We cut through the night sky, the wind roaring in our ears and chilling our scales. The stars shone overhead, their light our guiding force as we zipped away from the flaming compound, headed for the empty desert.

Miles passed us by in the blink of an eye, and still, we chased the treacherous dragon who’d almost cost us everything… and to whom we might still pay the ultimate price.

The bright light of the full moon lit up the white sands below, the salt crystals embedded in the dirt dazzling my eyes. When I looked away from the sand, the twinkling stars gave the same sparkly effect.

There was beauty to be found even in chaos. I tucked that sentiment away, holding onto hope as we sped toward what could be our doom.

We zigged and zagged, pushing hard to catch up to the gray dragon. He had the advantage of having left first, but our large wings helped us to quickly close the distance.

Cory, who was in front of me, got close enough to shoot his dragonfire at Orris’ tail, but Orris easily slipped to the side, evading its destruction.

The air grew heavy around us all at once, and my wings fought to maintain their rigid posture in the stagnant air. It was as if time itself had gone still, leaving Cory and me to continue moving through a frozen world.

I gasped for air, but the oxygen itself seemed to have been sucked out of the atmosphere. My wings felt brittle, as though they might break if I so much as bent them.

I knew what this was—Orris’ vile draconian gift. He had the power to manipulate time, and with age, his power had grown substantially. I had no clue what he was capable of, but after what he’d done to Sana and tiny Laurus, I feared that we were in for the fight of our lives.

The burning in my lungs and the feeling of my brittle wings proved too much. I grew dizzy and lightheaded, and soon enough, I started to fall.

I fought it with everything I had as I began plummeting, but even when I rolled onto my back to maximize what little lift there was left in the air, I couldn’t gain traction. What was worse was when I realized with a panicked start that Cory was falling as well.

Orris had come to a stop, batting his wings above us, unaffected by his own manipulation of time. Had his power grown over the many thousands of years we’d been in stasis, or had he always concealed his true might, waiting for us to be vulnerable?

I didn’t put it past him to hide the breadth of his abilities in order to gain an advantage. It was heartbreaking to think that I’d trusted this man—that we’d allowed ourselves to become so deceived.

My angel boy flashed through my mind as I fell. Blinking back tears, I realized that I would never see my mate again. I would never again hear the tender noises he made when my knot gave him the satisfaction he craved, never again bury my face in his bouncing curls, never run my hands over his silken flesh in adoration… and worse, I would never meet and hold our son.

I would never get to tell him I loved him, or hear his first words, or watch his first steps…

Right as I began to give into my despair, Orris was knocked from his position. A burst of flame lit up the night sky, and I watched in wonder as a small white dragon darted out from behind Orris, passing beneath his underbelly.

Flames spewed from his mouth, causing Orris to jerk away in surprise. A shriek of pain ripped from Orris’ throat as the fire singed his scales, and he started moving wildly through the air in an attempt to extinguish them.

Before he could recover and fully turn his attention to the small white dragon, a purple dragon blinked into existence at his side and kicked him on the head with a wickedly clawed foot. Orris’ scales tore.

He shrieked in agony, and the air immediately righted itself. In pain and shocked by what had happened, Orris had to have lost the focus necessary to warp time, giving Cory and I the chance we needed to recover.

With our wings back to full strength and time back to normal, Cory and I spun back into assault mode. Orris, reeling from the surprise attack, fell from the sky, his wings battling desperately to keep him steady, but to no avail.

He wasn’t able to keep himself aloft, and as Cory and I raced after him, he crashed into the white sand below.

We had him. The game was won.

Now it was time to end it.

The gray dragon crumpled in the sand, slowly shifting back into human form. Orris lay in the crater he had made, limp and frail. The damage done to him had injured him, but the fall was what had truly done him in.

Still, Cory and I approached with caution. We landed in the sand and shifted back to our human forms, circling Orris while he struggled to lift himself from the sand. Blood poured freely from the head wound he’d been dealt, and the sickly-sweet coppery scent of it filled the air.

He staggered for a moment, then finally managed to climb to his feet and hold his stance. He raised his hands, palms toward us. Whether he thought to fight with brawn or with magic, I cared not. On land, I had the advantage.

The white and purple dragons circled above us, shooting their flames downward to create a four-foot-high ring of fire around where we stood.

I spared a glance at the small white dragon, wondering when my angel boy had snuck out to follow me. As worried as I was to see him there, I was grateful for his presence. He’d saved my life.

Nathan’s dragon made a strange squawking sound and landed outside the ring of flames, the unknown purple dragon following in his wake. I pushed them out of my mind for the moment, shifting my focus to the battle at hand.

My mate had proven he could care for himself despite his youth and inexperience—I needed to put my trust in him. He would not put himself in danger. He’d keep himself, and our unborn child, safe while Cory and I dispatched Orris once and for all.