“The question is, where the hell is Vaughn?” Tish snaps.
I get on my feet and search our surroundings. We’re at the edge of a forest at the bottom of a small hill, and on the horizon, I can see the top of a mountain. “Vaughn is in there.”
“Inside the mountain?” Igor steps next to me.
“Yes.”
A terrible roar comes from within the mountain, so loud that it makes the ground shake. Tish leaps into my arms, shaking. “That’s the Elder dragon, isn’t it? I think your boyfriend just became her meal.”
“He’s not dead,” I grit out.
“Yet,” she retorts.
I shove her into Igor’s arms and run up the hill. I need my arms free in case I have to perform a spell. Igor will protect Tish.
“Miss Sophie! Wait,” he calls after me.
“I can’t wait.”
As I reach the top of the hill, the three-headed dragon shoots from the peak of the mountain in all her terrifying glory before swooping down. She’s not coming in my direction, which means she’s attacking someone else. Vaughn.
I finally see a group of people at the foot of the mountain, but Vaughn isn’t there. My heart constricts so tight that I can’t breathe.
He can’t be dead. He can’t be.
I run faster, but my short legs aren’t a match against the wingspan of a dragon intent on killing. She’s within striking distance of the group of four people below. I grab the energized crystal hanging around my neck and begin to recite the same spell I used on the dragon shifter biker who was after Vaughn and me. He wasn’t an ancient and powerful dragon, though, and he was in his human form, so I need to put way more juice into this spell in the hopes that it will work.
But before I finish casting, the blonde woman in the group creates a tornado that envelops the Elder dragon and sends herso high up into the sky that she disappears. Bloody hell. It’s like she blasted the dragon out of space. I’ve never seen that type of power before.
That must be Vivi, Lucca’s girlfriend.
I slow my pace because Vaughn isn’t with them, and I’m not sure if he told his friends about me. Igor catches up with me, grabbing my arm so I stop completely.
“You can’t rush like that. They’ll think you’re here to attack them,” he tells me.
“They don’t know who I am,” I argue, out of breath.
“That’s Lucca and Ronan. They certainly know whoIam.”
“What? Not friends of yours?” Tish snorts.
“I’ve tried to kill them too many times, and vice versa.”
“Where’s Vaughn?” I whisper through a choke. My vision is already getting blurry thanks to the tears.
“You don’t think he was ki—” Tish starts.
“Shh!” Igor cuts her off.
I wipe off the first tears that fall. I want to believe he’s alive, but the ache in my chest is telling me he might be gone.
I begin to fall into despair when I see Vaughn appear from the other side of the mountain. He’s with a red-haired guy and Solomon.
“He’s alive,” I breathe out.
“Thank fuck,” Tish mutters.
I start to run again, but Igor stops me once more. “Wait, Miss Sophie. Look.”
