Page 8 of Claim the Light
I fully retract my wings, knowing they’re a liability if Tyler grabs them, and dart to the side, attempting to reach Micah.
Tyler’s reflexes are far quicker than they were before. He catches me before I can make it past him, pulling me back against his hard frame—my back to his chest—even as I struggle to free myself.
His arms bite painfully into my diaphragm and crush my breasts while his voice sounds in my ear.
“Where are your guard dogs, Sophia?”
Guard dogs?
His voice becomes harsher, more demanding. “Where are Callan Steele and Asper Ashen-Varr? You will tell me or I will crush the Grudge dragon’s skull beneath my feet.”
Tyler uses Lana’s official name—her angel name. I know that she and Callan are in the veil, but I’m even more grateful now that I don’t know where that is.
If I did…
My focus flickers to Micah. Overwhelming dread rises with me as he continues to lie still. But no, even if I knew where the entrance to the veil was located, I wouldn’t tell Tyler.
“You’re lucky they aren’t here,” I say.
His lips press to my ear and a shiver of revulsion wracks me.
“Oh, but I want them here,” he whispers. “I want them to know that I can end them.”
My brow furrows. Callan and Lana are fire dragons. The most powerful of our kind. On top of that, Lana is an Avenging Angel, the strongest angel born in centuries. She fought and defeated both the angels’ leader—the Celestial Ascendant—and Dominus Audax, who was one of the most ferocious fire dragons ever born.
Now that her own dragon heart has been restored, she’s powerful beyond measure.
But… Tyler sounds very certain and again my dread grows.
I tell myself:No.Even with all the power Tyler has demonstrated tonight, he could never survive Callan’s fire or Lana’s strength, especially not if they fight him together.
“What happened to you, Tyler?” I ask, hatred and a strange sort of deep pity coating my tongue.
He was never kind to me, but there was a time when he didn’t scheme like he does now.
“What do you mean, Sophia?” He gives a soft laugh. “I’m more myself than I’ve ever been.”
“You betrayed everyone who ever cared about you.”
He stiffens, his arms clamping so tightly around me that my head swims as I struggle to draw breath. The press of his chest against my back amplifies the helplessness I feel. It’s the same draining of hope I felt the moment he appeared in the sky.
“You talk to me of betrayal,” he snaps, “but I always knew Callan would kill me eventually. I knew it the moment he ended Byron.”
Byron was a Dread dragon. He’d murdered a human woman—the sister of one of Callan’s human bodyguards. The punishment was death, which Callan meted out with brutal efficiency.
Tyler slides his arm away from my chest and grabs the side of my head, his big fingers wrapping around my cheekbone and forehead. In the moment that he moves, I struggle again, but my new strength is nothing compared to his.
“Now, tell me where they are,” he orders me.
“I don’t know. They’ve gone into the veil.” I speak with honesty, since there’s nothing I can tell him that would jeopardize my friends’ safety. He knows about the existence of the veil. Most supernaturals do. It’s the location of its entrance that is guarded so heavily.
But my voice lowers. “There’s a prison in the veil, Tyler. An awful, dark prison. Lana will judge you and put you there.”
“Bars can’t hold dust,” he whispers into my ear and then he pauses before he continues. “But I believe you when you say you don’t know where the veil is. After all, why would your leaders share something so important withyou?”
I squeeze my eyes shut. His words are intended to cut me and make me feel like I don’t matter.
But my experiences over the last few weeks have helped me to trust in myself. To believe that I matter.
