Weston couldn’t remember the last time that he’d been this excited about a mission. Despite the danger he knew lay ahead of them, a smile curled up his lips as he crept through the dark tunnel. Occasionally, he glanced behind him to make sure that Violet was still alright. Every time he looked at her, she gave him a smile and a thumbs up signal. She seemed to be enjoying this almost as much as he was.

Weston was glad that Violet had agreed to work with him on this mission. He had hated the way he felt all mixed up inside when they argued. It had surprised him how much her unhappiness affected him. He wasn’t used to caring so much about what anyone else thought, but Violet was special. She meant something to him. Something big.

He had said he loved her in such a fit of urgent passion, thinking he might be dead soon. But now that death was no longer imminent, he’d realized that his feelings were still the same. He loved Violet. He didn’t care anymore if everyone teased him about being a softy. He didn’t think there was anything soft about loving a woman and wanting to protect her, anyway. Heck, if anything in life was worth fighting for, it was the love of a woman.

These thoughts all rolled through Weston’s head as he crept forward through the tunnel. In some ways, it didn’t make sense to bring Violet along on this mission when he wanted nothing more than to keep her safe. This mission was going to be a dangerous one, after all. He couldn’t guarantee that either or both of them would make it out alive. But everything was dangerous these days. One never knew when or where Saul’s next attack would be. At least if Weston was with Violet, he could see if she was in danger and protect her.

They walked a few more minutes in darkness, until Weston felt Violet reach forward and touch his arm. He nodded and stopped, waiting for her to put a flying spell on her broomstick.

Weston hadn’t wanted to fly at the very beginning of the tunnel. He’d wanted to walk for about half an hour, to make sure that there were no guards or surveillance cameras in here. He’d been carefully smelling the air, using his sharp dragon shifter nose to search for the smell of any enemy soldiers, or any masking scents. So far, he’d smelled nothing. His keen dragon eyes had roved back and forth across the walls and roof of the tunnel, looking for hidden cameras that might indicate the area was being watched. Again, nothing. It appeared that Saul was still unaware of the existence of this tunnel. If the evil dragon wizard had known it was there, he would have at least had guards or surveillance at the Blackstone entrance. But since Saul was unaware, the secret passageway between the outskirts of Blackstone and the far outskirts of Sandview would give Weston and Violet a way to sneak right up to Saul’s headquarters unseen. Violet would still use an invisibility spell of course, but that wasn’t a guarantee of anything these days. The dark magic that the wizards were using easily saw through many invisibility spells, but Violet still wanted to attempt to use one. At the very least, it might cause a delay in the ability of the enemy wizards to notice them. And, hopefully, the masking scent Weston was using would keep the enemy shifters from smelling them. Between the tunnel, the invisibility shield, and the masking scent, they might just pull this off.

Weston watched as Violet tested her broomstick. It was hovering a few feet above the ground now, buzzing with the energy of the flying spell she’d cast. Weston let his eyes run up and down her body appreciatively as she worked. She was wearing a slim-fitting, dark black military uniform. The Falcon Cross military insignia was embroidered over the left side of her chest in gold thread, and whenever the light from her magic ring hit the thread it glittered brilliantly. Weston loved how the sparkling uniform accented her curves and made her look almost like royalty. For a brief moment, he let himself think about how much he’d like to tear the uniform off of her, exposing the soft, smooth skin underneath. But only for a moment. If he thought for too long about taking Violet’s clothes off, he was going to have a hard time concentrating on the mission at hand.

“We’re good to go,” Violet said, nodding at her buzzing, hovering broomstick. “You ready?”

Weston nodded. “I’m ready. I’m confident that the tunnel at least is safe. If the Blackstone entrance isn’t guarded, the rest of the tunnel will be unguarded, too. That means we should be able to fly all the way to Sandview without worrying about running into enemy soldiers.”

Violet shrugged mildly. “I hope you’re right,” she said. She didn’t sound as confident as Weston, but she didn’t sound concerned, either. Weston realized in that moment that she had put her trust in him completely for this mission. She was along for the ride with him, wherever that ride happened to take them. Weston felt his chest puff up with pride and happiness at the thought. It felt good to have Violet trust him, especially when he’d admittedly been the one in the wrong yesterday.

“Let’s do this,” Weston said. Violet smiled, and nodded.

“Hop on, Cowboy,” she said. “I’m gonna take you for the ride of your life.”

