Page 45 of Dragon's Revenge

Meanwhile, Enar had squirted some kind of gel on Adar’s belly and was now moving a scanner over his body. An ultrasound. Oliver couldn’t make heads or tails of the images on the screen, but judging by the little gasp Maz let out, it wasn’t good news.

“He has internal bleeding,” Enar said calmly. “His spleen was hit. We need to operate right away.”

Operate? Oh gods.

“Will he be okay?” Delton asked. “How serious are we talking?”

“Potentially life-threatening,” Maz said. “We have very little time before he bleeds out.”

Enar was already rushing to put the ultrasound equipment away while Lucan ran out of the room, probably to prep another room to do the surgery in.

“We’ll update you as soon as we have news,” Maz said. He unlocked the brakes on the bed Adar was on. “Give me a hand,” he told Erwan.

Before Oliver could say anything, Adar was rushed out of the room. Oliver’s throat was painfully tight and his eyes filled with tears as he met Delton’s eyes. Delton immediately pulled him close. “They’re taking good care of him.”

Oliver knew that, but would it be enough?

They stood like that, not saying anything else, until Erwan returned, looking pale. “I’m so sorry.”

“This is not on you,” Delton said immediately, but Oliver kept quiet.

“We should’ve known Dempsey would cheat. We were expecting it, but he outsmarted us by keeping his magic small and contained.”

That was Dempsey in a nutshell. He was mean, but he wasn’t stupid, and that made him so dangerous.

“How did the Murphys react to Dempsey’s death?” Delton asked, still holding on tightly to Oliver.

“They declared Adar the winner. They were in shock that he’d managed to win despite Dempsey’s use of magic, and strangely enough, they agreed in hindsight that Dempsey had been dishonorable in using it. They named Kerry the official leader of their new group or clan or whatever. We told them we had to leave to get Adar to a hospital and that we’d continue the discussion about the omegas later.”

“They will have discovered by now that their omegas are gone,” Delton said. “They’re not going to be happy.”

“No, but they lost their best fighter. They’re not in any position to counter-attack us. They don’t have the manpower,” Oliver said with a strange calmness. “We won.”

His knees buckled and Delton barely caught him before Oliver sagged to the floor. The tears came and couldn’t be stopped this time, not even when Delton pulled Oliver onto his lap and held him close. And among the overpowering fear and grief and sadness, that was the only light and comfort. Oliver wasn’t alone. Delton was right there with him.

And then it sank in that the man who had made his life hell, who had hurt him beyond description, was dead. He was gone forever. “We won. Adar won. He’s dead. Oh gods, he’s dead. Dempsey is dead.”

Oliver was now truly free, but at what price?

ChapterEighteen

Bored had taken on a whole new meaning. The days were growing shorter and shorter and the nights were long and dark this far north now that winter was well on its way. Rhene had little to do but read—Duff had provided him with an e-reader and a way to download books from a digital library—and think. Oh, he had way too much time to think.

And sleep. He often went to bed early. What else was there to do? One could only spend so much time reading, thinking, and eating, interspersed with the occasional conversation with Duff. The man refused to discuss dragon affairs with Rhene, but he was open to superficial talks about the weather, local flora and fauna, and—surprisingly—sports.

Plus, Rhene wasn’t feeling well. He was tired all the time, and the face that greeted him in the mirror every morning was growing paler and paler. He’d lost weight, too, and he felt weak.

It wasn’t the lack of sunlight—though that didn’t help—or the lack of exercise. It wasn’t the food either. Duff had proven to be a more than capable cook, especially with limited resources. Rhene had come to appreciate the stews Duff made using whatever meat was available, including rabbit, hare, and reindeer.

No, it was Erwan. Being separated from his mate was starting to wear on Rhene, physically and emotionally. He missed him. He missed him so fucking much, more than he’d ever thought possible. If he’d harbored any doubt at any point about whether they were truly mates, that question had been answered.

Palani had once told him how miserable he’d felt after being separated from Vieno for a while, and Vieno had suffered even worse. That was how they’d discovered they were fated mates. They couldn’t handle being apart. Rhene had believed his brother, obviously. But it had been hard to imagine how being away from someone could make you physically ill.

Well, now he knew…and he wished with all his heart he didn’t. Was Erwan suffering in the same way? Was the separation killing him as much as it was Rhene? The thought alone made the pain even worse. Suffering this himself was one thing, but knowing Erwan was going through the same thing made it a thousand times worse.

But what could he do? Duff seemed to be waiting for something or someone, and Rhene had no idea what. Duff refused to talk to him about it, so Rhene had given up. But until then, Rhene wasn’t going anywhere, so how long would he and Erwan be separated?

He went to bed early again that night, damn near crying himself to sleep, only to wake up in the dead of the dark, cold Swedish night. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

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