I’d been considering trying to recruit him, but it felt unwise to reveal that now. “You don’t worry about them crossing the border and attacking us?”
He stared at me unblinkingly. “No.”
I nodded. “Cool. Good talk.”
His jaw ticked. “Does your pack intend to attack the Mondeine?”
I blinked. How in the hell had he reached that conclusion from the little I’d said? Was he reading my mind, or was I just that transparent?
“You cannot get through the barrier, unless…” Realization dawned across his features like a slow-motion car wreck. “The artifact. Your pack intends to use it somehow. To breach the fracture.”
I watched the dragon process the implications of his own stolen property and realized something that would have been funny under different circumstances.
He had no idea what the bloodstone was for. Considering he referred to it only as the artifact or his treasure, he might not even know what it was. Had he never opened the box?
This guy knew even less than I did. My arms folded across my chest as I pursed my lips together.
He shook his head, snarling in disgust. “Idiots. All of you. So determined to destroy everything my family sacrificed for.”
I knew better than to respond, but he didn’t understand. “We are defending our people.”
“By striking first?”
“By utilizing the element of surprise.” Assuming this asshole didn’t notify them. I needed to stop talking.
“Your pack is either suicidal or foolish.”
My eyes narrowed. “I’m done talking to you.”
“This conversation ends when I say so, and not a moment before.” His growl raised the hair on the back of my neck. He latched onto my arm and yanked me against him. I stumbled into his cold, bare chest, and he wrapped an arm around me.
Before I had the chance to rip myself free, my home fell away. The next thing I knew, we were hovering above Seattle.
Above Pioneer Square.
“Actions have consequences,” he said. “And now you will witness the outcome of yours.”
There was a wrenching sound, and then something flew out of the pipe that concealed the den’s entrance. The door. It flew through the air, plowing into the two guards approaching the entrance and laying them out flat. An alarm screeched. I stared on in shock as a handful of my packmates trickled out of the den, weapons in hand, searching for the threat.
We were well within range of our ballistic weapons, but nobody looked straight up. None of our traps, diversions, or countermeasures were designed to stop a threat that could literally drop in on us from nowhere.
Water shot out of the Sound in a geyser, arching inland and—to my absolute horror—directly into the exposed entrance.
I wanted to move, to help my people evacuate, to murder the dragon who hovered in the air beside me. Grim determination was etched into his face, making him look like some avenging angel. His magic wrapped around me like a weighted blanket, keeping me from doing anything but watching on in horror.
“Just a dream,” I assured myself. “None of this is real.”
Only itfeltreal. Like I’d failed some sort of test I hadn’t even known I was taking, and now my pack would pay the price. I needed to rip out his throat before he slaughtered everyone I cared about. Fueled by desperation, I struggled against his hold to no avail.
The amount of magic he wielded was incomprehensible.
Raw, primal screams of terror and confusion ripped through the Underground, echoing off the walls and tunneling through the narrow passageways until they reached me with devastating clarity.
The voices were familiar.
Oh, gods, was that Tali?
“Stop,” I said.
