by Lola Gabriel
“Are you trying to drug me or kill me?” Cassia asked numbly.
“Neither, you silly girl!” Val laughed nervously. “I was just getting you some water.”
“That’s not what it looks like.”
Val lost her faux smile, her eyes narrowing. “Are you kidding me? What do you expect me to do, Cass? You’re carrying his kid, aren’t you?”
“You would kill a pregnant woman?” Cassia demanded, flabbergasted by the answer. “Are you insane?”
“It’s the prophecy!” Val yelled, advancing on her. Cassia gasped as the Valkyrie’s fingers closed around her throat.
“W-what are you talking about?” Cassia choked, lashing out. Her fist caught Val in the eye, but the blonde didn’t flinch.
“Your child will be the worse one yet. He will destroy the Hollows, enslave the beings—”
From deep inside Cassia, a primal, unknown heat exploded, and suddenly, Val was across the kitchen, suspended in the air.
“You’re insane!” Cassia wheezed, falling back against the oven at her back. Val didn’t answer. It looked like she couldn’t even speak. She seemed frozen in time, her face contorted in fear as she stared imploringly at Cassia. What is this?
It was only then that Cassia realized she was responsible for Val’s present state.
“You are insane,” she said again, her voice much calmer as she pushed her body off the appliance and stalked toward her boss. “Because in six months, the Hollows won’t exist anymore. Your prophecy is wrong.”
She could see the confusion in Val’s face, but she did not elaborate.
“I have no idea how I did this,” Cassia confessed, breathing much easier when she realized Val wasn’t going anywhere. “But I’m not sorry I did.” She whirled to run from the house, pausing to snatch her purse from the living room as she did. Then she got in her car and began to drive.
She had no idea where she was going, but she knew she had to get her baby to safety.
If Val, a woman who knows me, is willing to kill my unborn child, that means the entire Hollows won’t hesitate to try the same.
Terror gripped her heart, and she rolled down the window as she flew up the Garden State Parkway. A second later, her cell phone crashed to the pavement in a hundred pieces.
She couldn’t risk the signal.
15
“You!” Lacy Colter spat, a gnarled finger extended toward him. “How dare you come here?”
“Lacy, calm yourself,” Wilder told her firmly. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Lies! All you dragons do is hurt and cause pain! You’re the worst of the bunch!”
“I know that Cassia came to see you yesterday,” Wilder said, dropping onto a chair to look into her blind eyes. “What did you tell her?”
“What I discuss with my daughter has nothing to do with you, Your Highness,” Lacy hissed. “Get out! Don’t you have anything better to do than harass old women?”
“Lacy, you need to tell me why you went off-grid. Who is Cassia’s father?”
“OUT!” she howled. “GET OUT!”
Without warning, Wilder grabbed her wrists, his face inches from hers. “We can do this the hard way, Lacy, or the easy way. I love your daughter, and I have sworn to protect her, even when you failed. You kept her from her roots, from the Hollows—”
“You don’t know anything!” Lacy chortled. “You have no idea how much my leaving saved you and your precious empire!”
Wilder drew back, blinking. “What does that mean?” he demanded.
“You’re so caught up in your own mind, Wilder, that you have no idea what’s happening right under your nose!”
“Speak sense, woman!” Wilder snapped. “What did you tell Cassia that upset her so badly?”
“The truth.”
“Lacy…”
“That the only way to stop the Hollows from falling is with death.” She laughed almost manically and shook her head.
“Lacy, I’m not joking. If you don’t level with me—”
“She’s gone, Wilder. She’s taken the spawn you’ve created and gone to save him like I saved her.”
“What are you talking about?” Wilder asked dully. “What do you mean she’s gone?” Is she saying what I think she’s saying?
“The definition of ‘gone’ hasn’t changed over the years, Your Highness.”
“Stop calling me that! I’m your daughter’s mate! I am sworn to keep her safe from harm—”
“I’ve heard all that before,” Lacy scoffed. “You’re all the same.” Wilder froze.
