Chapter 19

"I'm going in after him. It's the only way." I flexed my stiff fingers, trying to keep my teeth from chattering from the adrenaline and fear and outright panic coursing through me. The second I'd heard that ragged, distraught roar, everything else ceased to matter except Zeph was alive and I had to get to him.

"Torin, if it's been three hundred years and he's…" Zorander's eyes flickered with all the same doubts flashing through my head.

He was starving. Dangerous. Feral.

From the sound, I wasn't even sure what form he was in—dragon or Fae.

"It has to be me. He'll tear any of you apart. Even you, Simon."

"Zorander's right. Torin…" Simon blocked my path, gripping my arms with unbreakable strength. "You can't." His breath mingled with mine, fear shining in his eyes. "You can't go in there…I cannot lose you. Not even to save him."

"You won't lose me." I licked my lips then told the worst lie I'd ever told in my entire life. "I've seen this, Simon. Zeph's in there and he needs me and I'm the only one who can convince him to come out safely. He won't hurt me; I swear he won't."

No, I hadn't seen this in a vision. But I knew in my bones this was the truth. Fate had brought us here once only to split us apart. But the world was different, and this time, we'd bring Zeph home.

The Oracle's foul magic ebbed and flowed all around us, spilling freely from the broken obsidian pillars, coating every surface around us with a glimmer of dark magic. This foulness that kept Zephryn—one of the most powerful beings I'd ever known—helpless and contained for three centuries was steadily sapping our magic. If we stayed here much longer, we'd never escape.

I had to go into his den before Zeph decided to burst out of there in his dragon form and tear everyone to pieces. Before Zorander and Raziel's magic disappeared. Before we were all trapped here.

A low, throbbing growl crept out of that dark hole and every hair on my body stood up.

Long ago we'd bound ourselves together, and for three hundred years we'd been cleaved apart. But…if I went into that dark pit and Zephryn was so far gone he didn't recognize me…

"I saw this, Simon." My voice came out steadier this time. "Zeph was willing to give up his life for me, and this is how I repay him. This is how we finally bring him home."

I watched emotions war inside Simon, his eyes filled with fear, his mouth working to tell me no, but in the end he stepped away. "You don't think after all this time I know when you're lying, Tor?" he said softly before he shook his head. "Fine, then. You go first, but I'll be right behind you."

Raziel and Zorander scanned the jagged cliff surrounding us. "We'll guard your backs." The skittering of feet and claws grew even closer. "Buy you as much time as we can, but it looks like we've got a pack of these things to contend with, so convince your friend we're leaving and fast."

The opening was a gauntlet of slivered obsidian, every edge sharp enough to slice through my gown, my skin, until I was covered in a thousand tiny screaming cuts. Oh gods, I'd end up down there in the darkness with Zephryn, and all he'd smell was blood, and he had to be starving.

An owl's claws skated shrilly over rock and a soft hoot had me pausing long enough for Simon to catch up, my feet slipping on this cursed, glossy surface. Light flashed, then his warm hand tightened around my arm.

"The passage widens out in a few more feet. Then there's a straight drop to the floor. I don't think it's far, but you'll have to land on your feet. Do you have the knife?"

I nodded and he caught my wrist. "Please let me go first, Tor. This is no time to be brave, and you've got nothing to prove. This is not your fault. Zeph made his choice a long time ago." As if on cue, a low growl beneath us set my nerves on edge.

"Zeph was willing to give everything up for me, and look where that got him, Simon." Another cautious step sent me sliding downward, caught at the last minute by Simon's hand around my arm.

"I have to do this." I peered through the hole, picking through the various shadowy forms and fuzzy images in my mind until I'd mapped out a clear path down. I might not be able to see like everyone else, but I could navigate my way through this maze of stone just fine.

If I concentrated, I could see the darker shadow moving across the floor, smell the faintest hint of Zeph's smoky, wildfire scent wafting up from inside the den.

"He'll know me. He will."

I prayed that was true, sliding down and down, toward the drop I sensed but couldn't quite gauge in the darkness, the silence waiting to swallow me up. When my slippers skidded another inch and found nothing but air, Simon's hand ripped off my arm and I fell straight down.

The plunge didn't take long, but the off-balance landing rocked my bones, ankles screaming when my body folded beneath the impact. I caught myself on the stone floor with one hand, the other thrown out for balance, sending the knife spinning away. I remained crouched, trying not to count the piles of bones illuminated by the single shaft of light.

Thousands. Small, white, most of them splintered.

At least we knew what Zeph had been eating for three hundred years.

I could hear my own ragged breathing and Zeph's deep, rasping breaths coming from the shadows, puffs of hot, humid air curling around me, followed by a growl that was all beastly hunger. I still couldn't tell if he was in dragon form or Fae, couldn't tell anything except how my skin crawled from fear because the weight of his intense stare crushed me to dust.

