Page 25 of Fae Reckoning

I swallowed. I began to pull away but stopped. The sapphire-blue dragon hadn’t responded particularly nicely to my asking for her name…

When he didn’t respond right away, I added,

My brow furrowed. Was my name yet another lie I’d been fed?

So I wasn’t going to get his name.

He pronounced itI-nar.

But the dragon had already pulled his forehead from mine, breaking the point of contact. If he heard what I said afterward, he didn’t let on as he straightened his long neck upward, where his head vanished into the darkness of the dungeon.

Reeling, I discovered myself vibrating. The next instant, Rush’s hands were on me, seemingly trying to touch me everywhere at once while being mindful of my many visible scabs and the dragonling still curled around my back.

“You okay?” he asked roughly. “Are you hurt?”

I allowed the steadiness of Rush—finallyat my side—to ground me. I exhaled evenly. “I’m fine. But we’ve got to hurry. I?—”

When I halted mid-sentence, Rush asked urgently, “What is it?”

Xeno drew next to us. My friend’s brow was pinched with concern, his eyes darting in all directions as he searched for possible threats.

“I …shit. I think I feel the queen!”

Save for a few spots illuminated by lumoons, the dungeon’s darkness concealed the dragons and many of my friends. I felt them all go still at my comment.

“What do you mean, you ‘feel’ her?” Rush asked.

I jerked my attention from the dark recesses of this awful place to look at him. “By dragon’s blood, Rush … I think she’s almost here.” Panic surged inside me like acid reflux.

Now everyone’s eyes were definitely on me, Rush’s and Xeno’s the most intently. Several alarmed squeaks and cries reached me. I didn’t bother wasting effort trying to identify their sources. I brought a hand to each of Saffron’s arms to keep him calm and ran toward the others, the little dragon bouncing against my back.Most were clustered around the four fae we’d found with Ramana. They remained “asleep” while Roan hovered them a foot above the debris.

My boot snagged on bones but I caught myself. The vivid reminder of the queen’s cruelty caused the alarm inside me to pulse as if it had a heartbeat all its own. I slid to a stop in front of Reed.

Immediately he asked, “What do you need us to do?”

“Link up. The black dragon will connect with the others.” I hoped he would anyway. It wasn’t as if I’d gotten the chance to confirm this vital detail. But Einar was certainly competent and large enough to reach them, and if they knew to connect with each other, it would be a simple matter of reaching through the bars with a tail to link down the line of cells.

“Someone needs to touch the green dragon chained over there.” I pointed toward the dragon who was so badly injured.Fuck the queen for hurting him like that. He huddled in the shadows, though his eyes gleaned with a glimmer of reflected light, his attention plainly pinned on us.

When no one offered to connect to the tortured dragon who was possibly unaware we were trying to help him, and who might kill anyone who approached him, Rush announced, “I’ll do it,” and began stalking toward him.

“Rush, no,” I uttered—but what? Did I expect someone else to risk themselves in a way I wasn’twilling for my mate to do? Tangled in that question was a truth I had neither the time nor desire to examine.

My gaze lingered on Rush for a few moments we didn’t have to spare—as if it might be the last time I ever saw him in one piece—but suddenly I sensed the queen all the more strongly—far too close.

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