by Hawke Oakley
“It’s not a threat.” I took a step closer. In a split second, I shifted into my dragon form - lustrous, golden, and radiating with power. “It’s a promise.”
Henry’s jaw dropped. Angel giggled.
“You’re…. You’re Halo Fire-Eater,” Henry murmured, voice quivering.
So Luce was telling the truth after all. The foxes did know of me.
“If you’re smart, you’ll keep my existence a secret,” I growled one last time in my dragon form before shifting back. “Return that child to Scar and Ryu before I change my mind about killing you right now.”
“Is she yours?” Henry asked in a small voice.
Angel stared at me, obviously wanting to be held by her father. But I couldn’t take her. Not now. Not with everything going on. As much as my heart desperately longed for my daughter, I couldn’t put her in harm’s way. Kass and I needed to deal with Silas and make sure everything was safe before Angel came home.
I turned away. I needed to leave before this became even harder.
“Return that child,” I repeated.
“O-okay,” Henry mumbled.
Angel began to whimper again. I walked faster and left the alley, feeling my heart shatter into a million pieces.
* * *
“Is everything okay, Halo?” Kassius asked.
I was getting tired of lying, especially since it was basically impossible with him. Kass knew me too well.
“Yeah,” I lied.
Kass frowned. He obviously didn’t believe me, but didn’t press the issue.
We followed the upward slope in silence for a while. I’d told Kass I found Henry earlier that morning, before he woke up, which was the truth. I didn’t tell him that Henry had Angel, for whatever reason. Knowing would only stress him out.
“And he was just walking around that early in the morning?” Kass had asked when I first told him.
“Yeah. Must be a fox thing, being active dawn and dusk and all,” I’d said.
“Well, that was some luck. And right on time, too.” He had referenced my heat. Though we majorly enjoyed it at the time, he looked as relieved as I was that it was finally over.
After that, he suggested we return to Luce and tell him the news, which was why we were drudging ourselves back up the mountain slope. A familiar ridge ahead told me the destination was close.
“It should be around here…” Kass muttered.
But when we climbed above the ridge, we gasped.
Charred firewood and ashes lay strewn across the campground. The earth was scored in multiple places, as if by huge claw marks. Some of the trees had been ripped from the ground and tossed haphazardly aside. There was no sign of the fox skulk.
“What the hell?” I muttered.
“Luce?” Kass called. He raised his hands to his mouth to carry his voice. “Luce, are you here?”
Something rustled. A berry bush was caught beneath two uprooted trees that had landed on top of it, and from inside the leaves popped out a cautious red snout. Luce’s frightened eyes widened when he saw us.
“Alpha Kassius?” he squeaked.
Kass ignored his lapse into his old ways. We rushed to him. “Luce!”
Luce slipped out of the bush and shifted. He looked terrible, like he’d been up all night worrying.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yes,” Luce replied, though he was clearly not.
“What happened?” Kass demanded. “Where are the others?”
“It’s all right,” Luce said in a shaky voice to the bush. “It’s safe now.”
A few more foxes emerged from the bush, bushy-tailed from fear. They shifted and huddled closer to us.
I quickly counted five, then recounted. Someone was missing.
“Where’s James?” I asked.
Luce went pale. Some of the other fox shifters began whimpering, and one - I recognized him as the other Halo - started crying quietly.
Something was definitely wrong. “What? What happened?”
“He took James!” the fox Halo cried.
“Who did?” Kass demanded.
But he was now too choked by tears and couldn’t reply. A few others put their arms around him in comfort.
“James was taken away,” Luce explained with a grimace. “I wanted to warn the two of you, but I didn’t know how to find you, and the others needed me. I couldn’t leave them behind…”
“Luce, what are you talking about?” I snapped, my confusion and frustration at their breaking point. “Can you please explain what the hell happened?”
“Yes, I’m sorry,” Luce said with a shaky exhale.
Kass frowned at me in displeasure. He probably knew that me snapping at Luce and my previous bad mood were connected somehow.
“Our camp was attacked last night,” Luce began. “By a creature I can only describe as a dragon.”
Kass and I exchanged alert glances.
“What kind of dragon?” I pressed.
“It didn’t have front arms,” one of the omegas piped up. “Just wings and back legs.”
“A wyvern,” Kass and I said at the same time.
“He demanded to know your location, but I didn’t know what to tell him. Even if I did know, I wouldn’t tell him,” Luce said, eyes lowered. “He got angry and went on a rampage on our camp.”
“Was he a purple wyvern?” I asked.
Luce nodded.
Kass frowned deeply. “Silas. It has to be.”
“Someone you know, I presume?”
“Unfortunately,” Kass muttered.
The fox omega named Halo stopped crying long enough to huddle near Luce. “Oh, please, alpha, you have to save James! He can’t fight one dragon alone, let alone two!”
“Two?” I asked. “There was another one?”
“Well, no,” the other Halo murmured, pushing his knuckles together anxiously. “But Silas mentioned…” He paused, trying not to cry again. “He mentioned feeding James to his master if you two didn’t show up fast enough, so I assumed his master was a dragon, too…”
Kass and I exchanged horrified looks.
