Portia’s anger slipped from her face and was replaced with guilt and sadness. They both knew things would never be the same between them, and that hurt almost as badly. Portia swallowed several times and then dropped her eyes.
“I choose instead of punishment, reparation. Portia will take us to her mate and together they will help us rescue mine.”
Portia's head shot up and she gasped. “Geshtianna's coven is a dangerous place. She may well kill me for bringing you and the dragons there. Send me in alone. I swear to bring Jett out and help you find your mate.”
“I wish that I could trust you. But you know that I can't.”
Portia nodded.
Leon shooed the other demons away. “Pack what you want to take with you, Portia. While Jada will not ban you as her punishment, I will. If we cannot trust and rely on each other, we cannot be family. Once your mission to help Jada and the dragons recover what you have taken from them is complete, do not return to us.”
A heavy lump hung in Jada's throat and tears pricked her eyes. It hurt so much to think that the woman she had grown up with, her only friend, would no longer be a part of her family. She wanted to take it all back and say everything was okay. But it wasn't and they would both be dealing with the fallout for a long time to come.
Portia left the great room and Leon circled the dragons to talk. “Portia is not wrong when she says Geshtianna’s coven is dangerous. She's almost as old as I am and has had a grudge against your kind forever, both she and her brother Dumuzid.”
Jakob didn't exactly look concerned at that news, but thoughtful. “Do you know why?”
Leon shook his head. “No idea. But demons have long memories. So, whatever it was probably happened a very long time ago, and it's been boiling and bubbling in her ever since. You won't be safe there, even a little bit. Get in and get out as fast as you can.”
“You're not coming?” Jada had hoped Leon would help smooth the way with Geshtianna.
“No, she and I have our own age-old feud. Besides, you know I don't really like the desert. They’re all so old and stuffy over there. “
“Which reminds me. I got you this.” Leon reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out an iPhone. “I put my number in there for you. I won't be around to protect you so much anymore. It's time for you to get with the times.”
Jada took the slick piece of technology and held it awkwardly in her hand. Hopefully Ciara or Fleur would help her figure out how to use it. Because she was likely to break it on her own. “Thank you, but is this your polite way of telling me not to summon you anymore?”
“Yeah, don't do that.”
The dragons decided there were too many for them to carry and fly across the ocean especially since they didn't have any gold in their numbers. Ciara, who had been a wedding planner in her former life, used some favors to get them a commercial flight to Dubai, where Geshtianna's coven lived.
The three dragons were extremely grumpy the entire flight. They did not like being cooped up, and Dax paced up and down the aisles the entire time, romping about how he hated to fly. If their situation was any different, she'd find the whole thing a little bit funny. Dragons who didn't like to fly. Really, dragons on a plane was pretty funny, and she looked forward to telling Ky the story. Better than snakes on a plane.
There was no helping Dax, but Jada saw both Fleur and Ciara, one and then the other a few minutes later, take their mates into the lavatories for a little mile high club action. She didn't see how either of those guys even fit in that tiny room, much less how they’d engaged in sexy times. But, the two men did seem much more relaxed afterwards.
They arrived in Dubai at dusk, and although everyone had passports, it was easier for Jada to use her allure to get them all through immigrations faster. It was at least a thousand degrees outside, which shouldn't bother Jada, but she'd gotten use to all things cool and icy, being around Ky. She was grateful Ciara had also arranged for the big black SUVs with the darkly tinted windows and superduper full blast air conditioning.
Portia had been quiet the whole flight and Jada had to prompt her for directions to wherever Geshtianna was staying.
Portia tapped in a text to someone and then gave directions to Jakob who was driving. Turned out to be a high-end hotel, the kind where sheiks stayed. It wasn't five-star, oh no, it was a six-star hotel. Geshtianna had an entire floor.
They were greeted by an incubus and a succubus who were twins. Greeted was a strong word for the meeting as neither said a word, but when they walked away, Portia followed, so the rest of them did too.
