Page 77 of Deadly Alliances

“Do you...” she choked. “Loveme?”

Of course I loved her, and too late I felt the expression on my face shout the truth of it.

She leaned forward and kissed me. I remained motionless until she finished and pulled away. I had been kissed by plenty of girls in the past, and I’ve never had an issue with kissing them back, even when I didn’t have any feelings for them.

But loving Arya had changed that.

Even though she had broken our imprint and rejected me in every way, I couldn’t kiss Char back. I didn’twantto. As much as I loved and respected Char, I could not kiss her back.

Rejection replaced whatever emotion Char had been wearing before the kiss, and she shrunk back to escape to her corner. I touched her arm, and she stopped. I wrapped her in my embrace again. We both needed the warmth. And she needed a friend.

“I do love you, Char,” I said softly. “I always have. But not in the way you want. I’m sorry. I love Arya.”

She shuddered against me, but I suspected it wasn’t from the cold.

“I hate to interrupt,” Hadrian’s booming tone filled the entire dungeon. “But you and I have somebusinessto take care of, Tobias Dracul.”

I didn’t move, though Char gently tried to pry herself from my grasp.

Hadrian tsked. “Is this dragon whore the reason my daughter has a broken heart? Huh?”

My head snapped to Hadrian and I released Char.Broken heart?What did Arya tell him?

“It’s too late now,Tobias. I witnessed that little embrace you two shared.” Hadrian paced outside the bars. “There’s no need to hide it. The question is, should I tell Arya?”

I opened my mouth to speak but was interrupted before my lips could move.

“I won’t. But for her sake, not yours.” Hadrian stopped pacing and crouched so he was at my eye level. “Now, for the reason I’ve come.” He snapped his fingers, and Hair Gel arrived with a couple of archaic gas masks that looked like they were stolen from the set of a World War I movie and what appeared to be a garden hose.

Hair Gel handed one of the masks to Hadrian before hoisting the hose underneath his arm, ready to put out...a fire, probably.

I gave them both a withering look. Whatever was put in my cell prevented even a spark inside me, let alone a blaze large enough that needed extinguishing. I made a point not to think about the purpose of the masks.

Hadrian ignored the look and paced again, his arms behind hisback. “I wonder if you have any insight into that little shifter military and what they’re planning?”

I knew my expression was incredulous, but Hadrian didn’t seem to get the message. “You know I’m in here, right? How could I possiblyknowtheir plans?” I hoped a rescue mission to save me and Char was underway, but there was no way of knowing that either.

“You’re the son of Arthur Dracul. Certainly you must knowsomething.” Hadrian gripped one of the bars, his mask still clutched in the other hand.

“You think my father doles out military secrets to me? Just like that?” I scoffed. “I assure you, the general is smarter than that.”

Hadrian’s carefully crafted expression slipped, but he instantly covered it with the mask. “This will hurt a little,” his muffled, inhuman voice warned.

Hair Gel lowered his mask too, before a nod from Hadrian prompted him to pull a lever on the hose.

A loudhisssounded as yellow smoke poured from the nozzle.

I looked back at Char, whose eyes were wide and frightened. I wanted to reach back, to try to take her hand, but worried it would turn Hadrian’s attention to her instead. Still, neither of us were escaping the yellow gas.

My right leg cracked first, bending backward at the knee as it was forced to shift into my dragon leg. Then my left. More bones popped and cracked, both mine and Char’s, and she let out a yelp. It felt like the first shift, awkward and uncomfortable andpainful.Actuallymorepainful than my first shift, but that was most likely the intended result of the toxic gas.

Blue scales flipped like fingernails, bending back from my andChar’s skin, identical in color just as they’d been when we first flew to the towers. Tears streamed down Char’s face, but she only gave the occasional whimper. I bit my tongue hard enough to taste coppery blood as my spine stretched to form my tail, my shoulder blades breaking from my skin to stretch into enormous wings.

As our dragons grew to their full size, our cell became excruciatingly cramped, until we pressed against each other and the bars with equal force. The burning pain of the lead only slightly trumped the awful smell and sizzling of our scales. And it mercifully kept my weight off my broken arms.

Hadrian removed his mask after the gas vanished, a smile plastered to his face. “Now,” he said, allowing a painful pause to hover in the air. “What do you know about the shifter military?”

“I. Don’t. Know,” I clipped, more out of exasperation at the question rather than my current tight situation. “I thought you were smart.” And there went my mouth.

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