The car slowly filled with panic as they sped away from the scene. Nina was dimly aware of Rachel crying beside her in the backseat of Eli’s Porsche; she slung an arm around her sister’s shoulders mechanically, unable to pull herself out of the vortex of thoughts and emotions in her mind. Her dragon essence was buzzing around beneath her skin fretfully, and she clamped her eyes shut for a moment to reel it in before she accidentally slipped her skin and started to shift into her dragon form. She seemed to be experiencing everything from the bottom of a well—all sights and sounds were distant and compressed, far away and untouchable, unlike her terror. Her terror was very real and tangible.
Joey tried to kill me. My teacher tried to kill me. He tried to kill us, she corrected herself as she looked at Rachel’s tear-stained face. And he almost succeeded.
“Who’s working with him?” she heard herself say aloud. The sound of her voice went a long way toward bringing her back to reality. “He kept saying he’d made a deal. Who made a deal with him?”
“I think I have some ideas,” Pryce said grimly.
Eli’s head whipped toward him suddenly. “Pryce, it isn’t an Outcast, is it?” He didn’t wait for Pryce to answer; his voice rose an octave when he spoke again. “It is, isn’t it?”
“I don’t think so,” Pryce said mildly. “I actually think it’s one of your people.”
The car was silent now. Rachel had stopped crying, and she turned her red-rimmed eyes to Nina, fear written in her gaze.
“No,” Nina said angrily. “No, none of our dragons would do this.”
“One of your dragons just tried to kill us, Nina,” Pryce said, just as upset. “Being bonded doesn’t make you a saint. Just like being an Outcast doesn’t make you a sinner.”
Her cheeks flushed when she heard his accusatory tone, but she held her ground. “I’m not willing to point the finger until we get more information.”
“But you’re fine with Eli pointing the finger for you?”
Nina glared at Pryce from the backseat, and he held her gaze with an angry stare of his own. When she saw he wasn’t going to back down she turned away and cast her glance out the window, taking in the scenery without really absorbing it. She could still feel his gaze on her, but after a moment, it didn’t feel angry anymore; it felt morose, dispirited, even. Nina wanted to be angry that Pryce would expect anything from her—sympathy toward Outcasts, fairness in the face of danger, any kind of answer for her behavior—but she couldn’t gather the energy. Instead, she just felt terribly confused. She didn’t look forward again until she heard him turn around in the passenger seat.
“We need a new plan,” Rachel said weakly. “And now we have to be extra careful. Whoever Joey was working for is going to be incredibly pissed at us, to say the least. We killed one of their plants.”
“Without even taking any damage,” Pryce mumbled. His eyes appeared in the rearview mirror and connected with Nina. “You’ve never done anything like that before? The time-stopping trick?”
“No,” she said stiffly. “I think I would have mentioned it.”
“Another new power,” Eli said, wonder mixing with the agitation in his voice. “Time control.”
“Space-time control,” Pryce clarified. “And it would be nice to know we have that kind of ability on our side once shit really hits the fan.”
The Porsche zipped into the parking lot beside the Olinda’s community center. Nina helped Rachel out of the car, hooking an arm around her waist as they walked to the back entrance. A wave of guilt settled over her, drowning the indignation she’d been suffused with earlier. I did this to her, she thought as she helped Rachel limp into the building and down the stairs toward the dragon-safe lair. My stubbornness did this to her.
Rachel turned her head toward her as they got to the bottom of the stone steps. “Hey, I know that look,” she murmured and Nina lowered her to one of the plush couches. “That’s your ‘It’s all my fault’ face. Don’t do that right now. We need you in top form. You’re still being hunted.”
“Probably more savagely than before,” Pryce said as he stormed into the room. He pulled a duffel bag from behind his curtained bedroom and threw it on a nearby table. “We need to come up with a plan, and stay here until we’re ready to execute it.”
Nina, who had just gotten her breathing back to normal, felt panic start to claw at her throat again. “We can’t just sit here when we should be out looking for The Heart!”
“What do you suggest we do?” Pryce snapped, anger overtaking his expression for the first time. Nina was shocked to see him lose his cool—he was unshakeable up to this point. He seemed to see her discomfort, and he was visibly more relaxed when he spoke again. “We can’t just go running around after cold leads. You’re going to get killed, Nina, and then what was this all for? What the hell am I going to do without you?”
