by T. S. Joyce
When Kane took his glasses off, his eyes were so sad. “You would settle for a broken man?”
“You won’t stay broken.”
“You can’t fix me, Roe.”
He was wrong, though. She was going to give him the biggest gift her love could give him. “Come inside,” she murmured. Rowan turned on her heel and pushed open the door, then stepped into 1010.
She’d thought about doing this in his mountains, but Weston swore this place had magic, and she needed it right now. She needed it to make her braver. She needed it to make this easier on Kane, easier on The Darkness.
God, let Ben be right. Let this work.
Kane’s boots echoed across the floorboards, and the door clicked quietly closed behind him. Outside, the thunder rolled, but in here, it was so quiet the air charged with electricity between them. The lights were off, and Kane’s eyes glowed green as he shifted his weight side to side like some predator watching his prey. She wasn’t the prey, though. Not today. She was the hunter.
“I asked you once, if you could, would you have your dragon back?”
Kane ticked an irritated sound and hooked his hands on his hips.
“You didn’t answer then,” she pushed on. “I need you to answer now.”
After a few seconds of stalling, he gritted out, “Yeah, Roe. I wish I was strong enough to still have the dragon.”
Rowan hesitated for a moment, then pulled her shirt over her head and dropped it to the floor.
“What are you doing?” Kane asked, glowing eyes glued to her breasts as she unsnapped her bra.
She was scared. Shaking. This was a big moment. Her road had been forked, and this was her choosing the path surrounded by dark woods. It was the path most unclear, but Kane was worth the risk. He was worth everything.
“Touch me,” she whispered, the tension in her chest tight.
Kane strode toward her like a trail of gunpowder on the ground, and the second he swept her up in his arms, heat exploded between them. He rammed her backward until the backs of her knees hit the kitchen table. His lips were hard and unforgiving. This was the desperate kiss that came after a near-loss. It was the kiss that followed near-death experiences, and that’s what he’d almost done to both of them. He’d come here in hopes of breaking their bond. Fuck. No.
She bit him hard enough to draw blood from his lip, and a feral snarl ratcheted up his throat. He gripped her hair hard and trailed sucking kisses down her neck as he unfastened his pants with his other hand. Rowan clawed her fingers, dug into his back, pulled him closer. The table under her scooted loudly across the floor as Kane jammed them back by inches.
There was a loud riiip, and her shorts were in tatters. Her panties, too. Kane’s lips were back on hers, and he grunted a wild sound as his fingers dug into her hips. When he pulled her forward, slid into her, Rowan arched against him and cried out. She fucking loved him like this—barely in control, snarling, out of his mind with lust for her. And she could feel The Darkness. So seductively, he was calling out to her. Reaching out to her, but he didn’t feel scary.
He felt like home.
Kane won’t hurt us.
Kane dragged her to the very edge of the table and slammed into her over and over, his body moving like crashing waves against her, his dick so long, so thick, filling her just right.
He pushed her backward, climbed onto the table, spread her legs with his good knee, and bucked into her even deeper, his body tensing with every stroke inside her, his abs hard against her stomach. When he lowered his lips to her breast and sucked her nipple hard, she sank her claws into the back of his neck and dragged him closer in desperation. She was losing her mind, seeing him in shades of red like a heat signature.
Bite him!
His eyes were so bright when he locked gazes with her, so inhuman. He bared his teeth and rested his forehead against hers as she came. Her orgasm was explosive and took up her whole mind as she pressed her lips against his chest, right over his heart.
As he slammed into her faster, she bit him gently, testing.
“Do it,” he begged.
Kane pushed deeply into her and gripped the back of her neck, cradled her against him as the first shot of warmth flooded her middle. “Fuck, Rowan, do it!”
Rowan bit down as hard as she could. She bit until her mouth flooded with iron, until he yelled her name. Until her belly was full of his seed and he wasn’t begging her anymore.
She bit down until she could feel the long, low snarl of The Darkness vibrate from Kane’s body and fill the air.
