The Rookie

by Abigail Owen

  Sera glanced down and gasped.

  The sound must’ve caught Aidan’s attention, because she felt his regard, almost as though he’d touched her with his gaze.

  “Sera?”

  Only she couldn’t answer. Her veins were on fire, molten streams of sparking lava beneath the surface of her skin, lighting her up from the inside. In seconds, that fire rose to the surface, sparks lifting from her body, glowing embers floating into the sky.

  I’m shifting.

  That darkness deep inside her rose and grew, the dragon that had lain dormant awakened. To save her child from the monster forming across the water. Sera lifted her gaze to train it on Titus and allowed the beast inside her full rein. Only one thought echoed in her mind.

  Kill him.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Fuck. She can’t shift.

  Not yet. She needed his brand and his voice in her head to anchor her to her humanity and to him the first time she shifted.

  “Sera. Babygirl, listen to me. Don’t shift.”

  No response.

  Mid-shift himself, Aidan couldn’t stop his own process. Even as his own perspective changed, he talked to her, trying to keep her with him, to get her attention. Anything.

  “If you shift now, you’ll go feral. I won’t be able to bring you back.”

  Could she even hear him?

  Her body wasn’t just shimmering with the process, she was glowing, embers and sparks manifesting out of her skin like her veins were on fire. Not good. He’d heard the stories of early dragons—mindless, bloodthirsty brutes who never became men again, and this was what their change had been described as.

  “Sera. You’ll never come back. Hold her back. Don’t let her out.”

  Still no response, except now her body was changing. Almost like the dragon had turned her to liquid fire, Sera disappeared, the dragon taking form. Molten scales writhed beneath the flames, so bright he couldn’t see the color. As if she were a mass of twisting snakes, all Aidan could see as she grew larger by the second were flashes. Deadly teeth, a sleek tail, spikes growing from her spine. Finally wings formed, wrapping around the rest of her, hiding her from him.

  The red-orange glow subsided, embers lifting from her form to turn to ash in the cooler air above.

  Turquoise. She was the color of her eyes—the startling color of the Caribbean, her scales almost as translucent as those waters, like he could see beneath the surface to the pale sand beneath.

  A glorious nightmare.

  With a shriek that reverberated through the mountains, Sera spread her wings wide. She didn’t even look at Aidan. All her focus was on the fully formed black dragon across the way, and the small boy grasped in one talon.

  Even Titus, who’d frozen to watch her shift, stood transfixed by her transformation. Her cry shook him out of it, and he immediately took to the skies, Blake screaming and thrashing in his grasp.

  Sera trumpeted again, a sound of pure rage, her scales rippling in a dance of blue-green light. Without a moment’s hesitation or thought, his mate shot after Titus and Blake.

  Aidan pushed his own half-finished shift faster, his skin stinging with the speed. He needed to go after all of them. No way could Sera take on Titus—not with his centuries of practiced fighting skills—and not hurt Blake in the process.

  The second he was fully formed, Aidan launched himself into the air.

  Damn she was fast, and quick to learn, her turquoise form already far ahead of him. Pushing his body to the limits, Aidan quickly gained on both her and Titus even farther ahead.

  “Sera.”

  Nothing. Not even a hitch in her flight.

  “I’m right behind you. I’m going to help save our son.” He needed her to know that. The dragon was in fully mother/cub mode, and if Sera was in any way still inside the beast, he needed her to hear that he wasn’t like Titus or the Alliance or anyone who wanted to harm her child. Not after the life he’d lived.

  Where the fuck was Rune? What had Titus done to him?

  “Rune.” Aidan sent out the mental feeler for the man who was supposed to be his enemy.

  But no answer came back. He’d have to keep trying, but for now, Aidan had caught up to Sera.

  “I’m right behind you.” He wanted to give her all the warning he could. A feral dragon could turn on anyone and anything. Giving her space, Aidan pulled in right beside her. “What’s the plan?”