“Don’t try to fucking guilt me,” Nina spat, feeling her energy turn bitter. “I got us into this, and you’re going to let me get us out. You’re not in charge of this, I am.”
Eli came to Nina’s side and looked from her to Pryce, a somewhat amused look on his face. “Pryce, I think Nina’s right.”
Nina turned to look at him, feeling a surge of overwhelming fondness. She wanted to kiss him, and when he turned to meet her gaze, she saw the warmth behind his eyes and nearly pulled him to her lips right there. Then he spoke again, his words careful and metered.
“But I think Pryce has a point, too. We can’t just continually risk you. You’re so important to dragonkind. We have to finish what we started.”
Nina threw her hands up in exasperation. “I can’t believe you two chose this moment to agree, and not before the fucking disaster we just left behind. What’s wrong with you two?”
She turned to glare at Pryce, but he was watching Eli with a look of amusement that mirrored the one Eli had given him moments before. Nina frowned and moved her gaze from one to the other. Rachel raised her eyebrows, asking a silent question.
“What’s going on?”
Pryce and Eli both turned to her with startled expressions, like they’d forgotten she was there.
“Just a guy thing,” Pryce said.
“I think we finally understand each other,” Eli said, smiling—though, to Nina, it seemed rueful.
She opened her mouth to ask him to explain, but something told her it wasn’t a conversation to be had right now. Suddenly feeling as though she were under a spotlight, she started to pace the wide space in the center of the black-walled lair, twisting strands of her wavy black hair between her fingers as she thought aloud.
“We need to go somewhere where we can be relatively sure we can be safe, but also further the mission objective.”
Rachel laughed, and the bright cadence told Nina she was feeling much better. “Mission objective? Holy shit, she’s snapped. Nina, maybe you should calm down for a second between planning World War Three skirmishes.”
Nina ignored the jab. “We have to find out where that Heart is, and get it to the Council as soon as possible. But how are we going to find it? It would take us too long to find it ourselves, but maybe with some equipment we could make progress.”
“Where would we get it?” Pryce asked. “You don’t exactly have a cabinet of dragons who can get you weapons and technology at your disposal.” He shot her an aggrieved look. “And the ones I have access to aren’t to your liking, apparently.”
“No, I don’t have that kind of access.” Nina brushed Pryce’s jab off, too. She didn’t need Rachel or Pryce’s help, she realized. She stopped in her tracks and looked at Eli, hope starting to return to her for the first time in what felt like years. “But you do.”
“What?” he asked self-consciously. “What are you talking about?”
“We’re going back,” Nina said excitedly. “We’re going back to the Council. They have to listen to us now. Remember what Eka said: ‘If you find yourself in grave danger or other dragons are at risk, let us know.’ This has to count.” She looked at the others. “They have to help us!”
Pryce and Rachel looked at each other uncertainly.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Pryce said evenly. “It could go wrong very fast. Maybe before you even show up.”
Rachel was less sure. “If Eka really said that, maybe it’s worth a try.” She shrugged. “Eli made this guy sound really trustworthy.”
“He is,” Eli said, warming to the idea. “And if we tell them we’re looking for the Heart, maybe they’ll help us.”
The urge to kiss Eli was stronger than ever. “Yes, exactly!”
Pryce threw his hands up in exasperation. “Have you two lost your minds? How the fuck are we supposed to bring up the Heart to them if we’re not supposed to know about it?”
“You won’t be letting them know,” Eli said pointedly. “It’ll be me and Nina.”
Pryce was shaking his head. “We don’t know who the enemy is. You could be walking right into their hands.”
Nina felt something snap inside her. “It would be the same situation if we were going to your Outcasts. We don’t know anything for sure.”
Pryce looked stricken. “Nina, if you let me explain my reasoning—”
“Do you have any?” she snapped, her anger growing as she spoke. “Are you capable of being unbiased? It seems to me that you can’t wait to pile blame on those council slugs,” she sneered, putting air quotes around the phrase they’d heard him use repeatedly. “Excuse me if I’m a little tired of listening to that baseless negativity right now.”
