JACK

The Ringmaster tugged on my goddamn leash, and the binding magic cinched tight around my throat.

“Do it now, Jack,” he called back to me. “Fight your brothers into submission. Remember our deal - if they come willingly, they live. If not, they get no scales from you.”

Fuck, I wished they could hear him - but while they were under his spell, they would have no idea what he said to me. They’d be left only with what they could see, and all they’d see is me trying to fight them again.

This was going to be one tricky fucking fight. The only way out of this mess was to live to fight another day.

It was the unofficial Underbelly motto, after all.

He released his hold on Dair, Jai, and Killian, and Jai was on me before I could even lumber to my feet. He sank his fangs deep in the soft spot beneath my wings, right where my armpit would be.

Fuck, that vampire was vicious.

I couldn’t even send him my thoughts. My team knew appearances could be fucking deceiving, but I also knew each one of them was bat-shit crazy about the beautiful woman battling the Ringmaster right now. They’d never let anything happen to her.

I saw the flash of Dair’s magic as he siphoned toward Carlyle to help, but the Ringmaster had put up some sort of barrier keeping us all separate. None of them could help her now. It was up to her to make her own choice.

I’d made mine. I just hoped she trusted me enough to make hers.

Killian blasted me with a fierce gust of wind, snapping my neck nearly double. Immediately after, he began picking away at my dragon form with the edge of his Second Sight. He couldn’t force me to shift like the Ringmaster’s tricks could, but if he could shatter a bit of my glamor, he might be able to break inside and find the man I desperately wanted to be right now.

It was worth a shot, so I ignored the flares of pain from his digging as I swung toward Dair to block his spells.

My brothers were well-trained killing machines, and I would need every bit of my wits to keep myself conscious during this fight.

––––––––

CARLYLE

I couldn’t keep my eyes off Jack and my guys battling it out. It reminded me of the night I’d first met them - before I knew they weren’t each other’s enemies.

Maybe tonight they really were enemies. They were certainly fighting like it.

“This could all end without spilling another drop of blood, you know,” the Ringmaster said, drawing my eyes back to him. I tried to ignore the guys - I needed to fucking focus on this maniac.

Dropping into a fighting stance, I pulled a knife from my belt and twirled it. He smirked.

“None of that worked last time. Surely, you’ve learned some new tricks by now.”

I sure as shit had, but I wanted to bluff a little longer. I flung the knife at him, resisting using any magic to guide it. It clipped his hat, but he caught it before it hit the dirt. I could see his face better tonight - he wasn’t as old as I’d expected. Maybe in his early thirties, with dark, slicked-back hair and icy blue eyes. He was good-looking by human standards, but nothing compared to my guys.

His pale eyes narrowed as he assessed me. “Let’s make a deal. You sign a contract with me, and I’ll let Jack go. No more leash. He and the others can go back to hunting Qilin. It shouldn’t be hard, now that they’ve found one. Another is surely nearby.”

“I’m the last.” I corrected him without thinking, and he giggled.

“Oh, is that the bedtime story these days?”

I glared at him, ignoring the creeping doubt he was trying to plant in my mind. It didn’t matter if I was the last Qilin or not. My guys wouldn’t need to find a new one, because there was nothing that could make me choose Underbelly Circus.

“No deal.” Without warning, I shoved a burst of air magic straight at him, sending his body tumbling head over heel down the slope a bit. It was pretty damn satisfying to hear his little gasps as he bounced to a hard stop against the fence.

I was already on him, my increased strength coming in handy as I pummeled his face. His nose crunched with a noise I would have been sickened by a few hours ago. Now it just made me grin.

I’d thought I was done with death for the night, but I could make an exception for the Ringmaster.

He kicked me away viciously, grinning through the blood streaming down his face. “Does it bother you that I have a pet dragon? Or have you found a new mate? It seems like you have a lion’s share of strength tonight.” He cackled, and my hatred grew even more potent. How the fuck was he so good at guessing all my secrets?

Standing, he brandished his hold on Jack’s leash, and my dragon let out a roar of agony. My eyes grew wide in horror as the magic-infused chain around Jack’s neck cut deep beneath the scales. This crazy fool would decapitate Jack if I didn’t stop him.

I slammed my fist into his arm, knocking it back hard enough that I heard his shoulder pop, and he ground out a sort of enraged scream.

“Let’s see how you take a bit of the dragon’s magic back, shall we?” he cried, holding up his palm. Something gold flashed on his fingers, and I heard Killian shout.

“Jairo, no!”

My attention snapped to where Jai had latched on to the gaping wound in Jack’s neck and was tearing chunks of flesh away.

“Jai!” Dair yelled, turning on the vampire and sending a flash of yellow magic at him. “The ring! He has Jack’s ring!”

Jai stumbled backward, reeling from the smack of Dair’s spell, his black eyes solid in the moonlight.

The Ringmaster shoved his palm into my chest with enough force to knock me back on my surprised ass. He ripped the neck of my shirt down and ground his fist into my skin. Looking down, I could see the gold thing was indeed a ring.

With a flash, I remembered the first night I’d seen Jack - he’d worn a thick gold band on his thumb.

