“You mean the shifter?” Larkspur eyes turned the color of a stormy night sky, dark with flickers of starlight dotted around. “If you forsake that mateship and stay with me, I will spare their lives. As the only dual shifter in existence, you have to make a choice. You have two mates, but there can only be one.”
How did he know I was a dual shifter? Was my ability something to do with the king?
“I choose Braxton,” I spat at him. “Always and forever.”
I locked in on my Compass, his blue eyes were hard and so bright I almost couldn’t look at them.
The dragon king laughed. “It’s not as simple as that. The fates expect you to give us equal time to determine true mates. You have had twenty-two years with Braxton, so I deserve the same chance.”
Lie. He was lying about that, and I was astonished he didn’t have the power to mask the fluctuation of hormones.
Louis strode forward, spells gathered in his hands. Tyson was right by his side and I knew they were combining their power to create a bigger spell. I didn’t even care if they killed me to get to the king, the supernatural community needed to be protected.
I locked eyes with my best friends – I included Louis in that group now. “Do it. Take him out.”
Larkspur chortled again. The sound was going to feature heavily in my nightmares from now on. “Not today, my fellow magic users. I’m going to take my mate and leave. Play nice with my daughters.”
“Father!” Orange screamed. “They will kill us.”
He threw them both a hard look. “If you’re weak enough to be killed at the hand of these pathetic youngsters, then I have no need for you.”
Despite his earlier entreaty not to kill his daughters, he truly didn’t give a shit about them. He dismissed them with a coldness that told everyone present how dead he was inside. He had no emotion, no caring. He would destroy the world to gain what he wanted.
I screamed then as power descended over the room, and if I thought he’d rolled me before, that was nothing on now. The tantalizing sweetness of the honey flowed again, filling me, drowning my senses. Locked in the arms of a psychotic dragon-shifter-sorcerer, I knew he was about to take me off to worlds unknown. The last thing I saw was Braxton’s face, lines of fury on his ancient features. I would have given anything to be in his arms instead of this asshole’s. But I knew he would come for me. The Compasses, Louis, my dad, would never stop, I just had to hold out long enough for them to find me.
Chapter 19
Braxton
Jessa! Mine!
The stone wall magicked itself back to being solid and darkness snapped the world into a fucking hellhole. Need had me throwing my body against the stone. Again. Again.
It crumbled but didn’t give.
I felt the head of the twin closest to me in my hand. She blasted out at me with power, but the dragon was immune. I snapped her neck. A twist, no thought, just action. Her lifeless body fell away.
Yes, they can fucking die!
Everyone needed to die.
Turning, smelling pulsing hearts that my fists wanted to crush the life out of, three bodies threw themselves at me. They were me. I could feel their kinship, their sameness, but they were not Jessa. I pushed them aside, threw them like leaves, and the cave rumbled as they hit the walls.
“Brax,” one of them tried again. I looked harder. “Brax,” Maximus said. “Focus, we have to think. Thinking will find Jessa, not killing.”
I stumbled, letting go of my brother, and my legs collapsed out from under me.
“Jessa.”
The anger inside was like a rushing flood of lava, burning, reshaping, reforming as it moved. Jessa had been gone for no more than five seconds and already I was different, death housed in the body of a supernatural. I wanted blood … I needed blood.
I stood. The blue flames were back, their light flickering off the underground tunnels, off the stunned and furious faces around me. Maximus stepped to my side, Jacob and Tyson on the other, although they kept some distance. I had thrown them away in my initial rage, and my control was not much better now.
My body vibrated, like it did when my dragon was fighting me for control, which he was right now. Thoughts were like blades slicing through my mind … memories … images. The male had her, had laid his hands on her, had touched the one that was mine to protect, mine to cherish. Mine forever.
No one touched my mate.
“What do we do?” Maximus’ voice was shot to shit, graveled as he fought his vampire beast inside. “How the fuck do we get her back?”
My ability to form a coherent sentence was gone. All I wanted to do was fight, and kill. I wanted to rip this world to pieces and continue destroying until someone returned my mate to me.
I roared, lunged again, reaching for anything to smash. But I couldn’t move. Waves of magic surrounded me … enough to slow my movements. It wouldn’t hold me for long.
I locked a male in my gaze. Fucking sorcerer. This had something to do with him, he always knew too much, was always everywhere.