But I had to say something. This had been my idea, after all.

"Zephryn. It's me, Torin. I'm here to take you away from this place."

I didn't dare look away, didn't dare glance up to where Simon waited, praying to all the gods he didn't drop down beside me, because if he did this would be over.

"I came for you because we were meant to be together." I pushed to my feet carefully, strained muscles twinging, blood trickling off the ends of my fingers. "Remember what we promised? You and me, Zeph. Nothing will ever keep us apart."

Something sharp scraped. I caught the gleam of a hungry eye, and Zeph prowled closer, little more than a dark outline, but he was upright. Moving. Alive. In his Fae form, or something close. A strangled sob got caught in my throat and I stumbled toward him, ignoring Simon's hissed warning from overhead.

"Zeph. Oh gods, Zeph." There wasn't much light, barely a glimmer, but enough for me to see his face, see what three hundred years in this place had done to him.

He was half covered in rough, black scales, his body scarred, his eyes foggy like mine, squinting against the dim light let in by the sliver of an opening. One leg was twisted, his foot pointing the wrong way, an arm hanging low as if he'd injured himself.

Then I was tangled around him, face buried into his chest, breathing in his familiar scent, musky and wild and utterly alive.

All of a sudden I couldn't breathe at all, couldn't think, could do nothing except let the tears slide down my face as I clung to this male I almost lost. I ran my hands over every inch, checking his ruined shoulder, his hollowed-out stomach, the knobs of his vertebrae.

"You're real." I cradled his haunted face, dark eyes unfocused, wild. "I dreamed of this day, Zeph. For so long I dreamed of seeing you again, but…" His brow furrowed before he reared back, yanking out of my arms.

"Tor," Simon called softly from above. "We have to…Fuck."

Overhead, Zorander shouted a warning before stones pelted down, then Simon crashed on top of us, locked in battle with one of those hideous creatures, its jaws snapping down on air. Simon gripped the thing by the throat, holding those gnashing teeth at bay.

"Go," Simon screamed as the two rolled over and over. "Go now."

A rumbling growl shook the den. Zeph pounced, tearing the beast off Simon and ripping the thing apart like its sinewy body was made of paper. He dragged the carcass into the shadows, watching as Simon crept slowly to me, pulling me to my feet.

"I'll give you a boost up. You have to get out of here, Tor."

Zeph tore off the creature's legs with a sinewy, juicy pop, then sank those fangs in deep, tearing off hunks of bloody meat, liquid dripping down his chin as he chewed, coating his chest in gore.

Madness shone in his eyes, hunched in the shadows like a beast.

Simon stayed between me and Zeph until I gently pushed him away. "He's not going to hurt us. If he was, I'd already be dead. He's starving, and clearly"—my eyes swung around the bone-littered floor—"those creatures have kept him alive all this time."

More rock showered down, and then, "A little help up here would be nice. We're overrun with the little bastards and there are more coming." Raziel's panicked shout had Zephryn moving, tossing the half-eaten leg away.

His low growl rattled my bones, and I cringed as he lunged at us—faster than he should have been able to move—darting up through the opening so fast Simon could only shout a hasty, "Watch out," to Zor and Raziel.

"Get us up there," I cried, but it took time for us to scramble back through the gauntlet of razor-sharp rock until we emerged onto the narrow ledge to find Raziel and Zor shoulder to shoulder behind a shield of blue-black magic, facing someone I didn't recognize.

"Holy gods," Simon hissed. "Holy gods."

"Some fucking help would be nice, Torin," Zorander hissed. "Tell him not to eat us, for starters."

Zephryn was a monster.

Nothing like the cocky, handsome shifter who'd flown me over Tempeste in his dragon form just for fun. Or the clever strategist who'd plotted to double-cross the Oracle to save a dying kingdom.

He was every bit as big as he'd ever been—but his once-beautiful form was now a mangled mix of dragon and Fae, scales and pale skin, almost every inch of his nude body covered in horrific scars. Even Zeph's face was twisted into a mockery of his once-handsome visage, long, sharp teeth protruding from his mouth, matted black hair hanging to his waist.

Part of me mourned for the male I'd loved so long ago, but we were all different now.

The only thing that mattered was he'd survived.

"Zephryn," I said sharply, loud enough for him to pause. "These are friends. They came to help free you. They are not your enemies." I picked my way through the shards of black glass. "The king is dead. Carex is dead and the magic has returned."

His head swung to me, face pinching in confusion when he took me in. "Our plan worked. It finally worked. We came to free you because…" My throat got clogged up and I swallowed down everything I wanted to say, sticking with what was important.

"We came to free you as soon as we had the chance. We're getting you off this island."

