Page 168 of Her Tortured Beasts

“There’s a chance we can bring Raquel back with us,” Xander says, closing his eyes. It’s strange how much I miss that light when it goes out like that. “But that’ll rely upon me actually getting in and shoving aside the Lunaris wolves.”

“They might still obey you?” I ask.

Xander exhales through his nose. “That’ll be up to them. Savage better stay back in that case. Your presence may rile them up.”

Savage growls. “I’m going where my regina goes. If I’m staying at the perimeter, then so is she.”

“I’ll make that decision,” I say in a disapproving voice. “Now let’s go.”

I close my eyes and immediately feel Xander’s cavernous power expanding towards me. A smoky scent fills my nose and we’re off, my mind lifting off skyward. Xander shoots us out into the night, across the barren, regional land that spreads out so far into the distance. The sky is still overcast, but that heavy rain over the academy has stopped. The speed of travel makes me giddy, my burger threatening to vault out of my throat, but just as I clutch my stomach, Xander slows and the power of Drakos Estate unfurls before us, vast and more powerful than before.

The dragon king has been strengthening his shields.

I don’t mention it, however, as Xander loiters at the edge, testing the boundary of it. Savage stays close to my side, and in the distance, I feel Scythe’s psychic presence monitoring me.

“Will it let you in?” I whisper into the room, growing impatient. Minnie and Sabrina whisper to each other, and Lyle shifts uncomfortably. My mind remains honed in on the dragon before me, whose own power feels taut now.

“Only one way to find out.” Xander surges through the shield, and without hesitation, I follow.

“Stay, wolf,” I command.

Savage growls in protest, but I place a hand over his where it still sits on my thigh.

Xander slows for me as we breach the protections of Drakos Estate with only a mild burn in my brain.

I sense unrest in this place I was held captive for so many months. Wild power moves irregularly, like a boat unbalanced at sea. Xander senses it too, and we go on high alert.

“Something’s not right,” I tell the room.

Xander says nothing as he hooks a mental finger into me so we remain close as we fall into the castle.

But we end up in a different part of the castle than intended, and what we see sends a shockwave through the both of us.

Lady Drakos lies on the sweat-soaked sheets of her four-poster bed, all four limbs shackled with obsidian, her eyes wild and her mouth snarling as she strains at her bonds.

Flores Drakos and Francesca, with her arms crossed, stare at Xander’s mother with frank observation. Ragnar Firewing and Fabian stand behind them. Selena frets in the corner, wringing out a cloth and hurrying over to the bed and wiping her mother’s forehead. Selena leans down and whispers something in her ear. Lady Drakos falls back for a moment, sighing and closing her eyes.

“How long?” Francesca asks bluntly.

“If the potion is no longer working,” Flores says, “then nothing will help her. I will end it myself.”

Lady Drakos’ eyes suddenly fly open, looking directly at us. “Xander?” she cries. “Xander!”

The heads of the observing dragons snap towards us.

I grab Xander in a mental fist and launch us out of there. “Out!” I cry. “Xander, run!”

Although he lets me pull him out of the castle and completely out of the estate, Xander growls. “I don’trun,Aurelia.”

Scythe and Savage wrap me in their power and fly me back across the land. “What happened?” Savage demands. “What did you see?”

“My mother,” Xander answers quickly. “She’s lucid, the potion that keeps her Berserker genes at bay has stoppedworking and they’ve bound her to her bed. My father will likely execute her.”

“What?” Minnie asks. “He can’t do that!”

“He can,” Marduk answers darkly. “That was agreed upon by the council. It was a condition of their marriage.”

I blink my eyes open as my mind re-enters my body.

---