“What do you mean you’ve heard this before? From whom? One of my brothers?” If Lacy was saying what he thought she was…
“I wouldn’t touch one of you with a ten-foot pole!” Lacy yelled. “Of course not!”
Wilder exhaled with relief. He and Cassia were, thankfully, not related.
He studied Lacy’s face with new curiosity and wondered if he had lied to Cassia when he told her that her mother was not suffering from dementia. There was certainly something off about Lacy, sorceress or not.
“This is what I mean,” Lacy snapped at him. “You are so self-absorbed that you didn’t even realize there are other dragons here, right under your nose.”
“What?”
And then he knew.
Oh, he thought. Oh, I need to speak to Keppler immediately. “Who is her father?”
“A lady never kisses and tells,” Lacy chortled.
“One of the Castillos.”
Lacy’s smile faltered. “So you know.”
“How? They were in exile. Which one?”
“The sneakiest one, Reese.”
He must be Bryn Castillo’s uncle. “What happened to him, Lacy?”
“He took off one day. Left when he learned I was pregnant. He was afraid if you or your brothers ever learned about it, he would be banished to purgatory.”
“So you took Cassia away?”
“What choice did I have?” Lacy scoffed. “She was as good as dead if anyone had found out.”
Wilder was stunned by the revelations.
“I can’t believe this,” he muttered. “She’s half dragon. How did I not see it?”
“Reese blended his genetic code to avoid detection. That’s how he’s managed to stay out of the public eye for so long.”
“Where is she?” Wilder growled. “Where the hell is Cassia?”
Lacy shrugged and then sighed. “Even if I wanted to tell you, Wilder, which I don’t, I really have no idea. Honestly, I thought she was just going back to you, even though I warned her not to.”
“You’ve made a huge mistake, Lacy. I would die to protect your daughter.”
“You’re going to die trying to protect the Hollows, you mean,” she snickered. “Isn’t that why you want her so badly? To protect the prophecy?”
Again, Wilder was perplexed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I bet. As if you don’t know the baby she’s carrying is the savior who will save the Hollows.”
“The prophecy is already—” He stopped speaking abruptly.
The prophecy had claimed that the birth of Cassia had caused the shift to start. Could their child really make it stop?
“I’m looking for Cassia because I love her, and she is carrying my child,” Wilder hissed. “Now if you’ll excuse me…” He rose from the chair, his body trembling as he did.
Cassia is pregnant, and that child might be able to save us all. All I have to do is find her.
Wilder’s next stop was to her house, but as he suspected, she wasn’t there. Although her burgundy BMW was gone, he still peered in the windows to be sure. Come on, Cass. I need you here. He’d tried her cell at least a dozen times, but it continued to go to voicemail.
Finally, he got Atom on the line. “I need you to put a trace on a phone number—”
“Mr. Parker!” Atom gasped, his voice higher than usual. “You need to get back to the palace at once!”
“
Now is not the time for your histrionics, Atom. Just call me if you have any trace on the number, and not one second before.”
He disconnected the call, not giving Atom a chance to argue, before shooting up into the sky and flying above the clouds over Newark. He wasn’t sure what he was hoping to accomplish by soaring through the skies, but he didn’t want to return to the Hollows until he knew where Cassia had gone. Unless she had gone back to the Hollows?
Wilder only had the word of a half-insane woman to dictate where Cassia might have gone. For all he knew, Lacy hated him so much, she was simply trying to keep them apart.
But if she told Cassia the same story she told me, Cassia would believe her mother and bring the baby to the Hollows, wouldn’t she?
He exhaled a plume of smoke from his nostrils, his frustration mounting. He could feel the tension growing all around him but had no idea how to alleviate the stress.
Home, Wilder decided. I’ll go home and wait for word on her. I can’t fly around the Sunside, looking for trouble.
