993 days since the first outbreak of the Red Death

East Sea, Qinglong territory

Now. Ry of the Qinglong, former Commander in the Dragon King’s army, perched atop a precipice, poised to dive into the waters below.

And slay the Dragon King.

The violent slaughter she had planned for him was too compassionate for the sonovabitch who’d brutally executed her den mates, but so long as she triumphed in her goal, nothing else mattered.

Not even if it cost her her life.

Clouds crossed the Moon, darkening the sky. Rain beat down upon her scales, slicking her and masking her scent. Almost as though the universe cheered her on.

Bathing in Ao Guang’s blood wouldn’t bring back Nagen, Bron, Zyx, Ting, Kaz, or Garin. She wasn’t a fool. She knew that.

But it would feel damn good.

Ry gripped her claws, talons pinching her hide. No one should be permitted to commit such atrocities and get away with them. Not even a King.

Her den mates had been innocent. If anyone should have died, it was her.

Clenching her jaw, she peered into the fathomless stormy depths below. She had but one chance to get close enough to the King. One shot.

It would be all she needed.

For six weeks she’d been hiding in the Den of Dragons, with her tail tucked between her legs, licking her wounds.

Despite what her friend Taelen insisted, time wouldn’t heal her. Those crazy fools, her den mates, had been more than her underlings, more than her friends. They’d been every ounce her blood, though the only lineage they shared were their Qinglong ties. The seven of them had hatched from different parents and had been brought together beneath Ry’s command in the King’s army a century ago.

Taelen had as much reason to hate Ao Guang as she did. The bastard had imprisoned him for three decades in his dungeon, all because of his half-sister, Ling. Yet, even that wasn’t enough to fuel Taelen’s cool nature to combust. Which was why Ry was here, alone.

Alone was better.

She couldn’t lose anyone again. Ever.

Narrowing her eyes, she watched the tide ebb in and out, waiting for the perfect moment when the wards would flicker and she could sneak between the waves. Exiled dragons would no longer be able to pass through those boundaries without getting a serious zap—and setting off every alarm. But Ry had been around long enough to know where the weaknesses in those fields lay.

She sank lower onto her haunches, watching, waiting. Any moment now. The lapse would last no longer than a millisecond, but it would be long enough.

It had to be.

One. Two.

Lightning quick, she drove off the precipice, into the water, passing through the ward just as it flickered and sealed behind her.

I made it. I’m in.

Exhaling a low breath into the water, she tensed, scouring for guards. Being Qinglong, she could breathe as easily in the water as in the air. That was why their palace was beneath the surface. Better protection from their enemies.

Except tonight.

Now came the hard part. Wending through this maze of tunnels where sentinels might detect her at any turn, until she reached her destination—the King’s bedchamber.

Once inside, she’d seize that sweet, sweet revenge.

Ry dove forward toward the low ledge framed by two carved rock columns. Few dragons used this back entrance to the palace. It should be quiet tonight.

She glided toward the opening, senses stretching for any opposition. Just because she didn’t anticipate sentinels, didn’t mean she wouldn’t encounter any.

But, by the gods, they’d better pray they didn’t have to face her.

Almost there. She kicked her hind legs, edging toward that shelf. Suddenly, her scales tingled and she reared, gaping into the dim ocean around her, vibrations cascading up and down her body as something approached.

Something wickedly fast and powerful enough to stir up the ocean as it traveled.

Straight for me.

* * *

No fucking way. Dex, fifth son of Ao Guang and General in the King’s army, gawked at the familiar figure coiled in the ocean before him.

Ry?

He hadn’t spent much time with the fiery female, as she ranked far below him, but everyone knew about her betrayal.

Treason.

The direct and willful violation of the King’s command.

He knew little else about her, other than she was in deep shit. Hell, he’d concluded, along with everyone else, that she’d never step foot in this ocean again.

So what the fuck was she doing here?

Dex barreled toward her, determined not to let her cross that entryway. Whatever scheme she had in mind in coming here, he’d lay it to waste.

Ry caught sight of him and tensed, lowering her head, baring her fangs, at his charge.

Brash. Did she really presume to take him on? She’d never win this fight.

Snarling, he drove straight for her, crashing into her flank and sinking his fangs into her hide.