She released his tattered skin, and Kane froze above her, eyes sparking like green fire. His elongated pupils constricted until he looked like a snake ready to strike. His chest dripped a steady stream of crimson onto her, and the terrifying sound emanating from him was louder. The blood suddenly tapered to a drip, and then nothing at all. Kane looked down in horror at the claiming mark that was already sealing up.
It was working.
Kane launched off her, gripping his chest as though it was burning. His face contorted with pain. “What did you do?”
“I set you free.”
“Rowan,” he said, chest heaving. “You didn’t set me free. You killed us all.”
His body pulsed, became bigger, and then constricted again. Kane threw open the door and shielded his eyes from the daylight.
“It’s okay, Kane,” she said, trailing him to the front yard.
The Bloodrunners were gathered, as if The Darkness had called them from their cabins. None of them looked surprised or confused. Their pupils were blown, and they looked somber. Harper stood in front of them, chin up, looking down at Kane where he fell to his knees in the dirt.
Kane grabbed his head and screamed a bloodcurdling, pained sound.
“Fighting him won’t do any good,” Weston said.
Kane’s skin on his back was cracking like cement, then healing, then cracking again. Roe didn’t understand. This isn’t how a Change should be!
She bolted for him, hugged him, but he turned his attention on Wyatt. “Get Harper out of here.”
“Kane,” Wyatt said, hands out, pleading.
“If you want your mate to live, hide her deep underground. Now!” Kane’s voice was that of a beast.
Wyatt ushered Harper toward his truck, and the girls followed.
Aaron peeled off his shirt as if readying to Change for battle, but Rowan cut him off. “Run, Aaron. All of you, get out of here.”
Aaron and Ryder’s eyes were wide with fear as Kane’s form grew and shrank again. They peeled off, hopped in the back of Wyatt’s truck, and then it was just Rowan and Wes, watching the Bloodrunners speed away, spraying gravel and kicking up plumes of dust in their wake.
“Wes, go!”
“I can’t leave you.”
“Please!”
“Dammit, I can’t leave you, Roe! I’ve watched this. I’ve watched it, and I can’t leave.”
Oh, she knew what he meant. Death was coming for her, and he didn’t want her to do this alone.
Kane screamed again, his body cracking and healing, pulsing. His voice built to a horrifying roar that shook the woods. Blood was streaming from his eyes. He couldn’t buy Wes much more time.
She bolted for the Novak Raven, cupped his cheeks hard. “You’ll leave me because this is my choice. I’ve got this.”
“You don’t.” Wes looked devastated, but screw what he’d seen. Power throbbed within her. Dragon wanted out. She was ready for war. Ready to protect Kane, ready to protect the world.
“Take care of Avery, Wes. That’s what I want. Make her happy. Take care of Harper and the crew. Live,” she gritted out, then shoved him away.
Weston shook his head, backing away slowly.
Kane slammed his fists on the ground, and two deep cracks blasted through the earth. “Leave us!” he bellowed as lighting flashed behind 1010.
And Weston was gone. He blurred into a massive raven, flew away, and didn’t look back.
/> “Roe, Roe, Roe,” Kane chanted, as though he was trying to use her name as an anchor to himself. When he looked up at her, his eyes were flashing brown, green, brown, green, and his face was contorted into something fearsome. “I’m sorry,” he choked out right before his eyes turned green and held. A cruel smile twisted his lips, and he hunched inward.
Rowan sprinted out of the way as a massive, pitch black dragon exploded from Kane’s body, growing and growing until it blocked out the sky. She skidded to a stop as The Darkness unfurled his long neck, lifted his spiked, armored face to the sky, and roared a deafening sound. He pushed up on powerful legs, his injured back one not seeming to hinder him at all. Long claws dug into earth, and his long tail curved around the edge of the woods. His wings looked strange. They were like the wet wings of a butterfly that had just emerged from the cocoon. But with a groan, The Darkness forced his wings open until they stretched across the tree canopy on either side of 1010.
