Ryder was next to her in an instant, and she leaned against him gratefully. Kincade and Ascher stood between her and Shade, while Atlas and Draven took up positions by the glass wall, glancing at her over their shoulders, concern etching deep grooves in their faces when they frowned.
Ascher came to kneel at her side and gently tugged down the collar of her shirt. Right below her collarbone was the shape of a crescent moon. It wasn’t a stamp or a tattoo. The moon was created by one long swirling line, twisted into an intricate design. The line wasn’t black, but appeared to have specks of the solar system spinning through it.
“What the hell!”
Shade’s eyes widened even more, and he looked a bit pale and shaken, giving her a sickly smile. “Mother approves.”
Fuck…the queen of the gods.
Not good.
Ascher sat abruptly, while Kincade and Draven swore. Ryder tightened his hold around her, but Atlas, the damned ass, appeared intrigued.
“Cover it. Don’t let the others see.”
Ryder promptly obeyed the command, tugging up her shirt, leaving his arm across her upper chest in a comforting hug. Shade quickly buttoned his shirt, avoiding looking at her, and her stomach fell. “Tell me.”
Shade’s head snapped up, his mouth opening, only to be interrupted by the bellow of a dragon, the roar sounding like a prehistoric beast was on the loose inside the building.
“Your time is up.” Athena didn’t seem pleased at the interruption, clearly wanting to be the one who captured them. The soldiers holstered their weapons and exited the room one by one. “I did warn you.”
Then she turned sharply on her heel and strode from the room.
The ominous sound of labored thumping seemed to come from all around them. The wall bowed outward as something enormous moved through the corridor, large clumps of drywall and concrete dust raining down. Then a monster peered through the doorway, the eyeball a brilliant green and bigger than Morgan’s head. The vertical slit in the eye made the dragon seem all the more alien.
The scales were rigid, more like body armor, the colors a deep red edged faintly with gold, as if the scales were heated. He swung his massive head, knocking out the wall, sending large chunks of concrete and twisted rebar flying through the room as he wedged his head and shoulders through the opening. His tail swung, knocking out more of the wall, sending debris pinging off the glass.
“Do you have any weapons?” Morgan asked Shade, unable to tear her attention away from the threat.
Kincade and the men were all lined up in front of the glass, their bodies tense, studying the creature for weaknesses.
“Yes, but dragons are impervious to man-made weapons.” Shade strode around the desk, yanked out a drawer and dumped the contents over the top. He did the same with the next drawer as well. Chinese stars, knives, magical bombs, daggers, darts, guns, and whatnot spilled everywhere. “The dragons have been raised from birth and trained to obey and work for the different families. While magic can harm them, they have a natural immunity to it that makes them resistant to harm, so it takes a lot of power to make an impact. Their scales are nearly impenetrable, and killing them practically impossible.”
The dragon lumbered toward them, his tail whipping back and forth in agitation, cracking and knocking into the pillars as he passed, demolishing half of them as he went, leaving chunks of concrete and twisted rebar in his wake.
His claws left little puncture marks dotting the floor. As the monster neared the glass, he leaned forward, sinking his claws deep, then wrenching his forelegs back, raking long, deep gouges into the floor, as if marking his territory.
Morgan glanced down at her jewelry, remembering what the guys told her about the black blades she carried…they could kill any magical creature. As the guys gathered around the desk and loaded up with weapons, Morgan closed her hands into fists, comforted when a blade formed in each hand.
“Don’t do this.” Morgan walked closer to the glass wall, not sure if the big creature could understand her. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
In answer, the dragon opened his jaw to reveal dozens of razor-sharp teeth, each of them bigger than her hand. He roared so loudly, the glass rattled and spittle splotched against the surface. The creature swung his barbed tail at the barrier and the glass warbled ominously under the blow. The dragon wasn’t as huge as she expected, maybe the size of an SUV, but the sight of him up close was both terrifying and beautiful.
The dragon’s claws clicked on the floor when he came closer, his wings pressed tightly against his back, and he took a swipe at her, leaving scratches gouged in the thick glass. Kincade grabbed her arm, yanking her away, covering her with his body. The sigils on the glass blazed bright under the attack, then sank into the dragon’s scales, searing into his flesh. He gave a bellow of pain, nipping and snapping the air at his invisible foe.
After a minute, the dragon slowly swung his giant head toward her, his eyes narrowed, as if infuriated that her blood wasn’t splattered across the walls, probably suspecting the pain was her doing.
He then began to tear apart the rest of the room. Ascher dragged her away while the basement walls were systematically dismantled. With the ceiling mostly destroyed, the dragon leapt on top of the glass dome and renewed his attack with a vengeance, growing more insane when dozens of sigils flared bright and began to burn and nip at his scales.
“We’re surrounded by the glass wards, but it’s only a matter of time before he breaks through.” Shade grabbed her arm and spun her toward the seal. “Do what you need to do.”
Morgan reluctantly released her hold on her weapons, then bit her lip and admitted the truth. “I can dial in the gate, but I’m not sure how to bring you with me.”
“Let me worry about that. You just need to make your intent clear when you open the gate.” The dragon continually pounded against the glass, until tiny cracks began to form in the globe.
Morgan watched those cracks spread ominously and knew that no matter how quickly she could open the portal, there wouldn’t be enough time. She couldn’t risk bringing a dragon into the other realm. Couldn’t risk the beast getting to earth.
“Kincade, I—”
“Yeah, I see it. Take him, open the portal and go. We’ll stay behind and delay him. You need to stop the spread of infection.” He plucked Loki off his shoulder, gently tucking the gardog on her own, running his fingers down her hair before dropping his hand. The hound whined, tucking himself close to her neck, as if feeling abandoned, too.
Everything inside her clenched in denial.
If she left, she knew she would never see them again.
Atlas easily read the denial on her face. “You know it’s the right decision.”
“Don’t make me.” Tears tightened the back of her throat, making speaking nearly impossible. Her chest felt like someone had hacked her open with jagged claws and gutted her. She couldn’t breathe.
Ryder tore off his shirt, magic wrapping around him as he changed to his wolf. When he padded to her side, he leaned heavily against her leg, as if saying goodbye, and a sob tore out of her. Ascher pulled her away, hugged her tight, the pounding above them growing in strength, matching the throbbing in her head.
“Don’t make me go.” She shoved away from him, staring up at him pleadingly.
“Morgan—”
“No!” Pure rage began to pour through the nearly debilitating pain, and she snarled at Atlas. “You don’t get a say goodbye. None of you get to say goodbye.”
She backed away from them, betrayal burning away the pain.
She would be alone again, only things would be worse this time.
This time, she would have to figure out how to live without them.