She howled, bubbling into the water, and slashed at his exposed neck, clawing through his hide with her razor talons.

But it would take far more than a flesh wound to deter him. Dex released his bite, winding his front claws around her width, and securing her in a tight hold. She writhed and bucked, trying to toss him off.

Good fucking luck with that.

He snaked forward along her body, wrestling her into submission. Like groping in the dark, he fumbled to form a connection with her in the Hive Mind, but only silence greeted him.

Hmm. As he’d suspected. She’d cut herself off. Dozens of units had been searching for her since she’d escaped six weeks ago, and all had turned up empty.

They’d be pretty damn impressed when he strolled into the dungeon with her shackled in front of him. Maybe, his father would finally view him as…worthy.

Snarling into the water, Dex clinched his body around hers, an iron-clad hold. No bloody way was she escaping him.

Ry kicked out, claws swiping everywhere, but he was larger, stronger, and in the realm of dragons, more dominant. She couldn’t best him.

He sensed the moment she stopped struggling, her muscles going limp. Good. The sooner she accepted the stupidity of her actions, the better.

Nothing would prevent him from seizing this victory. Nothing.

Suddenly, a blinding flash streaked across the backs of his eyes. He thrashed, grimacing against the scalding force, but, just as quickly, it dissipated. At first, there was only darkness.

Then, half a dozen figures came into focus in his mind. Hoods drawn over their heads while they knelt on a cold stone floor.

He didn’t know these people, but a debilitating agony seized him, a roiling dread in his gut that something horrific was about to take place. And he couldn’t do a bloody thing to stop it.

Dex whipped his head, desperate for the images to halt. No. He didn’t want to see this. He couldn’t.

But gods, the first splatter of blood was the worst. A talon came out of nowhere and sliced across one figure’s throat, decapitating him or her.

And it didn’t end there.

Snaking like a viper, a spiked tail speared through the mid-sections of two more captives, splattering their blood everywhere. Like a hose gone off accidentally, the blood sprayed from their bodies. Coating everything.

Though this was but a vision, Dex glanced down and saw his hands, dripping with blood not his own.

Theirs.

Sweet gods, the other three were ended just as quickly, just as brutally. Pools of blood glistened on the floor amidst pieces of their hacked bodies. Gruesome and wicked in its violence.

What kind of savage had done such a thing?

And why?

The incapacitating torment churning within him dissipating, leaving him numb, and so very cold. He seized a step back, but as he did so, caught a glimpse of his reflection in the blood.

No, Ry’s.

Her eyes were dull, like the soul had been stripped from her.

This was her vision…or her memory?

He frowned, not understanding any of this. Nothing made sense.

Then he glanced up, toward the ceiling, and viewed a familiar smirking face.

The one who’d slaughtered those people for fun. Sadistic barbarian.

Monster.

My father.

* * *

The moment Dex’s grip relaxed, Ry shot out from him, blasting through the ocean, straight back through the wards.

Fuck.

Her cover was blown. Her chance at vengeance, gone.

All because of him.

Ry clenched her jaw, drilling her body through the water as fast as she could manage. She had to get the hell out of here. Before Dex came after her with reinforcements.

Dammit. She hadn’t meant to show him that—her memories. But it was the only distraction she could think of, and it had worked.

She whizzed through the ocean toward the surface, broke free, and unfurled her wings, shooting straight into the sky. It was the middle of the night, so no chance of returning to the Den of Dragons until sunset tomorrow. She’d have to find somewhere to hide until then.

The water streamed off her body, air blasting around her as she created her own wind.

Panting, she slowed for a second to catch her breath. Dex had to be far behind. No way could anyone witness those images and not need a moment to process the atrocity of them, right?

Unless, he really was his father’s son.

Ugh.

Ducking her head, she flapped harder, soaring higher, determined to make a clean escape. She’d failed, true, but she’d live another day. Even if it took a hundred years, she’d try again.

And again.

Until she made that bastard pay.

With his blood.

A whoosh of air zoomed above her. She flipped, straining her neck to detect what it was, but then, another swish rushed below her. What the…?