Rowan stood frozen in fear. Frozen in awe. His wings weren’t smooth and graceful like hers, but were riddled with holes and folded like a bat’s wings. Lethal spikes protruded along the ridges of his wings. They were the color of night and monstrous. His pitch black scales were scarred and marred, as though he’d done centuries of battle, and his size…
Kane was bigger than Rowan, and bigger than Damon.
The last Blackwing Dragon was the largest living being on earth.
The true End of Days.
Fear snaked in her gut as The Darkness dragged a narrowed gaze to her. Two echoing clicks of his firestarter sounded, and The Darkness blasted into the air, cracking the ground around her feet, causing an earthquake that dumped her backward.
The first beat of his wings flattened her against the ground and stole her breath, and the second was even more powerful. He took to the sky, tucking his clawed feet close to his massive belly scales.
And then to her horror, he rained fire down onto the Smokey Mountains.
“No,” she murmured as she stood and tracked his wide circle. She’d been wrong. Kane couldn’t control the beast. No one could.
Smoke billowed from Harper’s Mountains, and as he sprayed another stream of fire, and another, a sob left Rowan’s throat. She’d done this. She’d breathed life into this monster.
The Darkness circled back around and headed straight for her. Rowan backed up to the tree line and stumbled on a root, fell hard on her back, and stared up in horror, tears streaming down her face as The Darkness positioned himself over 1010.
He opened his massive jaws, exposing a row of razor sharp teeth, and unleashed a spray of fire and lava onto the beloved cabin.
No, not onto the cabin. Onto her treasure.
“Kane, no!” she shrieked, running for 1010.
One. Two. Three seconds of Damon’s dragon fire had almost melted the metal of her treasure all the way through. Four. Five.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as The Darkness destroyed her treasure. As he destroyed her.
Death. This is what Weston had seen—the intentional destruction of her treasure by the man she loved.
Rage rocketed through her body as The Darkness halted his fire, beat his wings in the air, and hovered there, watching her with his lips curled back in a soulless dragon’s smile.
He’d killed her. She would get The Sickening and die, and there was nothing that could save her now. The betrayal was too much.
Rowan screamed his name. “Kane!” And then let her dragon have her body.
She’d never Changed out of anger before, but power pounded through her as she beat her wings against the air currents.
He’d taken 1010, her comfort, her life. He’d taken everything, and for what? She’d freed him! She’d played into his hand perfectly. She’d listened to her dragon for the first time since Byron, and now look. Dragon had gotten her killed.
Rowan slammed into The Darkness’s body and jammed her claws through his scales violently. Spew fire onto Harper’s Mountains, put her friends in danger, and destroy her treasure? She was going to hurt him.
Rowan’s dark silver dragon was smaller, but she was fueled with undiluted rage. She spun them around, beating her wings furiously, pulling them higher into the air as she sprayed a stream of fire across his throat. The Darkness roared in pain and tried to push her off, but she had dug her claws deep into him. He snapped at her face, but she dodged his bites. His Firestarter clicked, but he didn’t rain lava on her. It was the only thing that could really hurt her in this form—dragon’s fire, and he was withholding his, whatever that meant.
She didn’t feel so charitable.
The storm clouds prickled her skin with millions of tiny drops of water as they drove upward through the storm, and now The Darkness was pushing her harder, flapping his demon wings, trying to escape.
The fucking End of Days. Rowan was the End of Days. The end of his days.
When he spun them in a barrel roll, she couldn’t keep them up anymore, not like this. She pounded her wings desperately, but the earth was coming. She bit at his armor and blew balls of fire at him, but that didn’t stop gravity. That didn’t stop them from toppling to earth like two atom bombs.
At the last second, The Darkness twisted them hard and slammed to earth first, his back shattering the trees and the ground, shaking the mountains. Why had he done that? Why had he sacrificed himself for her comfort?
