“NOOOO!” Silas screamed. The idol screamed with him, and became burning hot in her hands. The air trembled as Vyrkos roared in his tomb, and the cavern shook with a force that nearly brought her to her knees. Cracks covered the floor, and the Draken Lord’s great eye opened all the way.
Through the viewer, Zane watched in horror as Blaze put her dark magic into motion, tearing Silas’s very soul from its anchors.
This was what she had been talking about, in his lair. This spell was what she’d sacrificed to learn, the one she was ashamed she even knew.
It was the darkest of dark magics, to seize another’s soul and tear it from its moorings.
She was ripping all of Silas’s soul connections apart. But it was worse than Thorne had feared. It wasn’t just that the Draken Lord was waking. His and Corwyn’s hold on Silas was too powerful, and too deep.
To finish this against all the resistance aimed against her, Blaze was going to have to rip his soul from his body.
It was the worst sin any sorcerer could commit—and the backlash would be mortal. At best, Vyrkos would rise up and absorb the magic, binding her to him for eternity. At worst, destruction of Silas’s soul would rebound and destroy hers, and consign her to a Hell from which there was no return.
He couldn’t let that happen.
With an agonized howl, Zane forced himself into his human body, and threw himself through the portal.
Chapter 46
There was howling all around her now, dark winds whipping her hair. Blaze’s hands were blistering, but she knew she couldn’t let go of the idol. Not until it was done.
The Draken roared again, deafening her, and more cracks spread across the floor. The tomb was crumbling.
Black smoke seeped out of the cracks, surrounding Silas. Corwyn. Or Vyrkos, trying to take him back. Silas was struggling to his feet, eyes blazing red, raising his hands for one more spell. She had to finish this.
I’m sorry, Mom and Dad. I’m sorry, Zane.
I’m sorry, Silas.
She could see the darkness gathering over him, all the dark energy he’d harbored in his soul, all the consequences of what she’d done, what she was about to do. She would tear away his last anchor, and then she would let the darkness take her.
And the rest of them would be saved.
She drew her breath for the last, terrible part of the spell. The part that would kill Silas and annihilate his soul.
And hers.
“NO!”
She turned to see Zane jump through the portal. As he flew through the air he Changed to dragon, lurching toward them. Before Blaze could finish the spell, he lashed at Silas with his long barbed tail, knocking him across the cavern into a huge stalagmite. Through the spell, Blaze could feel the ‘crack’ of his spine breaking when he hit.
Blaze saw it as if it were happening in slow motion. The idol dropping from her hands, her palms blistered and blackened from its heat.
Silas’s mouth open in a silent scream. Him falling to the ground, limp as a rag doll, his red eyes dimming as his life force drained away.
The black, roiling arrow of magical backlash that launched back at her from his body, screaming like a freight train.
Zane, running, eyes on her, thinking of nothing but saving her, moving straight into its path.
No! Not Zane. This was her doom—her destiny. She’d torn Silas’s soul apart, and she’d always known how it would end. She couldn’t let Zane be destroyed by what she’d done.
With the last of her strength, Blaze ran for Zane. She threw her arms around his neck, swinging herself around shield him with her body, taking the magical arrow full in the back.
It burned like acid, searing through skin, muscle and bone. She heard Zane howl in anguish, and felt his arms close around her. He poured his magic into her, trying to heal her, but she knew it wouldn’t be enough.
It was only a few seconds, though it seemed like an eternity of pain. It built and built, until she wished for death that wouldn’t come, wished for darkness and oblivion.
And then the base of her spine exploded.
White light shot through the cavern, sparkling off the cracks in the surface of the tomb. Glowing white mist surrounded Blaze, coursing through her like she’d been hit by an electric shock. Zane was still holding her, refusing to let go, and they sank to the ground together.
The mist turned to a spinning tornado, moving over to where the idol lay on the ground. As Blaze and Zane watched, it began sucking the black smoke from the idol, spinning it out into the air. The smoke hovered over the tornado for a moment, drifting like the remnants of a doused fire. Blaze thought for a moment she saw a man’s face in the smoke, before it drifted upward and disappeared.
