Page 79 of Payne's Envy

“I’m marking you,” the one that spat the fire said.

Something about the dragon’s words triggered a memory. No.Screams.I didn’t see the past, but Joy’s screaming and crying rang in my ears. The smell of burnt flesh filled my senses. My control snapped.

I’d already marked her. She couldn’t be again. None of those dragons would accept that until I mated Joy.

Everything I destroyed became a haze. Black blood spurted into my eyes and mouth. The constant cracking of their bones and their howls pierced through the fog of my thoughts.

I felt horrified, angry, and confused as I kept hearing her screams from that night long ago.My heart ached. I believed I understood the past. It haunted me for so long becauseIcaused Joy’s terror back then.

Footfalls crunched against the wreckage, and the last of Joy’s screams faded from my mind.

“Payne, two more,” Barron yelled.

I saw the carnage, my claws embedded in mangled flesh. The dragons were so torn and scattered, I couldn’t tell that they used to be anything. Joy no longer had another’s fire on her, and she approached me.

More beasts roared. I looked up in time to see arrows collide with the newcomers. One pierced straight through a dragon’s eye. He whimpered and toppled over. The floor that was already buckling finally caved. I grabbed Joy and covered her with my larger body, cocooning her as we fell to the next level.

“Payne?”Joy whispered. “Are you hurt?”

I braced my palm against the ground as the debris slammed against my back. I safely hid my mate beneath me, so I was fine even though stones pelted my wings.

“You’re all right,”I told her.

With a groan, I pushed against the wreckage until it tumbled off of me.

“Are you guys okay?” Sebastian hollered down at us.

I roared.

“Oh, okay. I think that means you’re good. Our powers returned during the fall. We’ll take care of the last few.”

“Joy…”

The smoke from the rubble hadn’t settled, but I saw her uncurling her body and ran a clawed tip across her back.

She faced me. “I’m getting sick every time Harvest’s creations think they can mate with me.”

“Fools,” I murmured. “We’re bonded, and the creatures still try.”

Joy rubbed her snout against mine. “You said it’s because we haven’t mated yet.”

“It is, but we’re already mates, despite the act.” Smelling the decay all around us and on her, I called forth the fire within and spat it at her.

She jumped. “Hey! What was that for?”

It didn’t hurt her, but it had before. That was why I ran from her.

“I know how to remember,” I told her.

She stopped and looked at me. “Not that easy, is it? You can’t just get your memories back by saying that.”

“I believe I caused my amnesia, which means I can probably get my memories back.”

“How?”

By facing the past and all the versions of myself, I thought were wrong.

Chapter Thirty-Four

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