Page 37 of Shifting Desire
“Get here now.”
I end the call and wait.It only takes Tavian five minutes before he and Dax are in my office, ready to burn the city to ash at my command.
“She was inside the secure zone,” Dax says, voice tight.“That’s not just arrogance.That’s a message.”
“It’s also a declaration,” I snarl.“He’s done playing.”
“So, what’s the move?”Tavian asks.
My voice drops to a growl.“We burn everything.”
Ten minutes later, I’m back in black.My favorite three-piece suit.But this time, no tie, and no smile.Power rolls off me in waves.My dragon paces just beneath my skin, aching to take the lead.To fly.To kill.
We trace the magic from her apartment.It’s faint, twisted, and covered in shadow, but the bond is there beneath the surface.Pulling me.Calling me.It’s not at a hundred percent, not yet.
But it’s awake.And through it, I feel her.Her fear and her pain.But also, fury.My girl isn’t the type to huddle in the corner waiting to be saved.She can save herself.And goddess help Ravik if she gets free before I get there.
“He took her to the old borough crypt,” Tavian says, scanning the heat maps and spell signatures.“Archaic wards.Off-grid.It used to be a holding site for hybrid prisoners before the unification.”
“Fitting,” I grind out.
Ravik always did love irony.
“He won’t hurt her yet,” Dax adds.“He’s too smart for that.He wants you to see what he can do.He wants to draw you out.”
“He succeeded.”
We move fast.Too fast for human eyes.Too fast for the other half-bloods to see us passing even if they can sense us.Because when you kidnap a dragon’s mate, you don’t get warnings.You get war.
The drive is long because the crypt is in the middle of nowhere.An abandoned stretch of land on the outskirts of the Bronx, hidden by enchantments no one’s maintained for over a century.We break the first three layers of wards in seconds.
The fourth screams.It’s a dragon-forged blood ward.
Ravik stole it from an old line, maybe from one of the elders who sided with him when I refused to kneel after my father’s death.He’s been planning this for a while, I realize.
But I am fine with that.Let him think he's prepared.
The crypt doors creak open, and we step into a tunnel carved from obsidian and bone.Ancient and cold.
I hear her voice in echo against the walls.Muffled but furious.She is cursing up a storm in three different languages.My heart slams against my ribs.
“I’m going in first,” I snap.
“No arguments,” Tavian replies.
Dax just nods, already drawing his ancient dwarven forged blades.
I round the final corner, and there she is.Chained to a pillar with iron cuffs.Magic-draining chains.Her head lifts the second she senses me.
“About time,” she grits out, eyes blazing.“I was about to start biting.”
Ravik steps from the shadows, smiling like the smug fuck he’s always been.“Malichai,” he drawls.“You always did enjoy making an entrance.”
I don’t answer.I move.Faster than lightning and stronger than reason.
We collide in the center of the room, magic crashing like two storms merging.He tries to counter with a shadow blast, but I’m already inside his defenses.My fist connects with his jaw.Once.Twice.
He stumbles back and spits blood.Laughter falls from his split lip.