The tornado spun itself over to the brass star on the wall of the cavern. It turned into the likeness of a tall, stately woman, her hair and dress moving in a perpetual wind. She smiled and reached one hand out to Blaze, like a blessing.
Then the tornado pulled in on itself, and funneled into the hole at the top point of the star, coalescing and hardening into the Seal.
The cavern rumbled, and the cracks in the surface of the tomb repaired themselves from the middle back to the shore, like a film running backwards. The Draken’s great eye closed, and everything went deadly quiet.
Blaze and Zane clung to each other, panting. Zane raised her palms to his lips, kissing them. They were healed as if they’d never been burned. All the pain in her back was gone.
“You’re okay,” Zane murmured over and over. He pulled her to him, holding her hard against him. “You’re okay.”
“You saved me,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “You saved me. Are you crazy? I thought—” He broke off and hugged her hard again.
“We saved each other,” she said. “And Maia finished the job.”
He gave a shaky laugh. “Yeah.”
He helped her to her feet and they walked over to the brass star on the wall. In the top point rested the Seal, looking like carved ivory, polished and slightly rounded on the top. Etched into it was an exquisite rendering of a dragonfly.
“That’s one,” Blaze said, running her fingers across it. She looked out at the surface of the tomb.
“I hope we can get the others back there with less drama,” Zane said.
Blaze wasn’t so sure about that. Maia had killed Corwyn and sacrificed herself to seal the tomb. It was Blaze’s willingness to sacrifice herself—to honor her mother’s sacrifice—that had finally set the Seal free.
But the darkness hadn’t taken her. Zane had saved her. He’d gotten here in time, and he’d saved her—and she’d saved him back. Love and light had conquered evil and darkness. Maybe they’d finally broken the cycle of death and betrayal.
She picked up the idol. It no longer felt evil. She could get a faint sense of Vyrkos through it—it was still a part of his hoard, and linked to the tomb. But the other presence, Corwyn, was gone. Maia had won their fight after all.
And Blaze had finally beaten Silas. The thought gave her no pleasure, only sadness at all that power and talent lost to the world.
She gazed over at his body, still lying at the base of the stalagmite. Zane took her hand, and they walked over and looked down at him.
“Goodbye, Silas,” she whispered. “Goodbye, brother.” She wanted to remember the good that had once been in him.
Zane glanced at her, then straightened Silas’s body and laid him out, his arms folded on his chest. “Let him rest here, at least for a while,” he said. She nodded wearily.
There was nothing else she could do for him now.
They met Tyr and Rebel in the hallway, racing to help them—Tyr in human form, and Rebel armed with her Colt.
Zane embraced Tyr in an unashamed bro hug, to his brother’s surprise. “Where are the others?” He looked behind them for Thorne and Tempest. “Are they okay?”
“More or less,” Tyr said. “They’re looking after each other. But what happened in th
e tomb? This place shook so hard we thought it was the end. Are you two all right?” He held Zane back away from him, and then looked over at Blaze. “You both look like hell. Where’s Harper?”
“Silas,” Blaze said. She did look exhausted, Zane thought, but to him she looked beautiful. Strong and courageous and utterly amazing. “It was Silas in the warehouse, using the life force he’d stolen from Jack to take his form and sucker us in. It was an almost perfect illusion.” She looked at Rebel. “He must have known you’d suspect a trap and call us, and we’d bring him here—right inside our defenses.”
“Bastard,” Rebel muttered, fingering her Colt. “I hope you killed him. It will save me the trouble.”
“Yeah. He’s gone,” Zane said. He put his arm around Blaze, holding her close. He understood how Rebel felt, but he also knew this wasn’t something to be celebrated. Watching Silas’s destruction had wounded his mate deeply, and she’d nearly destroyed herself as well. It would take her time to heal.
“And Vyrkos?” Tyr asked.