When they got to an ornate set of double doors, carved with old motifs and symbols, inlaid with jewels, the incubus twin held up a hand and didn't let them pass.
“They're going in to see if Geshtianna will allow the dragons inside. I give you odds of about fifty- fifty.” Portia fiddled with her phone.
Should Jada ask for her number? They weren't family anymore, but she wouldn't mind knowing what happened to Portia after all of this.
She was about to ask, when her heart stuttered and she lost her balance. Jada reached for the wall to steady herself and sank to her knees.
“Jada, what's wrong?” Ciara and Fleur each grabbed one of her arms to help study her. They helped her turn and sit on the floor.
“I… I don't know. Something bad.” Jada grabbed for the bone carving with Ky's soul shard inside. It had lost its buzz, the little life force of its own.
Ciara gasped and grabbed the soul shard on her own neck. “Jada, the shard. The glow is fading.”
She glanced down and her heart stopped beating altogether. No, no, no, no. She looked at the other two mates and they reflected back the fear she knew was written all over her face. “I can't feel him. I've known all this time that Ky was still alive. I didn't know how, but now that the feeling is gone. I'm completely empty.”
The double doors to Geshtianna's inner sanctuary flew open. A tall lanky woman with long black hair stepped out. “I thought someone was playing a really bad joke on me. Dragons, here? What the hell do you want?”
Jakob, Steele, and Dax formed a wall between the women and Geshtianna. The succubus would have a powerful allure, and Jada did not want her to use it on these dragons. Mated or not, they would feel some of her compulsion. The fact that she wouldn't be able to completely control them would simply piss her off. That wouldn't help her find Ky any faster.
Jada struggled to her feet and slipped between Jakob and Steele. “We're here for my sister’s mate.”
Geshtianna's eyes flashed wide for a millisecond. “Well, this should be interesting.”
She waved them into the room but didn't wait. Geshtianna mounted some steps on a raised platform and plopped herself down into a chair that sure as hell looked like a throne.
“Stupid succubus.” Tiana sat on her throne, looking as bored as a trophy wife. “I'm not sure what else we expected from half human.”
“Where is Jett? I have the soul shard. I gave you everything you want. He and I can be together now.”
This was a whole new side of Portia that Jada had never seen. There was desperation in her voice, not the usual stone-cold apathy that Jada had mistaken for self-confidence in her. This was not what love did. This was something else twisted and dark.
Was it because Portia was a black dragon's mate?
Tiana laughed. It wasn't a pretty sound, more like sandpaper on fingernails on a chalkboard made of baby cries.
“Your human need for love has blinded you. Leonard should've known better than to let your mother live, or you for that matter.”
Portia ignored Tiana's words, and tried her best to look around the demons in this coven to find her mate.
Her sister may have betrayed her and Ky, and the Dragon whose shard she had stolen, but she didn't deserve Tiana's rude bitchiness. Jada stepped up next to her sister. “Quit dicking us around. Where is my sister's mate?”
“Listen to the mouth on you. I bet all the boys like to hea
r your dirty talk, since I doubt they're attracted to your fat ass. How do you even feed yourself?”
All right, that was it. This bitch was going down.
“I will take you to where the Blue Dragon and the mermaid are being held.” A young man with dark black hair that hung in his face, and eyes like black holes moved through the crowd and pushed Tiana aside.
Tiana grabbed for his arm, but he yanked it away. “No, don’t be as stupid as these half-breeds. You'll ruin everything.”
He turned on Geshtianna and pointed an inky black talon at her, scales rippling across his neck and body.
He was the dragon they were looking for. A black dragon.
“Don't for one second think that I don't know how you and Dumuzid have been using me.” The man's voice was a threat all of its own.
“Don't be ridiculous. I saved you. You would die down there in that hell if it weren't for me.” Tiana's tone held as much malice as Jada had ever heard.
