Kai: The scent of blood and decay waged a relentless assault on my heightened sense of smell. Endless shadows consumed the musty dungeon air around me. Days and weeks dragged on while there was no way to escape the chains that held me in this hell.

I wasn’t a stranger to darkness; I’d become a damned creature of the night so long ago I hardly remembered the light.

Being the one chained and tortured was, however, a new one for me. Rage burned hot in my veins as I lay immobilized on a jagged stone table. The only thing I could see above me was the ceiling. Guards kept constant watch, inflicting pain at intervals to ensure I was still under the effects of the magic that kept my body motionless.

I frequently passed the time by imagining the brutal revenge I would get the moment my captors slipped up. They would cower in fear until I annihilated every single one of them.

As a boy, my father had tried to teach me about honor and shit, and he was my hero, so I believed every damned word that came out of his mouth. I had tried to live in the light like he had.

Then, like so many of our race, he died on a mission for the High Lord.

At the time, I thought he died for honor.

But I wasn’t ten years old anymore. Now I knew the truth. My father’s death was another wasted sacrifice in the service of a tyrant. The darkness in me had seeped in since my father’s death—reaching its consuming peak after Jalak slave traders murdered my first wife, Mila. Slave traders who ultimately worked for the High Lord, just like the rest of us.

It was the only life any of us dragonborn had known for so long—living and dying for Lord Alifar. It seemed like an inevitable fate. I might have inherited my wings and my birthright from my father, but I had long since tossed aside the sense of honor he had tried to instill in me.

I’m nobody’s hero.

The thought sent a twinge of shame through me. The memory of Astrid’s face flashed in my mind. If anyone ever could, somehow, see me as a hero, I would want it to be Astrid. She stirred the long-lost light in me like no one ever had.

Everything about that woman lured me like a siren’s song. The moment I saw her running from the Jalak slavers in the forest, I’d been hooked. Oh, I’d tried to ignore the urge to step in… but it had been pointless. Fear flashed in her eyes as the Jalak gained on her, and her companion fell unconscious. But when she turned to face them—unarmed—with the fire of courage in her eyes…

Even now, with every part of my body aching and bruised, my heart stuttered at the memory. The first glimpse of her.

She seemed to embody everything good my father had ever tried to teach me, along with all the life and beauty that I had admired in my late wife. Seeing Astrid in that moment, something in me came alive.

And I couldn’t let them take her.

After that, I’d tried to deny the pull I felt—the need to be near her. But all my failed attempts at denial had only enlightened me to one undeniable truth about myself: I couldn’t fucking think straight if Astrid was in danger.

This inconvenient instinct had me saving that pretty little ass of hers every chance I got.

Eventually, I’d caved and let her have me completely. Looking back, it had been inevitable. She had slipped past my defenses and into my heart, and I hadn’t even realized it until she’d already become my entire world.

Now, here in this dungeon, stripped and beaten and enduring repeated torture sessions, thinking about Astrid was the only way to cope with the pain.

The night we sealed our mating ritual was a memory I replayed over and over. I relished every detail.

The way she came into the training room at the rebel base, like a goddess, with sweat glistening on her skin and the scent of her hormones full of desire.

The way I could hear her heart pounding as she told me she wanted to complete our mating bond…

Countless experiences with other women had not prepared me for what mating with Astrid would do to me. The act had left my blackened, untethered soul at peace for the first time in my life. Not even my mating bond with Mila had affected me like that. Astrid and I fit together in a way that went beyond the physical and into realms I had never known existed. Even now, I could feel the bond between us—like she was my anchor in a sea of storms.

Astrid had brought me the light of salvation that day.

Here in the darkness, bound by magic and chains, she saved me over and over again, as thoughts of her kept me sane and grounded.

I didn’t know how long I had been in this dungeon—how many days I had endured torture on orders from the man my father died protecting. A bitter chuckle escaped my throat at the irony of that little fact. The sound came out hoarse and croaking.

Scuffing boots on the stone floor and a strong kick to my head reminded me, once again, that I wasn’t alone in this dark cell.