“We put him back to sleep, for the moment,” Blaze said wearily. “And the Dragonfly Seal is back in the tomb, with Maia’s help.”
“You actually saw Maia?” Tyr’s mouth was open. “What the hell happened in there?”
Zane shook his head. “Not now. I, for one, really need to sit down. And I need cake. Let’s get the others and go upstairs where there are couches, and then we’ll tell everybody the whole story.”
“Yeah.” Tyr rubbed the back of his neck. “All of us going upstairs will be a little bit of a problem.”
“Why?” Zane asked.
Tyr sighed. “You’ll see.”
Chapter 47
They walked back down to the room where they’d tried to cast the spell. Tempest was sitting on the floor, talking to Thorne.
Who was still a dragon.
Thorne? Zane said. Are you okay? Why aren’t you Changing back?
Because Vyrkos told me to be a Draken, Thorne said testily. Thus, I am a Draken. It seems that all I can be is a Draken, at least until the force of his command wears off. If, in fact, it does.
Zane found himself sinking to the floor next to Tempest. This could be a disaster. If Thorne were stuck in dragon form, his Draken side would eventually take over—and not in a good way. Not to mention they needed him human—able to work his computer magic and talk to his contacts and help them find the other two Seals.
Rebel asked him, “Why could the others change back, and you can’t?”
Thorne didn’t answer her.
“Because we’re all hybrids, but Thorne has by far the most pure Draken blood,” Tyr explained. “It seems that, because of that, the Draken Lord has more power over him than us.”
“Oh. That sucks.”
That about summed it up, Zane thought. “I suppose you’ve already tried the kiss thing?”
Apparently that was a one-time deal.
Zane could hear the strain in Thorne’s mental voice. He was holding his anger on a tight leash, but it wasn’t easy for him.
He patted Thorne’s shoulder. “We’ll figure something out.”
I’m delighted to hear it, Thorne snapped. Let me know how that works out.
Instead of going upstairs, they all ended up going to the Batcave instead. They couldn’t fit Thorne inside without moving the equipment, but he was able to lie in the atrium and put his head inside the door, resting it on the floor near the conference table.
While they waited for the zefirs to bring food, Tyr checked the monitors, while Zane sat with Blaze, holding her hand, and Rebel and Tempest wandered around looking awed.
“Tomb integrity is up 33%,” Tyr said. “Thank the Powers.”
Everyone sat down around the table, and Blaze and Zane told their story, interrupted only by the arrival of floating trays of food by the zefirs, which freaked Rebel out and delighted Tempest.
Zane told most of it, trying to spare Blaze, who was still exhausted and very, very quiet. At the end, the rest of them were quiet too—all except Tempest, who’d begun writing in her notebook somewhere in the middle of the telling. All they could hear now was her pen scratching on the page.
“So what now?” Rebel asked.
“We have to find the other Seals.” Surprisingly, it was Tempest who spoke.
“How? We don’t have tattoos, like Blaze did.”
“But they’re somewhere, and we’re the ones who have to find them. We have to finish the story, or Corwyn will win and Vyrkos will rise.”
“Corwyn’s gone,” Zane said. “Maia pulled him out of the idol, and his spirit just… dissipated.” He picked up the idol, which Blaze had left on the table. “He’s definitely not in there now.”
Tyr examined the idol, and agreed. “We need to keep this in the vault, though. It’s still the key to the tomb—it was vital to its creation. I’ll have to see if I can find any reference to the original protections the Guardians placed on it.”
Zane gladly let him take it. He never wanted to see the thing again.
We have to determine where the other Seals are, Thorne said. We can’t get complacent.
Apparently Blaze could hear him. “Can we just be complacent for, like, a day?” she asked, sounding unutterably tired. “Or two, even? We’ve bought ourselves some time, and I for one am going to use it to sleep. And restore my power.”
That was Zane’s cue. “I’m taking my mate to my rooms. If you find the Seals in the next forty-eight hours, send a text.”
