Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75539 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75539 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Time returned to its predictable flow. The shifter fell forward, expecting to taste victory. What it met instead was an arrow impaled in its chest, bursting through its heart and killing it instantly.
I hurled the limp wolf away from Blake. He shifted back into his human form, sitting on the floor with wide eyes. “How’d you get here so fast?”
“I can reverse time, remember?” I helped him back up to his feet. His hair was messy, and he had a couple of scratches across his arms and face, but overall, he looked fine.
“Yeah, but… whatever, it’s too complicated.” He looked around at the dead shifters. “I think I need a drink.”
Chapter 6
Questions And Hormones
Blake
We were inside the grand glass desert castle, all gathered in the living room, worried looks spreading through the family as Xavier and I finished recapping what happened. I sat on the long cloudlike couch with my legs planted firmly on the ground and my hands on my lap, trying to not look as worried as I felt.
On the inside, I was freaking the fuck out.
What was that about?
Why target me?
Was I being stalked again?
Too many dark memories dug out from their mental graves and clawed their way back to the forefront of my thoughts.
“And you’re sure you got them all?” Damien asked. He leaned against the only solid slate-gray wall in the room, the others made of crystal-clear glass. A fireplace crackled next to Damien, but it gave off no real heat. “There were no others hiding out nearby?”
“I searched the area, only those three,” Xavier answered. He stood next to me, one hand on the back of the couch. If he hadn’t been there today, it would have been game over. There’s no fucking way I could have handled those three shifters by myself.
I owed him my life.
“I did find this, though.”
He placed a small, unassuming black satchel on the clean white coffee table. Damien went to reach for it, but Xavier put a hand out.
“I think it’s best if Robby handles this.”
Robby perked his head up. His smooth skin glistened under the sun that soaked through the glass walls. He stood in one swift, fluid movement and picked up the satchel. Damien, Warrick, and Dawn watched with confused expressions.
I was in a room full of dragons, and yet still felt like there were eyes pinned to my back.
Robby opened the satchel and looked inside. His eyebrows inched together. “What… what am I looking at?”
“Dragonsbane,” Xavier answered.
That got a reaction from the siblings. Warrick recoiled, falling back on his chair. Dawn sucked in a breath, and Damien turned into a marble statue, unmoving. I’d heard about Dragonsbane but admittedly didn’t know enough to figure out what had the dragons so scared of it.
“What’s it do?” I asked. Robby gently placed the satchel back down, as if he was handling a live bomb ticking down the time until exploding.
“It’s one of the few things that can take us out,” Dawn answered. Her eyes were pinned to the bag. She nervously ran fingers through her silky brown hair. “It’s an extremely rare plant, and when ground up into a dust, it turns toxic to us. A small dose of Dragonsbane would cancel out our powers, blocking us from our dragon form. A bigger dose would kill us.”
A frigid shiver crawled up my back. Damn. Today had been seconds away from turning into a very, very bad fucking day.
“How’d they even get it?” Warrick asked. “Dragonsbane doesn’t grow naturally anymore. Most of it was eradicated, whatever was left kept for scientific tests.”
“Testing for what?” I asked.
“Any curative properties it might have,” Warrick answered. He couldn’t take his eyes off the satchel. “There was a program developed by the government decades ago.”
“At least that’s what they said the program was about.” Damien had suspicion in his voice. I bristled. It felt like the cushion I sat on suddenly grew as hot as a bed of coals. I didn’t really blame him for his mistrust. I knew how the government worked firsthand, and I knew that the people pulling the strings weren’t always the most honest. Although the current administration had nothing to do with this, I still felt like some of the suspicion flew in my direction.
Dawn pulled out her phone and started to quickly tap away a message. “I’m asking Claire if she knows about this. Maybe she can make some antidote. A way to protect us.”
“What about Maddox and Caleb?” Warrick asked. “Should I get them back here?”
Damien shook his head. “No, let them enjoy their date. The threat, for now, seems to have been contained.”
For now. It sounded so ominous. I chewed my nails, a bad habit I couldn’t quite break. Not even when my mother painted a clear coat of bitter apple on them. I adapted to the taste.