“Makes you angry, doesn’t it?” Mercury asked with a snicker. “Beholding evidence of your failure to protect those you care about.” His eyes narrowed menacingly. “Again.”

Magnus charged forward, summoning his ancestral axe instantly and bringing the huge blade down at his enemy. Mercury slid to the side, and the ax sliced into the wall, cutting down the center with a loud crash that sent wood and drywall flying.

“Such anger. I love it,” Mercury said, stepping backward. In a flash of gray light, a sword appeared in his own hands, a long, curved blade with deep serrations that reminded him more of a giant saw than a sword.

Before Magnus even knew what hit him, Mercury flew toward him, springing off the ground and slashing with the horrific blade. Magnus held up his axe with both hands, blocking the strike as sparks flew in all directions from the impact.

Whatever else this Mercury guy was, he was definitely a dragon, judging by the way he fought and the sheer strength he possessed.

Magnus pushed off, slashing wide in the hope of catching Mercury. Mercury was surprisingly agile, though, and he jumped backward, then came back with a flurry of downward strikes, keeping Magnus on his toes as he struggled to block each attack, backing him into the opposite wall.

When their weapons clashed again, both struggling for the upper hand, Magnus reached out and grabbed the bastard by his neck, hoping to strangle the guy one-handed if he had to.

Mercury just smiled, and Magnus felt his hand slip through Mercury’s skin as if he’d been trying to grab water itself.

“Stupid dragon,” Mercury said as Magnus felt Mercury’s fist connect with his jaw, sending him reeling to the side.

How could someone who could take on a shapeless, liquid form punch so damn hard?

All Magnus knew was he had to end this so he could go save Lindy. Nothing else mattered right now.

Summoning his strength, Magnus raised his axe high above his head and brought it down in a crushing blow. Mercury tried to block the attack, but it came so swift, so hard that it knocked his sword to the side, slicing into Mercury’s arm in the process.

Mercury backed away, and Magnus noticed not blood, but a silvery substance seeping from his arm where he’d been wounded.

Mercury looked at the cut more with annoyance than pain, then shifted his gaze back to Magnus.

“I guess you’re not the emotional wreck I’d hoped, given that you practically killed all your precious ‘brothers’ all those years ago,” he said, thinly veiled contempt in his voice.

“How the hell do you know about that?” Magnus challenged.

“Oh, I know a lot of things. Like the fact that your supposed brothers, Titus and Liam, never actually forgave you for sending them to a watery grave. They still resent you for it, secretly hate you for killing them.”

Magnus could feel ice on his arms, horror clouding his mind as memories of the past flooded into the present, icy and cold like the waters they’d sunk into. He tried to fight it off, focusing on his rage, his need to protect Lindy.

“They just can’t say it out loud because they’re too scared to confront the truth themselves, you know. If they truly told you how they feel about your failure, I think you’d do everyone a favor and just off yourself.”

The mercury dragon disappeared, and Liam took his place, looking saddened, disappointed. “You said we couldn’t sink,” Liam said, shaking his head. “How could you?”

Magnus knew it wasn’t Liam. Knew it wasn’t possible, but it sounded like him, looked like him. Hell, even smelled like him.

Liam disappeared, and Titus took his place, arms crossed, looking down on him. “You let us both down, Magnus. We lost centuries of our lives because of you,” Titus accused.

It was like Magnus’s subconscious had taken shape before him, putting him on trial for the very mistakes he knew he deserved to be punished for. He knew it was illusion, terrible magic he never knew had existed, but he felt its effects all the same, his body going weak, as if surrounded by frigid ocean water.

He closed his eyes and thought of Lindy, the only good thing he could cling to at a moment like this.

Her face when she smiled. Her blushes when she was drunk or aroused. The way she laughed at his bluntness. The ecstasy of making her come.

No matter whether he deserved it or if he should be punished for his past failures, he had to fight because of Lindy.

She needed him.

Magnus hefted his axe once more, but before he could move, Titus melted back into Mercury as the dragon sprang toward Magnus, sword once again in hand. Magnus raised his weapon to block but felt pain lance through him as the sword tore into his shoulder, barely deflected from piercing his heart.

Magnus grunted as he held his ax firm, watching Mercury grin in amusement at his pain.

“So weak. So very, very weak,” Mercury hissed, reaching forward to grab Magnus by the throat. Suddenly, Magnus felt air, then crashing glass around him, then hard earth as he was thrown through the window and into the scrapyard.