Violet swung her leg over the front of the broomstick, holding on tightly to its thick handle. Weston eyed the handle suspiciously, not sure how it was going to be able to support both of them while they flew. But he climbed on behind Violet without protest, trusting that she knew what she was doing, and knew the capabilities of the broomstick.

To his surprise, as he mounted the broomstick, he felt like he was sitting on a plush bicycle seat instead of merely a circular wooden rod.

“This isn’t such a bad seat,” he remarked as he wrapped his arms around Violet’s stomach to hold on.

“It’s the flying spell,” she said. “When you cast it on the broomstick, it gives the broomstick more seating surface. You can’t see it with your naked eye, but it’s there.”

Weston shook his head slightly in amazement. The things that wizards could do never ceased to amaze him. He’d thought that being a dragon gave him some special abilities—and it did, of course. But magic was another category entirely.

“Ready?” Violet asked, kicking up her heels. Weston kicked his heels up, too, and was surprised to find invisible stirrups beneath his feet. He should have known there would be magic footrests, too, he thought wryly.

“I’m ready,” he said.

“Hold on tight,” Violet said, even though he already was. He definitely wasn’t complaining about having an excuse to wrap his arms around Violet’s waist from behind. It was a strange role reversal to fly behind her instead of having her ride on his back while he flew in dragon form, and he was enjoying the change. His dragon was too large to fly through this tunnel, so Violet had suggested the broomstick. They’d had to do something to speed up their pace. Walking would take far too long, since the tunnel was about twenty miles long.

“Let’s see what you got,” Weston said, a challenge in his voice.

Violet accepted the challenge.

With another kick of her heels, the broomstick was suddenly in motion. Weston felt the wind whipping at his face almost instantly, and the walls of the tunnel became a blur. Violet had never been in this tunnel before, as far as Weston knew, but that didn’t seem to slow her down. Despite the fact that the twists and turns were unfamiliar, she navigated them with ease. Weston felt slightly dizzy, and wholly impressed. This girl knew how to fly.

For the next several minutes, all Weston could do was hold on tightly as Violet flew. At first, he tried to lean left or right with her, to help move the broomstick in the direction it needed to go. But he gave that up after the first minute. He’d never been in this tunnel either, and, unlike Violet, he couldn’t keep up with which way the path was going to curve to next.

His eyes stung as the wind whipped harder against them, and his heart pounded as the tunnel’s wall frequently whizzed by only inches away from his face. Somehow, though, he knew they weren’t going to crash. Violet had this under control. He pressed his chest against her back, wishing he could spend his whole life this close to her.

He lost track of time as they flew onward, and sooner than he expected he felt Violet starting to slow down. He knew this meant they were nearing the other side of the tunnel, where it opened into Sandview. Violet would want to go slowly to make her invisibility shield as effective as possible, and to make sure that they saw any trouble up ahead before it saw them. Weston sat up straighter, realizing for the first time how sweaty he had become. This surprised him, since the cave was relatively cool, but he supposed that the adrenaline pumping through his veins had caused his body to heat up a bit more than normal.

Finally, Violet came to a complete stop.

“Lucis terminantur,” she said softly, and the light beam emanating from her magic ring went out. The sudden darkness sent a shiver down Weston’s spine, even though he was sweating. Anything could be hiding up ahead of them, but he was going to have to trust his belief that Saul didn’t know about the tunnel yet. He hoped he wasn’t wrong.

As Weston’s eyes began to adjust to the darkness, he could barely make out the outline of Violet leaning her broomstick up against the wall. He realized that, although the darkness was thick, it wasn’t complete. Their exit to the tunnel must not be too far ahead. How Violet had known this was beyond his comprehension. Now that they were stopped, he could smell just the hint of fresh air, but when they had been moving it had been too difficult to smell something so faint. Weston figured it must be another one of Violet’s magic spells. It still amazed Weston how useful the wizards could be in a pinch.

“We’ll be coming out to the opening soon,” Violet said. “Are we still sticking with the original plan?”

Weston nodded. “Nice flying,” he said, and squeezed Violet’s arm as he passed her. It was hard to tell in the darkness, but he thought he saw her mouth turning up in a smile at his words. She didn’t say anything, though. Neither one of them spoke as they moved forward, with Weston in the lead now. The less noise they made, the better. Even though the tunnel’s entrance wasn’t exactly in the heart of Saul’s headquarters, it was close enough that there was always a risk that an enemy patrol might be close enough to hear or smell them.