There was always a guard—always a measly foot soldier. Those pieces of shit who had nothing but robotic loyalty for Alifar.

The High Lord knew better than to send another dragonborn into this room. The dragonborn were all loyal to Alifar as well—until it came to me. They wouldn’t oppose the High Lord enough to let me go, but they would never torture me.

The inner circle and these foot soldiers, on the other hand, were all too happy to do that job. Most of them resented the dragonborn race because we were powerful and we were Alifar’s favorite weapons, despite some of our more recent questionable loyalty.

I’d endured brutality in the weeks I’d been here, though nothing could compare to the hack job they had made of my right wing. The bastards had taken a sick amount of pleasure in breaking it in several places. They were lucky I’d been immobilized by magic-infused serum injections and bound by chains reinforced with magic as well.

Alifar knew how hard a dragonborn was to hold. I had no doubt that this room had been sealed by magic as well. My body was rigid, but I could feel everything perfectly, and if ever my mind drifted from Astrid, it raged.

If I could only get my body to move a little, I would rip these men apart.

Which they surely knew. So they were careful to keep me paralyzed.

I could wait for my moment.

Between bouts of torture, they transferred me. Over and over again, they moved my location of imprisonment. Every dungeon brought more of the same. Beatings. Torture. Darkness. Every transfer, they kept me restrained and under the guard of six inner circle mages who made sure I stayed dosed with their magic.

“Not sure why we’re transferring him again instead of going straight to the banishment.” The voice belonged to the foot soldier of the day.

Banishment.

A chill went through me.

Banishing prisoners to the void that had once been the Realm of Shadows was one punishment Alifar favored, so my dragonborn hearing went on high alert.

“The High Lord’s timing is not your concern,” a deep male voice responded in a tone that implied a threat, though I couldn’t turn my head to get a visual.

“Of course.” Fear in the first soldier’s tone made it clear he’d gotten the message. Shuffling footsteps and the clanging of the heavy door indicated the soldier had left the cell, leaving me in relative silence with six inner circle mages.

After a beat, a woman’s voice floated on the silence. “I’m not sure why we bother at all.” Her whispering grew hurried. “Sending prisoners and slaves over has had no effect, and we’ve been trying for years.”

Their conversation had piqued my interest, even through my pain. I kept my breathing steady as I listened.

“Does it matter?” This third voice was male and whiny. “If we keep trying, worst case, the High Lord is simply appeased, but imagine the glory Alifar would give us if we achieve the rift he desires.”

“Large enough to get an army through?” The woman scoffed.

“Large enough to send her through,” the whiny man said. “That may be all it takes.”

A rift large enough for a woman to slip past. But who and why? A rift in what?

“It will never happen.” The woman’s response was dismissive and final.

Their conversation left me with questions, and the fact that they’d risked me hearing any of it told me they didn’t plan on letting me live much longer.

They’re going to send me through that portal to die if I don’t escape before then.

Every day, I could feel the effects of the injections lessening, but it was by minute degrees.

I’m running out of time.

“Let’s get back to silence, as usual.” It was the deep male voice again. “The prisoner may be powerless, but considering who we’re dealing with, the High Lord would skin us alive for getting lax with sensitive information.”

“Not to worry.” The woman’s tone dripped with unholy delight. “I’ll gladly distract his mind.”

She leaned over me, her wicked smile filling my vision as she caressed my face with the sleeve of her robe.

Blinding pain erupted in my skin everywhere she trailed the fabric. I tried and failed to flinch away. She leaned in closer, enveloping my exposed skin with the infamous fabric of her inner circle robe.

My skin burned like acid. My mind begged me to scream. Yet the immobilization magic kept me still and quiet. Every excruciating second that ticked by, my skin blistered under her touch.

Even after she pulled the robe away, the pain lingered.

There was a reason people in the Realm of Light feared these mages and the robes they wore. I had voluntarily touched an inner circle robe only once.

Guards jostled my rigid body as they strapped me to the transport gurney. Their rough handling of my countless injuries caused fresh waves of agony to roll through me.

