Noelle’s heart stopped.

She never expected this.

Curled in the corner of the room was a familiar face. She was small, smaller than Noelle last remembered. Her arms were thin and her hands shook when she leaned forward, eyes wide.

“Mary,” Noelle cried.

“Sis?” the other dragon’s voice was thin and hoarse, but it was her. There was no mistaking the face before her, no matter how it had changed over the decades.

Noelle had found her sister. After years of believing her baby sister to be dead, the dragon woman was sitting across from her. Noelle crawled into the cell, not thinking about how little time they had left. She wrapped her arms around the trembling dragon woman and drew in her scent. She smelled like honeysuckle and chemicals.

When she looked up, Marc was standing in the doorway. His jaw was still tight, but he didn’t look angry with her anymore. She should have told him what Patterson said to his mother. She’d kept it hidden, hadn’t mentioned it to keep him from rushing things, but she knew now it’d been a mistake.

Noelle clung to Mary, the frail body of her baby sister all too breakable beneath her still strong grip.

“I looked…” Noelle’s words hung in the air. “I looked everywhere for you, but it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t…”

Mary leaned in and wrapped her arms around her big sister, clinging to her like the world might tear them apart again. “You’re here now.”

Mary’s voice, her words, they unleashed something inside of Noelle. She could breathe. It was as if a heavy weight left her lungs, once and for all. It made tears burn her eyes again. There wasn’t time for that. Noelle knew she needed to get moving, but she couldn’t command her body to move from where they sat on the concrete floor together.

It was Oliver’s shout down the stairs that alerted them all that they needed to move. His voice flowed down the stairs and propelled them into action. The freed dragons paused on the stairs when they saw the dragon man waiting ahead of them.

Time was running out.

The cleaning crew must have come and done their job and people were starting to re-enter the lower levels. Noelle pulled back, sizing up her baby sister. The dragon woman’s limbs were thin and shaky. Running at the speed they would need to escape would be impossible for Mary. The look of defiance was burning in her eyes. They hadn’t been able to extinguish the fire burning inside her, that was good.

But, if they were going to get out of the lower levels in one piece, they needed to move fast. Noelle whispered an apology to her sister before scooping her into her arms. Mary weighed nearly nothing, as if there was no beast inside the woman. It made Noelle’s stomach churn. What would years surrounded by silver do to a beast?

“Suck it up and run if you want to live,” Noelle snapped at the other dragons’ hesitation. This was no time to dawdle. They’d been freed, they would have to learn to take some risks from here on out.

“There’s a back door down this way.” Oliver led the new group, clearly larger than he’d expected if the look on his face was any indication, toward another exit.

The freed dragons looked between one another, but Noelle didn’t hesitate. She took the steps as quickly as she could with another body weighing her down. They still hadn’t found what they’d come for.

Lucia Avila was still nowhere to be found.

She could see worry lining her mate’s face while his eyes surveyed the doors around them. He seemed to want her to be behind every door they passed, but neither of them knew where they’d taken Lucia.

But, Oliver might. Noelle remembered the way his eyes dropped to the crook of Lucia’s arm when they mentioned Lucia’s looming expiration date. He’d seen the scientists at work. He’d been forced to watch as they killed one of his kin. Noelle was almost certain of it.

She didn’t want to give up her sister just yet, but Noelle spun toward her mate. She thrust Mary’s body into his arms and turned away to grab Oliver. Marc didn’t say a word. His eyes only gleamed with an unspoken thanks. He knew she was going to fight for what they’d come for, one way or another.

“Tell me where they would take Lucia,” Noelle commanded.

Oliver shot her a worried look. They could both hear doors beginning to open ahead. Their chance of escaping now was getting slimmer and slimmer. Noelle could breathe easy because she knew Marc and the other dragons were racing toward the exit. Oliver’s face was grim. He looked ahead, like he really didn’t want to go where she suggested, but swallowed and led her forward. The direction he took her was away from the exit the others ran for.

