The roar comes again, and this time, we catch a glimpse of a silhouette in the passageway. Something moves, a large dark shape, coming closer.
"If Marlow wanders too far and gets lost," Iggy says. “Creatures attracted to the passage may try and get through.”
Something so massive trying to hijack Marlow’s passage… the beast can’t get through. It won’t be pretty for us or for Marlow.
Adelaide steps forward, her Alpha authority radiating off her. "We need to close that. Now."
"I agree, but I don't know how!"
Just then, the door to the interrogation room bursts open, and a stranger steps inside. He's short and wiry, with long black hair swept back in a messy ponytail. He looks young and like he doesn’t get enough to eat, but when he looks at the eerie purple light of the passageway, he doesn’t flinch. He only nods and squares his shoulders. I get the sudden feeling that this scrawny guy might be the most dangerous person in the room.
"Maybe I can help," he says.
"No, don't," Adelaide commands, but the man ignores her, stepping up to the portal with a determined look on his face. "What are you even doing here?"
"Are you sure, Dodger?" Cierra wonders, hovering behind him.
"Yes?" Not exactly a vote of confidence. Another bone-rattling roar echoes through the passage, and his expression hardens, becoming more focused.
The stranger, Dodger, plants his feet and raises his chin as the massive shape on the other side takes form with scales that gleam like polished obsidian, wings vast enough to eclipse the sun. A dragon. An honest-to-god dragon is trying to claw its way through Marlow's portal.
My throat goes dry. Marlow was right—creatures Iggy's size are infinitely better and significantly less likely to reduce us all to charcoal.
"Stop!" The man's voice rings with authority I wouldn't have expected from someone so slight. The dragon's head snaps toward him, yellow eyes blazing. It opens its maw, revealing rows of teeth longer than my forearm.
Dodger reaches to his side and pulls out what looks like a whip, crackling with electric purple energy that matches the portal's glow. Is that what I saw Adelaide purchase?
The dragon roars, the sound rattling the two-way mirror. Dodger cracks the whip. "Stay back. You're not getting through."
The beast rears back, wings unfurling in challenge. Looks like it might try to dive through, but Dodger's whip cracks against the passageway and I feel a rush of power pass by me. A flash of light has me shielding my eyes. There's a screech and Dodger shouts.
When I look again, the beast is gone. He did it.
One problem down, one to go.
"What about Marlow? Bring him back."
The man turns to me, his expression sheepish. "Uh, I'm not sure how. But I think you can."
"Me? How the fuck can I do this?" Give me the forest and tracking a scent, no problem. Other dimensions and mythical creatures? Not my strong suit.
"Just do something," he urges.
"Who the hell are you?" I ask.
"Dodg—uh, Kevin. Kevin Williamson."
What a normal name for a man who just stared down a dragon.
And then it hits me. The name on Marlow's rap sheet, the one he's charged with killing. Kevin Williamson. That's the victim's name. The man Marlow supposedly killed stands in front of me very much alive.
"What the fu—" I stammer, looking to the two Alphas who seem to know this mystery man better. Adelaide shrugs, seeming just as shocked as me to hear his name.
“Ask questions later," he says. “Right now, you need to bring Marlow back."
27.Return to Me
Wynn
