A sharp sting across my cheek brought me rushing into consciousness. Glowing white eyes, too close, and rancid breath clogged my nasal passages making me gag.

“Awake, pretty skin,” Balen said. “Awake and ready to play.”

“Now, now, Balen.” Elora’s sultry voice pulled him away. “Give our pretty guest a little room to breathe.” Elora stepped into my line of sight. “Give her a moment to fully appreciate her predicament.” She leaned in, her face morphing so her jaws elongated outwards.

I jerked away, arms screaming in their sockets, metal clinking. Wait? What? I tugged at my shackled arms raised above my head. My coat was gone. It had torn, useless against the Draconi whip. But my legs were free. I kicked out, but Elora had already stepped back.

Balen laughed. “A fighter. Last longer when they fight. More fun.”

His words were guttural, uttered slowly, as if he had to think about each one. Whereas Azren spoke fluently, Balen spoke as if speech didn’t come naturally to him. Azren? Where was Azren?

“Where’s Azren?”

Elora’s face twisted in fury. “Do not say his name. Do not even think it. He belongs to me.”

Fuck her. “No, he doesn’t. You don’t own him, not anymore. Not now that whatever spell you had over him is broken, and he knows the truth of what you did.”

I’d expected her to balk, to take pause, or for surprise to glitter in her cold, emerald peepers, but she simply smirked.

“You know nothing, you fool. Whatever it is you think you saw is but a fraction of the truth.”

My gaze slid Balen’s way. “The truth that you killed Ivan to prevent a peace treaty with the Shedim. That you took away their chance at equality.”

Balen watched, unmoved.

Elora arched a brow, looking from me to the gormless demon. And then she tipped back her head and laughed—a full-throated guffaw that set my teeth on edge and sent a chill of terror racing down my spine.

Her laughter cut off abruptly. “You really don’t understand, do you? Do you think I’d alter historical memory, alter the Shedim’s hereditary memory, and take no precaution against the possibility of a loophole, of someone merely telling them the truth?”

My mouth was suddenly dry. Alter memories? She’d manipulated everyone’s minds? “How? How did you do it?”

She snorted. “I’m not a storybook villain, and I don’t intend to stand here and tell you all my secrets. I have no intention of satisfying your curiosity, and do you know why?” She didn’t bother waiting for my response. “Because I want you to go into death not knowing. I want you to die restless and unsatisfied. I want you to breathe your last breath knowing that your lover belongs to me.”

She thought Azren and I were lovers. She didn’t know about the weird connection we’d just shared.

She licked her lips, her eyes gleaming with glee. “You may have seduced him for a little while, but soon, he won’t even remember you existed. Soon, no one will even remember your name.”

She backed away, turned on her booted heel, and clipped into the shadows. Balen drifted closer and my muscles contracted in fear.

“Liege says Balen play. Balen break. You belong to Balen now.”

Ice flooded my veins, and the heat of adrenaline followed quickly in its wake. “No. You can’t do this.” But even as the words fell from my lips, I knew they were false. I’d done the one thing Valance and Azren had warned against. I’d revealed my true feelings for Azren to Elora and now all bets were off.

I could feel Azren beneath my skin, burrowed deep in my soul. Azren ... we’d connected somehow, and we’d seen the truth. Elora wanted me dead, but not just any death—she’d planned the most degrading and painful death. It was her revenge for taking Azren from her. For making him feel anything for me.

“Wila ... fight ...” Azren’s voice was in my head.

Azren.

Balen’s talons dug into my waist and a raw scream tore from my throat.

Argh!

Azren’s answering cry echoed in my head.

No. No, Wila. Fight.

“Sooo soft.” Balen ripped me open.

White lightning flashed before my eyes, and then darkness claimed me.

“Wake!”

My head lolled with each slap, teeth rattling. Dark spots danced before my eyes, pain laced through my head, and then my stomach was on fire. My scream was a hoarse cry.

“Fight,” Balen urged, his voice a pant. “Fight me.”

Fight, Azren had said. I needed to stay conscious. Pushing down the urge to puke and scream, I raised my head. My vision blurred and swam, his face coming in and out of focus.

“Take off the shackles, you fucker, and then let’s go a round.”

He threw back his head and laughed. His hand went down to his crotch and he massaged himself. “Fuck first.”

My stomach turned over. “Fight me, you bastard. Unless you’re scared you won’t win?”

His eyes flared and his awful mouth opened in a malevolent grin, all teeth and tongue. “Fight first, then fuck.” He rushed toward me, fingers fumbling at my wrists. His demon body pushed up against me, too close and rancid, and the shackles clanked to the ground.

It took a moment for it to register that I was free, and then my knees gave way and I hit the ground. A liquid inferno raced across my abdomen, and my hands came away sticky with blood. He’d torn me. How was I not dead?

I’m giving you my endurance, my strength ...

Gilbert.

I was alive because of Gilbert.

“Strong neph. Dirty mouth.” Balen kicked me in the stomach.

The breath whooshed out of me. Lungs shattering, burning, throat throbbing with the need to scream.

I’m with you. I—

His voice cut off as if a door had slammed between us. Was he real or just a figment of my traumatized mind. Didn’t matter. I had to fight.

Balen’s hand tangled in my hair and jerked my head back so far my eyes popped open, and fear clamped its fist around my heart. My spine strained, my neck cracked. He was going to break me.

No. Not today.

Focus. Think.