Landing at the portal, his cell began to ring, and he glanced around the lot before answering Owen’s call.
“I’m on my way back to the palace. Can it wait?” he answered the phone.
“I have no idea,” Owen answered. “What’s going on over there?”
“Over where?”
“At the palace! Where are you?”
“New York City access. Where are you?”
“San Francisco. I’m on my way.” Then he paused. “Wilder, I think you’re headed into trouble.”
“What trouble?”
“I don’t know—just be careful, will you?” There was an uncharacteristic edge of worry in Owen’s tone. Wilder bolted through the portal.
When he appeared in the Hollows, he stopped in shock.
Someone shoved him roughly aside, diving through the access, and screams of panic filled his ears. Females grabbed their children and ran for cover as buildings burned before Wilder’s eyes.
“What the hell is going on?!” he roared, shifting into his dragon form and bouncing upward. “What’s the meaning of this?”
To his amazement, the masses continued to loot and trash the very buildings they called home, and there was nothing Wilder could do but watch.
His nightmare had come true: the Hollows were rioting.
16
“How the hell did this happen?” Wilder demanded. “Who told them about the walls?”
His brothers shrugged almost indifferently, as though the world beyond the boardroom hadn’t gone mad.
“Get Fritz and Paula Goetz in here! We need to issue a press release and calm these idiots down!” Wilder barked at Cybil, who spun to oblige his request. “How long has this been going on?” he asked the others, but no one seemed to have an answer.
“I left at nine and all was calm—eerily calm.”
“You sent for me, Mr. Parker?” Paula Goetz, the head of PR, appeared in the boardroom, and Wilder sighed deeply.
“Get a statement out on all media outlets, telling these morons to stop pillaging one another before there’s nothing left!”
“Should I word it like that, Mr. Parker?”
Wilder scowled at her. “Really?”
“I’m on it. What else should I tell them? Is this a false story? Is everything safe?”
“Of course!” Wilder yelled.
“Wilder!” Owen snapped. “Not telling them was one thing, but lying is completely different. They know about the danger now—”
“And look how they’re reacting! They’re flooding the marketplace and commercial areas! They’re destroying everything in their path! I saw females and children fleeing for cover. No, tell them it’s a flat out lie, and tell them any violators will immediately be sent to purgatory—indefinitely.”
Paula waited.
“That’s it!” Wilder exclaimed. “Do it now while the Hollows still exist!” Paula Goetz hurried off to do damage control as Dr. Fritz wandered in, his head lowered. “Fritz, what the hell is going on? Who did you tell about this?” Wilder demanded. The seismologist kept his head to the ground.
“Everyone.”
Wilder and his brothers stared at the scientist in shock.
“Everybody?” they echoed. “Why?”
Dr. Fritz exhaled. “I knew you were never going to do it, Mr. Parker, and they had a right to know.”
Wilder leaped from his chair and lunged for Fritz, but Lennox intercepted him instantly.
“Down,” his brother said. Wilder probably could have taken him, but he stood shaking instead.
“Obviously I couldn’t have known this would happen!” Dr. Fritz told him, also shaking, though his trembling was because of fear rather than anger.
“See, that’s the funny thing about being in charge, Fritz. I did know this was going to happen, which is why I didn’t say anything!” Wilder raged. “What did you think was going to happen?”
Fritz looked properly humiliated, but that did little to placate Wilder, who began to pace around the boardroom. “Dammit! If this continues…”
“Wilder, you need to calm down,” Reef sighed, looking uncomfortable. “I need to get back to the Sunside—”
“Of course you do!” Wilder hissed. “You too, Keppler?”
Keppler looked embarrassed and nodded, but he didn’t move.
“Go!” Wilder snapped. “I’ll deal with this.”
“It’s kind of your mess,” Reef retorted.
Wilder only grunted in response. “Get out of here, Reef. You have all forsaken the Hollows and forgotten your familial ties. I’ve done nothing but try to keep us together. You call me overbearing—”
“Spare us your sanctimony,” Lennox interjected. “Most of us are still here to help, but we can’t do anything without a plan.”