Why did the Ringmaster have it, and why was everyone so fucking worried about it?

The Ringmaster bore down on me, grinning through the drying blood. “Are you feeling weak, Qilin? This ring keeps Jack immortal, but for you, it will do the opposite.” His voice was pinched through his broken nose, and I was growing impatient.

Whatever the fuck he thought was supposed to be happening didn’t seem to be.

I shoved him off my chest, feeling like the first time I’d had sex with Sol - like I could toss this asshole the length of a football field. Glancing down at my ripped shirt, I noticed a line of red where the ring had been, almost like a brand.

Except it wasn’t burning or painful.

It was spreading like garnet scales all over my chest, healing every one of my previous injuries as it spread. Laughter bubbled up as I realized something had backfired in the Ringmaster’s meticulous plans.

Finally, we were one fucking step ahead of this monster.

“No,” he breathed, horror sweeping over his face. “Jack,” he screamed, whirling backward to where my guys had gathered around Jack.

They were still poised as though to fight any second, but none of them were moving. Jack’s head slumped toward the ground, heavy with fatigue and loss of blood from the huge wound in his neck. I gulped - Jai had done that.

“Now,” the Ringmaster cried. “Take them now, or I’ll kill them myself!”

The dragon opened his great mouth and loosed a tortured roar into the night sky. My heart felt like it was shattering as I heard his anguish plain as the stars above us. The magic around the Ringmaster and me dropped, and I took off at a sprint toward Jack.

It didn’t take long for the Ringmaster to catch right the hell up, then pass me as he launched himself back up into the saddle on Jack’s spine.

“Home, dragon,” he commanded, and anger flared in my chest at the idea of Jack’s home being anywhere but with me.

I scrabbled up the knobby knee and muscled leg of the dragon, fixated on one thing only - stopping that man from whatever he was about to do. Jack’s wings shuddered as he spread them wide, and I slid off his slippery hide.

Fuck - they couldn’t take off yet. I fought away one of the guys who was trying to haul me back, struggling to find purchase on Jack’s scales. Jack howled again, and the air vibrated with the eerie sound. His claws pawed the ground as he shook his head. Man, I wished he would just throw that cane-for-a-dick Ringmaster right off his back.

Maybe he could fly up a thousand feet and then do it.

The Ringmaster made another shriek of frustration as Jack struggled - he seemed too weak to fly. With a flash, the dragon before us had vanished, and in his place was my poor, broken Jack. His chest and neck were crusted with dried and still-flowing blood, and his eyes were dull and empty as they met mine.

“Jack,” I cried hoarsely, reaching for him just as the Ringmaster yanked him into a siphon, ripping them away from the field.

My fingers clutched Jack’s at the last second, and I felt my body twisting and pulling toward the siphon. Yes - I wanted to go with them! I stumbled as someone else grabbed my other hand, dragging me in the opposite direction.

“No,” I yelled, my voice breaking on a sob. I could just barely see the edge of where Jack and the Ringmaster were going, like peeking around the edge of a door. Why didn’t they just let me go with him? I could save him - I could.

“Carlyle, no. We must let go,” Jai said in my ear, and the icy, numbing magic in his voice shut me down like flicking off a switch. My muscles went limp, and my body popped free of the siphon. I tumbled backward. Strong arms caught me, but I barely noticed or cared.

Jack was gone. It was the third time I’d failed to save him.

––––––––

JACK

The Ringmaster dumped me on the bare, baked earth before his trailer, and a groan of pain made it past my cracked lips.

“Failure,” he sneered. His fingers drifted over the gold band he wore - my gold band. When I’d made my choice, he’d taken it from me, and he’d been trying to fuck me over every second since then.

Without that ring, I was just a mortal Haretian, like all the rest. Jai had nearly killed me tonight, and part of me would have welcomed the empty nothingness of death.

“Well, dragon. It seems you’ve lost yet another round. Jack fell down and broke his crown. Your little Qilin tried to tumble after, but I don’t want her to witness me gutting her mate.” He snarled at me, backhanding me with my ring. I felt my cheek bust open with the impact, but I was too numb to even flinch at the pain.

It was nothing compared to my shredded neck, anyway.

“You think you’re sly, don’t you, lizard. Hiding what’s mine away from me. I own you, and your bond owns her. That means I own her.”

The glee in his voice sickened me, as did the idea that even though his logic was as twisted as it got, he could possibly be right. His contracts were infamous for fine print, and I’d signed my life away without even reading. The terms hadn’t mattered, since I would have never allowed him power over her.

Yet here we were, with him possessing all the goddamn power again. Helplessness flooded my limbs, rendering me limp and even weaker.

If Carlyle tried to come for me, the Ringmaster had all the power he needed to bring her to her knees. Unlike my brothers, she still trusted me - still believed in me.

The Ringmaster kicked me onto my back, where I stared up at the same old moon and stars, so many hundreds of miles away from my beautiful Qilin mate. My breath was ragged and growing bubbly with the blood in my airway.

I could die from these wounds, but I’d be damned if I asked him for help.

If he needed me alive for his plans, he’d figure it out. If not, I’d rather die than lead Carlyle here.