He was no longer non-corporeal, and his package was almost in my face. I slammed the heel of my hand into it. He released me with a grunt. I rolled away with his laughter echoing in my ears and scrambled to my feet, hugging my wounded stomach. The air shifted, and I whirled to counter his attack with a hard pivot kick. It caught him in the chest, sending him stumbling back once more, but he was strong. I’d lost a lot of blood, and the world was hazy. Nausea rocked me, but I ducked in time to avoid the swipe of his talons.

He was playing with me.

If he wanted, he could crush me, but he was having fun. It was in the crazy glow of his eyes and the gaping maw of his mouth. He licked his lips with his impossibly long tongue.

Azren wasn’t like this. He wasn’t a hideous monster, but this was a different breed. One Elora had cultivated to crave sadistic pleasure, to hurt and maim and kill. There would be no escape, only delaying the inevitable. But I’d fight until there wasn’t any breath left in my body. The fucker wasn’t getting his claws into me without an effort. Crimson rage bloomed and burst outward, my vision was clouded in red, and my limbs were suddenly overflowing with power. I turned to face him, knees bent, arms up in a defensive stance. No questioning the boost, just time to use it.

He cocked his head, and then he rushed me.

The next few minutes were a blur of evade and hit and duck and run, and at first my body wasn’t my own, moving on instinct the likes of which I’d never experienced. But the boost was flagging. His laughter echoed around the stone chamber, and then my knees hit the ground. I was a mass of torn and bloody pain. My face was slick from the nicks he’d inflicted with his claws, like a cat batting a chew toy.

His shadow fell over me. “Now, we fuck.”

He made a grab for me, and I fell back, kicking out to ward him off, knowing it was futile. Knowing there was no way out of this. His body settled over mine, pinning me. Hot, sour breath beat against my face.

“Eat you. Fuck you and eat you.”

His hands gripped the waistband of my trousers and terror was a visceral animal, clawing and kicking, bucking and fighting because, no—just no. Hot tears of impotence leaked from my eyes and then his teeth found my neck and there was nothing but bone-searing pain and a scream that scraped my throat raw. My fingers were on fire as needles pierced the tips. He pulled back, mouth a crimson wound, and stared at my hands pinned either side of me.

He lifted one of my arms, glaring at my hand. “Like mine,” he said musingly.

Talons sat on the ends of my fingers in place of neat, blunt nails. How?

“Bastard,” Balen hissed. “Dirty rogue Shedim. Fucking dirty blood.” He squeezed my hand and the talons elongated, sending fire racing through my fingers. My skin rippled, gold and rough, like ... scales? No ...

He gripped my throat and squeezed, crushing my windpipe. No air. There was no ...

“Dirty, so dirty.” He ground his groin into me, dipped his head, and began lapping at the wound on my neck, hips jerking against me in excitement.

The world began to fade away. Over ... it was over and then he tensed and grew slack against me. His body was a dead weight, head buried in the crook of my neck.

“Wila. Oh, fucking hell, Wila!”

Valance?

Balen was yanked off me and freedom stared me in the face, but there was no power left in my limbs to move.

Valance reached for me, and my arm shot out as if of its own volition. My hand grabbed his arm with my fresh talons and my skin shimmered gold again, but this time it spread, slipping onto his forearm and sinking in. Valance gasped, his face rippling with silver scales. For a moment, he merely stared at me in wonder as if looking into a startling abyss, and then I was hauled up into his arms and cradled against his powerful, lithe frame.

“We have to go,” he said. “We have to—Oh, God. How the fuck ...” He began to run.

The world rushed by, gray and dark and musty. My fingers flexed against his shirt, wanting to grab on but not having the strength.

But there was someone else we needed to find. “Az ... ren ... help...”

“It’s okay, Noir has him. Elora told me she’d sent you back. The bitch. The fucking bitch, she almost killed you.”

“She knows ... lie. She knows.”

His arms tensed, but he didn’t stop moving. “It doesn’t matter. We need to get you out of here. You’re bleeding out.”

Dead ... Was I dying?

“No, you’re not going to die. I won’t let you. I’ll never let anyone hurt you again.”

Had I spoken?

Fresh, cold air stung my face.

“Wila, listen. I can’t risk atomic transport when you’re this wounded. It could make things worse. We’re going to have to fly. I need to put you down, and then I’m going to shift. Don’t be frightened.”

He laid me down on the cold, scratchy ground. The sky above was a welcome blanket. The moon ... it was so bright, so large and close. But wait, it was getting darker. Farther away.

“Stay with me.” Valance’s voice was a deep growl scraping over my senses.

“Still here ...”

A gust of air blew over me—icy cold, numbing my skin. Cold ... so cold. What was the shadow? The huge dark shadow with electric-blue eyes and wings that blocked out the moon.

“Oh, God. Please don’t let her die. I can’t lose her, not now that I’ve found her. Don’t die.”

“Don’t want ... die ... better get a move on.”

Surprise tickled the back of my mind and then scales scraped against my skin. Claws scratched earth and I was rising, limp and useless, but cradled in Valance’s huge claws. His wings beat the air and we were rising.

My eyes fluttered closed as my throat throbbed, slow and sluggish. Bleeding. Needed to stop bleeding. Ha, now that would be a trick. Where my platelets at? Coagulate, dammit.

Please do not go insane.

Did dragons speak? Could they speak with those jaws? Did they even have lips to form the words?

Chill seeped into my bones at every point that the air touched it. My abdomen was shielded by Valance’s claws. Dragon form. I wanted to see, but my neck wouldn’t obey my command. It remained floppy, and my eyelids were glued shut.

Dammit! Mother’s sentries. Evasive fucking maneuvers.

We dipped and dove.

Fuck you, fuckers. Here comes the finish line.

The world went black.