“Mr. Parker…” All eyes turned to Cybil, who had discretely re-entered the boardroom.
“What?”
“If the prophecy is correct—”
“If I hear one more damned thing about the prophecy—” Owen snarled, but Wilder ignored him.
“What about it, Cybil?”
“Only the savior baby will stop it.”
“Well, then!” Reef chortled, clapping his hands together. “Let’s find us one of those.”
“We already have one,” Cybil replied quietly. “Don’t we, Mr. Parker?”
Wilder felt the blood drain from his face as he gaped at the sorceress who had been his assistant for longer than he cared to remember.
“Who told you?” he breathed.
“You pay me to know things,” Cybil answered matter-of-factly.
“Wait a second! Who’s pregnant, and why is this kid the savior?” Keppler sounded genuinely confused.
“This is such bullshit,” Lennox sneered. “Since when do you buy into this stuff, Wilder?”
“Since I started dating the daughter of a dragon,” he said quietly. “Bryn’s cousin, to be precise.”
Keppler’s face turned blood red. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Reese Castillo has been wandering the Sunside for generations, Keppler. He’s fathered at least one child… one dragon child, actually. Gods only know how many others are moving about.”
“You impregnated a second-generation dragon?” Owen choked in disbelief. “I-is that even possible?”
“It is,” Cybil confirmed. “Which is what makes Cassia’s baby the savior.”
“Oh, please,” Reef scoffed. “Thousands of years ago, there were dozens of dragon families around. There is nothing special about this.”
Wilder silently confessed he agreed with his brother’s cynicism, but so much had happened which had been predicted, it was impossible not to fall into the belief.
“If it’s our only hope, Reef, then what’s the harm in finding out?”
“Well, for starters,” Owen said quietly, “there are less than six months before the walls close in, and I’m assuming she’s not three months pregnant…?”
/> Wilder looked at Cybil worriedly. “Does the baby have to exist outside of its mother—?”
“I can’t listen to this!” Reef snapped. “I’m going home.” Wilder ignored him.
Cybil bit on her lower lip. “I don’t know. There was no detail about gestation. But we have to bring Cassia here regardless. We’ll know if the walls stop closing that the baby is doing its job.”
“Yep, I’m outta here,” Reef said, purposefully striding toward the door. “Anyone else coming, or are you all enthralled by the voodoo of the prophets?”
“They also prophesized our mates, and we laughed at that, too,” Keppler called after Reef, though that didn’t stop him from storming from the boardroom.
“Mr. Parker!” Atom burst into the boardroom unannounced, his face tinged with fear.
“What is it, Atom?” Wilder groaned.
“They’ve breached the security doors in the residence. The looters are inside the palace!”
The brothers looked at one another, inhaling collectively.
“Shit,” Keppler swore. “I don’t want to do this.”
“Well, it looks like we’re about to,” Wilder told him firmly. “Once more. For old time’s sake.”
He took the lead, shifting as he ran, his tail sweeping through the corridor. He could feel the rush of his brothers behind him, and the four Parker princes swooped into the residential part of the palace in a flurry of wings and scales, fire pouring from between rows of sharp, silver teeth.
Lennox shrieked, flapping after a small group who cowered instantly.
“GET. OUT.”
Wilder wasn’t sure which one of his brothers spoke, but it didn’t seem to have an impact on anyone from the mob, which stared at them in shock.
“No!” a troll howled. “If we’re going to die down here, we’re dying in luxury! You can leave, start over on the Sunside! We’re stuck here!”
“No one is going to die!” Wilder roared at them. “You fools are ruining your homes for no reason!”
“You lie, Wilder Parker! Your interest has always only been self-serving. We’re not leaving until we get what we came for!”
“Get out or pay with your lives!” Owen snarled. “This is your last warning!”