Their plan was somewhat haphazard and foolhardy, but Weston thought it was just crazy enough to work. Thanks to Nick’s surveillance, they knew exactly where the bat cloning cave was located. Their plan was to walk right up to it, go inside, and run straight toward the back, where the master bat was likely to be. When they found the master bat, they would destroy it, either with dragon fire or with a magic attack from Violet’s ring. Perhaps both—Weston wasn’t sure which one would be more effective against the bat.

At some point, the bats, wizards, and other shifters in Saul’s headquarters were going to figure out that intruders had entered the camp. When that happened, all hell would break loose and Weston and Violet would be fully occupied with fighting off attackers. Weston’s hope was that Saul’s guards were weary after the big battle yesterday, and that the number of wizards and shifters available for guard duty was low. The further along in their mission they could get before being noticed, the better chance Weston and Violet stood of actually destroying the master bat and making it out of there alive. Weston thought their odds were good, or he wouldn’t have come on this mission in the first place, let alone dragged Violet along. But one could never predict what would happen, and he and Violet had agreed to go forward with the mission no matter what. They were going to destroy that master bat or die trying. As soon as the master bat was destroyed, Weston and Violet would retreat. Not through the tunnel, though, unless that was literally their only possible escape route. If they could manage to keep Saul from learning of the tunnel’s existence tonight, so much the better.

Weston felt the scent of outside air hitting his nose stronger than ever now, and, as soon as he rounded the next corner in the cave, he saw the flickering of stars. They’d made it to the exit. He breathed in deeply, searching for any scent of enemy wizards or shifters. He could make out the faint smell of strange wizards, and of various types of shifters. His nose detected, bears, lions, panthers, and, of course, bats. But the smells were all faint, and Weston knew that no enemies were close, at least not for the moment. Silent as shadows, he and Violet slipped out into the open desert night. They were on the outer edges of the caves of Sandview.

It felt strange to be here. Weston had a feeling of déjà vu, even though he himself had never walked through these rocks before. He’d watched Nick’s surveillance videos so many times that he felt liked he’d been here a hundred times already. He looked around at the familiar rock formations, keeping a sharp eye out for any enemy soldiers. The night was quiet, though. Eerily so. Either he was missing something, or he’d been right about his assumption that enemy guards were in short supply tonight.

Weston looked back at Violet, who was much easier to see out here in the moonlight than she had been in the darkness of the tunnel. His breath caught in his throat at how beautiful she looked right now, her deep violet eyes shimmering like purple stars where the moonlight hit them. She smiled at him encouragingly, telling him to continue forward. All was well as far as she could see, too. He smiled back at her and then forced himself to turn around and creep onward. Why did he always feel the strongest for her when they were in the middle of a dangerous situation? He supposed that danger naturally heightened all emotions, including the ones that made him want to throw Violet down on the ground right then and there and make love to her. Perhaps one day soon, he could do just that, only without the worry of being caught by the enemy. Assuming of course, that he could convince her that he was a worthy mate. She’d seemed to avoid giving him any indication of how her true feelings might run, blaming her noncommittal attitude on the war. Weston frowned. There was no way in hell he wanted to wait for the war to be over before claiming Violet as his own. It could be years before Saul was finally defeated, and he couldn’t spend years apart from Violet. Just the thought of days apart from her made his heart ache. She’d always done funny things to his feelings, but lately he couldn’t think about anything but her. He was going completely over the edge for her. There was no turning back. He just had to figure out a way to bring her over the edge with him.

Weston forced his thoughts back to the present. Just because things were quiet tonight didn’t mean he could let his attention slide. It would only take a moment of inattention for him to give the enemy the upper hand, and that could mean death for him or Violet or both. There was no way he could woo Violet and make her fall in love with him if he was dead. Weston gritted his teeth and moved forward with renewed determination. This goddamn mission was going to be a success. He was a dragon shifter, and a highly trained soldier, and he had a talented wizard at his side. He was here to teach Saul a lesson and he was going to do just that. There would be time to daydream about Violet later.

As Weston walked forward, the scent of enemy soldiers grew stronger. He and Violet stayed close to the walls of the caves, doing their best to stay out of sight of any passing guards. Violet still had an invisibility spell cast over them, but they had no idea how effective it would be. Weston hoped that the guards were too exhausted tonight to be constantly scanning for invisibility spells to thwart, but one never knew. Just in case, he and Violet were staying out of the way as much as they could. The closer they got to the heart of Saul’s headquarters, the harder this was going to be. Neither one of them would have dreamed of turning back, though. The potential to destroy the master bat was too tempting. There might never be another opportunity as good as tonight’s.

