Page 1 of A Dragon's Curse

ChapterOne

CILLIAN

My chest was burning from the inside out, crippling my body and forcing me to slam on the brakes. This was the furthest I’d been from Dawsyn since finding her, and while I’d been feeling a tug back toward her this entire time, nothing had ever come close to this sort of agony.

If I hadn’t known better, I would have sworn that someone was stabbing my heart with a branding iron. Sweat pooled around my forehead and neck, and my eyes squeezed closed as I tried to breathe through whatever the fuck this was.

Without looking, I reached over to the center console and grabbed my phone from the cupholder. I had to call Dawsyn. I had to hear her voice, but even as I thought the words, my dragon’s essence thrashed around inside me.

He didn’t agree, and his panic was what had me turning around before, wasting time. I wouldn’t do that again. Not when I was only thirty minutes from the entry point to Drago.

Forcing my eyes open again, I called Dawsyn on the number she’d called me from earlier. Each ring was like another dagger to my heart, and when her voicemail picked up, I stopped breathing entirely.

Fuck!Where was my mate?

I opened the school app, knowing some of the students listed their phone numbers in the directory. As I began scrolling for River’s, the fiery pain suddenly ceased, replaced by a hollowness I didn’t understand.

My fingers grasped at my chest as if I could tangibly touch what was missing. Then I realized it wasn’t just the pain that had disappeared.

The connection to Dawsyn. It was gone. The tether that constantly pulled me toward my mate was no longer inside me.

Emotions burned at my eyes and throat. Something had happened to her. She wouldn’t have told me all those things earlier and then found a way to break our bond. I might not have known Dawsyn well, but she wasn’tthatcruel.

I found River’s number and called him next. Again, no answer. I called Dawsyn a second time. Same thing.

“What the fuck is happening?” I snarled into the empty cab of the truck.

I tried each of them once more before deciding to turn around. Every breath burned through my lungs as I prayed and hoped with everything I had in me that Dawsyn would answer the damn phone.

It was a six-hour drive at minimum back to the school, and that was if I drove much faster than I was supposed to. I couldn’t not know if she was okay for that long. I couldn’t wait to know why the fuck I no longer sensed the bond to her pulsing inside me.

“Cillian?” another woman answered Dawsyn’s phone after I’d already been on the road for a good fifteen minutes and called at least ten times.

“Who the fuck is this?” I snarled.

“It’s Justine.”

“Where is Dawsyn?” I demanded, my teeth clenched and fingers wrapped tightly around the phone.

She hesitated in answering, and as I started to growl into the speaker, she finally replied, “I don’t know. Her door was busted, and the window is open. There’s blood on the ground, and her phone is here. I can’t get a hold of her or River. I came by to check on them when River didn’t show up for class.”

I took one ragged breath, but that did nothing for my pissed-the-fuck-off tone. “Listen to me carefully, Justine. I need you to scent the room and tell me what you smell. What doesn’t belong?”

“The blood isn’t just Dawsyn’s,” she answered right away. “I can’t tell what it’s from, though. It could be an animal, maybe?”

Or it could be another fucking dragon shifter.

“What else?” I asked.

“Just hints of her, River, you, and someone else,” she replied. “A powerful witch. Do you think a witch took her?”

No, but I didn’t tell her that. Given what Beatrix was researching, I didn’t think she’d appreciate me telling anyone that she was at the academy with us earlier that day.

“Track River,” I said. “If he didn’t show up for class, maybe something happened to him and Dawsyn took off after him. She never would have willingly let someone else take her.”

At least I hoped to fuck not. Not after the warnings Beatrix gave us to stay in the dorm.

“Besides the tiny drops of blood and open window, there doesn’t appear to have been a struggle like I’d expect if Dawsyn was taken against her will,” she said. “Maybe you’re right. She’s probably just with River.”

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