  He needed to get her communicating with him before she was so far gone, all hope of bringing her back disintegrated like a used tissue. Meanwhile, they gained on the black form in the sky ahead of them.

  Titus couldn’t have thought this through, his broken soul finally leading him down a road he shouldn’t take. Had losing one mate done this to him?

  As a black dragon, he might be stealthy, but he wasn’t as fast as Aidan. Blue dragons were built for speed in their wing to bodyweight ratio, the power of their shoulders, and their aerodynamic builds in flight. They could even retract their spikes more, laying them flatter along their spines than other clans for reduced wind resistance.

  He and Sera closed the distance with every powerful stroke of their wings.

  “Sera. Talk to me.”

  Nothing.

  What could he do? All he could think of was to keep talking. “I’m here to help you. We’ll save Blake together. I love you. Everything about you. Especially your son and how much you love him. I love Blake, too. A package deal in my heart.”

  He kept up a litany of words, not even knowing what he said, just trying to penetrate the wall of instinctual, elemental rage gripping his mate. A mama bear had nothing on a mama dragon.

  At the same time, he watched Titus with Blake closely. If he so much as scratched that boy, Aidan wouldn’t only kill him—no matter what, Titus was dead—he’d rip the fucker’s head off and shove fire down his neck.

  “Mama!” Blake screeched.

  The kid had guts. Aidan could see Blake beating against Titus’s clawed foot, kicking and thrashing. Gods, he was tiny in the grip of a creature built for destruction. If Titus was determined to remove Blake and Aidan from Sera’s life so that she could be his, why hadn’t he killed the boy?

  Why torture the woman he thought was his mate?

  Titus suddenly angled up into the air, gaining altitude. Sera snarled, a sound coming from her that Aidan had never heard a dragon make before. Uncontrolled turquoise-tipped flames bubbled out of her mouth and poured back over her body to dissipate in the wind.

  What was happening to her?

  Side by side, Aidan still trying to get through to his mate, they chased Titus across the sky, the air growing colder and thinner by the second, his lungs adjusting, efficient at great heights, the fire inside him keeping him warm.

  Titus and Blake grew closer and closer. The tricky part would be getting Titus to release Blake without breaking his tiny body.

  Two more beats of their wings and they’d have him. “We should—”

  Sera surged forward, coming up and underneath in a move many dragons flying for years hadn’t mastered. She snapped for Titus’s neck, but the black dragon had his own tricks. He flipped backward, twisting to avoid Aidan who lunged for him.

  In the same instant, using the momentum of his flip, Titus threw Blake over his head. Blake’s screams followed him as he plummeted toward the earth, reaching for both of them as he fell away.

  Immediately, Sera dove after her son.

  Leaving Aidan to face off against Titus. One of the men who’d taught him much of what he knew about fighting. They hovered in the air, separated by feet, sizing each other up.

  “Think you can take me, rookie?” If dragons smiled, Titus would be sneering right now.

  For Sera and Blake? “I don’t want to fight you, but I will.”

  Titus darted toward him only to yank back in a fake, one that Aidan didn’t chase. He knew outright attack wouldn’t work with Titus. So, he waited, watched, and kept out of range of those jaws and talons.r />
  They circled each other, Titus lunging, faking, then hovering, and Aidan staying out of reach. Tension coiled deeply inside him as he searched for his opening, for any mistake he could take advantage of.

  “Do something, kid,” Titus snarled.

  Many younger dragons would lose it over those words, their beast still too volatile to completely control all the time. Not Aidan. He’d spent too much time with other punk dragons. He’d gotten over name-calling a long-ass time ago. “I’m not your kid any more than you were ever my friend.”

  Titus actually hesitated at that, giving a slow blink, before he lunged again. Aidan saw his opportunity and took it.

  Titus went up and over, in a move he’d repeated several times. Rather than duck, Aidan shot straight up, then flipped over and slung his tail at the spot where Titus should’ve been.

  Only Titus wasn’t there.

