Page 125 of Silent Jay

I tucked my wings and dove with more control. Foot by foot, I closed the gap. The rose gold dragon’s wings snapped back out as she realized she couldn’t run. Her high-pitched roar split the air. I landed on her back, my claws puncturing her soft membrane. She let out a pain-filled scream before swinging her head around to snap at my legs, forcing me to release her.

I bit at her neck, but she spun like a top away from me, and my jaws snapped closed on nothing.

“STOP!” A voice I recognized said. “You’ll drop me!”

I couldn’t remember why, but Doctor Raba’s voice enraged me further. I snarled and lunged forward, forcing the rose gold dragon to get her claws up to defend herself. Her talons sprang open. A figure dropped. Doctor Raba screamed as he flailed, falling through the air.

Like someone opened a door, smells suddenly assaulted my nose. The rose gold dragon, the Doctor, and Jay. Jay, my mate. As if thinking her name made her real, she blinked into existence, her limp body plummeting towards the ground.

The rose gold dragon vanished from my mind.

Jay was falling.

Pain ripped into my side as the rose gold dragon used my moment of shock to claw me. She gracefully rolled backward and dove toward the doctor she’d dropped, who was falling much slower than Jay.

I completely ignored her.

The wind became a constant whistle against my ears as I raced after my mate. I couldn’t lose her. Nothing else mattered. No one else mattered. In two days, she’d managed to turn my life upside down and made me believe in something more.

I called on my wind magic. Not even Earth’s gravity could take her from me!

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

JAIYANA

With my eyes closed and my body slack, each terrifying sensation I lived through brought my mind closer and closer to cracking.

Yes, mad, all-powerful enchantress!

I’m not going mad.

Please, can we? It would be so much more fun than being depressed.

The sensation of falling ripped me out of my internal conversation. The wind, whistling past my ears, made me want to cry out in pain, but I still couldn’t feel anything. With my body unable to respond to my fear, my mind broke, and terror drained into uncontrollable humor. This was it. I, a supposed immortal enchantress, would die more thoroughly trapped than I ever knew possible.

The whistling grew softer, and the sensation of falling turned into floating before stopping altogether. A dull ache formed in my side, and I snapped my attention to it. If I could feel pain, actually if I could feel myself falling, then whatever drug Doctor Raba injected me with was wearing off.

No, we were going mad! It was going to be fun.

We were not, and it was not.

A dragon roared directly above me before going quiet. Shifting scales, sliding against each other, and a deep grumbling were my only indications the beast still stood almost on top of me. My body tilted, and hot breath blew across my skin before another wash of pain sank into my hip, followed by a rush of endorphins. My skin heated, sending tingles down to my core in a very familiar way.

Another mate mark.

Gotta catch em’ all!

I want to be the very best, like no one ever was. Dun dun dun.

I’m going to have that stuck in my head forever.

You’re welcome.

A gurgling giggle escaped my lips before the dragon roared in pain and rolled away from me.

My world stilled, and my rush of hormones eased. The wind whistled through rocks, though I couldn’t feel it. I was alive. A light warmth filled my mind, and it took me a moment to pinpoint the emotion as gratitude. I was grateful to be alive, which was a new sensation.

So much of my life I took for granted because I just existed. I wasn’t grateful. I went through the motions. Wake up. Be healthy. Be nice. Fit into whatever generation I currently existed in. But there was more, so much more. This goddamn fucking island showed me that, but would I let it change me?

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