Page 99 of Dark Prince's Mate

“Tending to Incus,” my mother answers.“A stone from the ceiling fell on his head.”

I feel no guilt.Nothing.The numbness has set in at an alarmingly fast rate, much quicker than before.

“Elsie is gone,” Gaia blurts before turning to Kian.“Can you tap into her mind?”

The gaze he trains on me says he knows I’m not using a protective barrier to prevent him from reading her thoughts.Averting his eyes, he gives a single shake of his head.

“Then she may be on Earth,” Gaia says.

“What makes you think that?”my father asks.

“Mother sent her there once.What if Tarix has done the same?”She turns to me.“You should go look for her there.”She pauses before adding in a pained whisper, “At least then you’ll know.”

The tension on my mother’s face eases slightly.“Gaia is right.You should go.”

So if my power flares out of control again, it’ll be on Earth, not on Zerra.They don’t say it, but I can see it in their eyes.

Nobody’s even mentioning the council that would normally have to approve this.They’re only too eager to get rid of me.

For all I know, it’s a trap.Maybe I’m the one they’re banishing to Earth this time, a plan they concocted while I went feral and my power ran rampant.If I go, it may very well be a one-way ride.There may not be a portal to bring me back.

And maybe it’s better that way.

If Elsie is dead…

“Do it,” I growl, barely able to hold back the surge of rage.“Give me a portal.”

My mother nods, and the circle of lights appears in front of me.I don’t look back as I step inside.

A dissolving sensation later, I’m spat out on the other end, finding myself on a green pasture in front of a house when I come to.It’s a small pasture but a big house.Elsie’s parents’ house.I recognize the furniture through the window.But I also recognize something else—a vibration that hums through my body.Awareness hits me like a strike of lightning, firing through my veins.

Dragons.

Gaia was right.

Elsie is here.

The sensation grows inside me, filling every part of me until I’m on fire with it.That painfully sweet longing tugs at my heart again.It becomes unbearable, tormenting me until I think I’ll go crazy, and then everything inside me clicks into place.Perfect peace descends on me.I’ve never felt such harmony.For the first time in my life, I’m whole and not broken.Not incomplete.

My heartbeat quickens, keeping time in my chest with a pleasant echo.It takes me a moment to figure out the echo doesn’t mirror my pulse but is someone else’s.I can’t explain what’s happening to me, but the longer I listen to those twin pulses beating in my ears, the more at home I feel in my own skin… as well as in a different skin.

Then it hits me.I’m no longer alone.Elsie is here, inside me, our bond complete.She’s a part of me just like I’m a part of her, two people who’ve become one.And I know exactly where she is.

I take off toward the path, trying to get my bearings.She’s not close but not so far that I can’t reach her through a portal.If not for the miraculous completion of our bond, it would’ve taken a long time to find her.I would’ve needed to go back for Gaia or my mother, who would’ve had to do continuous portal work.

A contraption with windows like a house and wheels like a cart rounds the corner.It moves fast, heading right at me.A man sits inside what I presume is armor.I blink as he screeches to a halt right in front of me with a blaring noise that comes from his armor.He leans through the open window and shouts curses at me.

I don’t have time for this.I bang a fist on the front of his armor.A huge dent appears in the shiny surface.The man shuts his mouth and closes his window.He moves around me and gets out of my way.I barely make it to the opposite side of the path before another contraption in a different color barrels past.

Closing my mind off to the surroundings, I focus on Elsie.Her feelings spear through my heart.Her pulse races in my chest, speeding up my own.The cold sweat that covers my body is a mirror-reflex of our bond.

She’s scared.It’s the kind of fear one feels when one’s life is in the balance.I feel her breath leave her lungs even as I call up a portal, letting her know I’m on my way, refusing to face what the bond is trying to tell me.

That I may have come this far only to be too late.

Chapter23

Elsie

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