Serena turned those big brown eyes on Eve. “So how do we rescue my brother?” Her teeth bared in a feral grin.

The thought of revenge had obviously energized her.

There was something so bright about her spirit. She made Eve feel good about herself. She was so like Cain.

Eve knew without a shadow of a doubt that the Elysians were not going to stop until they broke down this woman and destroyed her. She also knew she was going to do everything possible to prevent that from happening.

“I assume you tried to break out of here?” Eve jerked her head to the door on the far side that had a dent in the center.

Serena’s lips turned down at the sides.

Eve experienced a twinge of regret that she’d been the one to wipe the anticipation off the lion shifter’s face.

“I can’t shift.” Serena sank to the floor with a bump. “I tried, but it’s something they did while experimenting on me. They messed with my psychic shields.” She touched her temple. “Now my lion is trapped inside.”

“Did they hurt you?” Eve sat on her haunches so she was at eye level with Serena.

“Not physically.” Serena wouldn’t look at her. “But they did things in my head. They wormed their way inside and pushed triggers to make me shift at will. They put in some kind of secondary barrier, so even if I drop my shield I can’t shift.” She shivered and hugged her arms around her waist.

A shudder of helplessness tied Eve’s stomach into knots. If Serena couldn’t shift they were trapped.

Eve moved back to put a little distance between her and Serena. Crossing her legs, she dropped her hands in the center of her lap, placing the fingertips together. She dropped into herself, into the violet essence of her dragon. She drew on it, let it fill her, let the wildfire energy of her dragon swell until it overwhelmed every atom of her body.

There was a familiar hum as the transformation changed her cells, only to stutter then stop. Her energy wasn’t strong enough.

“Putain.” Eve slammed her fist on the floor next to her. The frustration gave her added strength, and the vibrations jolted through the floor, rattling the bars.

She snapped her gaze to Serena.

Serena’s lips widened in a chuckle.

“What?” Eve let the growl of frustration rumble up her throat.

“You swore just like Cain.”

“Me? No.” Her voice faded. She realized she’d used his favorite cuss word. Her cheeks flushed. She didn’t even want to contemplate what that meant. She raised her hands then let them drop. “How many Elysians are there?”

“It was a man and a woman who experimented on me. The man pushed his way into my head. I had my psychic shields up, so he tried to find cracks in my shield to get through.” Her shoulders sagged, and she drew her knees up against her chest. “He searched for triggers in my psychic presence to figure out which ones would force me to shift. He drew out my lion, then tortured my beast to make me shift back.” Serena’s voice had lapsed into a monotone. She had obviously retreated into a part of herself where no emotion could touch her.

This had to be difficult for her to recall, but Eve needed to know so she could figure out a plan to get them out of here. “That’s not all he did, though, right?”

Serena tilted her head so her cloud of hair fell over her face, hiding it. “In my human form, when I was tied down, he used his psychic energy to seduce me into shifting.” Her voice faded. She clutched her arms around herself and rocked back and forth.

“He succeeded, didn’t he?” Eve’s voice was gentle.

She had to force the words out. She knew it was not something this amazing woman wanted to say to her, but it was something she had to get out in the open. The faster Serena acknowledged what had happened to her, the faster she could start healing.

Serena’s frantic movements stilled. When she raised her head, Eve’s chest tightened. Those tawny eyes held a mix of fear, shame, and so much anger. Eve wondered what she had unleashed.

Serena flung herself at the bars that separated them.

Sinking to her knees, she clutched the rods, resting her forehead against one. “He turned something that was the most joyous experience in the world to something that I was ashamed of.”

The pale rays of the sun came in through the window and glistened off her tears.

Eve closed the distance between them and dropped to her knees in front of Serena.

She clutched Serena’s fingers that were curled on the bars. “You can’t blame yourself.” Her voice was fierce.

“I should have resisted, I shouldn’t have given in.” Serena’s eyes were pale shadows of beaten amber. “It was easier to withstand the pain. But once he started using the pleasure points of my psyche, I couldn’t hold back. I had to reveal my beast.”

Eve didn’t want what had happened to Serena to damage her. She was so vital, so full of life. Eve was going to try her best to make sure Serena came out of this with her strength of will intact.

“The Elysian used your emotions, the core of what it means to be a shifter, against yourself.” She was blunt and made sure to keep all empathy out of her voice.

Serena didn’t need someone to make her weak right now. She needed the strength to find that part of her that she’d hidden away for fear of it being hurt.

“If you let that hold you back, you are only surrendering to him,” Eve said.

The lion shifter lifted her head. Her lips drew back to show her teeth. “Who said anything about surrender?” Her eyes met Eve’s and held.

In hers, Eve saw the awareness dawn. Serena had realized Eve was trying to get her to fight.

“Sometimes you do what’s needed to survive. It’s not right or wrong, it just is.” Eve sat back on her haunches.

“Is that what you did?” Serena sniffed and used the back of her hand to wipe her tears from her cheeks.

“To make alpha I had to face and kill my challengers. It wasn’t what I wanted, but it was expected of me. I had to do what it took to win for I could not let my father down.” Thinking about her father made her chest feel heavy. The grief of losing him hadn’t faded, it had just changed shape to become a shadow she carried inside her. “I am drawn to Cain, but there is no future for us. I will not let my dragon hurt him, so once this mission is over, I will leave…” Her voice faded. Who was she kidding?

She’d never be able to recover from leaving Cain. He was a part of her already. As she sat trying to comfort Serena, she felt like she could feel Cain in her head, in her heart, on the psychic plane…

Cain.

The part of her chest above her heart twinged. A jolt of white-red pain shot through her. As she reached out to rub it, a brush of energy whispered against her psychic senses.

The psychic scent was like the hot plains of a desert after the first rain. Musky and evocative. It brought tears to her eyes.

Another jolt of pain had her grasping Serena’s hands for support. Sweat ran down her forehead, and she panted in its aftermath.

“You okay?”

She barely heard Serena through the ball of emotion that lodged in her throat.

There was a fluttering in her chest. Her left eyebrow throbbed. “They’re hurting him.” Even as she said the words, fear twisted her gut and she sprang to her feet. “I have to find him.”