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Instead of talking sense into him, the sound of her voice seems to elicit a crazed excitement inside dragon boy, and I prepare myself to fight the giant idiot. Right now, he’s the only thing standing between the other students and the approaching hellhound.
Somewhere deep inside, he must know Mack would never forgive him if he let the other students get hurt, because he releases a frustrated snarl before backing down.
“Okay, I’ll help them.” His voice is gravelly, but at least it sounds like him now, some of the magic from the hunt wearing off.
He flicks another longing gaze at my friend. Then he swoops the first two shadows into his brawny arms, one student literally lodged on either side like footballs, and shoots across the canyon. I hardly take a breath before he’s back.
I scour the star-encrusted sky. “Where’s the Winter Prince?”
“Eclipsa is fighting him off. He can’t be around you yet. Not until the magic of the hunt wears off. That’s why I’m here.”
“Surely if you can control it, so can he?”
The dragon shifter blinks at me, as if talking while trying to control himself is too much. “Don’t let him near you right now, Summer.”
He wraps Mack and the final girl into his arms. His wings flare as he prepares to rocket them into the sky.
“No,” Mack protests, trying to wiggle from his grasp. “Take Summer first and then return for me.”
But I can see by the intensity of his stare that there’s no more holding him back from her, which fits right into my plan anyway.
They streak across the canyon to the other side. I watch, relief pouring through me.
“Hurry up, lizard breath,” Ruby mutters, pacing anxiously on top of my head.
“The Winter Prince will be here soon,” I say. I don’t care what Asher says, Valerian won’t hurt me.
Ruby tugs on a strand of my hair, hard. “Don’t be such a naive human! What do you think will happen with that thing between you and him you pretend isn’t real?”
After Inara publicly implied the soulbond was a mistake, I let my friends believe that was the truth.
But the look in Ruby’s eyes says there’s no hiding the truth, so I don’t bother trying.
“He can control it,” I insist.
“Maybe before,” she remarks. “But when the horn was activated, the magic dredged from the depths of the Fae hells amplified his primal urges a hundred fold, including that. If he finds you before it wears off, he won’t be able to control himself.”
“You don’t know him, Ruby—”
“He’s an Evermore, Kid. He may have been able to resist the mating bond before, but only because he spends every second around you fighting the beast that lives inside him. The Fae are tied to nature in a way mortals will never understand, but the Evermore have a direct line to that raw, ancient power. Have you ever seen something in nature not take what it wants?”
Take what it wants? I shiver. “So, you’re saying . . .?”
“If he finds you in his present state, nothing in this world will stop him from making you his mate.”
I know the power of that bond as is—but amplified a hundred fold? I can’t even imagine something that strong.
Before I can respond, a low growl sounds from the forest line.
The hound.
I flick a desperate glance to the other side to see Asher fighting another Evermore, this one nearly completely shifted into a bear. Their roars reverberate through the canyon.
I pivot back to face the hound just as the lupine beast bursts from the trees. As I take in the fiery red eyes, shaggy coal-black fur rippling with muscle, and bared fangs, primal terror takes hold, stripping the air from my lungs. Warmth blooms from my chest. A green light radiates from my sternum and pulses across the night. The hound sits back on its hindquarters for a moment, shaking its head and seemingly stunned.
What the frick?
Did that come from my pendant? I pull at the chain but . . . no, in the chaos, my pendant got turned around and rests against my back.
