responding to the danger, to my fear, to my fury.

I’ve endured confinement, pain, having my mind torn open again and again. This man used me, broke me, treated me like a thing rather than a person.

Something snaps inside me.

I reach for the Shard, fingers closing around its burning surface. Power floods my system—not the controlled flow of the visions they took from me, but a raging torrent I welcome with open arms.

“Stay back,” I tell Hargen, the words vibrating with energy I can barely contain.

I step into the open, the Shard clutched in my palm. Gunfire stutters as guards hesitate, uncertain.

“Witch!” Creed shouts. “Don’t be stupid. You’re outnumbered, outgunned—”

A wave of power explodes from my hand, crimson light slicing through the air. Two guards fly backward, bodies crumpling against the far wall. The others open fire, but the bullets slow mid-flight, suspended in a field of crackling energy before dropping harmlessly to the ground.

“You stole my life.” Each word sends another pulse of power outward. Pipes burst above us, spraying steam and water. Lights flicker and die, emergency illumination casting everything in bloody red.

Creed’s face contorts with rage and something else… fear. The great Alastair Creed, afraid of the witch he thought he’d broken.

“Kill her!” he screams. “Shoot her!”

More gunfire, more bullets that never reach their target. A movement to my left catches my eye: Talon engaging guards, but something’s changed. His skin ripples, golden scales erupting along his neck and jawline. His eyes glow in the emergency lights, pupils contracted to vertical slits.

Dragon.

His beast is emerging. He moves with inhuman speed and strength, sending guards flying with casual strikes. Claws extend from his fingertips, slashing through weapons and armor alike. I can’t tear my eyes away; the transformation is terrifying and magnificent, power barely contained in human form.

My heart races faster, something primitive responding to his display of strength. This is what he truly is. Not the controlled security chief, but something wild and fierce.

I advance on Creed, my rage burning hotter than the crystal in my hand.

“You kept me from my daughter. Made me hurt others. Used me.” Each accusation fuels another surge of power, the Shard responding to emotions I’ve suppressed for so long.

“You’re nothing without us,” Creed snarls, but he’s backing away. “Nothing!”

“Watch me.”

I thrust my palm forward. Power erupts from the Shard, engulfing Creed in crimson light. He screams, scales erupting across his skin as his body tries to shift defensively. Too late. The energy lifts him from his feet, slamming him into the ceiling and then the floor with bone-crushing force.

“Lila!” Talon’s voice penetrates my fury. “We need to move! Now!”

I turn, the rage receding enough to clear my vision. The corridor is a mess: broken bodies, shattered concrete, hissing pipes. Talon stands surrounded by fallen guards, chest heaving, blood spattering his face. His eyes still glow, scales gleaming along his jawline and down his throat, disappearing beneath his collar. The sight sends a strange thrill through me despite the danger.

Hargen slumps against the wall, fresh blood soaking through his bandages.

“Hargen!” I gasp as I realize what’s happened. He’s hit again—worse this time. The crimson stain spreads across his stomach, too fast, too much.

“No!” The cry rips from my throat as I rush to him, the Shard still burning in my palm.

“Go,” he gasps as I reach him, his face gray with pain and blood loss. “Get out while you can.”

“Not without you.” I try to lift him, but he’s deadweight, too heavy for my weakened body.

Talon appears at his other side, scales still rippling beneath his skin. With inhuman strength, he lifts Hargen as if he weighs nothing, glowing eyes meeting mine.

“Extraction point, two minutes out. Move!”

We race through wrecked corridors. Alarms shriek around us, the facility in full security lockdown. More guards will come. Maybe already have.

Talon carries Hargen effortlessly, his partially shifted form handling the weight that would have slowed us fatally. I can’t help stealing glances at him—at what he truly is beneath the human facade. At the power he’s kept hidden all this time.

“Don’t…” Hargen’s voice is fading, blood bubbling on his lips. “Don’t slow down for me.”

“Shut up,” I snap, tightening my grip on his arm as Talon carries him. “You’re coming with us.”

We burst through an emergency exit into cold mountain air. The shock of it steals my breath. The first fresh air I’ve breathed in so long. But there’s no time to savor it.

Faint silhouettes move in the tree line ahead: a tactical team in dark gear, weapons raised.

“Aurora advance!” Talon calls into the night, his voice deeper with the partial shift still evident in his gleaming eyes and scaled skin. “Package plus one, need immediate medical!”

“Evac route compromised,” a voice calls back as figures materialize from the shadows. “They’ve got patrols converging on all sides.”

“He needs help,” I gasp, indicating Hargen as we reach the team. “Now!”

A woman steps forward—short, red-haired, eyes clinically assessing Hargen’s wounds. Her gaze flicks to Talon, widening slightly at his partially shifted state before returning to business.

“Not part of the plan. We’re equipped for two, not three, and he’s—”

Critical. She doesn’t say it, but I hear it anyway. “Gutshot. Probably liver. He’ll bleed out before we can get him to help.”

“If he doesn’t come, neither do I.” I straighten to my full height, the Shard still clutched in my bloody hand. Its light bathes us all in crimson, a visible threat. “Your choice.”

The woman’s eyes narrow, lock with Talon’s.

“He comes,” Talon says, voice leaving no room for argument, the dragon in him still evident in both his appearance and the authority that resonates in his tone. “Stabilize him now. We’ll sort the rest at the safe house.”

Hargen tries to speak, but blood chokes his words. His eyes find mine, conveying what his voice cannot—gratitude, fear, something deeper.

“Don’t you dare die on me,” I whisper as they ease him onto a stretcher. “Not when we’re finally getting out.”

His fingers close weakly around mine, our bond pulsing between us—weaker now, strained by his fading life force, but still there. Still fighting.

Like me.

Like us.

Distant shouts echo through the trees as Syndicate search parties close in. The extraction team moves like a well-oiled machine, securing Hargen, forming a protective circle around us.

“Time to go,” Talon says, his hand warm at the small of my back. The scales are receding now, his eyes fading from amber to their human green, but I can’t forget what I’ve seen. What he truly is. And how it calls to something deep inside me. “Can you run?”

I look back at the concrete monstrosity that’s been my prison. Alarms still blare through shattered windows. Smoke rises from the wing where I unleashed the Shard’s power. Where I finally fought back.

Freedom waits ahead. Danger surrounds us. And behind lies only prison and pain.

“Hell, yeah,” I say, and start running toward whatever comes next.