Page 146 of Mate of a Monster

“That leash she built?”

Arabella’s eyes narrow slightly, like she senses something shift even if she doesn’t know what.

“Legend?” she says slowly.

I keep my expression neutral, my breathing steady.

The Nightkin stretches through every inch of me, sliding past the pale thread wrapped around my heart like a predator studying a trap.

“Need little trick.”

He grabs hold of that thread, taking it between his teeth. “I could cut it now, but I think someone else wants a close-up.”

My brows pull and, across the ravine, the wall of water surges higher.

And that’s when I see her.

Haide.

She appears on the other side of the barrier like a storm given legs. Black flames crawl over her skin, power rolling off her in waves so violent the air itself seems to bend around her. For a second, she just stands there, breathing.

Watching.

Through the water, chaos, and the screaming magic tearing the ravine apart, our eyes meet.

Arabella is still speaking, convinced she’s in control, she hasn’t fully noticed the change yet.

My mate does immediately.

I let the Nightkin rise just enough for the gold to flicker across my vision. My lips curve into a deep smirk. “I’ve got this, baby.”

“We got this, baby,” the Nightkin corrects.

I almost laugh.

While the unreadable expression on her perfect fucking face doesn’t change, she dips her chin in acknowledgment.

Behind her, a portal tears open across the ravine.

Knight steps through first, London in his arms, and the moment her boots hit the ground her eyes go black.

The water wall shudders and Arabella whips around. “What—”

London lifts her hands, Haide pushes out her flame, and the barrier breaks.

And the entire ravine explodes into motion.

The black current that had been roaring between us collapses like something punched through its spine. Sheets of water slam against the rock face before evaporating into nothing as Haide and her dragons take hold of their natural enemy.

For the first time since this started, the smug calm fractures across Arabella’s face. “What did you—”

She never finishes the sentence, Haide’s already moving.

I have watched that woman cross a battlefield before, but this is something else entirely. The power in her now isn’t just fire. It isn’t just dragon flame, or whatever strange darkness the Nightkin left coiled inside her ribs.

It’s every single soul stone in that cavern screaming through her blood at once.

Black fire lashes behind her like wings as she launches over the shattered water line and lands between us hard enough to crack the stone beneath her boots. The air around her hums so violently it rattles my teeth.