He looked up and saw the muted noonday sun, veiled by thick, gray clouds, and also, just above him, the car Lindy was in.

He turned to catch his bearings, just in time to see Mercury spring through the gaping window. Magnus scrambled to get back on his feet but felt his entire body crushed into the ground as Mercury launched into him.

Then Magnus felt the jagged blade at his neck.

“You fool. So caught up in self-doubt and guilt that cripples you, even while your mate is in danger. So very human, even though you call yourself dragon. Didn’t ever even occur to you that someone could have sabotaged your design back then. So eager to blame yourself.”

“What are you saying?” Magnus gasped, feeling the blade push harder into his throat.

“I guess I can tell you now, before I kill you. I want to see your face when I tell you all of this. The self-blame, the nightmares, all pointless,” Mercury said with hideous satisfaction. “There are so very many ways to weaken wood, chemicals that can be used, tiny cracks that can be worsened that will make even the most durable of structures fail. But the fact that you blamed yourself, put the responsibility on your shoulders, was more hilarious than I could have ever imagined.” Mercury finished with a cruel laugh.

“Why?” Magnus asked. “Why would you do that?” And didn’t that still make him a failure, to know he hadn’t protected his crew or noticed their craft had been sabotaged?

“You don’t need my reasons,” Mercury hissed viciously. “You just need to despair and die.”

As Magnus struggled for breath, feeling blood and life leaking out of him, he was distracted by a crash high above them.

Looking over Mercury’s shoulder, he saw Lindy pop her head out of the window, gag still in her mouth, hands still bound. “Magnus, read my thoughts,” she screamed, enunciating each word as well as she could around the gag.

She’d remembered that he’d said he could read her thoughts if he invited her. But what could she possibly want to say to him now? Was she going to castigate him as he deserved for once again being too weak to save what he cared about?

But the minute he heard her soft voice in his mind, he felt instantly calmed.

Don’t listen to him, Magnus. He’s evil, and you’re not. Please fight him.

I can’t. I’m not strong enough.

I need you. I’m sorry I ran away. When I realized I cared for you, it scared me. Loving someone destroyed me once, and I didn’t want it to happen again. But I can’t live without you, Magnus. I love you. I’ll never leave your side again. Just finish him.

She loved him.

Hope spread through him, warm and strong, like sunshine on frozen water.

She didn’t judge him for what had happened, and it was time to stop judging himself as well. Time to stop thinking about that frigid, stormy night and start living again. Time to fight.

He opened his eyes to see the mercury dragon looking down at him, a sneer on his face. “You know, I think I’ll kill your mate first, just so you can enjoy the feeling of complete failure before I annihilate you, iron dragon. And then I’ll kill the rest of your crew, one by one. They all have weaknesses, just like you. They bleed just like any living thing does.”

“Just kick his ass,” Lindy shouted around her gag.

When Mercury looked up at her, distracted and annoyed, Magnus made his move. He pushed his weight up, knocking Mercury off balance, then grabbed his hand and the sword it was holding to pull it away from his neck. Then he rolled backward and flipped Mercury off of him, sending him flying over his head.

Mercury soared several yards backward, rolling over the ground, and then jumped to his feet as Magnus did the same, squaring off with him.

It wasn’t until Mercury looked to the small control panel at the base of the crane that Magnus felt alarm shoot through him

Mercury reached out and yanked one of the levers, then grinned. “Very well, mate goes first. Have it your way,” he said, glowering.

Magnus looked up and saw the cradle of the crane begin to slowly tilt forward. A second later, he heard Lindy scream as the car leaned, then pitched off the lift, plummeting toward the earth as it rolled.

* * *

Lindy had only a second to panic as the car she was in began to lean to one side. A moment later, her stomach dropped, and she let out a scream as the car dropped into a free-fall.

She heard a loud roar, like some sort of gigantic monster, followed by a jarring jolt as the car stopped midflight, bumping her into the worn cushions.

Something had saved her.

She looked out the window to see a gigantic metallic dragon peering into the car. Its bright, jade-green eyes were surrounded by reddish, iron-hued scales that ran in long rows down a long neck onto a huge body with glistening reddish metal wings.

“You okay?” It was Magnus’s voice, only a hundred times louder, as the car rumbled from the sound.

Completely stunned, the best she could muster was a nod.

“See? I told you. Dragon,” he said as he put the car down, using one claw to rip the door off like it was a toy.

