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I roll my shoulders, feeling the scales beneath my skin shift with anticipation, the old familiar weight of purpose settling into place. My dragon nature stirs, sensing the hunt ahead.

Time to do what I do best.

Chapter 4

Lila

Something’s changed.

I feel it the moment I wake up. A shift in the facility’s energy as tangible as a cold draft. My skin prickles with awareness, magic stirring beneath the surface despite the dampening field they keep around me. I reach instinctively for the silver locket that no longer hangs around my neck, the phantom weight a reminder of what I gave up. After all this time, I still wake reaching for it—for the connection to Elena it once provided.

Pushing myself upright, I press my palm against the wall, feeling the almost imperceptible vibration of the building’s systems. Different. Faster. The security protocols have been heightened. I’ve lived in this cage long enough to recognize when the dragons are restless.

I slide from bed, the polished floor cool against my bare feet. My prison has many names—suite, quarters, habitat—all pretty words for a cage. Endless hours of the same four walls, and I’velearned to read them like tea leaves. Today, they’re telling me something’s coming.

Coffee waits in the automated dispenser—their small concession to my humanity. A luxury to remind me of the world outside. I cradle the mug between my palms, savoring the warmth and bitterness. Small pleasures become lifelines when you’ve lost everything else.

The hiss of the door announces Hargen before I see him.

“You’re early,” I say without turning.

“You’re observant.” His voice carries the faintest hint of amusement—a tone reserved for our private moments when the cameras aren’t watching or recording.

I face him, cataloging the details most would miss. The subtle tension in his jaw. The way his fingers grip his tablet too tightly. The blank expression that tells me he’s concealing something.

“What aren’t you telling me?” I ask, taking another sip of coffee to mask my interest. Never show them how much you care about anything. Another survival rule.

Hargen sets his tablet down, busying himself with checking the monitoring equipment by my bed. “The security protocols have been upgraded.”

“I noticed.” I move to the window, studying the mountains beyond the reinforced glass. “What triggered it?”

Hargen comes to stand beside me, close enough that our shoulders almost touch—a familiarity that’s years in the making. We’ve moved from captor and captive to something undefinable, built on tiny revolts and shared secrets neither of us acknowledges aloud.

“Not what. Who.” He stares out the window, not meeting my eyes. “We have a new head of security starting today.”

My cup pauses halfway to my lips. “What happened to Matthews?”

“Reassigned.” The euphemism hangs between us. No one gets reassigned from a facility like this. They get eliminated, or they die.

“Who’s the replacement?” I keep my voice casual, though my heart rate kicks up. New personnel means new variables. New threats. New possibilities.

“Allard Reeve.” Hargen’s voice gives nothing away. “Used to be with elite dragon forces. Specialist in magical containment.”

I set my cup down with deliberate care. “Sounds charming.”

“He comes highly recommended. Has a reputation for efficiency.”

Translation: he’s dangerous. A killer with credentials. Like the ones who dragged me here that night all those years ago, separating me from a daughter whose face I’ve only glimpsed in scattered, forbidden visions. Elena’s childhood passing in fragments I couldn’t control or direct. Enough to know she survived. Not enough to know if she thrived.

God, I hope she thrived.

“Will he be observing today’s session?” The thought of a stranger watching as they rip prophecies from my mind makes my stomach twist.

“Most likely.” Hargen finally looks at me. “Creed wants him fully briefed on all assets.”

Assets. Such a clinical term for the captives they bleed for power.

“When do I meet this paragon of dragon virtue?” I ask, injecting just enough sarcasm to make Hargen’s lips twitch.

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