“I am grateful for that,” he lowered his head in a half bow, “but you're not fooling anyone into thinking that you did that out of the goodness of your absent heart.”
Geshtianna scoffed. “Why would you help them? What did Dragonkind ever do for you but cast you out?”
“I'm not doing it to help them. I'm doing it to defeat him.” The words slipped out of his mouth as if he had practiced them a hundred times.
Jada whispered to Portia. “Him who?”
She imagined a vendetta against a coven mate, or maybe another Dragon who had claims to Portia too, or something.
Jett spun and turned those empty black eyes on her. “My father, the Black Dragon, Kur-Jara.”
Helluva Day
Ky fought the devil like a dog. They had both taken flight and there wasn't exactly a lot of room in this cavern for evasive maneuvers. He slapped at chunks of rock on the ceiling, flinging them to either injure or get in the Black Dragon’s way. The problem was, the Black Dragon hadn't been held in captivity with no food or water, beaten within an inch death with a fire whip, or gotten sex advice from the First Dragon today. That put Ky at a disadvantage, and he knew it.
He burned through the fury of Jada's betrayal pretty damn fast. Now he all he felt was an empty hollow core that did nothing for him.
He knew he needed to get back to plan A. Get Azynsa and get the fuck out of here. But with the Black Dragon directly on his tail, he needed a distraction to be able to do that.
He was rapidly running out of both steam and ideas. Then, suddenly, that distraction came in the form of Fallyn.
She appeared at the entrance of one of the tunnels. She took one look around at the destruction, and ashy remnants of what were supposedly her kin, and laughed out loud.
Okay?
Ky would probably be off his rocker too if his birthday present consisted of a couple hundred lashes of a fire whip every year.
The sound of her obvious hilarity was just enough to get the Black Dragon's attention for a millisecond. Ky took advantage of that and flew straight at the Black Dragon's underbelly, talons out. His scales protected him well, but all dragons knew each other's weakness.
The Black Dragon jerked up, trying to avoid Ky's attack, but instead it exposed the one area not completely covered in scales, right between his legs, the soft squishy place where he kept his cock.
Ky slashed, the Black Dragon rolled and roared in pain.
He didn't come out with a dick in his claws, but he had probably stopped the baby demon Dragon making machine for a while.
The Black Dragon crashed to the cavern floor and Ky went in the opposite direction, straight for the tunnel where the prison cell for Azynsa was. He considered for a moment snagging Fallyn and hauling her along with. No matter what she was, or what she was to the Black Dragon, no one deserved the fate she had gotten.
Dammit, it might cost him to get her, but he had to try.
She was still laughing hysterically when Ky swooped down to nab her. He almost had her, when an enormous crash rattled the cavern like an earthquake.
Ky glanced around, the Black Dragon was still on the ground, but back on his feet. Blood was flowing from the wound between his legs. He sure didn't look happy, but he was also looking for the source of the crash.
A new flow of lava poured in from one side of the room and swimming along in the liquid hot rock, was Match.
About fucking time.
“Nice of you to join us, oh greatly late one.”
Match assessed the situation in one glance and spit fireballs toward the Black Dragon. “Nice of you to get your ass captured.”
The Black Dragon roared, narrowly missing the first of Match's volley, but catching the rest of them on the ass as he took to flight and retreated down an opposite tunnel. A hard flick of his tail caved the tunnel in so that they couldn't follow.
Match roared and started digging the rockslide out, tossing some to the side and melting others with his fire. Of course, Match wasn't here to help Ky. It was red dragon vengeance that had brought him down.
Ky wondered if Match would even remember Azynsa.
Ky did. “Match, leave it. He's likely caved that entire tunnel in. We need to get these women out of here. Now.”
Match wouldn't do a damn thing he didn't want to, but Ky had had one helluva day and wanted to go home. To Jada.
