Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
An invisible crack stretches between us. It grows and grows, ripping my heart straight down the middle and tearing out my soul. It gets bigger and bigger, reaching all the way to my bones.
As the dragon flies away with Elsie, ice settles in my chest, and everything inside me turns to stone.
Gone. What was always meant to be mine has been ripped from me not once but twice.
My ears start ringing. It takes a beat to realize the noise comes from within my head. As that roar gets louder, the ground shakes beneath my feet, and fissures snake up the walls.
“Aruan.”
The sound of my name reaches me through the haze that has taken over my reason.
“Aruan.”
My mother.
She’s awake.
I come back to my senses, calming myself with great effort. My mother sits upright in her chair with one arm stretched out and her fingers splayed. A circle of colorful lights dances in front of her.
Keeping the portal open, she says, “I found her.”
Chapter 4
Aruan
The sight that greets me when I exit the portal in the center of a volcano makes me see red. Elsie is lying face-down on a platform, her delicate ankle clasped in the clutch of a Phaelix who’s sprawled out on his stomach behind her.
Killing rage blasts through my veins. Fury boils my blood. Another male is touching my mate. Hurting my mate. The blood that has dried in her hair at the back of her head makes my vision fray around the edges.
In a wink, my power fires through me with such force that it feels as if my skin is aflame. I’m blind to everything but Elsie and the male who threatens her. The offense tastes sharp and bitter on my tongue. He dared to lay his dirty claws on what belongs to me. He drew blood. My mate’s blood.
He’s dead.
I’ll make that scaly piece of filth wish he was never hatched.
Targeting on the male the rage that continues to build like an earthquake inside me, I take great satisfaction from his screams as I dissolve him from his feet up.
At the first screams, Elsie stops struggling and whips her head to the side. Her lips part as our gazes collide.
The Phaelix lets go of Elsie’s leg, withering and yelling until there’s nothing left of him, but I’m no longer paying him attention. All my focus is trained on the small, fragile woman with hair the color of a pale sunset and eyes like the turquoise sea.
Mine.
Forever.
No one touches her and lives to see another day.
A single glance conveys those notions rushing through my head and beating in my chest. Only she can read my thoughts. And she does. I feel it. I also feel her relief as well as her dread.
Locked in that stare, we’re frozen in the moment. Everything else falls away. Nothing exists but Elsie.
When reality finally returns, I register the chaos that has broken out around us. Phaelix are tripping over benches and stepping on those who have fallen to reach barges beached on the sand. After seeing what has happened to their friend, they know what’s in store for them, and they think they can escape my wrath.
With a flick of my hand, I knit the rock mass in front of the cave together and seal off the exit. The Phaelix who were headed in that direction stop in their tracks and spin on their heels to run in the opposite direction. Some of them are trying to scale the steep cliffs, using their claws to climb up the almost vertical drop.
“Aruan.”
The sound of my name on Elsie’s lips is like a siren to my senses. Her voice pulls me. Her call is undeniable, impossible to ignore.
I look at her. She’s gotten onto all fours and is regarding me as if I’m both her downfall and her salvation.
I make it to her in a few long strides and lift her into my arms. “I’ve got you, my sweet. You’re safe now.”
She trembles from head to toe. “Aruan! The mountain… It’s going to blow.”
I hardly pay the groaning soil and roaring volcano any notice. “You’re hurt.” I hug her tighter to me while examining her body with a practiced eye. “You’re bleeding.” My anger reaches a new level. “What have they done to you?”
“It’s just my head.” She grasps my shoulders. “If this volcano is going to erupt, we’ll have bigger problems to worry about.”
It is going to erupt. I don’t bother reining in my power. This place needs to be razed to the ground. Any fool can see what’s been going on here. I’ve just walked into the secret location the Phaelix have been using as a slave market. We’ve been searching for it for many moon cycles. My father delegated the task of eradicating the slave trading operation to me, and as fate would have it, the opportunity has fallen into my lap.