“What the actual fuck is this place?”

It had been seven days since Dr. Martin broke. Three days since Suzanne swore on her life she’d bring me to the one person who may or may not be able to help Rowan. I had put not only Rowan’s life in her hands, but my own. With each beating of my heart, I knew they were one and the same. She warned me I might not survive this trip. If it cost my life to save Rowan’s it would be worth the price. If this didn’t work, my life would be nothing to me anyway.

There had been one condition. I wasn’t allowed to even know where the hell we were. She’d chained me in dragonsteel, a feeling I knew well. I traveled in darkness, with a black velvet hood over my head. We’d driven for days; much of it, I knew had been in a circle, though I didn’t let on. Now, the ground swayed beneath my feet. Seagulls cawed overhead. Suzanne reached up and ripped the hood off my head.

The light might have temporarily blinded me, but a thick fog had settled in. The gray, hazy mist made it hard to tell whether it was dawn or dusk.

I took in my surroundings. I stood on the deck of a small fishing boat. The waves rose high on either side of us and I couldn’t see land in any direction. The birds arced overhead.

Though it looked enough like it, this was no ocean. This was fresh water. If I had to guess, we were on one of the bigger of the Great Lakes. Given a chance, there were probably enough clues for me to guess which one, but instinct told me not to try. This was a leap of faith.

“Let me do the talking,” Suzanne said. She stood beside me in casual clothes, jeans, a sweater and a pair of rain boots. She gathered her arms around her. The chill didn’t bother me. My blood heated with anticipation. There was something in the air. Something mystical. My spine tingled. If it weren’t for the chains, I’d be in my wolf by now. As it was, I had to bite my tongue to keep from growling. Suzanne shot me a stern warning look.

The cabin door opened and the oldest man I’d ever seen shuffled out. There were two other figures on the bridge. I could only see their shadowy silhouettes. One was likely the captain.

The old man walked with a hunched-over gait, supporting his weight on a shiny black cane. He had silver hair that blew around his face as he approached.

“This is your guy?” I asked Suzanne.

She gave me a harsh shush and walked toward him.

“He’s a big ‘un,” the old man said, looking me up and down. Mostly up. He couldn’t be more than five feet tall. He was a wizened, weathered old man. One of his eyes was covered in the opaque cloud of a cataract. The other was crystal clear and green as he stared straight through me.

“Thank you for seeing us,” Suzanne said. “We have come a long way.”

The old man kept walking. He raised his cane and poked me in the chest with it. I swallowed another growl and stood as straight as I could with the chains crisscrossed over my body.

“He looks healthy enough,” the old man said.

“This is Jagger Wilkes,” Suzanne said. “And he is not the one in need.”

He scowled and cocked his head to the side. “Then you are losing your gift, my friend,” he said. “His need is pouring off of him.”

“Her name is Rowan,” I said, surprised I could muster the composure to speak. My heart drummed in my chest. Life and death. Night and day. It was in me to want to get what I needed from this man by force.

“Jagger Wilkes,” he said, giving me what must have passed for a smile. His face was creased like a raisin. “You can call me Astor. It’s not my name, mind you. But, it’s what you can call me.”

“Astor,” I said. “Can you help us?”

Astor scratched his chin. He was old enough that he had no facial hair anymore. Though I had no way to be sure, I guessed this man was nearing one hundred. Even through the dragonsteel, I could sense magic swirling around him. So, he was a witch of some kind. A mage. There is no love lost between shifters and witches. Why the hell hadn’t Suzanne warned me?

“Because it wouldn’t have done you any good!” Astor said. I reared back, feeling his power spiraling around me like smoke. Oh, he was a mage, all right. And I was probably way off about his age, undershooting by a decade or two.

“One hundred and twenty-three,” he said, giving me a gap-toothed smile.

“Are you finished with your parlor tricks?” I said through gritted teeth. I strained against the chain. “You don’t need me to tell you why I’m here or what I want. A hero is dying. I’ve been told you have the means to help her if you choose. If you want me to beg, I’ll beg. If you want me to pay with my life, I’ll do that too.”

Astor got close enough that I could feel his breath against my chest. He peered up at me. I couldn’t read him the way he did me. Maybe he used magic to fog my mind. Maybe it was the dragonsteel. Maybe it was this place. I had a hunch if there were any other vessels nearby, we’d be invisible to them. Astor’s magic was strong. He reeked of it. My nature repelled his. And yet, he kept coming closer. He poked my chest with his long, bony finger.

“Strong Alpha. A warrior, eh? Must’ve been hell for you all these years. How did you do it?”

“Do what?”

Astor chuckled. “What makes you so special? Or, maybe you’re not. Maybe you’re no better than Able Valent was, just younger.”