The pain in Pryce’s eyes nearly made Nina apologize to him on the spot. Before she could say anything, however, his gaze hardened and he set his jaw.
“You should be careful what you call baseless, Nina. You’re not exactly unbiased yourself.”
Underneath her anger, she knew he was right. She didn’t have much reason to hate the Outcasts, and she knew now that the Council did actively mislead its citizens about them. But she also knew that Pryce was never going to see the Greater Horde the same way she did, nor would he ever understand her need to be a part of it. His disdain for mainstream dragonkind confused and wounded her more than she wanted to admit, and it bothered her that anyone could feel that way toward something she’d wanted her entire life. Pryce would never get it. Eli did. It was this fact more than anything else that made her take Eli’s hand in hers and stare coolly at Pryce.
“I’m not unbiased, Pryce. I don’t pretend to be. I just have good taste.”
Then she turned on her heel and led Eli across the room and behind her private curtain, pulling a stack of blank paper from one of the tables as she disappeared behind the partition. Nina wanted to feel triumphant; when she thought about the dumbfounded look on her sister’s face and the look of hurt and dejection on Pryce’s, however, all she felt was guilt.
***
Eli and Nina drove toward the Council headquarters in silence. Nina still had his hand in hers, and it gave her more than a slim measure of comfort. His long fingers intertwined with hers felt more like an anchor at the moment, tying her down while the waters of uncertainty were doing their best to throw them overboard. Each time he looked at her, she tried to give him her most self-assured smile, but she knew from the tension in his own expression that he could feel every ounce of her nerves in her energy.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that something terrible was about to happen, either to them or to Pryce and Rachel—especially after having an uncomfortably strained goodbye before leaving them behind. Nina knew it very well could be that she was just feeling fatalistic after having so many near-death experiences. Anyone would be shaken up, she told herself. Just try and focus on why you’re doing this: fulfilling the prophecy that your parents believed in.
Nina realized so many things had been going wrong that she’d started to doubt the prophecy herself. Maybe the “original” didn’t even exist. Maybe Pryce’s information was bad in more ways than one. Maybe her parents were mistaken. Maybe there was no Rose Quartz Heart. Maybe she should just give herself up to the Council right then, and resign herself to living without powers and without ever becoming a full-fledged dragon.
She pulled her hand from Eli’s and covered her face, stifling the sob that was threatening to spring from her mouth. She felt the car turn into the long driveway leading up to the Council’s parking garage, and the seatbelt pressed across her chest as the Porsche skidded to a halt in one of the spaces.
“Hey,” Eli said gently, his soothing tone infused with worry. “It’s going to be okay now. We’re going to get out of this, and they’re going to help us find the Heart. Then you’ll stop this whole chaotic mess from tumbling down on our heads and we’ll live happily ever after. We’ll both be future Council members. Well,” he said, laughing, “if the Queen will allow it.”
The tenderness and certainty of his pronouncement stopped Nina’s tears. She looked into his dark blue eyes as an intense wave of adoration uncurled inside her. She cradled his face between her shaking hands.
“What if we’re wrong, Eli?” she whispered. “What if we can’t get out of this? What if I screw everything up and we don’t get to fix it?”
“We have to,” he said firmly. “The Council never abandons its dragons, Nina. I won’t let them abandon you.” He took her by her waist and pulled her a little closer. “You’re our best hope for survival. Our only hope.” His voice softened. “My only hope, in fact. And I’m starting to depend on you for more than just survival.”
Nina leaned forward and kissed him, putting all of the love she felt for him into the hungry press of her lips against his. It was enough, at that moment, that he believed in her; it was enough that he felt so devoted to her that he’d risk angering the Council, an entity they both revered. It didn’t matter to her that a sense of foreboding was starting to choke her, taking away her ability to think clearly about how they were going to find and approach Eka. She only cared that Eli was next to her, putting all of his faith in her—and that he wanted to stay by her side from now on.
“I don’t think I could do this without you,” she whispered, drawing him close enough to plant tiny, light kisses down the curve of his jaw. “Thank you, Eli.”
Eli’s cheeks were flushed, and Nina could tell from the warmth in his eyes that it wasn’t because he was embarrassed.
“I should be thanking you, darling. For everything you’re about to do. I’ll probably never stop thanking you.”
