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Chapter 49

I am shaken awake, cold wet hands gripping my shoulder as I’m pulled into a sitting position. My eyes feel like sandpaper as I force them open to see my surroundings. I feel relief wash over me. It is Aldrin, holding me up. He is drenched in blood and his pale face watches me worriedly.

“Elora you need to stay awake,” he whispers. I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. I look around, gasping as the surroundings materialize in front of me. We are both sitting on a huge rock within a cave, surrounded by hundreds of Dragons, or half Dragons. They are all screeching menacingly, some rambling in foreign tongue.

“Don’t move too fast,” Aldrin whispers. It’s not like I can anyway, everything is aching, my head is pounding. The cave is huge, the ceiling towers high, with an opening that gapes out at the night sky. There’s a fire burning in the middle and after looking behind me, I realize we’re at the back of the cave, about fifty feet from the opening. Flaming torches are thrown on the rocky surface at random, lighting the cave enough to see.

I notice the man from atop the Dragon, his muscular frame moving between the Dragons in their weird forms. Another man is beside him, holding some bucket dripping of red liquid and I gasp when I realize it is Aldrin’s blood. I notice a few men standing around to the side of us rambling, they are in human form but by the way they are moving and chattering, they aren’t of sound mind but are clearly human again.

Both men look up, a huge smile splitting onto his face. “Malika, she has awoken,” he says looking at the other man. There’s a huge scar on his face that stretches from his eye all the way down his neck, his face contorting as he smiles and licks his lips.

They both turn toward us, and I feel Aldrin tense beside me when their attention is diverted when a pack of Werewolves walk into the caves opening, growling, teeth bared. The black wolf walking ahead of them all, shifts into a man with shoulder length hair, his eyes pitch black as he steps over the Dragons. One of them tries to bite him, but he swiftly kicks it in the head, stepping over it as he makes his way to the centre.

“We did what you asked Jed, hand over our mates and we will be on our way,” the man says.

I watch as the rest of the wolves shift into human form, their eyes looking around the huge cage.

“Settle down Madok, you will get your mates, but she stays. I can’t have her running back to the castle and telling them where we are.”

I gasp when a female steps forward. Horror overtakes me. Is she the reason they got into the castle? It’s Taylor, who accompanied Abigail and I to her family’s house. Taylor, who has been present at the curse-breaking seminar.

“The King’s know where you are, they always have known you hide in these caves,” Taylor tells him, her eyes darting to me and I see her swallow before giving her attention back to Jed.

“Very well, bring them out!” Jed yells. I hear shuffling off to the side to notice a crack in the cave wall that must have been used as a makeshift prison. Women rushing out of it, completely naked as they run towards their mates.

“I’m sorry Elora, I had no other choice,” Taylor calls to me. I only met her a couple times. She was Dragus’ friend and escorted me to Abbie’s a few times, so I am shocked to see that she is behind this. How could she be friends with the Dragon King’s and betray them?

“Don’t talk to her!” Jed snaps and she turns her glare back to him.

“Our Alpha will come for her, not even the fates will save you when he does,” she spits at him while the wolves rush their mates out of the cave.

“Is that so and who is this mysterious Alpha if you don’t answer to Madok then little wolf.”

“King Dragus of Draquin, you fool, you just took his Queen,” she says, turning on her heel and walking out of the cave.

“Well, that was certainly entertaining now, wasn’t it, children?” Jed says, turning back to us and walking up the rocks.

“Well it seems I now have a deadline, looks like I have no time to waste,” he says, reaching for me. I smack his hand away and Aldrin also struggles. Then, Jed retrieves a blade from his belt and holds it to my throat.

“Don’t fight me, it will just make your death faster,” he says. Aldrin freezes as the cold steel of the blade presses tightly against my throat.

“Now get up, Fae boys blood works but is a lot slower, and now that I have a time limit, I need to speed things up a bit.”

He grips my arm, hauling me to my feet. Aldrin tries to get up, but I shake my head, he doesn’t need to get himself killed for me. He already looks weak enough with slices up and down his arms.

The man grabs my arm, pressing the blade to the inside of my elbow and running it down to my wrist. My blood pours out and down my arm while he catches the steady stream in a small bowl. I see the other man, Malika, approach when he suddenly bites his wrist, and grips my hair, yanking my head back and forcing his blood down my throat, healing the wounds. He tosses me on the ground back toward Aldrin. I watch as they walk around giving the Dragons my blood, they are right, Aldrin’s blood takes longer to work, some still not having changed back, whereas mine works almost instantly.

“They have been draining me for hours, my magic is weak now, not working as quickly.”

“I can’t even feel mine,” I whisper back to him and his eyes dart to my stomach.

“You need blood, lots of it, or you need daylight, we are creatures of the light,” he says looking to the ceiling above where the roof opens up. Dragons shifting where they lay in the cave, all around us. Pluto was right, a lot aren’t mentally stable, some even trying to attack Jed and Malika even after they are changed back.

Malika is chaining them to the rock walls, and I notice a few of the mutated Dragons are also chained down. Aldrin noticing my stare as I looked at the half man half Dragon beside us.

“Don’t move too close to that one, he nearly ripped off my arm,” he says, and I nod.

“Pluto told me some of them weren’t of sound mind.”