Page 85 of Dragon Unhinged

His lip curls again, smoke starting to coil out of his nostrils, but he sags into the mattress and sighs. “I need her.”

“I get it, Dec, but you have to keep your dragon under control, or I’m going to have to get Syrena to bring in more sedatives.” I shake my head. “Don’t make me have to haul your ass to a safe house somewhere and keep you far from the last place Brianna was seen. That’s only going to piss off your dragon even more, and I really don’t want to have to keep threatening you.”

He blinks a few times, his eyes looking clearer and clearer each time, until I can see my brother again. “I need to get her back, Mal.”

“And we’re working on it.” I pick up the chair and flip it back upright before I flop in. “What happened?”

Declan grabs a pillow and curls around it, cuddling it to his chest like it’s his lifeline, the only thing keeping him tethered to sanity. “I dreamed about her. She was radiant, her belly round with my baby, and I was trying to push her to fly with me.” He shakes his head. “I scared her. What’s wrong with my dragon? What’s wrong with me?”

“You were held captive. Bound by spells and gods only know what else. You’re not broken. You need time to heal. And you need…” I sigh. “We all need this bullshit to end. But it’s not going to happen if you lash out like this. Being destructive is just going to hurt your family. Both the one you’re starting and the one I’m a part of.”

I watch him shift like he’s uncomfortable, like the mattress, with as many rips as are covering it, is too soft. I can only imagine what torments he dealt with in his captivity, but it’s obvious we don’t know the half of it.

“Look, it was a dream. And by the time your mate is ready to have your kid, by the time you’re able to fly with her, your dragon’s going to be just fine. You just need to focus on healing, and you need to let the rest of our brothers find the monster who took your mate.” I reach out and pat him on the back of the hand. “We’re going to fix this, and we’re going to fix everything else that fucking vampire has done to our family. To the world. But we need you, Dec. We need you in fighting form, and we can’t get you there if you let your dragon’s fears win.”

“It felt real, Mal. I could smell her, feel her touch. Taste her fucking lips. I need her back. My dragon needs her.”

I wish I had better news to tell him, a way to make him feel better about the fact that we don’t have any idea yet where his mate is. The fact that we don’t know how to find her, how to track down Grey, his henchmen, or anything else.

I wish I could just make her walk through that door right now, so that she can crawl into bed with her mate, with my brother, and help him heal.

Instead, I say softly, “You and your dragon both need to fight. You both need to keep focusing on healing, on getting back to a place where you can actually win in a battle against Grey.”

“I could go to him. I could give in to his offer and have her back.”

I narrow my eyes at him and glare. “Don’t even fucking joke about that. You’re not siding with Grey, not even pretending to do something so stupid. We’re going to get her back, and we’re going to take down Grey. So, just lay there, go back to sleep, and let us figure it out.”

Declan nods, letting his eyes droop shut again.

I’m going to need more coffee. There’s no way I’m getting any sleep tonight.

Not when my brother is suffering, looking close to falling to the craze, without any access to the one person we’ve always been told would save him from a fate worse than death.

I can keep promising things until my face turns blue, but unless we can find where Brianna’s being held, unless we can find a way to bring her home, I think we’re going to lose them both.

Chapter

Thirty-Six

BRIANNA

Now I know exactly how Declan felt for the weeks, months before I snuck into the basement. No one visits, no one talks to me unless it’s to order me around. There’s nowhere to go, nothing to see, nothing to do, other than staring at these same walls all day and all night.

And eating. God, I’m eating all the time.

Whoever thought it was a good idea to speed up a pregnancy from months to days clearly didn’t take into account the fact that a human body needs more time to make this process work. I feel like I’m constantly starving, constantly hoping someone will come by and drop off snacks. The pain gets worse in between as my baby grows and my body tries to make room for her.

Even though every time food gets dropped off, I can’t help but wonder what spells, what potions, what bullshit magic is woven into my meal.

When I’m not stuffing my face full of whatever food gets provided, I’m missing Declan so much it hurts. I ache to hear his voice, feel his touch, just to be in the same room with him.

I don’t understand. I know, Iknowin my gut that we used to talk, even when I wasn’t in his cell with him. I rememberconversations when I could hear him in my bedroom. In classrooms at school.

He didn’t have a phone, so how did we do it?

It’s like every time I try, every time I search for some way to connect with him, my mind goes completely blank. It’s like there’s something, a wall, a barrier, something in my mind that’s keeping me from fully remembering. From being able to contact him.

And the longer I’m locked in here, the crazier I’m starting to feel.

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