Nina kissed him one more time before she unbuckled her seatbelt, relishing in the realization that they were growing closer in the midst of this cluster of fatalities. He came around to her side of the car as she got out and seized her hand immediately, his cobalt eyes reflecting the passion she was harboring for him. She was so busy returning his heated glances that she didn’t notice a slim, petite figure striding toward them from the elevator banks, her footsteps light and quick. She did feel the enormous energy moving toward them, though—that was impossible to miss.
It was so imposing and turbulent that it was as though the sea had been heated to its boiling point and was turning into a suffocating mist around them. The woman moving toward them was small in stature, but her energy was anything but diminutive. Nina had time to see that the woman was wearing silver flats and a dark gray trench coat before taking in her ruler-straight sheet of silky, white-blonde hair. Her hair was fluttering around her shoulders from the speed of her stride, and Nina was finally able to make out her face: slim, pointed, dramatically sculpted features made even colder by a pair of glittering black eyes. The bulk of her beauty was in her power—and it was a terrible beauty, a deadly one.
Eli gasped and pulled his hand away from Nina’s like he’d been electrocuted.
“Lylah,” he said under his breath.
Lylah. Nina’s sense of foreboding was overwhelming now.
The Councilwoman didn’t smile as she came to a stop in front of them. Nina had to force herself to stay in her place, because Lylah’s raging energy was so wild it was almost tangible; her own essence felt weaker for being near it. She fixed her gaze first on Eli, then on Nina.
“What are you doing here?”
Her tone had none of the forced cheer she’d been filled with at their first meeting, nor was it even pretending to be polite. Lylah’s words were as hostile as her expression. Nina’s mind was racing. What is she doing here? Why does she seem so pissed with us?
“We need to see Eka,” Eli said before dropping his gaze, clearly as uncomfortable as Nina.
“For what purpose?” She held up her delicate hands immediately. “Don’t answer that. I already know.” She turned her eyes on Nina, smiling cruelly. “You think you’re going to drag Eka into your little scam of a crusade.”
Eli frowned and looked at Nina, then back to Lylah. “We need his help, but I don’t know what you mean by crusade. Or scam.” He swallowed harshly.
“Don’t try to suppress your nerves,” Lylah murmured to Eli, pressing a hand to his bicep as she looked up at him. “You can’t hide things from me, Eli. I’m too powerful... and I’ve known you.” She smiled more widely, and Nina was forcefully reminded of a hungry shark. “That creates a bond with lots of little benefits, remember?”
Nina watched Eli’s cheek turn crimson. She looked between him and Lylah, remembering how bitter he seemed when he was telling her how selfish she was. A wave of revulsion slammed into her, and she took a few steps back from both of them.
Lylah laughed at Nina and curled her arm around Eli’s. “Your little pet seems upset. You didn’t tell her about our past, Eli?” She feigned embarrassment. “Oh, maybe I should I call you Mr. Nelson? You always preferred that when I was with you. Of course, you’ll need to call me Madam.”
Eli wrenched away from her and turned to Nina, trying to hold her by the shoulders. She pushed him away in panic, and his voice grew desperate. “Nina, it’s nothing. It was a mistake. I didn’t know what she was like back then. I thought I was in love with her, but it was just a stupid mistake!”
“You’re hurting my feelings,” Lylah said lightly, her eyes dancing with joy as she watched Nina back away from Eli in disgust. “You certainly enjoyed our year together. I certainly enjoyed how vigorous that slim body can be,” she said seductively. “So what if I got some of my own agenda finished in the process? It’s not my fault you got attached. I did warn you.”
“You encouraged my attachment,” Eli said savagely. “You’re a jealous bitch, aren’t you? You’re just here to throw a wrench into my new relationship?”
Nina felt a stir of conflicting emotions at Eli’s use of the word, and she couldn’t figure out why. She looked at the fury in Eli’s expression, searching for some clue to her extreme discomfort. It seemed unnatural. Her black bangs were sticking to her forehead; Lylah’s storm cloud of energy was heating the air around her.
“I’m done with you,” he continued. “You had your chance with me, Lylah. I’m not going back to you.”