He helped her out of it, carefully reaching one long, razor-sharp claw toward her and holding it there so she could use it to cut the ropes on her wrists. Then she took her gag off and looked up at him.

The dragon that could only be Magnus towered over her like a majestic, monstrous metal beast.

Her jaw dropped. He really had been telling the truth.

Not that he’d ever given her any reason to doubt whatsoever. It was just, well. It was the stuff of fairy tales and legends. Yet here he was, standing on all fours, with fangs and a tail and wings and everything.

Her awe was interrupted by an equally huge figure slamming into Magnus at full speed, crashing him into the side of the building as rubble cascaded down the side and dust kicked up in a thick cloud.

As the dust cleared, she could make out what had to be another dragon. It was an eerie mix of bright and dark silver, with steely scales and a long row of sharp spikes standing up from his back. His eyes were dark and soulless.

Lindy ducked behind the car, knowing this fight was out of her hands.

At least she had been able to help Magnus, though. She hoped finally being brave enough to tell him her feelings somehow made up for how she’d left him earlier.

She meant what she’d said. She wouldn’t leave him again.

Magnus the dragon pushed back on the mercury beast and breathed out a wide cone of white-hot fire. She could feel the heat of it as warm air blasted past her.

The slightly smaller mercury dragon ducked to the side, kicking up a thick cloud of dust, obscuring her vision even more, as he lashed out with his long, spiked tail. Magnus blocked it, then head-butted his opponent in the side, knocking him off his feet and onto the ground with a thunderous thud.

The mercury dragon got to his feet, hissing, and Lindy felt terror in her veins as its dark, black eyes trained on her.

She saw its mouth open, and black fire, hideous and corrosive-looking, jetted toward her. She saw Magnus look over, and a second later, all around her, cars and junk and metal flew from their heaps to right in front of her, moving like magnets attracted to their opposite poles, forming a giant wall of metal. A moment later, she heard the black fire connect with the wall, and she saw the metal shield melt and deform at the corners but hold steady.

“Dirty move, Mercury. I’m going to make you pay for that,” Magnus growled, making the earth beneath her tremble at the rumbling sound.

“Where I come from, there’s no fair or unfair. Just winners and losers,” Mercury spat.

Lindy tiptoed to the corner of the melted metal heap and looked, not wanting to put herself in more danger but unable to take her eyes off the two titanic beasts circling each other.

Real dragons.

Without further pause, the two dragons clashed in a horrific melee, breathing fire, slashing with their powerful claws, going for each other’s necks with their long fangs. Lindy couldn’t help but feel worried, until several moments in, she saw a wrecking ball hanging from a huge metal crane move on its own, as if pulled by the same magnetic force that the junk that had moved to protect her did. Not seeing it, the ball crashed into the mercury dragon’s side, knocking him over, as Magnus grabbed its neck and yanked him hard onto the ground with a loud impact.

Then before her eyes, she saw both dragons disappear into glimmering dust as she saw the figures of two men on the ground where the towering giants had once been. The one on top was Magnus.

She rushed up to them, jogging across the yard as the paler man with dark-gray hair struggled weakly, barely conscious, unable to escape.

“Try your disappearing act now!” Magnus said, holding him in one one hand and pummeling him repeatedly in the face with the other until he was unconscious. When she got closer, he looked up, throwing one more punch, then stopping.

There was a metal dumpster nearby, and he dragged Mercury to it and tossed him in, then sealed the metal cover over it carefully so he couldn’t escape.

The minute he was done, Lindy ran over to be in his arms, throwing herself against him, not caring about the dust or the blood.

He held her back, looking over her, jade-green eyes narrowed in concern. When he was satisfied she was fine, he nodded, pulling her in against him and wrapping his strong, comforting arms around her.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” she said. “I’m sorry I got us into this mess.”

“You didn’t,” he said. “I brought the dragons into your life somehow. I still don’t know why he was taking over Roscoe’s shop or what he did with Roscoe. I don’t even care. That’s for Aegis to figure out.”

“What’s for Aegis to figure out?” a cold voice said from behind them, and they both turned around to see the blond-haired man Lindy had met at the mansion walking toward them, several men behind him.

One she recognized as Citrine, with his silky brown hair and gold eyes, and another she didn’t recognize had short dark hair and eyes like an ocean. The third was the oddest of all. He had a long, blond braid that hung down his back and icy-blue eyes that were fixed on them.

All three were giant.

