It has to be this way. Chace repeated the words until they became an absent chant. In his dragon form, it was impossible for his delicate senses to ignore her scent or the idea that this was the last time he may ever be this close to her let alone spend the night making love to her the way he had.
He landed lightly at the spot where Mr. Nothing had indicated he should, close to the ocean. He chose a large, flat rock, so as not to make Skylar’s life too much more uncomfortable. The hood and ropes were enough for his conflicted conscience.
It has to be this way.
Refusing to dwell on what Skylar was probably thinking or feeling, Chace focused instead on assessing his surroundings. He smelled Mr. Nothing. The ancient dragon shifter was around somewhere, even if Chace wasn’t able to pinpoint where exactly. They were otherwise alone.
He released Skylar and shifted into his human form, pulling on his clothing quickly to prevent the ocean chill from soaking into his bones. He heard the crash of the sea against rocks in the near distance. Stars lit the isolated area, the only light visible for miles.
“Still with me?” Chace asked her and gently helped her stand.
“Yeah.” Her voice was muffled. She didn’t sound scared or worried, as if she really did trust him the way he’d asked her to.
It made him feel worse.
Skylar shivered, and he moved closer to her until the warmth of his body helped chase away the cold night.
“Is he here?” she asked somewhat apprehensively.
“He’s close. Not sure exactly where.” Chace looked around once more for some sort of movement in their vicinity.
Skylar shifted closer to him, and he instinctively looped an arm around her shoulders.
A whoosh of air stirred his hair, and Chace looked up, making out the form of a large dragon hovering overhead.
“He’s here,” he said, dropping his arm. “Ready?”
“Yep.”
There was no hesitation in her voice, and he wondered if any part of her suspected what he planned on doing.
It has to be this way. The lives of the shifters were at stake, and Mr. Nothing had seemed like he wanted Skylar alive. If she was alive long enough, then Chace could figure out how to keep his magic, save the shifters and rescue her.
Or maybe he was once more the fool when dealing with a dragon shifter older than him.
“By the way. You were awesome tonight,” she whispered.
“As opposed to the other times?” he asked, amused.
“No. I just mean tonight you didn’t seem like you were holding back. You did the other times we were together. Wild Chace is just … incredible.” There was warmth in her tone that made the dread in his belly grow heavier.
“For the record, you’re not too bad in the sack either,” he teased.
She elbowed him.
“Best I’ve had in a thousand years,” he added more quietly.
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.” He watched Mr. Nothing descend, aware he was about to be out of bargaining chips.
“You know, Chace …” she hesitated. “My mother told me that I was supposed to protect my dragon.”
“I don’t need protecting.”
“I think you do. Not just from my uh, kind either. I think there’s some other way she meant for me to help you. Sometimes, I almost have it. Then it’s gone in a puff of smoke.” She grew troubled. “Do you think the memories will ever come back? Or maybe you can help me unlock them again?”
“I don’t know.” Chace rubbed his mouth, apprehension in his blood. “I kinda doubt I can help.”
She was quiet, expectant.
“But I’m not a born shifter,” he forced himself to say something more. “I probably couldn’t help anyway.” Even if I wasn’t planning on betraying you tonight.
“Maybe after our pizza date, we can do some research,” she suggested.
“Yeah.” I’m a piece of shit. Chace’s heart was beating hard enough to alarm him, his chest almost too tight to speak.
The nocturnal shifter alighted behind a few boulders and emerged a few moments later, dressed in his typical dark clothing.
“Stay here. I want to talk to him first,” Chace said to her. “He’s expecting me.”
“Okay. Be careful.” She sounded anxious.
He stepped away. His body was fevered despite the cold air, his anxiety growing by the second. He glanced over his shoulder at Skylar.
She was tense but obedient. He almost wished she’d flee or fight him or somehow make this easier. The golden rope was tucked in her pocket, the sole source of hope he had that she wasn’t going to be vulnerable with Mr. Nothing.
Chace met Mr. Nothing at the halfway point, far enough away for her not to hear them.
“This is her?” Mr. Nothing looked past him.
