There was absolute silence as Sylvie huddled closer to the wall at the end of the long corridor where she waited. She could hear the sounds of her own breaths, feel her heart hammering in her chest—thump, thump, thump. She looked behind her once more to make sure no one was following, then peeped around the corner.

Still no one there.

She checked her watch. 3:12 a.m. The guards hadn’t changed yet. They were late.

Granted, wolves were always late.

Over the course of her life, Sylvie had been a lot of places and done a lot of things.

Though, escaping imprisonment from giant men that could change into wolves was definitely a first.

The welcome eerie sound of far-off footsteps along the corridor broke the heavy stillness. At first, they were quiet, a steady beat echoing off the aged walls around them. Then the sound of heavy boots grew louder as they made their way in her direction, then veered off down a side corridor.

She could hear the man muttering something to himself. The words “late” and “I’m out of here” rose above the mumbling just enough so she could hear it.

This was the opening Sylvie had been hoping for.

She waited thirty seconds more, then turned the corner, making her way down the long corridor. To her right, reinforced windows, cracked and broken in places, let dim moonlight through, giving her a warped glance at the courtyard outside the building.

And beyond that… freedom.

For weeks, the wolves that captured her had kept her here. And as much as she could surmise, it didn’t seem like they’d decided what to do with her just yet. Terms like “mate” and “experiment” and even “get rid of” had been whispered or thrown around in casual conversation. But for the most part, they had just kept her here, waiting for some decision that hadn’t yet come.

Well, and ogled and harassed her incessantly, but Sylvie wasn’t much bothered by that. She could handle herself when it came to men.

But she wasn’t going to wait around for some unknown power to decide her fate. That was her domain.

Sylvie continued to move in a semi-crouched position, doing her best to avoid shards of glass and plaster littering the floor beneath her as she made for the end of the hallway. It seemed to stretch on forever. At any second, footsteps alerting her to the presence of the second watch coming in could ruin everything.

She had to go faster.

From the moment she’d been here, Sylvie had been planning her escape. As far as she could tell, this was only one building in a fairly large complex that she guessed had been a huge psychiatric facility or something decades ago. Parts had been refurbished, repurposed by the wolves and wyverns that held her here for unknown reasons. But other areas, like this one, were left to crumble and decay, with only a few guards posted at the main exits to prevent any escapees.

But if there were others like her here, she hadn’t seen them.

Day after day, she’d watched the wolves and their patterns. When they brought her food. When they were alert, when they weren’t. And most importantly, when they changed guards.

But even with that, she knew she had to be careful since even the sound of a pin dropping could wake wolves with their hyper-alert senses.

Dudes that were wolves. The thought of it still fascinated her. And creeped her out.

Not as much as scary-ass wyverns, though. Freaky lizardy guys with weird skin and horrible faces.

She finally reached the end of the corridor. She looked both ways and saw nobody. The blanket of darkness around her was as comforting as it was terrifying.

Sylvie made a left, following her mental map of the place.

Somewhere far off, she heard raucous laughter, and she stopped, going completely still. Through the broken windows, she saw a light on far away. Probably some late-night guards blowing off steam.

Wolves were always down to party.

Which basically meant getting drunk and acting super gross.

She took a deep breath, calming herself once more, and made her way deeper and deeper into the blackness. She passed through two huge, wooden double doors that were open, one of them hanging ajar off its hinges, rotting. To her right, an overturned hospital bed lay on its side, a rusting testimony to whatever this place had once been.

It was all something from a horror movie. Starring her, Sylvie.

She was so done with this place.

One more turn down a dank hallway, and she saw it up ahead. At the end of a long, covered walkway littered with leaves and dust and smelling of fetid age, a heavy iron gate stood before her.

The way out.

She rose and moved more quickly toward the gate. At any second, the guard posted outside her cell could wake and find her absent. Then all hell would break loose, and she’d never get another chance at escape.

Her heart raced, and she finally reached the gate. But a heavy chain wove its way through the thick, rusted bars, locked at the center with a deadbolt.

“Damn,” she muttered to herself, unable to contain her frustration. She shook it, praying that one of the links was broken somewhere or perhaps the rusted links would budge. But luck, which had been her friend thus far tonight, was not smiling back.

Well, she’d just have to improvise.