Grasping at the memory, I dragged it into focus. Desperate to distract my mind from the searing pain.

I had stolen into the rafters of Alifar’s inner sanctum, only to watch Astrid single-handedly bring the High Lord to his knees—up to that point, I had never been more turned on. Seeing the amount of courage she had, all wrapped up in such a petite, feminine frame… oh, she had tugged at both my heart and my carnal desires.

But then she lost her sister to the ascension ritual, and I watched her unleash her power in a storm of magic that filled the room in every color.

It was brutal.

She was breathtaking.

And her despair had devastated me.

Attackers came at her from every side and my predator instinct took over—I would end them all. I dropped from above, ready to fight at her side. But the building was coming down around her, and it became clear she was unaware of the danger.

She needed an extraction.

That day, Astrid was wearing a robe of the nightmare fabric. And while it did not affect her, because of the blood that ran through her veins, I knew what would happen if I touched the shimmering black material.

I didn’t care.

Protect her became my only clear directive.

I took her into my arms and launched into the air. The robe burned my skin, but I hardly noticed as I held her with a possessiveness I had no right to feel.

More memories flooded me.

Landing on the safety of the nearby roof. Ripping that robe off her.

How much I wanted to keep her in my arms forever…

Regret had swarmed in later. Regret that I’d let my fear manifest as anger to push her away. The wasted months that came after that, with Astrid in another realm, had been another kind of torture.

A worse torture even than everything Alifar’s minions threw at me.

Day by day, my dragonborn body was building immunity against the serum injections they gave me. Eventually, I would have the ability to move just a little. Then it was a matter of time before these soldiers slipped up in their vigilance, and I would seize the chance for escape.

I would find a way out of Alifar’s dungeons and back to Astrid’s side if it cost me everything. I only hoped my chance came before it was too late.

Astrid:  We raced through the dungeon—Guards on our heels. One threw knives.

A blade whipped past my head. The man ahead of me went down, his blood splattering the stone wall. I jumped over his fallen body, choking back a scream.

I faltered, not wanting to leave him.

One glance told me he was dead. I didn’t know him well, but he was a civilian, Jed. We’d hired him for this job. There wasn’t time to dwell on the loss.

A guard got close enough to swipe at me. I sent a torrent of my yellow magic at him, and the wind blew him back.

I ran.

“Astrid, hurry!” Ryder called to me from around the next corner.

Red magic surged towards me. Hurling myself around the corner, I flung a crude shield up behind me and ran harder. In the dim light, I could see Ryder and the others several paces ahead.

The smell of burnt hair and fabric assaulted me. Fire was filling the corridor where I had been. My hastily conjured shield barely did anything.

The fire was getting too close. I needed to block the flames from reaching the others and buy my team some time.

Skidding to a halt, I turned and threw all my concentration into an indigo shield.

“Get to the extraction point!” I yelled over my shoulder. Footsteps pounded away from me, and I whirled to face the charging enemies.

The inferno engulfed the hall on the other side of my shield. Another knife sailed through the flames and met my barrier.

I jolted. My blood froze.

It would have gone through my eye.

Too close.

The mage-fire energy pushed at my shield, and I gritted my teeth to hold it back.

I watched the fire die out.

Four guards approached and began hacking at my defense.

If I wasn’t there channeling my power to keep the shield strong, it wouldn’t take long for them to break it. I’d hold the line as long as I could, then leave the shield up and run.

Thirty seconds… Make it count, Ryder.

Mentally, I counted down and focused on the indigo magic at my third eye, willing the shield I was creating to become bricks. The magic obeyed, and the translucent indigo barrier took on the appearance of an indigo brick wall. Stepping back, I tripled the thickness of the wall, making it nearly impossible to see through. I could still sense the guards slashing at the other side, every blow sending a chill down my spine.

Please hold.

Leaving my wall in place, I turned and ran.

Halfway down the hall, I glanced back to see the wall flickering under the stress. It wouldn’t hold long. I pushed myself harder down the hall and around the corner.

When I caught up with my team, it was because they’d run into a dead end and were trying to chop their way through a heavy wooden door barring our escape.