“You already came back to me twice already,” she said pleasantly. “I don’t see why I shouldn’t expect it. Especially with what I’m seeing in your energy. The part you try hard to cloak from everyone.” She licked her lips slowly. “Mm, I love having such private looks into your essence, Eli. I can read you like a book... and you still love it.”
Eli opened his mouth to speak, but his voice seemed caught in his throat. A thunderbolt of understanding struck Nina. Everything made sense.
He had been so bitter about Lylah because he still had feelings for her, at least on some level. Why else had he hidden it for so long? In his fear, all of his energy was hanging bare to Nina’s eyes, and she could see exactly what Lylah was talking about: a curl of warmth was present in his wave of anger and trepidation, something she’d had more than a few glimpses of herself when they were alone together. Only the flavor of this curl of energy was different: this was rooted in him solidly so that it seemed like a part of him, while what he felt for Nina seemed so wild and new and unpredictable. Nina felt even more nauseated then.
“Anyway,” the blonde dragon continued, “I’m not here for that. I’m here to stop you before you try to fuck everything up again. I can’t believe you’re still trying this cobbled-together scheme of yours. An arrow didn’t stop you, a bomb didn’t stop you, a second bomb didn’t stop you…” she let out a snarl of frustration. “You’re like cockroaches.”
Nina felt as though a small explosion had gone off inside her head. She steadied herself on the back of Eli’s Porsche with one hand, looking from Lylah’s cruel smile to Eli’s devastated look of betrayal in horror.
“You?” she asked weakly. “You’re the one trying to kill me?”
Lylah tossed her hair over one shoulder and examined her nails. “I didn’t say that. I won’t say I didn’t, either. You two know too much as it is,” she spat, raising her gaze again. “I have no idea where you’ll slip off to after this, and I sure as hell can’t kill you on Council property. At this point, the only thing I want is to never want to see either of your faces again. That can be accomplished a number of ways, but maybe you can be creative and find a way to avoid death. Do whatever you like. Just stay away from here. And all of us dragons, in fact. Except the Outcasts.” Lylah’s nostrils flared. “Keep them away from us, too. Especially that big one with the scars.”
Nina’s veins were flooded with icy terror. How did she know so much? None of this made sense. “What about the stone? How are you going to get it cleansed?”
Lylah narrowed her eyes, looking vaguely amused. “That isn’t any business of yours.”
Eli found his voice again. “We’re dragons. It is our business. And Nina’s prophecy says...”
“That’s another thing,” Lylah cut in, the amusement draining from her eyes so quickly it was like it drained a switch. “Not only are you not to come back here, you need to stop looking for the lost chunk of stone. We do have other ways to cleanse it, and you’re only asking for more pain and trouble fooling with the Outcasts, anyway.” Lylah nodded to Nina. “I do enjoy knowing that the Outcast you’re with makes Eli jealous, though. He’s cute when he’s jealous, isn’t he?”
“We don’t have time for your games!” Nina shouted, feeling the veneer of panic start to break apart, making way for a thunder of destructive emotions. “Say what you want to say and let us go. We still have no idea what you’re accusing us of. You seem to be dancing around the point. Is it because you don’t even know?” she prompted, letting her tone taunt Lylah. “Is it because you’re nothing but an errand girl, doling out Eka’s messages?”
Lylah looked surprised for the first time. “Eka doesn’t know I’m here,” she said slowly. “And he won’t find out, if you know what’s good for you.”
Eli was looking at her in disbelief. “You’ve gone rogue? You’re attacking someone the Council needs, completely on your own, out of—what? Jealousy?” He seemed to be eagerly taking over the task of goading Lylah. “Or perhaps upset that I and everyone else see something in Nina that we all know you always tried to be and never could reach— a dragon with immense natural power capable of getting Eka’s attention all by herself, without putting on any acts?”
It seemed that Eli had stabbed at a known sore spot. He watched with satisfaction as Lylah’s face went blank. Nina shivered; she was even scarier without expression. Her cold black eyes turned to Nina, then crawled back to Eli.
“You flatter yourself,” she said flatly. “But I can see you’re really trying to draw it out of me. Fine, I know about your little plan, and I know the Outcast and a witch are involved. Let me give you a tip; you think you’re trying to save the realm with the path you're on, but you’re only going to plunge us into sure destruction. Those kind of people are not fit to wipe your shoes, let alone give you direction.”
