Page 13 of A Dagger of Twisted Starlight

On the inside, I was freaking the fuck out.

What was that about?

Why target me?

Was I being stalked again?

Too many dark memories dug out from their mental graves and clawed their way back to the forefront of my thoughts.

“And you’re sure you got them all?” Damien asked. He leaned against the only solid slate-gray wall in the room, the others made of crystal-clear glass. A fireplace crackled next to Damien, but it gave off no real heat. “There were no others hiding out nearby?”

“I searched the area, only those three,” Xavier answered.He stood next to me, one hand on the back of the couch. If he hadn’t been there today, it would have been game over. There’s no fucking way I could have handled those three shifters by myself.

I owed him my life.

“I did find this, though.”

He placed a small, unassuming black satchel on the clean white coffee table. Damien went to reach for it, but Xavier put a hand out.

“I think it’s best if Robby handles this.”

Robby perked his head up. His smooth skin glistened under the sun that soaked through the glass walls. He stood in one swift, fluid movement and picked up the satchel. Damien, Warrick, and Dawn watched with confused expressions.

I was in a room full of dragons, and yet still felt like there were eyes pinned to my back.

Robby opened the satchel and looked inside. His eyebrows inched together. “What… what am I looking at?”

“Dragonsbane,” Xavier answered.

That got a reaction from the siblings. Warrick recoiled, falling back on his chair. Dawn sucked in a breath, and Damien turned into a marble statue, unmoving. I’d heard about Dragonsbane but admittedly didn’t know enough to figure out what had the dragons so scared of it.

“What’s it do?” I asked. Robby gently placed the satchel back down, as if he was handling a live bomb ticking down the time until exploding.

“It’s one of the few things that can take us out,” Dawn answered. Her eyes were pinned to the bag. She nervously ran fingers through her silky brown hair. “It’s an extremely rareplant, and when ground up into a dust, it turns toxic to us. A small dose of Dragonsbane would cancel out our powers, blocking us from our dragon form. A bigger dose would kill us.”

A frigid shiver crawled up my back. Damn. Today had been seconds away from turning into a very,verybad fucking day.

“How’d they even get it?” Warrick asked. “Dragonsbane doesn’t grow naturally anymore. Most of it was eradicated, whatever was left kept for scientific tests.”

“Testing for what?” I asked.

“Any curative properties it might have,” Warrick answered. He couldn’t take his eyes off the satchel. “There was a program developed by the government decades ago.”

“At least that’s what they said the program was about.” Damien had suspicion in his voice. I bristled. It felt like the cushion I sat on suddenly grew as hot as a bed of coals. I didn’t really blame him for his mistrust. I knew how the government worked firsthand, and I knew that the people pulling the strings weren’t always the most honest. Although the current administration had nothing to do with this, I still felt like some of the suspicion flew in my direction.

Dawn pulled out her phone and started to quickly tap away a message. “I’m asking Claire if she knows about this. Maybe she can make some antidote. A way to protect us.”

“What about Maddox and Caleb?” Warrick asked. “Should I get them back here?”

Damien shook his head. “No, let them enjoy their date. The threat, for now, seems to have been contained.”

For now.It sounded so ominous. I chewed my nails, a badhabit I couldn’t quite break. Not even when my mother painted a clear coat of bitter apple on them. I adapted to the taste.

“I did notice a symbol on the shifter’s jacket. Looked like some kind of hourglass. What would that mean, though?” Xavier asked. “And what would they want with Blake?”

I didn’t necessarily enjoy being talked about like I wasn’t around. “Ransom?” I suggested. “I’m not the least valuable target. Maybe they’re making some kind of move.”

“True,” Dawn said. She looked out the glass. My run this morning had shown me we weren’t as isolated as I thought we were. This desert mansion gave off the illusion of exclusivity. I had to remind myself that these glass walls weren’t surrounded by any sort of fences or protection.

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