Her wind was knocked out of her, but she slid off him, circled around as he righted himself, both crushing trees beneath their feet. As soon as she could draw breath, she opened her mouth and roared her challenge at him. He might have saved her from pain, but he’d still killed her. Still burned her treasure. Still smiled like he was fucking amused by her oncoming slow death.
The Darkness stood and shook his massive, spiked head. He let off a short, barking roar, then another and another.
Rowan’s heart beat so hard in her chest. She wanted to answer him. It was an apology. It was a call to arms. It was an invitation for her to join him in burning the land. Fuck his invitations.
Rowan clicked her Firestarter and pushed gas out of her lungs, sprayed his ribs with fire and charged. The Darkness caught her, latched his teeth onto her shoulder as they rolled over and over, felling forest under them. Rowan clamped her teeth onto his throat and bit down hard. He was bleeding, and all she had to do was hold on, ignite her fire, and The Darkness would be dead.
Dead.
Dead like her.
Kane would be dead. Her heart shattered. Everything had gotten so messed up. With a heartbroken bellow, she released his neck and backed off him. She waited for the fire. She waited for the teeth and claws, but The Darkness just lay there, his head held high, throat bleeding red on black scales. A soft hum was coming from him. It was the same comforting sound she used to make to Harper when they were kids. When she and Wyatt were in a fight and Harper’s dragon needed comfort.
The sound became louder, more prehistoric, rattling at different frequencies. The rage in Rowan’s veins evaporated and was replaced by the weight of what had happened.
Her time with Kane was cut to nothing. There would be no happy life, no more feeling safe. With a bellow, Rowan shrank into her human form and fell forward onto her knees, covered her face with her hands, and screamed as long and as loud as she could.
The Darkness could kill her if he wanted. She was already dead anyway.
He didn’t, though. Instead, he curled his body around her, limping on his missing back leg. Long neck, long body, wings tucked against his back, long tail, he encircled her and let off the comforting sound again as she fell apart in the middle of the destroyed, burning forest.
She could hear sirens now, loud and blaring. The Darkness would kill anyone who threatened him, and she couldn’t risk civilian casualties.
“Kane,” she sobbed. “If you’re in there, Change back.”
The Darkness growled a terrifying sound, but she stood and strode to him, pressed her hands to his face. His spikes pierced
her palms, and she winced away. His eye was the size of her face, and his pupil dilated and constricted as he focused on her.
“Please, Kane. You’ve already hurt me. Don’t hurt anyone else.”
His eye softened and seemed to study her for a few moments before The Darkness’s form blurred and shrank until all that remained was the man. Kane knelt by a felled tree, weight resting on his clenched fists and his knees. His ribs were badly burned, and red trickled from his neck. Smoke drifted all around them, carried by the wind.
The sirens were loud now, close. Blue and red lights flashed through the smog, and then black hummers surrounded them.
She wouldn’t ever see Kane again, and before he was taken away from her, he needed to understand what he’d done. “You burned my treasure.”
“Hands in the air, both of you!” an officer yelled. The crack of weapons being cocked was deafening.
“I didn’t, Rowan,” Kane said, placing his hands behind his head. “I didn’t burn your treasure.”
“I watched you!” she screamed.
Kane gritted his teeth and shook his head, eyes trained on her, his hair covering half of his fearsome face. “What does it feel like, Roe? Do you feel loss? Do you feel lost? That wasn’t your treasure!”
“Hands on your head!” an officer said from behind her.
Rowan linked her hands behind her head. “You killed me.”
“I didn’t, baby. I didn’t. I was there. I was in control.”
“Oh yeah? When you burned 1010?”
“No, after, when you Changed. I was there, Roe. I was there!”
“You burned the fucking mountains!” she screamed.
One of the officers, dressed in black gear, jammed a needle into Kane’s neck. The officers were taking him away now toward one of the black Hummers. “I was there, Roe, tell them. Don’t let them take me to Apex.” He was shoved in the back, and right before the door closed beside him, Kane yelled, “Don’t let them take him from me again!”
