Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
They both continue to look shocked.
“It’s not like I’d enjoy murdering the guy, but look at what he’s done. He tried to take your dragon,” I say to Sasha. “He’s forcing reds under his control. He stole Zohr’s mind while he was sleeping. What if it happens again? Even if we run away, we’re never going to be safe from him. I stayed with him and his men. I know them. They can’t be reasoned with. And the others are so far under his thumb that they’ll do whatever he wants and not give a shit about the consequences. If they had any humanity, it’s long gone.” I shake my head and cross my arms over my chest. “Unless you’ve got a better solution.”
Claudia shakes her head. “I don’t. It’s just so…”
“Bloodthirsty,” Sasha whispers.
“Practical, you mean,” I correct them. “This is the After. No one’s looking out for us anymore but us. You think if we ignore Azar he’s going to just wander off and retire to raise flowers somewhere?”
Sasha bites her lip and glances over at Claudia. “She’s right.”
Claudia nods. “I know. I don’t like the thought, but…I also don’t like the idea of someone taking over drakoni minds like a virus.” She puts a hand to her stomach. “I have to think of the future, too.”
Sasha grows pale.
“I can be the one to pull the trigger. I don’t mind.” I don’t understand their reticence. To me, the answer is clear. If he’s a threat, we take him out. “I just want him gone and unable to hurt my Zohr ever again. He’s been through too much already.”
I think of my mate’s shredded wings and how hard he’s worked to recover and I just get angry. Angry that Azar thinks our lives matter less than his. Angry that even in exile, even in a world gone to shit, someone’s making crazy-ass power grabs and trying to ruin what little we have. Fuck all of that.
“We’re on board,” Sasha says quietly. “Dakh is more than ready to exact some revenge.” Behind her, I can hear a dragon growl in agreement.
“We’re on board, too,” Claudia says, though she looks a little worried and touches her stomach again. Maybe breakfast isn’t sitting so well with her.
She carries young, Zohr tells me. I can smell it in her scent. That is why she worries.
Oh. All the more reason that we need to act. “We need to do this, and we need to do it sooner rather than later. I don’t want to be trying to get close to Azar when he has an entire army of mad dragons at his beck and call. No one’s going to be safe. Not you, not me, not those bambalans in the fort. No. One.”
Sasha nods firmly. “Then how do we do this?” she asks. “How do we get close enough without putting our men in danger?”
I think for a minute, drumming my fingers on my chin. For some reason, I think of Claudia’s sister Amy. Her sweet, soft sister…who reeks of perfume to hide her scent. The idea’s genius in its simplicity. “We do it the same way that Azar’s pulling in dragons. With bait.”
35
ZOHR
Emma and I watch the skies that night, long after the others have gone to sleep. We stay with Kael and his mate in their tower, but on the floor above. Emma wants us to have privacy, and I agree. We do not mind the cool night air or the high wind…but we did not think we would see another dragon try to fly to the Rift this night, either.
“Another female,” Emma murmurs, her gaze locked to the skies. I can feel the dismay and fear churning through her mind. “Think she will make it?”
I hold my mate tightly against me, my arms wrapped around her shoulders. I regard the female as she struggles upward. There are no thoughts, no mental images accompanying her. She is a shell, and a struggling one. Her wings beat frantically and she bobs, trying to gain altitude. It fills me with a deep sense of regret. I do not think she will.
As if the female can hear my words, she flutters hard in the skies and then plummets, dropping like a stone toward the ground far below. Emma turns away, burying her face against my skin. “I can’t watch.”
I do. Someone must see. Someone must remember. I try to imprint the image of the female’s death-fall into my mind, hoping that even if my memory is stolen again, I will remember this. I will remember how it felt to watch one of my drakoni people fall to her death and know she is not even aware of it. That another, a stranger, has stolen what little she had and used her for his own ends.
The female disappears from sight. I strain my thoughts, almost hoping for some sort of acknowledgment of her death—or her recovery—but there is nothing but echoing silence. Even Azar has stolen this. I stroke Emma’s hair, holding her tight against me, breathing in her scent. My mate is safe here in my arms. I will not let Azar harm her. It is over, I tell her.