Page 89 of Shadebound
Her magic was fizzing and popping, turning into vapour before it could touch the monster before me.
I lurched toward the bastard, hands trembling, breath lodged tight in my chest. “No,” I snapped, voice rough with something brittle and splintering at the edges.
Before I remembered my arms were trapped, a second bloom of blue flame sparked in Alessandro’s palm. I flinched back as the heat surged outward, the hiss of vanishing stones loud in the otherwise taut space between us.
My skin prickled. The back of my throat tightened. I watched helplessly as a few more stones disappeared, and something inside me went with it.
“You fucker,” I breathed. “I’m going to kill you. For real this time.”
He burned another. Then another.
“You don’t even know what those are,” I spat.
He kept going as Zayden yelled at him. His voice was barely heard over the screams and sirens. “Don’t need to. They’re yours, and in mere days you’ve cost me two weeks of freedom. That’s reason enough to take one of your precious toys.”
The last stone vanished with a hiss that scraped across my nerves. The blue fire devoured it completely, leaving no trace, not even a shimmer of heat or a shadow of colour on his skin. Just the hollow space where it had existed a second before.
They were all gone now.
Every stone, every piece, every tiny fragment of my sister’s magic I’d held onto—obliterated.
My breath stayed trapped in my chest, and I didn’t know whether it was grief or rage or both twisting through my ribs. They had been the only thing in this place that hadn’t been touched by cruelty. The only thing that had still belonged to me. And now they werenothing. Just like everything else I’d tried to protect.
Alessandro leant closer to me, removing our height difference. “I need to get out of here at the next selection. And each time you make it harder for me, I will take something of yours.”
I spat in his face. He barely blinked. Just wiped his cheek with the back of his hand before he grabbed my chin in his fingertips, squeezing a little.
“If you’re a good girl and behave yourself, then we won’t have any problems. But if you bring me any more trouble, I will start with your stuff. Then this pretty hair of yours.” He inhaled my scent, eyes flickering into dragon slits. “Then I’ll take everything else until there is nothing left of you. And I mean it. Every ounce of sweetness, and happiness and fun. I’ll make you wish you were never brought back to life and smile whilst I do it. Do notfuckingtest me. I am playing nice right now; you do not want to see me be cruel.”
Fiore was clearly stupid. Not just because he thought threatening me and ruining something I cared about was a crime I wouldn’t punish. But because he seemed to think he’d made a big enough point to end things.
That he was safe to remove his magic from around everyone he had held tight.
Zayden didn’t hesitate to do what I could not. He hurled himself forward with a guttural noise, his shoulder drivinghard into Fiore’s chest. The impact knocked Alessandro clean off his balance. His back slammed against the edge of his metal bedframe, which screeched in protest and dragged several inches before crashing into the wall behind it with a sharp metallic clang.
Before he could blink, he was soaked through. Water lashed down onto him, a two-inch puddle on the floor in seconds. But Maya could hardly start her plans of waterboarding him before Tyler and the other two dragons jumped in. The trio of flamed enough to keep her occupied as the men fought on the floor.
I wanted to help. To do something. But my magic was sleeping. My body was weak. And my mind...
It seemed it was hurting. That it was now cracking just like my stones... and I had no idea how to handle it.
How to handle the fact that tears burned in my eyes, falling softly down my cheeks in little rivulets.
Alessandro let out a savage snarl, enough to draw my attention. I saw his eyes narrow into slits, and flames burst to life in his palms. But Zayden caught him first. He gripped the bigger man’s wrist in both hands, twisted hard, and yanked him forward like a ragdoll. Then, without pausing, Zayden drove his fist straight into Alessandro’s stomach with a crack of flesh against flesh.
The bastard doubled over, a choked noise tearing out of him, the fire sputtering uselessly across the stone floor. His breath caught in his throat, and he staggered back, clutching his middle. But Zayden didn’t release him. Not yet.
No, my wolf slammed his forearm against Fiore’s collarbone, forcing him back with a guttural grunt that rattled from deep in his chest. Alessandro twisted, snarling, his hands igniting again—blue fire slithering across his knuckles—but Zayden caught his wrist and shoved it sideways, sending theflames licking uselessly toward the floor as he shattered bone and tendons with a savage growl.
Alessandro responded with a brutal elbow, catching Zayden near the jaw. The impact cracked like stone splitting. My wolf reeled for half a heartbeat—then drove his fist into the dragon’s ribs, breath wrenching from his throat.
The two of them tore into each other without restraint as I sat there watching. Flesh slamming against flesh, bone connecting with bone, growled threats mixing with breathless gasps and choked curses. Zayden’s boot skidded against the stone as he lunged again, grappling Alessandro by the front of his shirt, hauling him forward like he wanted to split him in half.
The dragon clawed at Zayden’s side, heat pulsing off him in waves, skin blistering where fire grazed cloth.
The chaos drew them all and I watched as Kalamity shoved between them, teeth bared, muscles tight with tension. He grabbed Zayden by the waist and yanked him back with effort. But my wolf was in no mood to pay attention, and I knew there was only one way to end the fight.
I got to my feet, ears ringing as Alessandro took a step back, snarling blue flames into the air.
