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Though, keeping her sealed in a dark cell wasn’t how I suspected someone would treat their mate, even a forced one. That made me even more confused about Knox’s reasons for all this destruction.
“There was one other person that I heard them talking to in the cells,” she said. “Knox wanted some sort of payment from him, but the man had refused.”
Could have been another dragon with powerful scales. They existed much like mine. If used with certain energies, they could create electricity with the force of a lightning bolt. I hadn’t warned Beatrix about that. If she wanted to play with things she didn’t understand, she could learn the hard way.
“We have to go back for him,” she added. “The man—Darius. I left him behind, but I made a promise to myself that I’d go back.”
My entire body froze, and my voice strained. “Darius? You’re sure that’s his name?”
Her eyes creased at the sides, likely confused by my strong reaction. “Yeah. Knox was beating the shit out of him, and Estelle told him to stop. It sounded like they were using him for something important, but he was done being used and ready to die.”
I closed my eyes briefly and thought about every dragon I’d met over the years. Not just the thousands who had lived right here, but even those who lived further out in the mountains.
There had only ever been one Darius, and I hadn’t seen him since I was twelve years old.
“My father’s name was Darius,” I said. “You’re absolutely certain that was the name they used?”
Of course, I hadn’t met every dragon in Drago, but given how tightly wound into this situation my family was… It couldn’t be a coincidence.
Dawsyn’s face paled. “I think it’s him. Knox said something.” She bit the inside of her cheek. “Shit. What was it?”
I waited as patiently as I could while she thought back. Her fingers pressed over her temples and then she jerked her head up. “‘It will be your blood I come for next.’ That’s what he said to Estelle. Is she your dad’s mom?”
I nodded, both of us putting the pieces together. Estelle had never been forthcoming about her talents. She preferred to act out and let people think she was crazy, but I’d always assumed it was a façade to hide her true power. Whatever it was…Knox thought he could use it as well.
But my father. His was fire. The fireballs being launched over the town were beginning to make more sense.
Fuck. I thought I’d feel better knowing more about the person we’d been trying to find for months. Instead, all I felt was unfiltered ire and hurt.
Family was important to most dragons. We stuck together, always, but somewhere along the way, one of my parents left a son behind. Now he was trying to take everything from me.
That wasn’t going to fucking work for me.
Dawsyn grabbed my face with both hands. “Hey. Look at me. You’re okay. Whatever he’s done can’t be changed, but we’ll stop him from hurting anyone else.”
I couldn’t speak. The rage was too tightly wound inside me, but somehow, even without the bond, Dawsyn knew this.
She stood from the rock, then glanced down at herself with a sneer. “This needs to fucking go.”
I hadn’t put too much thought into why she’d been wearing a dress over her jeans and shirt, but as she ripped the fabric from her body, I had a feeling it was something she’d been forced to wear.
Once the scraps of material dropped to the ground, she put her hands back on my face and smiled. “Better.”
Her fingers stroked over my rough skin, thanks to the dragon inside dying to come out and destroy every inch of the dark forest.
Her legs inched closer until she could straddle my lap, locking her ankles around my back.
As her hands moved from my face to the back of my head, every nerve in my body ignited. I gripped her hips, holding tightly and anchoring her to me. “Dawsyn, you don’t need to calm me down this way.”
“Who said this was for you?” she snarked. “I just spent a week in a dank cell, isolated and waiting for bad shit to happen to me. Maybe it’s me who needs you.”
She was lying. We both knew it. But I didn’t stop her when she pressed her lips to the tip of my nose, my forehead, both cheeks, and then my mouth.
I gently kissed her back, letting her distract the rage inside me. With every touch, my muscles relaxed but my heart still raced—only for very different reasons.
“Your scales are gone,” she whispered against my ear before scraping her teeth along the edge.
A shiver shot through me and straight to my balls. “They won’t be for long if you keep that up.”