“Will you help him?” the fox omega begged.
I knew what Kass was thinking. We couldn’t leave James to die in exchange for our lives, but we didn’t know what kind of trap we would be walking into.
Not only that, but since Kass and I had sex during my heat, I was probably…
“You should all enter town,” Kass said firmly, sidestepping the question. “It’s safe. We’ve been there for the past week, and it’s a great place.”
Luce’s brows raised with cautious optimism. “So you found Henry?”
“Yeah,” I said. Trying to smile and hide the anger in my voice at the same time was nearly impossible. “He’s alive and well.”
“Oh, what a relief!” Luce cried. “Well, if you two say it’s okay and Henry is fine, I suppose we can move on.”
“What about James?” fox Halo asked. “We have to wait for him!”
The fox shifters looked torn. Many of them seemed eager to escape from the wrecked campsite as soon as possible, while others shared the omega’s desire to ensure James’ safety. Luce didn’t know what to decide - he gazed at us, helpless and desperate.
My bad mood made me want to snap at him again. Why couldn’t he go and find James? Then I felt annoyed with myself for being angry. He didn’t deserve the brunt of it just because I was frustrated.
“Fine, whatever, let’s just go save James,” I muttered to Kass.
“Oh, thank gods!” Luce cried. “Thank you, alpha Kassius, and Halo.”
So I’m just an afterthought now? I crushed the negative thought and tried to ignore it. I waved Luce off and began in the opposite direction of the fox’s camp, to where the old cabin stood - and beyond that, the Death’s Peak caverns.
Kass lagged behind, presumably to apologize to the foxes, before he caught up with me. “Halo, seriously, what’s wrong? You’ve been acting strangely since we left.”
I grit m
y teeth. I was definitely not going to tell him that our child had been abducted by the fox shifter we’d agreed to find, and now we had to go save one of their other skulk members from Silas, the very man we were trying to avoid, and now had to fight?
Instead, I settled for, “Nothing.”
He placed a hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me. “I know things are rough right now. But we will get James back. And we’ll deal with whatever Silas has in store. We can do it together, Halo.”
I shut my eyes and forced myself to accept Kass’s words, even though they were of little help. “Yeah.”
15
Kassius
Halo turned out to be right about the caverns. In our dragon forms, the flight to the top of the mountains was easy enough. By the time we reached them, the sun had already begun to set, casting a fiery orange glow across the mountain face - except for one area. A dark pocket of shadows stood nestled in between the span of the mountains, completely hidden away from the sun’s light.
“That must be it,” I growled to Halo, who just nodded.
My mate had been uncharacteristically quiet since the morning, and he wouldn’t tell me what was clearly bothering him. I wanted to know so I could help, but at the same time, I didn’t want to pressure him. Whatever it was, he would eventually come around on his own.
We banked through the air and glided down to the rocky slope. The air surrounding the shadowy section was noticeably colder than the sunlit areas. It didn’t bode well.
“Silas must have carried James all the way here in his back claws,” I mentioned to Halo. “I’m sure that wasn’t a pleasant experience.”
“Neither is this,” Halo muttered. Without pause, he stepped into the shadows and was swallowed by the darkness. The glinting gold of his scales immediately vanished.
A yawning cavern mouth loomed ahead. On either side of the entrance were a few dying pine trees. Their yellow, listless needles littered the ground beneath our feet.
The cavern was easily big enough to comfortably fit our dragon forms, and with the uneasy tension in the air, it was safer to remain in them. I didn’t know how much of Halo’s magic had returned by now, but at least in his dragon form he had some way to protect himself.
We passed the mouth’s threshold and stepped through. The shadows only darkened inside the cavern. Even with sharpened dragon eyesight, it took me a moment to adjust. The whole atmosphere reminded me, uncomfortably, of my centuries spent alone in my own cave, just killing time.
Despite the bad memories, it all ended up being worth it in the end, because Halo was back at my side. He was my mate again. Whatever he was going through right now, we would get through it together.
The cavern stretched on with no one in sight.
“I can’t see much,” I admitted to Halo. “Do you think this is really the place?”
Halo stopped, dead still. “Wait. Be quiet.”
I went silent and listened. A chill struck me when I heard what Halo must have heard - a distant, echoing whimper.
We rushed towards the sound, trying to be as quiet as possible. My heart raced when a light peeked out ahead. Light meant people. When we were close enough, I realized it was fire from torches lining the cavern walls. Someone was definitely here.
The whimpering sharply cut off. “Who’s there?”
It was James’s voice. Halo and I exchanged quick glances before running towards him. My stomach twisted in disgust at what I saw. James stood in a large cage, like something for a zoo animal, and was rattling the bars. The space between them was just narrow enough that a fox couldn’t squeeze through. He had no way out.
“James!” I cried.
But James screamed and stumbled back into the corner of his cage. “Who are you? Get away from me!”
“James, it’s me, Kassius!” I declared. “Remember?”
“You’re a dragon, too?” he spat, his voice a mix of disgust and fear. “Ugh, I’m sick of dragons…”
I changed to human form to demonstrate I wasn’t a threat. “There.”
“Is that Halo? The omega?” James asked.