They said goodnight to the others, Zane putting his hand on Thorne’s dragon-shoulder for a moment before ushering Blaze out of the room. She leaned against him in the elevator, and didn’t even protest when he swept her up in his arms and carried her down the hall to his bedroom.
He put her on the bed and conjured pajamas for her, but when he tried to tuck her in she pulled him down beside her. “I need you here,” she murmured. “I need you near me.”
He vanished his torn, bloodstained clothes and climbed into bed beside her, taking her in his arms. It was daylight by this time, but the velvet drapes were closed against the morning sun, and the room was dim and quiet, Zane’s gold humming softly.
He gathered her close to him, head on his chest, running his fingers gently through her hair. She gave a shuddering sigh and relaxed against him.
After a long time, she said softly, “Why did you do it?”
He wasn’t sure what the question was, but the answer would always be, because I love you. “Do what?” he asked.
“Why did you stop me from finishing the spell?”
He said simply, “I had to. It would have destroyed you.”
“Maybe I deserved it. I used the worst dark magic to defeat my enemies. How can I say I’m any better than Silas, or Corwyn, or Vyrkos?”
He shook his head, his arms tightening around her. “Don’t say that. You’re not like them. You didn’t do it for power, or revenge. You were willing to sacrifice your soul, to spend an eternity in hell to save other people. Tyr and Thorne, Rebel and Tempest, all the people in this city. Me.” He kissed the top of her head gently. “And I’d give anything to keep you from having to pay that price.”
He had. He’d offered his life in place of hers. His soul. His love. His everything.
And at long last, after ten years of loneliness, there was someone she could trust with all of herself, everything she was, everything she’d done, everything she’d become.
She shifted, lifting her head to find his lips, drinking in his love and devotion, letting it heal her soul. They made love slowly, as if they had years and centuries, a thousand forevers, letting the waves of passion grow and crash over them.
They joined together, hot and sweet, stroking each other in a long slow build that filled Blaze completely, body and heart and mind, so that Zane’s love touched every part of her and changed it utterly, transforming her into someone new, someone stronger and better, braver and more loving.
The waves reached their crescendo,
and all the walls inside of Blaze finally broke down and went up in flames—the healing flames of a dragon’s heart.
They both cried out their love, holding each other as if they’d never let go, their souls soaring and dancing to the music of dragon’s gold.
* * *
Vyrkos’ tomb lay quiet and still. The dragons and humans no longer watched, all gone to rest and lick their wounds.
Slowly, slowly, dark smoke began to swirl near the roof of the cavern. It gathered into a dark cloud, then coalesced into the form of a man and floated gently down to where the body of Silas Turner lay, and seeped inside.
The body on the floor opened its eyes, and they glowed demon-red. It sat up, then climbed to its feet. Moving stiffly and clumsily, it walked to the tunnel at the side of the tomb, and disappeared into the darkness, the sound of its footsteps echoing back to the empty cavern.
Thanks for reading Dragon’s Rogue! I hope you love my Wild Dragons like I do.
Want to know what happens with Thorne and Rebel?
Watch for Book 2 of the Wild Dragons series, coming in July!
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Want more hot wild shifters? Try my other books:
Silverlake Shifters:
Fugitive Mate
White Wolf Mate
Tiger Mate
Silverlake Enforcers:
The Enforcers: KANE
The Enforcers: ISRAEL
The Enforcers: NOAH
Bad Blood Shifters:
Bad Blood Bear
Bad Blood Wolf
Bad Blood Leopard
Bad Blood Panther
Bad Blood Alpha
About the Author
Anastasia Wilde lives in the deep forests of the Pacific Northwest, where sexy shifters may or may not be found hiding among the tall, ancient trees. She writes hot paranormal romances about wild, passionate shifter men and the strong women who are destined to win their hearts. Broken, complicated, devoted, protective—love heals their wounds and smooths their rough edges (but not too much!). When not writing, Anastasia is traveling, nomming on any food involving bacon or melty cheese (ideally both), adding to her magical crystal collection, or relaxing with a glass of wine, watching the sun set behind the mountains.
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