She gazed at Nina then, her expression still blank save for the ice-cold hostility in her eyes. “Eka is a nostalgic old fool if he thinks returning to royalty and all the bullshit that went on then is going to help us. I know it won’t.” Her nostrils flared again, and the temperature around them spiked dramatically. “The only thing that will save the dragons is cleansing the stone and making sure the Council stays on as the supreme rule. Royalty ruined us and it will ruin us again. We need a Council, and one without all the kumbaya bullshit your Outcast friends seem to want. Anything else is tarnishing us as a race.”
The cruel smile returned to Lylah’s face. “I know I’ll never convince you, though, so you either leave or die, and very soon. It’s your choice. I’d choose the former if you also want to save your freak show of a family and friend group.”
Nina was shaking, and more than a little of her trembling was due to an awesome sense of terror at the chilling way Lylah spoke, but she felt herself moving toward Lylah as her own fury mounted. Distantly, she was aware of Eli trying to hold her back, but she lashed out at him with a pulse of power, sending him crashing into the trunk of his car from the force of her energy strike. He groaned and rubbed his back from his place on the cold pavement.
Nina stopped a few inches away from Lylah and tapped into all of her outrage and panic, all of the doubt and loneliness that had plagued her the past few days. She let it fill her energy, stuffing her aura with a white-hot promise of violence that she knew just then she was capable of.
“You will not stand in our way,” she growled. “You may not like what’s happening, but it’s not your place to like it. You’re a Council member. You exist to serve dragons and look after the health of the realm—and you failed.”
Nina felt her power swell and start to swallow Lylah’s; she didn’t know how it was happening, but when she saw the blonde dragon take a fearful step back, she didn’t care.
Lylah’s eyes widened; the air between them was chilly now, and when she exhaled, a cloud of vapor spilled from her lips. “What did they do to you?” she asked disgustedly. “What the hell is this power?”
“It’s my power,” Nina snarled, taking a deep breath. Amazingly, her own power swelled and folded over Lylah’s again, making the air even crisper and cooler while stealing some of her energy at the same time. “It’s mine, Lylah, just like this realm is mine. I am the head and the heart. I am the door and the key. And you,” she spat, “are just shit on the bottom of my shoe. You can’t hold us back for long. You’re a temporary setback. We will find that Heart, and I will be taking the throne. And when I do...”
She took a final step forward, backing Lylah up against a wall until they were close enough to kiss. “...I’m going to scrape you right off. I see that you’re just shit now, Lylah. You can’t hide behind your Council moniker for long.”
Lylah was trembling, but she managed to keep her voice steady as she moved sideways away from Nina. “You’re fucking crazy,” she hissed through gritted teeth. “This isn’t worth it! You’re betraying your own kind!”
Nina looked at her in disbelief. “Am I? I’m pretty sure I’m saving it from cretins like you.”
When she was far enough away, Lylah replaced the unease in her expression with a more familiar look of acidity. “You can’t win this, Nina. You can’t dodge everything thrown at you. And when you get hit, I’m going to dance on your grave. With Eli. And maybe that tasty little Outcast... before I kill them both.”
Then Lylah spun on her heel and walked quickly toward the bank of elevators behind her. As they watched her disappear, Nina and Eli turned to each other, their gazes loaded with layers of meaning.
Can I deal with this? she wondered. Eli was not only a former lover of the enemy but still a little in love with her himself? Can I trust him? Do I even want to?
Eli rushed forward, the tears in his eyes telling Nina he’d read everything in her energy. “Nina, I don’t care for her like I care for you.” He slid his arms around her waist and held her desperately close. “She’s trying to drive us apart so she can destroy us. Please, don’t let her get between us and into your head. We’ll lose.”
Nina looked up at him, her mind still reeling from everything Lylah had said. Despite her show of bravado a moment before, she felt very defeated, even deflated. It seemed like her power had been doing the talking, not her.
“Eli,” she said sadly, “one of the most powerful members of the Council has been trying to kill us. We have no way to get to Eka without Lylah knowing. There’s nothing to stop anyone from trying to kill me again while we look for the Heart... how the fuck do you expect us to win?”