I scanned our small band of men, knowing I wouldn’t find him, but my gut still dropped knowing we were about to leave without Kai—again. “Are we sure we checked every cell?”

Ryder gripped my shoulder. Sweat gleamed on his face. “He’s not here, Astrid. We have to get out!”

I shook my head. “He has to be here!”

Over the past months, we had hit every dungeon, every holding facility, and every torture chamber in the realm.

Desperation clawed up my throat.

Kai, where are you?

This is the last place I know to look.

A dragonborn soldier with leathery brown wings and two ivory horns swooped in from the shadows to face us. The promise of death flashed in his eyes, and I fought a tremor of panic.

The men behind me were so close to getting through the door.

Summoning my magic on instinct, I took a fighting stance.

He was here to kill us. But I wanted answers. Needed answers. Drawing on the strength that came from being mated to my own dragonborn, I pushed past the terror in my chest.

“Where is Kai?” I demanded.

His voice was like gravel. “The High Lord sent the deserter to the Realm of Shadows.”

Dread flipped in my stomach.

Shit…

The Realm of Shadows was destroyed a long time ago.

Shit, shit, shit.

“But that’s a death sentence.” My words came out choked.

“It’s an execution,” the soldier corrected.

“He’s right.” Anger brimmed in Ryder’s tone. “If Lord Alifar sends you through that portal, it’s into oblivion.”

The soldier drew a massive blade, serrated on both edges, with two points at the tip instead of one. My blood ran cold.

To my right, Ryder sucked in a breath. “The Bone Carver.”

“Glad to see I don’t need an introduction,” the dragonborn said.

I summoned my indigo magic and shielded the group just as the door behind me gave way with a crash to our team’s abuse.

Glancing back, I saw several of our team step through the splintered door into another darkened hallway.

“Go!” I ordered.

But Ryder stayed.

“Ryder…” I said through gritted teeth.

“I won’t betray Kai again.” Ryder shook his head. “Besides, Kai would come back from the dead and end me if I left his mate here to die.”

From the dead… The fact that he believed Kai was dead hit me like a gut punch, but I refused to acknowledge the idea.

Inside, I riled up my magic. I was about to channel all of my anger on this Bone Carver scumbag. I needed Ryder to get out of here before I lost control.

The dragonborn on the other side of the barrier seemed to study me. I didn’t actually have a plan beyond unleashing the full force of my fury with my magic. The roaring of my power in response to my emotions was starting to make me feel dizzy.

They sent Kai to a place no one has returned from in two thousand years.

My chest seized up. I couldn’t remember how to breathe.

“Astrid?” Ryder’s voice jolted me back to the present.

My body trembled. I couldn’t afford to have a panic attack right now. I forced my lungs to take in air. Something inside of me snapped, and I didn’t know if it was denial or a knowing within me, but my entire being rejected the idea that Kai was dead.

Wherever Kai is… he’s alive.

I focused on that thought like a lifeline.

He’s alive, and he needs me.

I said it over and over in my head, like a mantra that endowed me with strength.

Hope awakened my senses, and I felt powerful.

Ryder tugged at me gently. “We have to deal with the problem in front of us, Astrid.”

The problem in front of me was a very large, very menacing dragonborn with a scary-as-shit sword, who didn’t seem at all intimidated by my magic shield.

Ryder tried again to drag me away, but my eyes stayed locked with the dragonborn on the other side of the barrier.

I couldn’t let him kill me. If I was going to find a way to bring Kai back, I couldn’t die today.

I turned and stepped through the mangled door into the next corridor.

Without looking back, I sent a torrent of green magic behind me to choke the opening with vines. My grounding shoes allowed me to draw magic up from the earth, so I could keep my own strength to run.

We just have to get to the extraction point.

Tyler would be waiting with Sakashi. The young wyvern and the large blue dragon, Saphora, would swoop in and provide cover.

Soldiers flooded the dimly lit corridor ahead of us. We were cut off again. Our small band of recruits clashed swords with the soldiers in close combat, and the sound of clanging steel reverberated through me.

