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“Can you shift?” I asked Lux.
“I hope,” Lux responded.
I picked the air dragon up as Jay dropped to Og’s side. Lux’s shift was so slow, his human body almost too weak to support it, but he managed. After only a heartbeat as his dragon, he shrank into his human form. Leaning heavily on me, we walked back to Jay.
Lux sank to the floor, his eyes already drifting closed. Og wasn’t in much better shape. I couldn’t sit, but I couldn’t stand still either, and I found myself pacing a small line.
“Ryker, maybe all of fire, is working with Gorm,” Jay stated. “And based on Caoimhe’s info and my time under Doctor Raba’s table, Ryker’s special forces are the grown-up orphans with mixed elemental magics.” She looked up. “Gorm has an army, much stronger than any other element on your island.”
Jay pressed her palms together and pushed them into her forehead. “My magic’s still gone... and without it, the only way to break a blood bond is to kill the mage that made it.”
We all looked at Tyson, lying deathly still on the ground.
“Can’t he just break those zip-ties?” Og asked.
Jay nodded. “Probably. But since Rehan put him down, he hasn’t moved. My guess is Tyson’s fighting back. We keep him close, we watch him, and we let him know we believe in him. It’s all we can do until we find Gorm.”
“How long will it take to get back to the island?” Og asked.
Jay looked at me. “If you can carry all of us all the way to the coast, then we can fly tonight. Damn the consequences of a human seeing a dragon. Assuming Oliviarose has a boat for us, we can reverse Caoimhe’s escape and be there this time tomorrow.”
“And if she doesn’t?” Og asked.
Jay let out a harsh breath. “We cross that bridge when we get there.”
I knelt at Tyson’s side and clapped him on the shoulder. “You felt our link. You felt it more deeply than all of us combined. Fight, Tyson. Your mates need you.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
TYSON
Iwas vaguely aware of the world around me as thoughts, I refused to believe were mine, bounced around my head. Gorm was inside my head. He could take control of my body. On some visceral level, I howled with rage. I’d watched myself, unable to stop, as I shot at the people I loved most in the world. And that’s what they were—even the fecking water dragon.
I clung to my new truths. My mates needed me. I wasn’t an extra son. I wasn’t a failure. My feelings weren’t wrong. My empathy wasn’t a weakness but a strength. I used it to make Wiggles scream in ecstasy, ease Og’s guilt, and permanently irritate the Cuddle Fish.
Kill your competition. Destroy them. Drag Jay to your lair and make her yours and yours alone.A booming male voice repeated, over and over, on a loop from hell.
At one point, I wanted to do all those things.
But not anymore.
Gorm tested the ties on my arms and legs for the thousandth time. I let him and focused on locking my dragon strength deep inside me. With my eyes shut and my senses locked down, Iexisted with only a vague awareness that my mates traveled with my body locked in Rehan’s claws.
“I can take us through a Ley Line,” Rehan’s voice drifted to me.
“There‘s only one, off the coast, and he’ll have a trap in place…” Wiggles trailed off. “We can’t talk here. Gorm is in his mind; he can’t hear or see what Tyson does, but he reads his thoughts. If Tyson knows something, Gorm does.”
“Wouldn’t that mean he now knows we’d avoid the Ley Lines…so we can use it?” Og asked.
I snorted. The earth warlock could overthink anything.
My mates looked at me. Wiggles smiled and cupped my cheek. “Keep fighting. You’re the most arrogant and stubborn being in existence. Tyson, a fire dragon born of fire with a heart of pure dominance.”
I preened, and my dragon puffed out his chest. “I know.”
The words slipped out of my mouth, and Wiggles beamed at me. Just as fast, the voice surged forward.She’s yours. Dragons don’t share. Kill the false mates.
“But not Jaiy,” the three words slipped out of my mouth. They weren’t mine or Gorms… Brad?