She pulled free a small bobby pin that had held her hair back out of her face for weeks. The wolves, it seemed, were more thorough in their leering than they were as jailers and had failed to take away things like her watch or a simple bobby pin when she’d been brought here.

She leaned down, found the small keyhole, and inserted the tiny metal wire, fiddling and turning, hoping desperately for the sound of a click.

Part of her was telling her to go another direction, find a different way out. But by this point, most of the exits probably had guards at them. And even if she did find an unwatched exit, it too probably had a lock on it like this one.

There was more distant noise, and she almost dropped the pin. Her hands were trembling now, pulse racing so fast it was hard to concentrate.

She’d only done this once or twice. And Sylvie didn’t know if the lock being old and rusted was a help or a hindrance at this point.

The seconds dragged on like hours as she twisted, turned, and pressed in every direction she could imagine. More noises, less festive this time, reached her ears from places unknown.

Just as she was about to give up, she heard the tiniest of sounds, more of a tick than a click. She pulled at the lock and, after some effort, it fell free.

Trying to be quiet but knowing it was pointless with so much metal, she yanked on the chain, pulling it free and causing a cacophonous symphony of clanking despite her best efforts. Then she pushed the gate open and bolted for the courtyard.

The feeling of freedom reinvigorated Sylvie, granting her a second wind of strength as she quickly appraised her surroundings. The compound, which was a large U shape, had a gap between buildings at the end.

Beyond it, lit by the clouded blue glow of the moon, she could see forest and, if her eyes weren’t tricking her, a dim yellow glow that could mean some sort of civilization a mile or two away. She’d take anything—a gas station, a house, any way of contacting the police.

She didn’t even feel the bitter cold nipping at her skin, permeating the thin jacket she wore.

Okay, Sylvie. Let’s get out of here.

But she hadn’t taken three steps when suddenly a bright-blue vortex appeared out of nowhere in front of her, a whirlpool of light and motion swirling back and forth. She was so stunned that she just stood there agape, trying desperately to figure out what in the hell was going on, but turning up with scant answers.

Then, to her shock, people started pouring out of the portal, leaping onto the ground with heavy thuds. Huge people. All told, there were six of them, all men, each of them well over six feet, all of them with different features and exotic shades of hair in black and white and blue and gray, and each incredibly muscled.

And were they holding… swords?

What kind of medieval weirdness was this?

“Let’s go in and find the dragon heart,” the leader commanded. He had long brown hair and bright-yellow eyes that reminded her of a hawk. The sword he had was the largest, and it looked as if it weighed several hundred pounds.

Dragon heart. Sylvie had heard that term thrown around a lot, but she still had no clue what it meant.

The only thing she knew was that she was so out of here right now, and these men weren’t going to stop her.

She pulled an old screwdriver she’d found out of her back pocket and tried to slink away into the shadows so nobody would see her. But a man with short, gray-blue hair and deep-blue eyes glanced over at her. And in the moonlight, she could make out the glint of glasses on his face.

“Hold on,” he called to his friends. “I think that might not be necessary.” His voice was deep, calm, soothing. Yet it made shivers go down her spine.

Defensively, she jabbed the screwdriver forward, threatening anyone who thought she’d make easy prey. “Just stay out of my way, and we won’t have trouble.”

The gray-haired man cocked his head in confusion as the other men came forward. Or were they men? Given their size and location, she couldn’t be sure.

“Is that who we’re looking for?” A man with shoulder-length black hair glared down at her. She pointed the screwdriver in his direction.

“I think so,” the man with glasses said. “It would make sense.”

He had an elegant, soft way of speaking. Educated.

“That makes our job easier.” The hawkish man folded his giant, muscled arms. What kind of steroids were these guys using anyway? They were huge.

“Maybe?” a blond-haired man said, eyeing her screwdriver.

“Who the hell are you? What do you want?” Sylvie looked around for any hope of escape. But it was useless. Her only route was forward.

And currently blocked by six huge dudes.

“We’re here to rescue you, obviously.” The man with black hair and sharp green eyes glared at her in annoyance.

She glared right back. “Do I look like I need rescuing?”

“No, it would appear that through human ingenuity, you have rescued yourself.” The one with glasses pushed them up somewhat on his nose.