“Yeah, but I’m not changing back,” Halo growled.
James seemed relieved enough now that he didn’t care. “Oh, thank gods. I really thought I was going to die here! That purple dragon kept saying you would come, but I didn’t believe him.”
“Silas,” Halo growled. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know. I sleep most of the time, otherwise it’s too boring to stay awake,” James admitted.
At least they’re not hurting him, I thought.
“He’s probably out hunting. He leaves a lot and comes back with prey for him and the other one.” He cringed. “Most of it is still alive, too.”
“The other one?” I asked. “James, who is - ”
A high-pitched, feral shriek echoed through the cave. I spun around. I couldn’t tell where the noise came from until I heard Halo hiss. He pushed himself in front of me just in time to block the attack of another dragon. They spat, gnashing teeth briefly before Halo tossed the other dragon over his shoulder, where he landed on two legs. In the torch’s light, I saw purple scales.
“Silas!” I shouted.
The wyvern stopped attacking, but his eyes narrowed into daggers. He shifted into human form and crossed his arms. “It’s about time you showed up. All this stupid omega does is cry and sleep, and I’m sick of keeping him alive!”
James kept quiet. I guessed he was too afraid to feel offended.
“Let me guess,” Halo growled, “you want us in exchange for letting James go free.”
Silas glared back at him. “Shift back. Then we’ll talk.”
Halo barked out a cold laugh. “You think I’m stupid? No way.”
But Halo quickly regretted it. Silas pulled out his sword and thrust it through the cage bars in one swift motion. James yelped as the blade stopped an inch from his neck.
“Ah! Please!” James cried.
Pure fury radiated off Halo. He hated being pushed into a corner and forced into decisions more than anything. With a venomous glare at Silas, Halo hesitantly changed back into human form, where his expression was equally as hateful.
“Good,” Silas said with a smirk. He withdrew the weapon and James let out a sigh. “Now we can speak like civilized people.”
Halo muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like, “Die.”
If Silas heard, he pretended not to notice. He strode past the cage until he circled back around us with a smug expression.
“In any case, now that you’re finally here, we can commence the exchange,” Silas said.
“So I was right. You do want us,” Halo growled.
“No. You’re not entirely right.” The joy on Silas’s face from telling Halo he was wrong was clear. “We only want you, Halo Fire-Eater.”
Halo rolled his eyes. “Great. What else? Should I serve myself up on a silver platter, too?”
Scowling, Silas said, “I’m not in the mood for your jokes.” He turned sharply to me. “As for you, Kassius, you’re a disgrace to the Knights you claim to serve.”
“What?”
“Don’t pretend to be surprised. I know what you did. You were supposed to watch the omega, and instead you set him free,” Silas snapped. “Do you know how much time and energy I wasted trying to find you?”
Anger bubbled up inside me. “You had him chained to the floor! That is certainly not Knightly behavior!”
“I should have known you would backstab the Knights,” Silas muttered, “considering you slept with the omega in the first place.”
“I didn’t backstab anybody!” I snarled. “If anyone is a traitor here, it’s you!”
My temper flared, but at the same time I realized that maybe I could change his mind. Having him on my side would be better than having him as my enemy.
“Look around,” I implored. “We were wrong about magic, Silas. It’s not the evil we thought it was. We can live with it peacefully,
just like the people of Cinderhollow are doing right now.”
“That stupid omega has brainwashed you,” Silas spat. “There’s no coming back for you, Kassius, not after this.”
I felt a mix of anger and pity for him. I could try as much as I wanted, but I could see now that there was no changing his mind. I decided not to waste my breath any longer. “So you’re going to try and kill us, is that what you’re saying?”
“Kill the both of you? No.” He glared at me. “You, Kassius? Maybe.”
Confused, I said, “What?”
Silas shook his head slowly, like he was speaking to an idiot. “You really are stupid. Being in love with that wretched omega has turned your mind to mush. Haven’t you been listening at all?”
“Just spit it out,” I snarled.
Silas approached Halo, who tensed, ready to fight back. But when Silas reached out slowly, only to touch his arm, Halo froze. He glared at Silas like a cobra ready to strike.
“The omega is valuable,” Silas stated. “You are not.”
Halo growled and stepped back out of his grip. He stuck to my side. “What are you talking about?”
James’ voice was small. “Um, guys - ”
“You’re a smart one, Kassius,” Silas said. “You can figure it out, I’m sure.”
“I don’t care for whatever game you’re playing,” I snarled at him. “Halo is my mate, and he’s not going anywhere with you. We’re taking James and leaving.”
“You are?” Silas replied, his brows arched. His tone was both furious and in utter disbelief.
“Yes, we are. I’ve had enough of this childishness. Let’s go, Halo.” I stormed towards the cage, ready to shift and break the entire thing with a single swipe of my dragon’s claws.
But as I approached James, he cried out again, more panicked this time. “Kassius!”
I’d reached my breaking point. I snapped at him, “What?”
His eyes widened fearfully, staring at something behind me. “Look - ”
I only had a brief glance at the massive shape lunging at Halo before a sudden blinding pain in the back of my head knocked me into darkness.
16