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“Take me to my nest, Edan,” she sighed, those few words more sensual than anything I’d heard her say. “Let him go and take me back down. I’ll mark you there.”

I moved forward, taking hold of Tally’s arm gently. He tilted his head, his eyes going wide as I pulled him back from the edge, the other Alpha letting go but looking too curiously at my hooded robe.

“No. You’ll mark me now, and choose which one you want as a courting gift.” Edan’s voice had me ready to run, though I knew that might be the end for both Tally and me. This was the heart of his domain.

The lava answered to him. The rocks we stood on were his.

His head turned toward me, and a smile that made me want to retch curled over his fire-riddled face. Of course, he’d known I was here. A thick rope of lava lifted out of the nearest pool and sliced through the air, creating a barrier around me and the boy on the floor. The heat this close seared my lungs.

Rada’s voice was flat. “Let them both go.”

One dark eyebrow lifted. “Claim me now.”

“Fine.” For some reason, her eyes flicked up to the patch of sky just visible at the top of the crater. Edan’s eyes followed hers, and his face shifted. I couldn’t help but look.

A dragon swooped and spun in the air directly above, his movements unmistakably taunting. An ice-blue dragon hung suspended in the gray sky, shimmering like thousands of diamonds had been caught in a glacier. Chunks of ice rained down into the caldera, most of them melting before they hit the cavern floor. But one landed on the lava barrier and turned it black instantly.

It was more than ice that Skadi had dropped into the maw. It was power.

Edan roared at his brother, his human neck somehow elongating and glimmering with red-gold fire.

Rada took advantage of his distraction. Her hand snaked out from under the sheet, and the dagger she held flew like a dark dove from her lap to his throat. It plunged into his neck, slicing neatly through some of the flesh, until it lodged a few inches in and stuck fast.

“Consider yourself marked,” she shouted.

Edan’s roar became a scream of agony as he dropped her on the ground. I wasn’t there to catch her, though. I was already halfway through killing the other Alphas, dragging Tally behind me as I fought to get him to the tunnel that led to the only way in or out of the maw.

A tunnel that collapsed before we could reach it. The air filled with dust, and Tally began coughing behind me. I spun, pulling the boy toward my robe to cover his mouth as I took in the scene. The other Alphas were dead or dying, the ground beneath their feet giving way as lava bubbled up from the maw.

Edan was changing, his whole body widening, lengthening, and glowing. The dagger hung from a very different neck now. A scaled one, that whipped like an enraged snake though the air around it as his great wings of fire grew larger.

Rada had landed on her feet as I’d hoped, but she fell to her hands and knees as the monster roared over her. The only good thing was that she wasn’t burned… yet. But it wouldn’t be long.

Above, the silver-white dragon trumpeted loud enough to be heard over Edan and the lava. Edan launched himself into the air, his wings coming so close the sparks from them singed my hair when they fell. The dagger was still lodged in his neck, but it didn’t seem to be slowing him down. He was through the opening at the top of the volcano in a few more wingbeats, and the maw quieted.

“Rada!” I choked out her name. She was half-wrapped in the sheet, but it was stained with blood, marked with burned patches, and the parts of it that came in contact with the ground were smoking like they might burst into flame at any moment.

She didn’t look up at my cry, too weak to respond. Too weak to move.

“We have to get her out,” Tally rasped, his jaw set.

I nodded, but my heart was racing. How could we rescue her, or ourselves? I made my way to her side, the heat of the stone underfoot scorching my soles, and lifted her off the ground.

“Ah!” I cried out unintentionally when my skin came into contact with hers. Rada was so hot, my hands burned when I touched her. I didn’t let go, but the pain was significant. “We need something. A rope, a ladder. Tally, do you see anything?”

Of course he didn’t. If there’d been anything to help us, it had burned with the Alphas. We withdrew to the rocky wall, where there were metal rings set into the cavern’s side. At least we could hold onto those if the floor gave way.

I nudged Tally, who kept glancing back at the bubbling maw. “Tear a strip of cloth from my robe and use it to cover your face. It will help you to breathe. Tally!” At my shout, he leaned down and obeyed. “Good. Now use my rope belt to make a sling to tie to the rings overhead, to hold you up. To hold her up.” He nodded and did as I instructed, though I had to lean forward and allow him to climb on my back to reach them, and talk him through the basic knots.

“Now what, sir?”

“You’ll loop the rope under your seat when it’s time, when I can no longer hold her. I’ll wrap the sheet around her and put her on your lap.” I tilted my head at the lava that was eating the cavern floor steadily, the fissure growing wider, deeper, and angrier. At this rate, we had no more than an hour or two. “When I hand her to you, try not to touch her skin. She’s burning up.”

“Her heat?”

I shook my head. “His.” He glanced at the blisters forming on the sides of my hands. “Her mates will come. One of them will save you.”

His eyes flared wide with alarm. “What about you?”