Page 49 of Cruelly Fated
His brow furrowed, muscles in his face twitching as he fought to open his eyes. Finally, he peeled them open and turned his head toward me, his gaze unfocused but warm.
“Allie…you’re really here?” he rasped. “I heard you. I thought it was a dream. The best damn dream…”
Staring at him, finally here and outside the prison walls, I lost both my thoughts and my voice.
“Uh…I came with Valor.” I winced.I came with Valor?That was the best I had? The man just called me his dream, and I sounded like I’d shown up to drop off a package.
A rib bone slid into place with a wet suction sound, and he hissed.
“My body is mending,” he muttered, distracted. More sickening pops followed, bone knitting to bone in a rapid-fire cascade.
“You’re healing,” I breathed, awestruck. His face was still pale and clammy, but the bruises were starting to fade. I couldn’t look away.
Kyon didn’t share my amazement. His throat worked as he swallowed with effort. “Allie…where’s the bracelet?”
“On the floor.”
“Put it back on.”
“But—”
“Now.” His voice dropped and octave. “Trust me.”
I scrambled to retrieve it. The anklet was heavier than I remembered. I pressed it to his ankle and tried to snap it shut, butit wouldn’t lock. No matter how hard I pushed or which tiny button I pressed, it refused to click into place.
“It’s not staying…” I peered at him. His body shimmered with something I couldn’t quite see like energy bending the air around him. He tucked his chin toward his chest, every muscle tense like he was holding something inside with sheer force of will.
I fumbled with the cuff again.
A deep, guttural growl rolled from him. Smoke coiled up around his arm in slow, sinuous threads.
“Kyon?” I whispered, heart thudding. “What’s happening?”
He sat uptoo fast, his movements jarring and unnatural. When he opened his eyes, there were no longer human. Vertical slits glowed in brilliant green as his dragon surged forward.
Then, in a voice that tore through the air, half-human and half-something ancient and wild, he roared:
“RUN!”
Twenty
ALLIE
My breath hitched, my body refusing to move. Surely, I hadn’t heard him right.
“Run!” Kyon’s glare snapped me out of my daze. “I can’t control it!”
A guttural growl tore from his chest as emerald-green scales burst across his shoulders. His body expanded, bones cracking, reshaping.
Still, I stared, unblinking, rooted in place.
“Allie,” he hissed, his voice warping as his jaw elongated, nostrils flaring. “My dragon wants you. It thinks you’re our mate—” He was standing now, towering, his legs thickening, morphing into monstrous, talon-tipped limbs. “—but I can’t control it, not after months of being denied the shift. Hide!”
He staggered backward toward the balcony, his head now brushing the frame. A snout began to form, stretching his lips into something no longer human.
“HIDE FROM ME!” the dragon bellowed through Kyon’s voice as his mouth split into rows of gleaming, serrated teeth.
He dove off the balcony.