  He came up and under Aidan before Aidan could get a lock on him. Arching to protrude his spikes, he bucked, catching Aidan on the softer underside of his belly, where the scales elongated and flattened for aerodynamics. At least one of those spikes penetrated. Aidan grunted with the impact followed by the shock of slicing pain.

  Scrambling, Aidan managed to get his feet between himself and Titus. With a shove, he eased himself off the spike then pushed away. Every movement strained the wound, sending shards of agony through his system. At the same time, he could feel blood oozing out.

  But he couldn’t worry about that with Titus still there.

  With resolute determination, Aidan shut the pain away in a compartment in his mind and locked the door. He was going to have to fight smarter, not harder. Titus had the moves, but Aidan had the speed. Deliberately, he dropped as if he was trying to run, but he did so awkwardly, limping along like his injury had taken out his speed.

  Titus didn’t follow immediately, hanging back, but Aidan needed them both down closer to the ground. He aimed for where he could see Sera’s turquoise color. She’d made it to the ground. Please let her have caught Blake.

  In seconds, Titus figured out his destination and set off in pursuit. Aidan made sure to stay out of the black dragon’s reach, though he allowed him to gradually close the distance between them.

  The earth expanded in his view as they got closer and closer, the peaks of the mountains all around them jagged and looming. He needed to get Titus closer to those.

  A little farther. Keep up.

  A roar echoed off the mountains. Aidan jerked his head around to find Titus was not only no longer behind him, but now dropping directly over Sera.

  Fuck. He should’ve known Titus wouldn’t go for him as bait.

  Aidan executed the sharpest double-back he’d ever attempted, coming perilously close to the jagged edges of a cliffside and pushed his body hard, trying to get to her first. Titus appeared to hang over her like a nuclear bomb, ready to go off.

  Faster. Must fly faster.

  He could make out Blake’s yells as the turquoise dragon curled herself around her child, flaring out her wings for more coverage. Sera lifted her head and her scales suddenly glowed as if lit from within. It took Aidan a moment to realize that was exactly what was happening.

  “Sera, no! I’m coming.”

  A dragon releasing fire for the first time needed to be trained how. Too many things could go wrong. Aidan had seen a few horrifying efforts. She could go off like a bomb, igniting everything around her. She could melt herself from within. Those were the two most gruesome.

  She didn’t appear to have heard him, the blue-green glow coming alive, the fire rippling underneath her translucent scales, making her appear like a rough and swelling ocean.

  He knew he wouldn’t be able to stop her, and Aidan’s heart about stuttered to a halt with that realization. No matter his speed, he couldn’t save his mate from herself.

  Please the gods, let her do this right.

  Speaking rapidly through that mental link he had no idea if she could access, he tried to tell her how. “When you release your fire, picture channeling the flames up a hose and out your mouth. Don’t breathe in when the flames are still going. Hold your breath for at least thirty seconds after you release. You don’t want to risk sucking it into your lungs.”

  No response. Did she hear him?

  Aidan continued to push, his muscles burning from the effort, the wound in his belly protesting with zaps of pain at every movement. A split second before he reached her, he knew this was going to go bad. His wound was exposed.

  Aidan didn’t pull up, instead, he braced for impact. Saving Sera and Blake was worth it.

  Sera loosed a torrent of flame into the sky just as Aidan slammed into Titus from the side. Agony ripped into him from underneath, as though something was clawing and tearing its way into his insides. Demyan’s fire in his wrist had nothing on Sera’s inside his belly. He managed to lock his talons around Titus’s neck. Not waiting to lose that grip, he heaved them both into the air.

  He couldn’t let go.

  Aidan channeled all the pain and rage and terror for his mate into ironclad will. He had to take Titus out. Now.

  With deadly purpose, he aimed for an outcropping of rock. Titus writhed beneath him. Aidan dropped hard and used his powerful legs to bash Titus into the rock, then back up into the air, then drop and smash into another jagged rock.

  With a roar that buzzed through Aidan’s body, Titus tried to flip, using his tail like a whip, beating at Aidan with it, but Aidan refused to let go. Even when a spike landed true, tearing off a patch of scales on his back, Aidan didn’t stop. That pain hardly registered through the burning in his belly.

