Page 19 of Waking Her Dragon

That was basically all he had left.

As the slow, heavy churning of the primordial waters echoed through the walls, a faint, weak ripple of amusement flickered across Garrett’s consciousness. It was a ghostly remnant of the man he used to be, cutting through the agony.

She had actually run. She had listened to him and done as he asked.

The Bond they shared had gone entirely dark. The warm, golden pressure that had nearly shattered his cage minutes ago had completely vanished, leaving behind nothing but the cold baseline of his own fading heartbeat. She had felt the danger, heard his command, and fled the blast radius.

A sudden, unexpected pang of emotion tightened his chest. It hurt worse than the iron spike in his shoulder. He had literally used his final breath to order her away. So why did a stubborn, irrational piece of his masculinity feel... slightly offended that she had actually listened?

“Good girl,” Garrett mumbled into the darkness, his split lip bleeding onto his bare and bruised shoulder. He forced a grim, self-deprecating smile. “At least... one of us has... some sense.”

Deep within the silent, locked-down recesses of his soul, a sound broke the quiet. It wasn't a word. It was a low, distinctly derisive snort—the unmistakable, arrogant rumble of a Dragon King making a deeply judgmental noise.

Garrett’s brow furrowed. His consciousness shifted inward.

“What?” His mental voice was weak but sharp. “What is it, Han?” He hoped using the Dragon King’s nickname would get him to talk.

But Aodhan remained shrouded in the shadows of their shared mind, refusing to step into the light. “Nothing,” the ancient entity radiated back, a flat wave complete silence slamming shut over the connection.

It was the first tiny hint that the King was keeping secrets. Garrett stared into the darkness of his cell, a sudden, uneasy suspicion creeping over him. Han knew something he didn't– and whatever the Dragon King was hiding, it meant Sydney's story was far from over.

The silence inside Garrett’s mind stretched tight, vibrating with an unnatural tension. Up until this moment, Aodhan had been a fortress of absolute denial– a crushing weight whispering a single, constant directive: No. Stay blind. Say nothing.

But when Sydney’s Light had punched through the blackness of The Abyss, everything changed. The raw, cataclysmic Power of the Mating Bond hadn't just reached Garrett. It had fractured the steel-plated walls the Dragon King had built inside their shared consciousness. The cracks were open, and through them, the ancient entity’s presence flooded into Garrett’s awareness with terrifying clarity.

It wasn't a seamless conversation. It came in jagged fragments– shards of raw emotion, flashes of blinding gold, and fleeting, age-old images that evaporated the second Garrett tried to grip them.

Frustrated and bleeding, he lashed out into the mental fog, his thoughts sharp and desperate. “Who is she?”

Silence. The fog didn't shift.

“Tell me!” Garrett demanded, his mental voice roaring against the borders of his own mind. “You know exactly who she is!” It was an accusation.

“No,” Aodhan’s voice finally resonated, a deep, tectonic rumble that shook Garrett’s very marrow.

Fury ignited in the Guardsman’s mind– white-hot and laced with a terrifying sense of violation. The anger pushed him past the physical pain of the iron spike and the creeping silver poison.

“You know her,” Garrett snarled, his consciousness pressing aggressively against the shadow of the Dragon King. “You took her from me.”

The accusation cut through the mental chamber like a razor blade.

Ouch.

From Garrett’s perspective, it was the honest-to-the-Goddess, unvarnished truth. Aodhan was the one who had systematically incinerated his memories. Aodhan was the one who had locked away the image of his Mate, leaving him hollow, floating in a dark sea of amnesia.

The Dragon King didn't flinch. He didn't retreat. But a heavy, suffocating wave of ageless sorrow bled out from Aodhan’s soul, carrying a crushing weight that he had been forced to bear completely alone in the dark.

“I kept her alive,” the Dragon King radiated back.

The four words hit Garrett with the force of a physical blow. The telepathic resonance was flat, exhausted, and absolute. There was no malice in it. No betrayal. Just the grim, tactical reality of a god who had chosen to mutilate his own vessel's mind rather than let a Demon Lord trace a path to the woman they both already loved.

Garrett went entirely silent, his mental rage collapsing into a stunned, hollow vacuum.

The jagged pieces of his reality suddenly shifted. The cold, mechanical ruthlessness he had perceived as a betrayal completely transformed. Aodhan hadn't stolen his life out of malice or cowardice.

The Dragon King had mutilated Garrett's mind to build a shield. And behind that shield, Sydney was alive.

The mental rage had cooled, but the hunger remained. Now that the door between their minds was cracked open, Garrett couldn't stop himself.