“It is,” Chace replied. “Per our agreement …”
“In exchange for this one, I’ll maintain the shifters’ refuge and cease all attacks against the slayers.”
“Can I ask why her? Why not Caleb, the lead slayer?” Chace asked.
“You said she is the first to break through the brainwashing. I need someone with a strong mind.”
“Not to torture or kill or …”
“Why does her fate concern you?” Mr. Nothing’s tone took on a scornful note. “You will soon be more human than she is.”
“I know. But that doesn’t mean I like seeing innocent people hurt.”
“I won’t, unless she forces my hand.”
Chace folded his arms across his chest, not liking the words.
“Dawn is in an hour,” Mr. Nothing said. “I’ll give you until then to move your cabin where you want to remain permanently.”
“Can I ask you one more question?”
Mr. Nothing waited, blue eyes almost silver in the pale light of stars.
“The woman who put this curse on me in the first place was like you, wasn’t she?” Chace asked. “From some ancient line of shifters.”
“Most likely. The older a shifter becomes, the more powerful. But also the harder it is to survive, since the magic grows too strong for most shifters to handle. To turn someone into a shifter, she had to have been over five thousand years old.”
“Wow. So you’re about the same age, if you can make me human?”
“Close,” Mr. Nothing said vaguely. “We were raised in a world where the dragonkind were welcome. We had a society, mentors to teach us about our magic, humans who helped protect us. Those were lost with most of the ancient shifters.”
Chace was amazed by the information after a thousand years of being generally ignored by Mr. Nothing when he asked about the dragon shifters.
“Now. Get out of here. One hour, Chace. At dawn, you will be human again.” Mr. Nothing brushed by him and crossed the boulders that separated them from Skylar.
Every muscle of Chace’s body tensed, and every instinct cried for him not to let Skylar go, especially not with Mr. Nothing.
He turned away, his emotional turmoil calling forth the magic that was forcing his body to shift, even when he didn’t want it to. Chace dropped to all fours. His clothing split and tore, but for once, he didn’t care. He wasn’t in control of the emotions or his shifting or even his life anymore.
He’d made a choice and was about to go on his last flight ever and leave behind the first woman who made him feel in a thousand years, who made his heart whole and beat again.
He leapt into the air before his body was fully transformed. His wings struggled for a split second before they’d unfolded and lifted him into the night sky. He hovered, needing to know that Skylar was okay, before he left her for good.
Mr. Nothing didn’t speak or linger long. He stood in front of Skylar, pensive, before stepping away and shifting.
Chace watched him unhappily, wishing he’d said something else to Skylar before walking away. Farewell. Thank you. Anything.
Mr. Nothing’s wingspan was one and a half times the size of Chace, another indication of just how old he was. From above, his wings and scales were blue-black in the moonless night, silent as they unfurled around a body slightly bigger than Chace’s.
Skylar still hadn’t moved or spoken, unaware of what was going on and waiting patiently the way he’d told her to. Chace breathed in deeply to catch her scent, at once hungry for her and tormented by the knowledge of what he’d done, of how trusting she was.
Mr. Nothing lifted himself off the ground with the long wings and carefully swept her up in one clawed talon.
“Chace?” Skylar cried, startled.
A tremor went through him, ruffling the scales down his back. Two thoughts clashed in his thoughts.
It has to be this way.
She belongs with me.
The blue dragon vaulted into the sky, passing Chace in a blink and continuing upwards at a dizzying rate.
A bellow of frustration worked its way free from the depths of Chace’s chest, along with a plume of fire that crackled in the air around him. The sudden burst of fire and light faded without torching his pent-up emotion.
Chace flung himself toward the heavens, unable to stand by while someone else took away his Skylar. His eyes searched the night sky for movement.
Mr. Nothing had vanished.
Chace extended his senses, seeking any sign of where the blue dragon was. It didn’t seem possible that the creature was just … gone. Nothing on the earth could move with the speed necessary to outrace his senses!
And yet, the blue dragon had.
Mr. Nothing – and Skylar – had completely disappeared.
Loss hit him hard and deep, sinking beneath the emotions and distance he’d tried to put between himself and Skylar.
What the fuck did I just do to the other half of my heart?