“It doesn’t matter if she dies,” Dahes said, his voice low. “I own her soul for eternity. Even in death, she’s mine. She will never belong to you.”
I ignored him. I already knew that and it broke me when I first heard it. She sold herself for some boy she used to love when she was fifteen years old. She probably didn’t even know what love was…
Maybe I didn’t either. I sold myself to save her, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
A lump formed in my stomach and sank as unwanted jealousy rose inside me. Nollie loved someone else, she was only pretending with me, she…
I stopped thinking, realizing a second too late that this was what he wanted. He was trying to mess with me. He was in my fucking head.
“Get the fuck out,”I snapped in my thoughts, testing my theory.
He smirked, white flashing across his alabaster mask as we neared the landing pad on the steps. Then I felt him inside it. I hadn’t noticed before, had been in a state of constant pain from his fucking torture that a headache was the least of my concerns.
“I’m about to make your life a living nightmare,”his voice echoed inside my head.“And I’ll start by showing you every way Magnolia is fucking mine.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Shitheads
MAGNOLIA
The cage was large. I could walk ten steps before I’d meet the other end, contemplating if I should use my transparency. I could walk right through the bars. The only problem was the sentries. Fifty of them surrounded us, and while I could keep my Token on, I was worried about Aura.
If they couldn’t get to me, they’d attack her. It was part of why Dahes ordered it.
I still couldn’t understand why she came. She didn’t care about me. She was doing it for Hael, even though it was obvious it was the opposite of what he wanted.
Steam wafted over my face as her rattle sounded. I stopped pacing, turning to face her. Her neon eyes weren’t blinking, but staring directly at me, like she could read everything I’d just been thinking.
The rattling grew.
Could she?
It grew louder, then more steam.
I was insane. I had gone completely and utterly insane because I was actually considering the possibility that a dragon could understand me. It made sense—the me being insane part, not communicating with a dragon. Ever since I found out about Masin, I hadn’t slept. I hadspent every waking second practicing my Token so that if this ever happened, I could use it.
I developed a slight tremor in my hand from the constant use, but I didn’t care because for the first time in over seven years, I had something that Dahes couldn’t fully control.
Only now I still couldn’t use it?—
Steam completely engulfed my cage, coating my skin in a thick layer of sweat, despite my little clothes. I went transparent on instinct, and the moment I did, Aura’s flames consumed the pit.
Fire was everywhere. I swore I could feel the heat of it even in this form.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
Stay in form. You are in control.
Seconds passed before the fire dissipated and the second it did, my mouth gaped open.
Metal melted into the packed dirt and there wasn’t a single sentry in sight. Aura burned them all. I had never known anything to break through their armor. It was supposed to be impenetrable, but she did it. Shemeltedthem—and not just them, but my cage too.
I glanced up at her, and even though her chains were now gone, she wasn’t moving. Was it because of Dahes? Was she going to stay in the Dome to save Hael?
She had a chunk of scale missing that was scabbed over that I assumed was from Dahes’ Ater, but now red was coating the pearly color where her chains had been.
I walked through what was left of the bars and out onto the pit, careful to stay in my form so the molten metal didn’t burn my feet.
