So her babies came from both Dox and the triplets. Sas bared her teeth at me. “You are weak, you’d let me live because of Dox. You are a fool.”

“How close to term is she?” I asked softly, a deadly, vengeful part of me waking for perhaps the first time in my life. A part I wasn’t sure was good or not.

Sas started. “What do you mean?”

Lark looked at me. “Close enough. But what would you do with the babies?”

The reality of what I was saying, or more accurately what I wasn’t saying, and what it would mean for her seemed to hit Sas as Lark and I stared at each other. Sas began to fight in earnest, bucking against Cactus, but he did as he said he would and his hands heated her skin, burning it. Screaming, she went to her knees.

“You can’t do this! You’re a monster if you take my babies, they’re all I have left!” Her sobs didn’t touch me, didn’t soften me. Liam put a hand on the back of my neck and tugged me to him.

“Don’t do this.” No, that wasn’t Liam, it was Faris. I leaned back into him—just a little.

“Give me one good reason I shouldn’t, Faris. They killed Blaz; what right has she to life? To go on as though nothing has changed.”

“Of all the people you know, I perhaps understand vengeance the most. My own father killed my sister, turned me into a vampire, and left me to die in the sun. Revenge”—his arms tightened around me—“is not who you are. Justice is.”

Justice. But what was just in this case? What could possibly account for Blaz’s life?

Lark lifted her one hand and Sas sank to her chin into the earth. “Death is justice, vampire. But I agree, taking the babies first is not the right way. Let her give birth, let her love them and realize the world she would have brought them into.” The elemental’s eyes hardened. “And then take them.”

I stared at her, seeing why she’d earned the nickname ‘The Destroyer.” I knew what it was to give up a child, to walk away knowing it was best for her. But what if someone had taken Marcella from me? My stomach rolled and I struggled to not let the turmoil show on my face.

“Let her up, Lark.”

As quickly as Sas had been pulled down, she was pushed up. I held my sword out and pointed it at her heart, resting the blade on the top of her belly. “For Dox’s child, and the triplets, you can live for now. But I assure you, I will come for them. And if I can’t,” I looked at Lark and she nodded.

“Yes, if you can’t come for the babies, I will.”

Good enough for me. I turned back to Sas. “The last thing any of those fathers would have wanted would be to have their children raised by a vindictive, manipulative bitch like you.” I stepped back and lowered my sword. “When you least expect it, Sas. One of us will come for you.”

She stumbled back, spun, and lumbered away from us as fast as she could. I watched her go, the night slowly deepening around us. Faris still stood with me, the only one touching me, the only one feeling the tremors there, just under my skin.

Without Blaz I felt adrift, lost. “He was a part of the prophecies, he was supposed to be the winged one who would carry me into battle,” I said. This was part of Orion’s plan, to cut me off from those I needed to help me face him down.

Faris put his chin on my shoulder. “I know you don’t want to hear this right now, but it has to be said . . . .”

I looked at him, his deep blue eyes rimmed in gold holding more compassion than I’d ever seen from him before, and I was nearly undone. I forced myself to hold it together. Barely.

“Whatever it is, say it. We don’t have time for anything else.”

He looked where Blaz lay, and I looked with him, my heart breaking all over again when his chest didn’t rise. His wings lay still on the ground. Pamela lay against him, still crying her heart out as Berget tried to console her. Alex sat beside her in his wolf form, a high-pitched whine in his throat as tears dripped down his fur.

Faris turned me away from Blaz so I looked only at him through watery eyes.

“There is one other dragon who is Slayer trained. One other who could take you into battle. You know that. We have to find her, which means you will have to Track her.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “Which will take Orion straight to my daughter.”

There were no words for the horror that cut through me, for the reality of what I faced. Orion had effectively cornered me, making me decide between my daughter and saving the world.

And I had no idea what I was going to do.

CHATPER 15

RYLEE

KNEELING IN FRONT of Blaz’s face, I closed my eyes and put my forehead to his. “Wait for me on the other side, my friend.” The same words I’d said over Milly’s grave. I truly hoped I would not have to say them again in what was left of my life.

The feel of his scales under my skin like every other time I touched him; the sense that at any moment he would leap up and tell me he was fine. I couldn’t get over it.

“Rylee, we have to go while the night still holds.” Lark crouched beside me. “We can be in the Rim before the morning dawns and heading back immediately.”

“I know,” I said softly, running my hand over his closed eye. “You can bury him?”

She nodded and I stood. We backed away and with a sweep of Lark’s hands, the ground opened up and swallowed my dragon down as if he never were. So fast, it was easy to believe he was somewhere else.