Page 94 of Knotted By the Triad

“You can't touch me,” she sneered.

I pushed away from the wall. “Keep telling yourself that.” I rushed her again.

She lifted the shard. Blue light flashed, and she was gone. This time, I didn't keep running. I spun around. Mei Lin appeared behind me. My fist was already moving. It slammed straight into her nose. Her head snapped backward.

Blood immediately poured over her mouth. She stumbled. I didn't give her time to recover. I kicked her in the chest. Mei Lin hit the floor hard. The shard flew from her hand. I lunged. It struck the stone once and bounced away from my fingers.

“No!” I scrambled after it.

The shard bounced again. Then slid straight through the open window. I reached the ledge a second too late. The crystal glittered as it fell. Farther. Farther. Until I couldn't see it anymore. My way out was gone.

“Go fetch it, bitch,” Mei Lin sneered.

I turned. Her foot hit me square in the chest. For one impossible second, my world seemed to stand still. One moment, there was stone beneath my feet. Then there wasn't. I fell. A scream ripped from my throat.

My arms flailed uselessly as the sky and ground switched places over and over. I was tumbling through the air, rushing to meet the earth. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Couldn't grab anything. I was going to die. After everything I’d survived, I was actually going to fucking die because of Mei Lin.

I thought of CiCi. Kena. Bri. They might be here. Somewhere in this world, my girls might be walking around right now with no idea I was here too. I hadn't found them. I hadn't even gotten the chance to try.

I stared up at the tower. Mei Lin stood at the edge. Watching. Smiling. Victorious. I thought of Daemin, who’d saved me from the smuggler and then carried me to safety even though he was poisoned and in pain.

I thought of Zian carrying me across a dry courtyard because it had rained a week ago, then giving me five chests of treasure because he'd understood that I needed something of my own.

I thought of Kai. Stubborn, controlling, infuriating Kai, whom I'd only just begun to see beyond the man who had treated me like an inconvenience on our wedding night. I wanted to know them. All of them.

I wanted to know what being their mate actually meant when nobody else was deciding it for us. I wanted time. I wanted to find my friends. I wanted my ridiculous barbecue grill. I wanted to sneak out and rob people with Allie.

I wanted to spend Zian's treasure. I wanted to see whether Kai could actually learn to stop making decisions for everybody. I wanted to taste Daemin and see if I could fit his knot in my mouth.

I wanted to live this life that should’ve been mine all along with alphas that had always been mine. And now I was going to lose everything because of Mei Lin and her father. Fuck that. Fuck the tower. Fuck the ending of CiCi’s book. And fuck Mei Lin. She was not going to win.

“Dragon!”

Heat exploded through me.

I'm here.

The ground rushed closer. My heart hammered so hard that my chest hurt, but I stopped fighting the heat.

“I'm not afraid. I want to live. I want to fight. I want to win. I want my alphas. Take over.”

My dragon roared. Heat consumed me. My bones stretched. My body expanded. Power surged through muscles that hadn't existed a heartbeat earlier. The wind changed. My scream became a roar.

Wings burst outward. For one terrifying second, I was still falling. Then instinct took over. My wings caught the air. My body jerked upward. I wasn't falling anymore.

I was flying.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

ZURI

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A roar sounded somewhere to my left. Then another. Then a third. I turned my head. Three dragons tore through the sky toward me. My alphas. I knew them. I didn't need anyone to tell me which dragon was which.

Something inside me recognized all three instantly. They had come for me. But they wouldn't reach me in time. They didn't have to. I was already flying. And I wasn't flying toward them.

I turned toward the tower. Mei Lin was still standing at the window. Even from this distance, I saw the moment she realized what had happened. She stumbled backward. My dragon roared.