Page 29 of Scion of Chaos

“Baby, wake up. Don’t you dare fucking leave me!” I’m dimly aware of Dimitri, Eben, and Camille yelling their dragons’ names while they frantically climb down the broken staircase and run to their unconscious mates.

Gritting my teeth, I stare up at the source of the sun-bright glow above us. All four Titans hover in the air high above, Hyperion’s light nearly blinding.

“If you killed him, oranyof them, I will hunt you down and destroy you!” I yell.

“They’re merely unconscious, but that can change if you fail to give me what I want. Give me the key to those doors and they will live,” he replies, gesturing toward the gleaming golden doors that my team and I recently uncovered.

My gut twists and I shake my head. “We just discovered them. We don’t have a key.” It’s not a lie, but I won’t make this easy for them if I can help it.

The black-haired one named Coeus floats forward. “You’re hiding something. You know there is a key, but have yet to acquire it, don’t you?”

My nostrils flare. Fucking precognitive fuck. “Fine. Yes, I have a lead on the key.” I ponder for a moment and tilt my head. “But if my research about the Titans is correct, it isn’t in a place you’ll want to go. I have a better chance of getting it myself than you do.”

Hyperion makes a subtle gesture to the silver-haired Titan beside him. Iapetus nods and floats lower, spreads out his hands, and crackling bolts of lightning shoot out of his fingers in four directions, hitting each of the dragons.

I yelp and jump back, as do Camille, Eben, and Dimitri. But shock stuns me nonetheless, because where Geva lay unconscious a moment ago, there now rests a giant red-scaled egg. The other three dragons have disappeared as well. Where the twins rested are a pair of golden eggs, and where Roka lay is an enormous white egg.

“Don’t worry, your mates live,” Hyperion says, a hint of humor in his voice. “But if you want them returned to their current age, youwillacquire the key for us. You have one week before we return to claim what we seek. If you fail, my brother will age your mates to the opposite extreme.”

All four of them disappear in a clap of thunder and blast of light that leaves my ears ringing and my eyes burning. The concussion and resulting shift in air pressure causes the cloud cover over the mountain to let loose, and we find ourselves drenched in torrential rains.

“Erika, what the fuck do we do?” Dimitri calls, his voice pure agony where he stands between the pair of eggs containing his twins. The two dragons saved him from the brink of suicide seven years ago when we first discovered the ancient dragon temple on a Sumatran island after months of hunting.

Camille clings to Roka’s egg while Eben rests a hand on her shoulder. The two of them pined for each other from afar until Camille awakened the big Guardian and he claimed them both as his mates.

I’m torn between grief and rage. “We still have them. They’re still alive. But I’ll be damned if I let those Titan fucks get away with this. Eben, stay with them. Dimitri, Thea needs to hear about what happened from you. Camille, we have some calls to make. We’re calling in every goddamn higher races favor we can to help figure this out.”

Dimitri is stone-faced as he helps me and Camille climb out of the dig site up the rickety stairs. Camille swipes tears from her eyes, only for them to be replaced by raindrops.

“Did either of you know the Titans were real?” she asks, trudging up the muddy path back to camp.

“Yes, they came up a few times in our research,” Dimitri says. “Thea knows more, but what I know is that they’ve been imprisoned since before the dragon race was born.”

“So they’ve escaped, and they want what’s inside the temple,” I say. “Whatever it is must be big for creatures as powerful as them.”

“Big enough that we probably shouldn’t let them have it, right?” Camille asks.

“Not a fucking chance.” I clench my fists, steeling myself for the conversation I’ll have to have with my daughter about what just happened to her father.

16

Vesh

Nemea’s hand is callused, her grip strong. Determination bleeds through our touch, sending a pang of faint guilt through me. I wasn’t lying when I said I wouldn’t stand in her way if she chose to leave, but I didn’t say I would help her, and she won’t have a way out unless I do.

“Hold onto me,” I say. “Traveling inside me is usually disorienting the first time.”

I pull her close, willing my body to chill when she obediently molds herself to my side, all her soft curves a contrast to the roughness of her hands and her attitude.

Ihaveher, I realize. Not just in my grasp, but allowing me to take her to the heart of my being.

“I want you all to make yourselves scarce when I arrive,”I demand just before tightening my hold on her and closing my eyes to begin the journey inward. Only the faintest echo of protests reaches me once the trip begins.

It’s instantaneous for me when I’m alone, but isn’t so easy when I have a passenger who isn’t already attuned to the prison. And yet I meet surprisingly little resistance with Nemea in my arms. We land without incident on the entry bridge just before the massive, recently mended doors. It’s as if my heart of heartswantsher inside, which shouldn’t surprise me as much as it does.

She still clutches me tight, both arms encircling my waist. Her face is pressed into my shoulder, one black-rimmed eye cautiously peeking out. Her satchel bumps against my side with a faint clank, the sound sparking awareness. She has pieces ofmein that bag. She probably has that dildo she crafted too—the replica of Pan’s cock, molded from my flesh. What other surprises will she reveal while she’s here?

“Are we there yet?” she asks in a near whisper, then looks up at me. I haven’t released her yet, and I’m loath to let her go, but I relax my grip nonetheless.

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