Even if they found Lucia, would either of them be able to escape?

Noelle didn’t have time to worry. She only had time for action.

The door Oliver stopped at was painted black, stark and upsetting against the white of the walls. Noelle felt her stomach flip at the sight of it, like the color of the door meant it was the end of the line for everyone who entered. She could tell why Oliver had been hesitant.

He grabbed the door and it came free in his hands, locking mechanism or no. The space beyond it was dark, illuminated by a series of round lights that hung suspended over a table. Tubes hung from the ceiling, connected to the body lying on the table. Lucia never looked so frail in Noelle’s eyes.

She could see the faint, blue tinge beginning to crawl forward from Lucia’s hairline. Her eyes flicked toward the tubes connected to the ceiling and saw the faintest shimmer. They were injecting Lucia with silver. It was enough to kill anyone, let alone a dragon.

Noelle lunged forward and grabbed the tubes, snapping them away from Lucia’s body. Oliver took to the restraints and snapped them with ease. Once Noelle removed all the tubes leading into Lucia’s body, he picked her up, cradling the dragon woman like a baby. Noelle knew this didn’t look good. Lucia made no indication she knew what was going on. Her head lolled against Oliver’s chest and Noelle felt her heart skip a beat.

They glanced at the door. The sound of footsteps was coming closer and closer. Noelle could only hope the others had made it out. She ground her teeth together and prepared to stand her ground when Oliver jabbed her with his elbow. She spun around, ready to snap at him, when she saw him jerk his head toward a small hatch in the wall.

“You aren’t going to like this,” he began.

Noelle didn’t think too hard about it. She yanked the hatch open and saw the sunlight stream in from overhead. Peering up, she found a thin grate standing between them and freedom. Her stomach sank when she realized her dragon form was still locked away. Her thin body could have made it through the space, could have busted through the grate with ease.

She glanced back at Oliver and the woman in his arms. It seemed to strike him in that moment, the knowledge that she couldn’t take her dragon form. He looked as though he might have slapped his forehead had he not been carrying Lucia. Leaning forward, he passed the woman’s form over to Noelle, who struggled to carry the larger body.

“I guess something good did come out of my time here,” he said, rolling his shoulders.

The beast that surged from the dragon man was unlike anything she’d seen before. His body was long, curling around the room, and his scales were dark. When he approached the sunlight of the shaft, she saw his scales were not black, but a deep blue green that shifted in the light. His body was thin, his wings tucked against the blue green-scales when he jerked his head back.

“You want me to climb on top of you like some sort of fantasy dragon rider?” Noelle asked sarcastically when she indicated the heavy form in her arms. She used the sarcasm to cover the fear gripping her heart. She could no longer tell if the woman in her arms was breathing and it terrified her to think what that would mean for her mate.

Oliver looked at her for a long moment. Footfalls grew louder and louder. Voices came closer. There were only moments left. Almost irritated, Oliver’s claws swept forward and plucked Noelle from the ground. He carefully placed her and Lucia on his back. There was little for Noelle to hold onto while she held onto another body, so she tightened her thighs on the dragon’s neck and leaned forward when he crawled through the hatch.

They’d almost made it when a face appeared around the corner. The scientist came to a sudden halt, face filled with shock when the last of Oliver’s body slithered through the hatch in the wall. It didn’t take long for the scientist to lurch forward and slam the hatch closed. Noelle wondered what that was about until she heard a familiar sound.

It was like igniting a gas oven, the hiss of the fuel filling the air.

“You didn’t tell me this was an incinerator!” Noelle screamed it at the top of her lungs.

 

***

 

Marc turned toward the path Oliver promised would lead toward an exit. He only had faith to go on while his feet pressed forward. The sounds of voices were drifting toward them. N moments, the scientists and agents would be upon them. Marc clutched the frail dragon woman in his arms, clinging to her like she would bring his mother back.