The leader stepped forward, yellow eyes glinting in the moonlight. “Either way, just come with us quickly. We’ll explain everything.”

Sylvie rolled her eyes. “Like hell. I don’t know who you are or what that blue thing you just came out of was, but for all I know, you’re here to kidnap me like they did.” She jerked her head in the direction of the compound.

“We aren’t like them,” the blond said. He had a pretty-boy face but was muscular like the rest. His tone was gentler. “I understand this is confusing for you, especially after what you’ve been through, but I promise this is the best course of action.”

Sylvie shook her head, heart still pounding, knowing at any moment they could be discovered. “No, you have no clue what I’ve been through.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the loud sound of glass shattering, followed by an ear-piercing screech that rent the midnight air, filling the courtyard with terrible noise.

Sylvie looked up to the sky and saw large, leathery shapes silhouetted in blue above them, flying overhead.

Crap, wyverns.

They were all done for.

Except her new friends didn’t seem to think so.

“Arsenic, Zinc, take to the skies,” their presumed leader barked out. “Cadmium, with me. Chromium and Cobalt, protect the dragon heart while I contact Marina.”

Super weird names, but if they were going to keep her from getting ripped to shreds by wyverns, that was okay.

Wings appeared on the backs of two of the guys, and with a powerful whoosh, they took off from the ground, swords glinting as they flew skyward.

She jerked around at the sound of howling and saw several wolves running up from behind her. But just as they seemed ready to charge, the leader and the blond leapt right into the middle of the wolves and began running, taking their attention from her.

“I apologize for our messy introduction,” a cool voice interjected.

Sylvie turned and saw that the remaining two men, the one with blue-gray hair and glasses and another with long white hair in a braid, were flanking her on either side, swords drawn.

“It’s okay,” she said. “The enemy of my enemy, you know.”

“The what?” Glasses turned to her in confusion. “I’m sorry, I’m not familiar with—”

“We’re fighting the same bad guys, so for now, we’re on a team.”

“I see.” Handsome glasses dude brushed his hair behind his ear as he surveyed the scene around them. “Listen, we’re here to take you somewhere safe. I promise you. My name is Cobalt, by the way.”

“Huh.”

Above her, she heard screeches of pain followed by a thunderous thud as a wyvern hit the ground twenty or so feet from her, making Sylvie jump.

“So I’m just supposed to go with you, just like that? How do I know you aren’t just like them?”

“A logical question.” He readjusted the glasses on his face. “One point I might make is that while they took you without asking your consent, we are at least trying to do that. As kidnappers or murderers, that would hardly be necessary.”

The white-haired one next to her nodded in assent, and Sylvie could tell these two were somehow closer than the others.

Suddenly, the wyvern at her left scrabbled to its feet, red eyes glowing. In an instant, it charged at them, long fangs bared.

As if it were nothing, the man with glasses leapt sharply forward, raising his sword and bringing it down on the wyvern, slicing into it. With a shriek, it fell to the ground, lifeless, and he came back to her side, so close she could touch him if she wanted to.

He was so precise, controlled, and powerful.

Kind of hot. In a weird way.

“You have a point,” she said faintly. Her mind was swirling with confusion and unknowns. And the full-out melee going on around her definitely didn’t help.

“Given your current situation and the proximity of enemy reinforcements, I believe your most logical option, however tenuous it might seem, would be to trust us.” He cocked his head, staring calmly down at her. This close, she could make out just how vivid, how deeply blue his eyes were.

After all she’d been through, she wanted to trust him. Badly. And she had to admit the guy’s logic made sense.

“We need to head through the portal now. Just grab her if you have to, Cobalt.” The leader pushed a wolf off of him, then wrestled it to the ground with his bare hands. The wolf yelped as it tried desperately to free itself from his grasp.

“I hope that won’t be needed, Lead.” There was a slight, encouraging smile on Cobalt’s full lips as he glanced down at her again, the eye contact warming her despite the winter cold.

She looked over at the portal, still open merely feet away, surrounded by blue light.

“After you,” Cobalt said, gesturing toward the light. “I assure you it’s perfectly safe, given that we used the same portal merely minutes ago.”

As crazy as it sounded, Sylvie decided to trust him.

Things couldn’t possibly get worse than they already were, could they?

She took a breath and walked forward.