She coiled her long body, bracing for an attack from above or below, but something thwacked into her from the side, sending her crashing downward, toward the roar of the waves below. Moaning, she clutched her bruised side, flailing in the water to orient herself.

Before she could, a force clinched around her middle, contracting and squeezing the breath from her lungs. She wriggled, wound back her tail, and smacked it into her opponent, looping around to see who it was.

Dex. She narrowed her eyes, watching him slam backward, deeper into the ocean. How in the hell had he tracked her? Her distraction hadn’t been enough. He skidded to a halt, whipping around to face her, sizzling determination lighting his luminescent cobalt eyes.

In the distance, screeching shrieks echoed. Qinglong soldiers. They were closing in on her.

Desperate, she scanned the area, grasping for an escape.

Dex rotated toward the howls of the other dragons, then focused on her and bolted toward her so fast she couldn’t dart out of the way. Eyes squeezed, she braced for his impact, but instead of tackling her, he seized her clawed foot in his and dragged her downward, toward the bottom of the ocean. As they approached the ocean floor, she struggled in his grasp, failing to wrench free. He shot her a fierce look and nodded once, as though requesting her to trust him.

She didn’t have a choice, because a swirling blue portal opened at the ocean floor and Dex dragged her straight through it.

* * *

This act treason had better be worth it. Once Dex had detected the other Qinglong closing in around them, he’d had to go with his gut.

Instead of his brain.

Gut don’t fail me now.

Flashing into his human form on the other side of the portal, he gritted his teeth and assessed the female he’d brought with him.

Still in her dragon form, Ry was a fucking gorgeous sapphire dragon, her long slender body lithe and her scales so damn shimmery his eyes hurt to look at her.

“Where are we?” she grated, coiling her body into a tight spiral and twisting to glare at him, her pale azure eyes glittering.

“One of my dens. Before you think of escaping, you can’t.”

A dragon’s den was his sanctuary. The wards shielding this place couldn’t be broken. Ry would remain his prisoner here, until he determined what the hell to do with her.

Snorting, she morphed into her human shape, a tall, curvy female wearing a tight black leather suit that left little to his imagination.

He stifled a groan and focused on her face, her soft blue locks floating around her lovely features, and down to her hips. She was a gorgeous vixen, but he wouldn’t let her beauty fool him.

Inside was a lethal and treacherous creature, devoid of honor.

At least, that was what her actions had declared.

He cocked his head, studying her. “What did you show me?”

Dragons could share memories through the Hive Mind. As far as he was aware, they couldn’t create false visions, but bloody hell if he believed what he’d seen.

She hitched her chin. “The truth.”

He curled his lip, baring his teeth. “You really expect me to buy that? Ao Guang may be many things, but a dragon killer isn’t one of them.”

At her scoff, he narrowed his eyes. “How did you do it? Fabricate the memory?”

She sauntered up him and pegged him with her stare. “I. Didn’t.”

Her features didn’t flicker, her conviction didn’t waiver. Bloody hell, she was a good actress. He scraped a hand across the back of his neck, eying her up and down.

Bad idea. Her outfit was damned distracting. And her nearness filled his nostrils with her scent, the ethereal fragrance blooming off her skin. Fuck, she smelled like cinnamon candy, intoxicating as the first time he held a new gemstone.

His mouth watered and a growl rumbled in his throat.

Her gaze whipped to his, shock rounding her features.

Pressing his hands to his eyelids, he sought control. After a moment, his body calmed and he peeked at her again.

Blue gloss shimmered across her curving lips. “You can pretend your glorious father is a benevolent King who would never harm a soul, fine, but then answer me this. Why did you steal me away? Why didn’t you let those soldiers surround me? Why not hand me over to your father yourself?”

She inched forward, raising onto the tips of her toes to purr into his ear, “Because, deep down, somewhere amidst all of that steadfast conviction, a piece of you knows I’m right.”

He froze at her words, struggling to deny them, and snatched her wrist, clasping her to him. Gods, her nearness flushed through him like warm honey, and hell, but he was hungry.

She ran her tongue along her bottom lip, the arousal perfuming off her so thick he could taste it. Luscious temptation.

She twisted from his grasp, diving for a pile of weapons, and seized a blade in her grasp.

But not before he had her pinned.

* * *