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“You mean they’ll kill him.” Delaney said it in a flat tone, not sure how she felt about that.
“Will he die? Yes. Without whatever it is that the League uses to prolong their lives, they come apart faster than they do with it. They literally start to come apart genetically. Their DNA breaks down, and then the bones and all the other body parts start imploding. The Phantom Fire won’t stand by and watch him die like that. They will euthanize him. Believe me when I say they are showing him a far greater mercy than he was offering you.”
“You believe in them—in what they’re fighting for.”
“I do. Understand my first loyalty is to my mate and long before I believed in any of this, I believed in him. He was willing to walk away from everything he’d known for thousands of years to be with me. I don’t take that lightly and neither should you.”
“I’d like to sit here and not believe any of this. A part of me would like to convince myself that this is all some kind of nightmare or that I’ve gone mad, but I don’t think I can do that. Tell me, is my sister safe with Ridley Monroe’s people?”
Dani laughed. “Have you ever met Ridley? He’s a charming rogue, completely enraptured by his eternal flame, but he drives the Phantom Fire nuts. He plays by his own rules, takes very little of life seriously, but he and his people would die to keep Lucy safe. Dragons, at least the good ones I’ve met, are kind of like that.”
“Are there bad dragons?”
“I’m a cop. I know that light always balances dark; good always tempers evil. It’s the way of the world, so yes, there are bad dragons—Abraham or Apophis being one of them.”
Warrick and Tevryn entered the yurt. Both looked weary.
“Is it dead?” asked Delaney.
Tevryn’s head snapped up. Delaney could tell he hadn’t wanted her to know that. “Yes; it was horrific. Sobek put an end to its misery.”
“Did you learn anything?” asked Dani.
Warrick smiled. “Always the cop.”
“Damn straight,” she replied, returning his smile.
“We confirmed that Whistler and Abraham are not in league with one another, although that may change,” said Tevryn.
“Why do you say that?” asked Delaney, scooting over so he could join her on the bed.
“Once Abraham figures out his demonic trio failed to neutralize you, he may see using Whistler as the best way to try and eliminate the threat of the Phantom Fire. I don’t know that it will happen, but it does make some sense.”
Warrick nodded. “I agree. I can also see them joining forces—each planning to double-cross the other and come out on top—to get the tablet and destroy whatever power it has over dragons.”
A sudden awful thought occurred to Delaney. “What if it isn’t a power over dragons in general, but the Phantom Fire in particular?”
“What do you mean?” asked Dani, intrigued.
“What if, by destroying the tablet, they could strip away the Phantom Fire’s immortality? I’m assuming that has been a mainstay of their ability to perform what they see as their sacred duty?”
“Whoa,” said Dani. “And if that’s so, there’s no way Abraham wants that to happen.”
“Come on,” said Warrick, helping Dani from off the bed. “Let’s go talk to Sobek. I think we need to get our researchers on this.”
Once they were gone, Tevryn pulled Delaney into his lap, wrapping his arms around her and taking comfort in her presence.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“For what?” he asked, looking her in the eye.
“That you had to do that. That the Shadow League has forced the Phantom Fire to do things I don’t think they would otherwise be inclined to do.”
“Thank you for understanding. Believe me when I tell you, Sobek did the only kind, humane thing we could do. A part of me thought I wanted to see it suffer for what it had done to you, but when it actually started to unravel, I could only feel sympathy for it. After all, from what we’ve heard, it’s not like the mutants are volunteering.”
“We need to find the rest of that tablet,” said Delaney.
“We don’t need to do anything. You need to remain here at Dragonwyk while myself and some of our warriors see if we can find it.”
