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Scourge suddenly roars and turns his eyes skyward, and a moment later he launches into the air. The mist is finally beginning to burn off, and I watch with my heart in my throat as he flies to the western end of the dragongrounds. He’s met by a smaller winged outline in the sky who greets him with a thin, high shriek.
“Isavelle,” I bellow as I run forward, watching the turquoise dragon and Scourge circle toward the ground. “Isavelle.”
Her faint voice reaches me at last. “I’m here.”
They land along with Scourge. Esmeral allows my mate to slide to the ground and immediately takes off again, streaking toward the castle. Scourge was about to greet his mate properly and gives a surprised roar and swoops after her.
Relief pours through me. They’re both all right. Esmeral is unharmed, and my mate is alive. I’m preparing to ask my mate what the hell she thinks she was doing leaving the castle without telling me, when I notice her red-rimmed eyes, wild hair, and the tears streaking down her face.
I pull her into my arms and cup her face. “Sha’len, what’s wrong? What’s happened?”
Her scent is filled with grief and desperation. “They’re dead. They’re dead.”
“Who’s dead?”
Fresh tears spill down her cheeks. “It must be half of my village. They were killed in the most horrible way. It was whoever was behind the barrier to the south. The Shadow King. Some evil mage. Someone the Brethren are working for. There were strange, horrible mages there. They let half my village go, only to kill them. I had a vision—”
Isavelle is stumbling over her words between sobs, and I can barely understand her. I scoop her up in my arms and hold her face to my throat. “I’m here. Catch your breath and then tell me everything.”
As she wraps her arms around my neck and cries, I try to untangle what she’s just told me. She’s been to her village and back on Esmeral, and there are dead people there? What the hell has been going on?
Isavelle calms down enough to take a deep breath and says, “We were attacked.”
“You werewhat?” I set my mate on her feet, get down on one knee, and search her all over for blood and injuries.
She shakes her head. “I’m fine. Esmeral and Mistress Hawthorne helped me fight them off. But my mother and my brother, Zabriel. Poor little Waylen.” Isavelle sobs again. “It’s all my fault. I told someone I thought I could trust about my family, and they were working for the enemy the whole time.”
Her words fill me with alarm, and I take her face in my hands. “Isavelle. Someone here is working for the enemy? Who is it?”
“You don’t know her. She lives in the city. I met her the day I was attacked by the…” Her hand flies to her face in horror as she seems to realize something. “She lured me into the Brethren’s trap. I should have realized.”
Rage bursts through me. Someone Isavelle trusted has been putting her in danger. “Who is she? Tell me everything about her.”
While Isavelle relates what she can remember about a young woman called Odanna, Esmeral returns. She’s on foot this time and she’s dragging Dusan through the dragongrounds with her teeth clamped to his arm while Fiala jogs by her side. As soon as the two bodyguards catch sight of us and see Isavelle in floods of tears, Dusan pulls himself out of Esmeral’s grasp and the two wingrunners hurry toward us, their expressions horrified at seeing my mate so upset. I hold up a hand, cautioning them to remain silent while Isavelle finishes talking.
Meanwhile, Esmeral shoots off again. Scourge flies with her, unwilling to let the little dragon out of his sight.
“It was so strange,” Isavelle says, wiping her eyes, lost in remembrance. “Odanna didn’t seem to know where she was, or even who she was. She went blank for a moment. I saw her do that once before. Was she seeing something? Is that how I look when I’m having a vision?”
I have no idea about what this woman was seeing, and I don’t care. I want her dead. This woman put my mate in danger, and she’s responsible for the slaughter of half a village.
I grip Isavelle’s upper arms. “Whoever she is, we’ll find her and she will pay for her crimes to the full extent of my anger.”
Esmeral flies back with Captain Ashton running beneath her. The Omega dragon has brought everyone I need to protect Isavelle and start giving out orders.
I stand up, wrap my arms around Isavelle, and tuck her face against my chest while I address Ashton, Fiala, Dusan, and Stesha. “Someone in the capital is working for the enemy. We have to find her right away.” I describe the young woman as Isavelle described her to me.
“But how did she get from Lenhale to Amriste?” Dusan asks.
Fiala folds her arms, her expression thunderous. “Maybe she was out there waiting for Lady Isavelle.”
Ashton frowns and turns to me. “Ma’len, a wyvern disappeared from the eyrie a short time ago. We have been hunting for it, but perhaps it didn’t fly away of its own accord.”
“A city girl couldn’t ride a wyvern,” Stesha says.
I shake my head. “We don’t know who she is. Beyond the barrier, the Brethren could be training someone to fly our mounts. Ashton, be on the lookout for this missing wyvern as well as the woman Isavelle described.”
My gaze locks with Stesha’s, and an uneasy, angry sensation passes between us. Fury burns in my chest whenever I think about him, let alone look at him.