Less than a minute later, Weston nearly walked around the corner straight into a couple of wizard guards. They were moving so silently that he hadn’t heard them coming, and it was hard for him at this point to judge where anyone was based on scent alone. There were too many different scents mingling in the air now. Weston’s heart pounded at the near collision, berating himself for being so careless, even thought he knew that he couldn’t be much more careful than he was being right now. He took a deep breath, trying to regain his cool, and then forced himself to continue forward. Pausing here longer wasn’t going to make things any safer. He might as well keep moving, and hope that there were no more guards for at least a few more minutes, now that those two had passed.

Saul’s headquarters were relatively large. They had to be, to house all of the shifter and wizard soldiers in his army. Luckily, however, the bat cave was located relatively close to the secret tunnel that Weston and Violet had just traveled through. Weston could see it now, in fact. The cave was dark and silent at the moment, but he knew from Nick’s surveillance videos that this was the right one. Two sleepy looking shifter guards stood in front of it, looking bored and like they would rather be anywhere than where they were right then.

Weston looked over at Violet, who had crept up beside him then, and pointed at the cave, indicating that it was the bat cave. She nodded, but then she tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to her right. About a hundred feet away was another cave, this one more heavily guarded. Weston frowned as he strained to see what was in the cave. He didn’t remember Nick’s surveillance photos every showing any guarded caves where this one now stood, but whatever was in there must have been important to Saul, because he’d posted at least half a dozen guards there. Weston couldn’t see much no matter how hard he squinted, but when he breathed in he could smell the very distinct smell of full humans. Weston looked at Violet in horror, wondering if she was thinking the same thing he was. She nodded at the question in his eyes.

“Prisoners,” she whispered, her voice barely audible even though she leaned over to put her lips right next to his as she spoke the word.

Weston felt his stomach turn. He shouldn’t have been surprised that Saul was holding full humans hostage. After all, it was no secret that Saul had been terrorizing the city of Sandview. Still, it was somewhat shocking to see a cave of prisoners, some of them full humans. Weston had no idea what Saul was doing with the prisoners, but he imagined it wasn’t anything good. For a moment, he considered whether he and Violet should forget about the bats and try to save the humans instead. Apparently, she was thinking the same thing, because she tugged at his arm and pointed in the direction of the cave. For half a second, Weston thought she was right, and that they should go break out the prisoners. But then, he shook his head.

“Stick to the plan,” he mouthed to Violet. She frowned, but nodded.

They’d promised each other that there would be no deviations from their plan. It was too dangerous to change course midstream, and even the knowledge that they’d found a cave of prisoners didn’t change that. They didn’t know how many more guards might be inside, or how well-bound the prisoners were. Without backup, Weston and Violet had slim hopes of saving the humans. They still had a good opportunity to take down the master bat, though. If they could do that, the ripple effect might make it easier to help the prisoners.

A screech high above his head caught Weston’s attention. He looked up, and almost laughed when he saw what had caused the shriek. He nudged Violet, so that she would look, too. She followed his gaze, and together, they watched as bats flitted by in the moonlight. There weren’t many of them here, but in the distance Weston could see a dark, moving cloud. He didn’t know why it hadn’t occurred to him before that bats were nocturnal, and preferred to be active during the evening hours. He would have been even more confident about this mission’s success if he’d stop to think about that. The bat cave would be mostly empty except for the master bat, which Weston knew would not be allowed to leave the cave due to its importance. High above him, the bats flew back and forth across the sky. There hadn’t been any above them when they first came out of the tunnel, but now the bats were slowly coming home from their hunting. Slowly was the key word. Most were still gone, so as long as he and Violet acted quickly, they could enter the bat cave and make a run for the master bat without having to also deal with hundreds upon hundreds of additional angry bat shifters.

Weston took another careful look at the guards in front of the bat cave. They still looked as bored and sleepy as ever. He glanced at the guards in front of the prisoners’ cave. Those guards looked more alert, and they might come to assist the bat cave guards when it became apparent that Weston and Violet were after the master bat. But their response would probably not be instant. Weston and Violet could be successful if they worked extremely quickly and had a little bit of luck on their side. Weston took one last deep breath and looked over at Violet.

“Ready?” he mouthed at her, not wanting to actually speak out loud. She nodded at him. He paused for just a moment to appreciate how beautiful her face looked in the moonlight. If things went badly, and he was captured or she was killed, he always wanted to have the memory of her beauty to sustain him.

Weston held up his fingers to count. One, two, three. And then, he and Violet were off, running at full speed toward the bat cave.