"Torin?" He tipped his head in confusion as if everything was finally catching up to him. "Tor?" He blinked, and it took me a moment to realize the sheen in his eyes wasn't rage or bloodlust, but madness. The kind that comes from being locked up in the darkness alone for three centuries.

Zeph's lips curled back from those fearsome teeth, and he prowled toward me, every slow, stalking step driving the air from my lungs. But I stood my ground. He was mine and I was his, and he would never hurt me.

"Torin." My name whispered out over and over again, his shoulders shaking when my arms went around him. "My Torin. Finally. I waited so long. So long in the dark."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't get to you before now. I thought about you, Zeph. Every second of every day." I buried my face in his neck and let every shudder flow through me as if his pain were my own. "We're getting you off this island."

Then my sobs turned to teary laughter, anger turned to relief, and we held each other until he finally pulled away, some clarity in those dark eyes as they scanned me over as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"What the fuck happened to your eyes?" he snarled, and everything shrank down to that consuming fury in his voice, his fiery breath fogging the air between us. He dragged his blood caked hand gently down my face, broken nails catching in my hair.

"It doesn't matter now." I leaned into the cradle of his palm. "None of that matters."

"It was her, wasn't it? Punishment…or revenge." Zephryn's body shook with anger. "I know it was her, Torin. And for hurting you…I will rip her to pieces."

The mountain demonsstalking us fled when they caught Zephryn's scent, turning and scampering away from the threat, back up the steep cliffside. From the sheer number of bones in his den, I expected enough had slipped through over the years, that reputation was well-earned.

"We'll talk about this later. For now, we have to get off this island." I slowly took his hand. Still beautiful, even with those too long nails, sharpened down to points. "We'll catch you up on everything. I swear."

Zephryn's eyes flicked over my shoulder, narrowing. "Simon. You look the same." He sneered the last word, almost as if he held that against him.

"Don't. We've all changed, Zeph," I corrected him gently. "Some of us don't show our scars on the outside."

He studied my face again, his jaw clenching before he dragged his murky stare over to Zor and Raz. "And them?"

"Zorander Vayle and Raziel. Allies in the war against the kings and the Oracle. They brought us here, and they'll fly us out. First to Storm Watch, then to Caladrius, then somewhere safe where we'll rendezvous with the rest of our…friends."

He blinked and suddenly his eyes cleared to their usual midnight black, and I choked back my sigh of relief. That was his third eyelid, meant to keep the wind out when he flew. Thank the gods for that.

"We're safe enough now that I'm free." That commanding snarl was all alpha male, bitter and proud and unbroken, and still…a shadow of the male I'd known.

But Zephryn's expression shifted from rage to shocked despair when he beheld what had become of his once-great kingdom, the skeletons of his kin littering the crater floor, the creeping demons poised above us like a gathering flock of carrion crows.

Darkhold was ruined, just as the Oracle promised.

His people dead, just as she'd planned.

The once-great empire of Darkhold would never rise from these ashes because there was only one dragon left. A king without a kingdom. Without a people.

"There is nothing left, Zephryn," I explained, his eyes catching on mine, a flicker of helpless anger simmering in his gaze before he looked away. "But we could build something new now that the magic has returned. When you see what happened in Caladrius…" I stopped right there. This devastation could not be undone and telling him of Calarius's resurgence would only rub salt in fresh wounds.

Thunder boomed in the distance, echoing off the mountains and sending the demons scattering. "We have to be off this rock before nightfall," Zorander muttered, scanning the clouds gathering above us. "Or we'll be fighting our way out in the dark."

"Afraid?" Zeph murmured.

"Yes, I am. You would be, too, if you knew what we went through to come here. What she went through." Zorander's voice took on a vicious tone, harsh and brutal and unrelenting.

For a moment, I wasn't sure I'd heard him right. Zorander Vayle defending me was surely the last thing I'd expected to hear today, and he wasn't done.

"Torin would have crawled here on her hands and knees to save you, and you're acting like a proud fool. Can you travel?" Zor's gaze traced down Zeph's ruined body and landed on his twisted leg. "Can you shift?"

"Not in two hundred years."

"This place is leaching away our magic, but Raz will do what he can, and then we'll see how far we get tonight. So long as it's off this rock, I'll call that a win."

As if to mock us, a cold, steady rain started to fall as Zeph painfully lowered himself onto the ledge, as if the marrow in his bones ached. He bared his teeth at Raziel, and I took his arm, brushing my fingers over the horrible raised scars, his once-tan skin as white as bone.

"Raziel will heal him enough for us to reach Storm Watch. He's a good battlefield healer, Zeph. One of the best." I met Raziel's eyes, giving him a subtle nod as Simon braced his hands on Zeph's shoulders to pin him down.

Raziel's dark eyes shone with regret, magic crackling at his fingertips as he leaned in and grasped Zephryn's twisted ankle.

"Not going to lie, dragon, this is going to hurt like a motherfucker."