Page 73 of Dragon Unhinged

The call goes dead, and I’m sure Krystana ended it before Ash could prod for more information or demand she come home as her king.

I frown and look up to my brother. “Who is she with?”

“The fuck if I know. She keeps giving us these cryptic little bits, but nothing I can actually use to track her. Athena’s trying to find her, but either Krystana’s got a hacker of her own, or someone else is making sure she’s nowhere online. Not even on the dark web. Syrena can’t find her either, which means she’s also using magic to stay off the grid.” Ash rolls his eyes. “At least one of my idiot siblings is home.”

“Gee, big brother, you really know how to sweet talk a guy who was literally fighting for his life for months.”

The hurt and sorrow that flickers briefly in his eyes doesn’t go unnoticed, but I can tell by the look in his eyes, he’s not going to dwell on it right now, not when his wound of losing Krystana to her own adventure is torturing him more. “You still found time to find your mate and start a family.” He rolls his eyes, but I can hear the humor in his voice. “If she at least had one trusted tourmaline with her, I’d feel a lot better with her being out there.” He sighs and shakes his head. “When did she get so stubborn?”

I chuckle a little at his own hypocrisy.

He rakes his hands through his hair and refocuses. “We have got to figure things out. We’re close to having to fight a war on at least two fronts, and I’m not entirely sure we’re not going to have to fight our own kind when it comes down to the finale.”

“You’re not alone on it. We’re all fighting. We all want things to get better. Especially those of us who are bringing babies into this mess. I don’t want my son or daughter to be born in the middle of Grey’s plans. I don’t want them to have to grow up afraid of humans. I certainly don’t want them to end up in a fucking cage.”

It’s not the first time I’ve thought it, but it is the first time I’ve admitted it out loud. I don’t even want to tell Brianna my fears, not when she’s already so stressed out with the unknowns and the new environment.

Ash looks at me like he’s realizing for the first time just what I’ve been through, and the weight I’m carrying because of it. “We’re working on finding Grey. We won’t let him get away with this forever. We’ll stop him, his followers, and anyone else who threatens our lives.” He claps me on the shoulder, looking more stoic now and focused as our father always seemed to be when dealing with the weight of ruling. “Malcolm is working on following some leads, and with Kash and Athena scouring every corner of the internet they can, we’ll keep cutting off his sources for magic. Luckily, even magic has a paper trail nowadays. We’ll keep trying to stop him from getting his hands on other clan witches or any more dragons. We’re going to get through this.” The need in his voice matches my own ache to put this all behind us.

“You need to know…” I swallow hard, not really wanting to say this out loud. “He’s trying to recruit shifters. I think he’s hoping that he can break them in the fighting pits, in the captivity, the separation from their animal shapes and their packs and clans.” I know I’m talking about it like it’s happening to others, like it didn’t happen to me, but it’s the only way I’m going to get through it without crumbling. “He wants a few select shifters to follow him willingly. To use the cuffs, the spells, to keep them under thumb. He wants the groups to destroy their ways of living from the inside out.”

Ash’s dark green eyes meet mine, and I know he can see right through me. “He offered this to you?”

I nod once, looking down at the surface of the desk rather than holding my brother’s gaze. I don’t want to tell him how close I got to considering Grey’s offer, if only to make sure that Brianna, my family, would be all right. “He said he could make it so that the counsel would believe that Brianna was dragon born, that I was the rightful heir to the tourmaline throne, because you mated a human.”

Ash lets out a long breath and crosses his arms over his chest, shifting his weight. “Is he trying this with other dragons?”

“I don’t know. I would assume so.”

“I’ll send out word to all the allies we still have, and I’ll try to get the counsel to listen to me. It’s bad enough that he’s recruiting vampires, turning humans, and torturing or enthralling humans and supernaturals alike to do his bidding. If he’s actively recruiting shifters he thinks are vulnerable instead of taking them by force, who’s to say he’ll stop with just the ones in cages or in bad places? This war has done a lot of damage and desperation to save your family or have more power or any if you think you’re on the losing side…it could be endlessly valuable to Grey. We know firsthand he has charisma and charm. He lies with the truth and tells the truth with lies.”

I swallow around the lump in my throat, wanting to go back to my mate, to take solace in her embrace. To know that she’s mine, that we’re safe, and that we’re free, together. My fingers twitch at my side.

“I need to get back to her,” I murmur as I take a step backwards.

The door whooshes open behind me and Pru is panting like she ran all the way here instead of taking the elevator.

Pru’s eyes meets mine as she says, “Brianna’s gone.”

Chapter

Thirty-One

BRIANNA

No.

No. No. No.

This can’t be happening.

How am I back in my bedroom?

Why is the door locked from the outside?

Why is no one responding when I pound on it and scream?

The window is sealed shut. Throwing things into the glass with all my ability, swinging a chair at it, confirms what I already suspected. It’s shatterproof.

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