  One more crash into a rock, and Titus went limp in his grasp. Aidan wasn’t done. He dropped to the ground on a relatively flat patch, not remotely careful of how Titus hit. They both skidded and tumbled across the land, as Aidan started to lose control of his body.

  He needed to finish this. Now.

  Aidan forced himself up, grunting through the pain, and stalked over to the limp form of the black dragon a few feet away. He stood over his onetime friend, his brother in arms, and took his long neck in his front talons. Mouth open ready to rip Titus’s throat out, he froze at the blast of a challenge from another dragon.

  Aidan snapped his head up to find Sera prowling toward him, her tail whipping behind her, her gaze locked on him with deadly intent.

  “Sera.”

  She continued to come at him.

  “Sera. I’m your mate.”

  She put her head down, spikes on her back standing up taller, and that fire inside her stoked, glowing beneath those incredible scales, telegraphing her intent to finish the job and roast him alive.

  Aidan focused his thoughts, channeling through the excruciating anguish ripping up his inside and ignoring his need to take out the dragon responsible for putting the people he loved most in jeopardy. He put every ounce of focus on reaching through her feral mind and the dragon that had shut her off from her humanity.

  “Look at me, Sera.”

  She kept coming.

  “You chose me as your mate.”

  Another step forward.

  “Babygirl, you’ve got to fight for control. Don’t do this.”

  She sucked in, the familiar sound of a forger’s bellows rumbling inside her as the glow lit from within.

  Aidan prepared to launch himself into the sky, his muscles bunching, scales rippling. With the pain eating at his insides, he wasn’t entirely sure he had the strength.

  Sera reared back. Then everything happened in a flash of moments. Aidan went to jump just as Blake screamed and ran in front of her, putting his tiny body between Aidan and his mother, his hands up. Panic lit Sera’s eyes an instant before a concentrated stream of turquoise-tipped flames shot from her maw.

  Aidan dropped over Blake and covered him with his body as the flames poured over both of them. He managed to pull his son in closer, but the move exposed his back to Sera’s fire, the flames finding their way into his
flesh, eating at him now from both sides.

  Both wounds were relatively small, but he wasn’t entirely sure he could survive fire from two wounds without help, and their healer was in Europe.

  The rush of fire suddenly ceased, though he could still hear it. Aidan raised his head to find Sera had tipped her head to the sky, shooting fire straight up like a geyser. She started thrashing, and he knew she’d lost control of the inferno inside her.

  “Help my mama!” Blake yelled at him.

  Aidan did the only thing he could—he tackled his mate. Trees felled beneath her flailing form, but he managed to get on top of her and pin her down, aiming the fire away from Blake.

  He got right in her face, eye to eye. “Listen to me.”

  Her eyelid lowered in a slow blink.

  “That’s it. I’m here. Focus on me.”

  She blinked again and stopped thrashing in his grasp.

  “Think of choking off the fire where it starts. Close your throat and picture smothering the flames by cutting off all the air.”

  The flames continued to pour from her, the trees around them catching fire. He couldn’t wait much longer before he’d need to get Blake away from here.

  “Focus on the sound of my voice. I’m going to count down from ten. Think of your throat closing a little more with each count. Don’t take a breath until it’s over. Ready?”

  He didn’t wait for her to acknowledge.

  “Ten. Nine. Eight.”

  The flames started to diminish.

  “Seven. Six. Five.”

  Even smaller, and her body eased under his as she realized she was gaining control.

  “Four. Three. Two.”

  He let up on her, releasing his hold.

  “One.”

  The flames disappeared inside her, the glow diminishing with the second.

  “Good. Now hold your breath.”

  He counted to thirty in his mind, watching her scales turn darker, colder as the flames extinguished inside her.

  “Good.”

  He stepped back, tense in case she attacked again. Slowly, Sera lifted her head, watching him the way a wild animal watched a human who’d stumbled into their territory.