They stopped in front of her and Magnus, and the one in front with short blond hair and a green tee shirt raised an eyebrow. She thought she remembered his name being Aegis.

“What should I figure out again?” Aegis asked impatiently.

Magnus bit his lip. “Uh…”

“Why Roscoe targeted this shop and what he did with the others, and what’s going on with Mercury’s master plan, I’m guessing,” Citrine said helpfully.

“Are you all right?” the one with the long braid said, stepping forward.

“I’m fine, Titus.”

“We were right there, waiting to see if you needed us,” the one with short, dark hair said.

“Thanks, Liam.”

“Looks like you had it, though,” Liam responded with a grin.

Magnus beamed. “Of course I did. Iron dragon.”

They fist-bumped, and Lindy watched in confusion. “Something human males do to celebrate victories.” Liam clarified for her.

She laughed, putting an arm around Magnus. “Very human indeed.”

“Introduce us to your mate, idiot,” Aegis said impatiently.

“Fine,” Magnus said. “Lindy, this is Aegis, the gem dragon assigned to watch out for us in the modern world, and Citrine, his pet.”

“Excuse me?” Citrine scowled.

“Sorry,” Magnus said. “Citrine, his assistant.”

“I can blind you,” Citrine said pleasantly. “Permanently.”

“Citrine, the most wonderful host and a terrific dragon,” Magnus added nervously.

“Nice to meet you,” Lindy said, stepping forward to shake everyone’s hands. She’d liked Citrine the minute she’d met him and liked him even more after seeing him spar with Magnus.

Her eyes went to Liam and Titus, and she wondered what they were thinking if they’d watched the fight. If they’d seen how Mercury manipulated Magnus.

“We never felt the way he said,” Liam said, focusing on Magnus.

“Yeah,” Titus said. “I’m glad you had your mate to snap you out of it, because that was bogus.”

“He’s been watching a lot of eighties movies,” Aegis clarified.

“Either way,” Liam said, stepping forward and placing a hand on Magnus’s shoulder as Lindy stepped back so they could have a moment alone. “We never held it against you. We’re a crew. We all know we would die for each other. We never blamed the storm or sinking on you. And if we had known you were suffering over it, we would have told you sooner.”

“It was blessedly fast and instantly dark,” Titus said. “At least for me. And what was the point in laying blame anywhere?”

“Mercury sabotaged the ship,” Magnus said. “Though you may have heard that part.”

“Yes,” Liam said. “We heard. Apparently, he’s had it in for us for a long time. Do you think he targeted this shop because he scented you on your mate and knew you’d be meeting up with her again?”

“I have no idea,” Magnus said.

“Another thought is that he is just trying to find a way to control humans and is working to invade any business that has mob dealings.”

Magnus shrugged. “I’d love to stay here and go over theories, but right now I’d just like to be home with my mate. I did sort of just beat up a dragon and save the day, super heroically.”

Lindy laughed at that, and the other dragons all looked over at her. “Sorry,” she said. “It was funny.”

“I’m glad someone gets Magnus,” Citrine said.

“We get him,” Liam said, and Titus nodded in agreement.

“You two are coming to the castle, right?” Aegis asked. “Until we figure this out, we can’t let you live at home.”

All eyes turned to Lindy. She knew this was her chance to make up for everything she’d done so far, clinging to her life, afraid to move on, when all she really feared now was giving up a chance to truly live again.

“Of course we’ll come,” she said, seeing Magnus’s eyes light up in her peripheral vision.

“Good,” Aegis said, looking like he was trying to hide how pleased he was. “Then you two can get out of here, and we’ll take care of the rest.” He walked over to the dumpster and lifted the lid. “Wait. Where’d he go?”

Liam walked over and looked inside. “There’s a hole. He slithered out I guess, since he can be liquid.”

“What do you know about a mercury dragon?” Aegis asked.

“Just legends, I guess,” Liam said. “When we get back to the castle, I’ll try to remember.”

“He’s out there,” Lindy said nervously, looking up at Magnus.

“Yeah, with his tail between his legs,” Magnus said. “Because I beat him. He won’t be coming back for some time. Not until he regroups and figures out a new plan. We have time to go to your place one more night.” He glared at the others. “Get some time alone while we still can.”

“There’s plenty of room at the castle for alone time,” Aegis said. “But point taken. Now get out of here, you two crazy kids.”

Lindy didn’t have to be told twice. She squeezed Magnus’s arm, getting his attention. “Love? Let’s go home.”