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Mace’s curse had me freezing.
And they would die if the threat were great enough.
My brows rose.
Explain.
Story and Declan. They’re formidable on their own, but together…they’re unstoppable. Each and every dragon rider and their mate—if they’ve found their mate, could have something similar to that. There are very few mated pairs left in this world, and the only mated pair we have at our sanctuary is Story and Declan.
How do you know so much about this? I asked.
Sadness filled Mace’s mind. But before I could read any more into it, he shut his thoughts down viciously.
So fast and quick that it literally hurt my brain to feel.
You were mated? I asked softly, my heart breaking for him.
I was. The cold, formal aristocratic tone of his voice made me wince. He only took on that tone when he was extremely pissed. And I hadn’t heard him slip into formal mode the entire time we’d been captive. But for his mate…for his mate he had and that was devastating.
I debated whether to ask my next question, but he beat me to it.
Daya was taken from me sixteen years, eleven months, and twenty-nine days ago.
I closed my eyes.
How are you still alive?
Dragons are different than dragon riders. Where riders grow weak without their mates, dragons grow stronger. We share a single life force, and when one drops off that force, the remaining dragon gets the entirety of the force they shared. It’s almost as if the departed mate pushes their share to their mate to give them a fighting chance without them. Mace explained.
Oh, God. That was terrible. Absolutely terrible.
I’m so sorry, Mace.
Nothing you can do, little one. It’s my burden to bear. I’m just telling you so you understand the dynamics of mating. If you worked together, instead of separately, life would be much different for all the mated pairs.
I took his words to heart as I finally finished washing my hands.
Once they were clean of the dirt and grime, I used the restroom, and then rewashed my hands.
The moment I’d finished, I startled when I saw Nikolai standing in front of the shower.
My mouth dropped open at seeing him standing there.
He held up his hand in a silent order to stay, pointed at the closed toilet seat, and then mouthed ‘sit.’
So I did, and then he disappeared before I could even think of something to say.
Had he watched me pee?
He didn’t watch you pee, Wink. Ian’s amused voice filled my ears. He did, however, instruct you to stay. He’s going to weave an illusion that should enable me to come in and get that thing he’s using to control you. When I have it, he’ll give us enough time to get out.
Mace’s tied up in the…
I have him. He’s safe.
Breathing a sigh of relief, I took a deep breath of air when suddenly I wasn’t where I was supposed to be anymore. Instead, I was back on the bed tied up, but I didn’t feel tied up. I still felt like I was sitting on the closed toilet.
Starting to panic, I lifted one of my arms and stared as it moved.
Then, suddenly, I was back in my body.
“Sorry,” Nikolai whispered through my thoughts. “It takes me some time to get control of the illusions when I’m tired.”
Then I was sitting back on the toilet seat, waiting for whatever signal I was supposed to get telling me that it was safe to make my escape.
It didn’t take but a minute before my signal became clear.
In the form of the six-foot-three, muscled man who was my mate.
My very pissed off mate.
The moment he came into the bathroom, I was in his arms, my legs wrapped around his waist, with my hands circled around his neck.
He didn’t give us a chance to reconnect, either.
The moment I was firmly in place, he stood back up, and immediately started walking out the door.
Mace waited for us, seeming no worse for wear.
Ian walked in fast strides straight for Mace, practically tossing me on his back as I held on for dear life.
The minute he was situated behind me, we were in the air, Mace pumping his large, hulking wings and taking us far, far away from that shit hole place.
Ian buried his face into my neck while I clutched at his arms.
My fingernails were digging into the skin of his arms, but he didn’t seem to care, and I couldn’t seem to stop myself from doing it. Now that I was safe again, everything that had happened over the last forty-eight hours began to overwhelm me. It was all too much, and I was on the brink of losing it.
Thoroughly.
We’d been in the sky for less than three minutes when I felt Ian tense behind me, causing me to turn to look at him.
And what I saw over my shoulder had me damn near falling out of the god forsaken sky.