The crowd around him ran, limped, and shuffled forward. They were all in a state of disarray and confusion, but they followed him nonetheless. They put their faith in him, too, in order to get to freedom. He didn’t think any of them were in any kind of fighting shape. Not even he was, the silver around him making his skin crawl with the sensation of bugs.

He spared a moment to wonder how the dragon in Wales had dealt with the implant in her skin for years. It had been inside of her for over twenty years, forcing to be half a person until she forgot who she’d even been. Had her skin crawled the same way?

Marc knew he was distracting himself. He knew his thoughts were moving in other directions to keep him from thinking about what might happen if they didn’t reach the exit.

A form passed through the hall ahead of them. Head down, the person wasn’t paying much attention to their surroundings. The group of dragons halted, each of them trying to smother their own breath to keep from getting caught. The figure kept moving, unawares.

Marc waited a moment before giving the motion to keep moving. That’d been close. The long, white coat on the figure meant the person was probably one of the GOE scientists. They approached the corner, meeting the hall at a ninety-degree angle. Marc leaned forward and peered around the corner, holding his breath.

The scientist had stopped. Her head shot up and Marc pulled back, his chest tight. His eyes followed the hall in the opposite direction. That was where the exit lay, he thought, remembering Oliver’s hurried directions. He could see the door at the end and the stairs through the narrow window in it. They were so close to freedom. He would have surged forward had his mate not been elsewhere in the facility.

Footsteps turned, moving toward them. Marc stifled his curse. Noelle was still looking for his mother. She was somewhere in this maze of madness. If this scientist were to raise the alarm, maybe some of the dragons with him would reach the surface, but what would happen to his mate? He couldn’t risk it.

His body froze, his heart clenched.

The scientist approached the corner. His back pressed against the wall. There was a hall of dragons behind him. If the scientist looked, even glanced, around the corner, she would immediately raise the alarm.

The sound paused and Marc prayed the woman would turn around. He gripped Mary tighter as she twisted in his arms. He wanted to yell at the tiny dragon woman, to curse at her, but he couldn’t risk it.

The footsteps moved forward. A face appeared around the corner. The scientist’s eyes widened as she took in the herd of dragons in the hall. Her mouth dropped into the wide O of surprise just as a tiny fist darted out. It connected with the woman’s jaw and the scientist crumpled to the floor.

“Noelle taught me that one,” Mary whispered, pulling her fist back and rubbing her bruised knuckles as she looked down at the form on the floor.

Marc swallowed his laugh before darting for the door at the end of the hall. The woman in his arms was a spitfire just like her older sister. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

The door flew open and the herd of dragons rushed into the stairwell. There were flights and flights of stairs to climb before they could breathe fresh air. He glanced around. Many of the dragons were slow, moving with limps or with the help of other dragons. He grimaced, eyes darting to the doorway behind them.

When someone came upon the collapsed woman on the floor, someone would realize something was wrong. They had to move fast if they were going to reach the door.

Marc had a moment to wonder, what then? Once they reached the door, what would they do? Could the dragons behind him unleash their beast? Could they fly away from this nightmare of a place? Or, were they ground bound, unable to access the beast inside of them due to their years below ground?

He wished he’d alerted Dane or his brother before Noelle dragged him down here. Then, at least, there would be back up waiting for them. Marc wasn’t sure what would happen next, but he waited until all the dragons were on the stairs before climbing after them.

“If anyone comes after us, I’m going to put you down,” Marc whispered to Mary. “When I do, I want you to run.”

Mary twisted to stare at him, her eyes searching his face. After a long moment, she swallowed. “My sister did good by you. It’s everyone or nothing.”

“Stubborn,” Marc said as if it were a curse. “A stubborn ass, just like Noelle.”

“I mean what I say,” the defiant form in his arms said, her voice growing solemn.

All Marc could do was nod his head and follow the herd of dragons up the floors, hoping beyond all hope the door Oliver promised them was there.