Page 27 of Waking Her Dragon

“Focus, Mo Nighean Shònraichte,” Kara commanded, her voice acting as a steady anchor in the dark.

Forcing her emotions down, Syd gripped the tether with raw, unyielding Magic instead. She pulled. Nothing. The world around her vanished into ink. She planted her feet and pulled harder.

Then…

Thump-thump.

Somewhere beyond that impossible doorway, Garrett was waiting. He might not remember her. He might not even know his own name.

But he was alive.

And that was enough.

A faint heartbeat echoed down the line. Sydney’s lips curved. "Found you."

No sooner had the words flown across her lips than the tether exploded into a brilliant, blinding light. A jagged, flashing vertical rip tore through the desert air, splitting the very fabric of Time and Space.

But there was nothing normal about it. It was completely wrong. Beyond the ragged, toothed tear lay dead stone, swirling gray mist, and a terrifying primordial rumble that shook the ground.

Carrick’s eyes went wide. "That's not a portal."

Sydney stared straight into the dark void. "No. It's a door."

"Sydney…"

But before Carrick could finish his warning, Sydney stepped through the threshold.

7

The moment Sydney’s Converse shoes hit the ground, everything felt fundamentally wrong. She didn’t look back to see if Carrick was following. She couldn’t. Her senses were instantly overwhelmed by the sheer, oppressive weight of The Abyss.

There was no sky. It wasn’t exactly darkness. It was more of a suffocating absence of anything above them. The air was so thick and stagnant it felt like breathing through wet cloth. Beneath her feet, the dead black stone bled a freezing, numbing cold right through the sole of her sneakers. A heavy gray mist clung to her skin, carrying the distant, roaring echo of primordial water and the unsettling vibration of something unimaginably massive moving far below.

A second later, the air fractured, and Carrick barreled through the threshold behind her. His pure White Dragon Magic flared, ready to strike.

“Sydney Kavanaugh,” he roared, his bloodshot eyes flashing with absolute fury as he grabbed her arm. “If we survive this, I am going to…”

“Ground me?” Sydney interrupted softly, not taking her eyes off the expanse ahead.

The brief, familiar bickering cracked the terrifying tension for a split second before a harsh tearing sound made them both spin around. The door was already trying to slam shut.

The vertical tear in reality was rapidly shrinking, the jagged edges snapping together like teeth. Then, just before it sealed completely, a brilliant ribbon of bright purple light flared through the narrowing gap.

Ginnie’s anchor held. The thread was painfully thin, but it locked the threshold open.

Carrick let out a rough breath. “There’s our way home.”

Sydney turned back toward the dead expanse, her heart shattering as a wave of agonizing familiarity crashed over her. “Then we’d better make sure we still have something to bring home.”

Garrett was there. It wasn't a vague pulse anymore. He was close. He was suffering, and every instinct she had screamed at her to run to him.

Sydney didn't know the layout of this nightmare landscape. She didn’t need to.

Thump-thump

The Mating Bond pulsed against her ribs, acting like a spiritual sonar in the dead silence. She walked blindly forward, completely locked onto the frequency of her Mate.

Thump-thump