His heart skipped a beat. Jada. He did still want her. It wouldn't be an easy road ahead for the two of them, but he was not giving up on his mate.
Match gave a final blast to the tunnel and then stomped his way over to Ky. “What women? I only know of one mermaid.”
“Yeah, there's a lot of weird shit down here. I don't how you really live in these things.” Ky moved to the side to reveal Fallyn behind him. He knew she was still there because she giggled for quite a while longer. She had quieted in the last few minutes though.
Match looked to where Ky indicated and instantly lost his shift. He shimmered back into human form and fell to one knee. “Fallyn.”
His voice was barely more than a whisper.
Ky had never seen anything like this happen to Match. Even when he'd been contrite after challenging Ciara to prove that she was a true mate, he still had his alpha of alphas bravado. What the hell had just happened? How could he have known Fallyn?
Ky turned to see the girl's reaction. The smile immediately dropped from her face. There were no more giggles, the laughter was gone. It was replaced by pure hatred, fueled by the fire in her eyes sparking like dynamite.
She pulled a dagger from a sheath strapped around her thigh and threw it toward Match. She grunted something angry that, Ky didn't understand in a harsh guttural language when her weapon narrowly missed Match's head.
She threw another almost immediately after, which Match snagged straight out of the air.
That apparently made her even madder, because she stomped her foot and turned and ran up the tunnel.
“What the hell was that? Do you know her?”
Match examined the dagger in his hand and slipped it into his pocket. He didn't answer Ky's question, but shifted back into his Dragon. “You go after the mermaid, I'll find Fallyn.”
And then what? Match flew up the tunnel where Fallyn had disappeared.
“Guess I'll see you up top later, bro.”
He was back exactly where he started, minus the Black Dragon.
Plan A. Get Azynsa, get the holy fucking hell out of this goddamn hellhole.
Ky headed up the tunnel where the prison cell cave was. “Azynsa, ready to get out of here?”
No reply. Shit.
At least he had his Dragon back and could track her. Ky scented the air and thought for a second he caught a scent of something sweet and fruity. Not likely down here. It was probably because he was starving and missed Jada. He would forever associate the scent of strawberry rhubarb with her badassness.
Thinking of her did several things to his body. He ached for her. Probably always would. But that ache came with a hollow gnaw, one t
hat tried to warn him. He was going to get hurt. His age-old instincts told him to push that need for her away. Like a second serving of pudding,
He loved pudding.
Sometimes he ate it first.
And maybe that was the key to dealing with this problem of Jada. It wasn't like he was going to give her up, and he knew that even if their motives were working against each other, their bodies knew how to be together.
First, he had to find his way back to her. That meant finding Azynsa. The more he thought about it, the more he was sure who her mate was. But he would keep that to himself until it mattered.
Azynsa smelled like the sea and old paperback books. Strange, but she was half human, so maybe she spent her time on land in a library.
He followed his nose through the winding tunnels, catching whiffs of other scents he was familiar with. Jakob, Ciara, the black rogue dragon, Portia…and Jada.
Fuck, what was she doing down here?
What were any of them doing here?
He didn’t want to think that Jada was working with Kur-Jara. Had she somehow used her allure to lure them to their dooms? She had already betrayed them all, things may have escalated when the dragons figured that out.
She’d gone back to her coven. He knew she was closest with Portia, and her father, Leon was a powerful old incubus. This would mean war between demons and dragons.
It hurt down to his soul to think that his mate could have been working against them all this time.
Ky needed someone to blame besides Jada, or himself.
The black rogue dragon. He must've brought them here. A little bit friend, mostly foe.
All of the scents intermingled at a junction of three tunnels. One was freshly hewn, and Ky recognize the work of the Green Dragon element of earth. They had dug their own tunnel down. Smart.
Had Jakob or Steele been coerced by the succubae’s allure, or did they think they were here on a rescue mission of their own? It must be the latter, because Jada hadn’t been able to make any of the mated couples do her bidding.