“I am nothing like Able Valent.”

“Aren’t you?” Astor took a step back. He crossed his arms in front of him. Suzanne moved beside me. She drew in a breath as if she were about to say something, but Astor held up a hand to silence her.

“You touched the darkness, didn’t you?” Astor asked. “I can feel it, even through the dragonsteel. Fine stuff, that. Must have been forged by a master.”

There was a twinkle of mirth in his eye as he said the last bit. With it, one of his secrets slammed into my heart. He was the master. He’d made the chains himself. Which meant…

For the first time since we wrung the truth out of Dr. Martin, I felt a glimmer of hope. It kindled quickly. My knees went a little weak with the effort of holding myself back.

“Yes,” I said. This was a test, of course. He’d know if I were lying. “Yes, I’ve touched the darkness. You need darkness to kill darkness. But, you already know that. And yet, here I am, standing in front of you wrapped in the very dragonsteel you forged. You could kill me with a flick of your finger, I think. Doesn’t mean I won’t put up a fight, but I feel it.”

Slowly, I dropped to my knees. I spread my hands as wide as I could, exposing my chest...my heart to a one hundred and twenty-three-year-old mage who apparently had access to dragonfire.

“She’s my mate,” I said. “And I am begging for her life. I’ll give you mine in exchange. I’ll give you anything that’s in my power to give.”

Lightning struck over the starboard side of the bow. Static electricity crackled, making Astor’s wispy white hair stand on end. A furious wind kicked up. Astor raised his cane toward the sky and cupped his hand over his eyes.

“She has my heart,” I said. “Her name is Rowan. And she didn’t deserve what was done to her. She knew going up against Able Valent would probably kill her. She did it anyway. If it weren’t for Rowan, he’d still be alive. The rest of us would never have gotten close enough to kill him. We never would have known how to even get to him.”

Another lightning strike. The air temperature went up sharply. Sweat beaded my brow.

Astor took a step back. A sound unlike anything I’d ever heard rumbled from the sky. It wasn’t thunder. It was louder, bigger, deeper. Then above it, something screeched. It was like a locomotive braking at high speed. The clouds swirled and changed shape. A hole split in the middle of them.

I couldn’t breathe. The boat pitched violently sideways. Astor stumbled but caught himself on the railing.

Then everything just stopped cold. Arcing high above us in the break in the clouds, great red wings flapped.

If my hands were free, I would have lifted them to shield my eyes. Blinding white light flashed. The wind blew even fiercer. Every nerve ending in my body crackled with energy as the winged figure arced gracefully down.

I rolled sideways, landing on all fours.

It was impossible. A dream. Some trick of Astor’s magic.

Hot fingers touched my cheek then hooked beneath my chin, pulling my gaze upward until I met her eyes.

Astor stepped forward, unfurling the cloak he’d carried folded over his arm. He covered her with it as she stepped back.

Astor was doing something to my eyes. I saw her as if through a prism of light. Her form changed shape and color every time I blinked. She had fiery red hair and piercing blue eyes. I wanted to ask her name, but something inside me told me to stay quiet.

“You’re Jagger Wilkes,” she asked. Her voice was soft and light. So normal.

“I am.”

“The Alpha-Slayer,” she said. “You know that’s what they’re calling you now?”

“I...I...didn’t…” I stammered. Blinking hard, I tried to clear the double vision.

“Don’t bother,” Suzanne said beside me. She held her hand up to shield her own eyes. “Astor’s cast a spell. So we won’t ever recognize her again.”

“It could be worse,” Astor said, laughing. “I wanted to give you amnesia. But, she told me she wanted you to remember what she did for you here today. She said she wanted you to know you owed a debt to a dragon.”

“How?” It was Suzanne’s turn to stutter. “W-where…W-why?”

“Because you’re the Alpha-Slayer,” the dragon-woman said. I wanted to know her name, but knew she’d never tell me. “And because I’m much safer in the world now knowing he’s dead.”

She was. The horror of her truth burned through me. If Able Valent had ever been able to get his hands on a real live dragon…If I weren’t already on my knees, I would have dropped to them.

A flash of silver caught my eye. She pulled a dagger. It gleamed as she held it high, then drew it across her wrist with a flourish.

Astor was there. He held a small, black vial beneath her hand, collecting a few precious drops of her blood. He capped the vial and stepped back.

She came to me, her eyes swimming in blue fire. “Remember,” she whispered. “You owe a debt to a dragon. Someday, I may need to collect.”

Nodding, I struggled to my feet. I wanted to thank her. I wanted to ask her a million other questions. But, the wind kicked up and the lightning raged. I blinked again and she was airborne. I saw her great red wings unfurl as she launched herself skyward.

In a flash she was gone.