There was nowhere to go. Behind us, the Bone Carver hacked at my vines. He would break through soon.

All I’d done is trap us all.

I drew in a sharp breath and shoved the thought aside. Placing my hand on the stone wall on my right, I used my earth magic to sense how far to the next open space. It was hard to tell—I wasn’t good at it yet—but from what I could sense, we were too deep in the mountain to get through that way.

I tried the wall on the other side.

In my peripheral, I saw one of Ryder’s friends fall, his body hitting the floor with a sickening thud.

Focus. Focus!

My earth magic sensed another opening through this wall. I didn’t hesitate. I used my green magic to move the earth and open the wall. The ground shook. Rock and debris rained down everywhere.

But it worked. The new opening gave us a path of retreat.

“Run!” I screamed at my comrades. I flung a little yellow magic to blow dirt into the soldier’s faces, giving my team a chance to get out, and turned to follow them. One soldier, clearly an earth mage, tripped me with roots around my ankles. My hands slammed into the stone floor, and I rolled my body to face my opponent. The roots around my ankles tightened.

With a flick of his hand, the earth mage sealed the hole I had made in the wall.

I was trapped and alone with the enemy.

Our escape plan had worked on half a dozen missions before, but this time, I had pushed the group too far. Taken too many risks.

At least my team wouldn’t die here with me.

The Bone Carver stepped into view and towered over us. Two other soldiers flanked him, though I got the feeling he wasn’t the sort who needed backup. Cold spread through my body, and I readied my magic.

Without looking away from me, the dragonborn barked orders at the soldiers. “Go after the others. I’ll take care of this one.”

The earth mage reopened the damaged wall, and the soldiers ran down the corridor, leaving me alone with the Bone Carver.

I summoned an indigo barrier between us—the situation a little like déjà vu.

With my green magic, I subtly loosened the roots around my ankles, but I didn’t make a move to stand. I needed to choose the right moment to run, and coordinate it with some kind of magic attack, or I didn’t have a prayer.

My pulse hammered in my throat, but I knew better than to show weakness to this predator. “Brave of you to face me on my back with my feet trapped.”

He scoffed. “Your feet are no more trapped than mine are.”

Damn. He was observant.

Tamping down the fear I felt, I zoned in on my anger.

This guy had betrayed Kai, letting the High Lord banish him and—

The Bone Carver sheathed his gnarly sword, catching me completely off guard. Was he planning to face me unarmed?

“You’ll regret that momentarily.” The acid in my tone promised punishment. I hoped he could hear it.

In a salute of honor I had seen Kai use several times, the dragonborn struck his fist against his chest and bowed his head briefly.

What is this game he’s playing?

“We don’t have much time before more soldiers come.” The Bone Carver’s scowl had softened into an expression that looked like regret. “I did what I could to help Kai.”

I pinched my brows together and kept my shield up as I eased to my feet. “How is letting the High Lord banish him, helping?”

He ignored my question and spoke in a rush. “I wish we had met under better circumstances.” The dragonborn paused to glance over his shoulder towards the noise of approaching footsteps—no doubt more soldiers. “Kai would have wanted me to protect you.” He turned to face me again. “The best I can do is to give you a little extra time.”

My brain tried to process. Was this really a friend of Kai’s?

I still partially blamed him for what happened to my mate. If the Bone Carver was a friend, he should have gotten Kai out or—

“Take the first door on your right down this corridor.” The dragonborn gestured the direction I had been running. “There’s a room there with a suit of armor on the south wall. Find the brick in the north wall that has a triangle in the corner and push hard. The passage that opens will take you under the castle and out to the river.”

Footsteps thundered closer.

“Do you understand?” he snapped.

His words streamed through my head, but I nodded.

Without another word, he spun and jogged off to meet my pursuers.

I let my indigo shield evaporate and turned down the hall.

Should I trust his instructions?

Is it a trap?

My mind fixated on the dragonborn salute he had offered me.

That salute meant something to Kai.

I trust my mate.

When I came to the first door on the right, I didn’t hesitate. Heart hammering, I lifted the latch and pushed my way inside.