Page 40 of Taken

My chest constricts at the raw maternal ferocity in those three words. Twenty years of torture endured to keep her child hidden. A courage so profound it leaves me breathless.

“Sir,” Cole interjects urgently, “her vitals are critical. We need to stop—”

“Not yet!” Creed shouts. “Where is your daughter? How is she connected to the Heartstone?”

My fists clench so hard I feel bones crack, healing instantly as my dragon seeks release. I can’t watch this, can’t stay seatedwhile they tear her apart. But I can’t save her if I blow my cover now.

Then Lila’s eyes suddenly focus, looking directly at the camera. Looking atme. It’s impossible—she can’t know I’m watching, can’t see through the digital feed—but I’d swear on my eternal soul that her gaze finds mine across the distance.

For one breathless moment, we’re connected as intimately as that night when I held her face between my hands and tasted her defiance. I feel her reaching for me across the void, entrusting me with what comes next.

“Fire,” she whispers, voice barely audible, meant only for me. “She rises. My daughter rises from the flames.”

Then her body goes completely limp, head lolling to the side as the monitoring equipment screams with warning alerts. Her heart rate flatlines for ten terrifying seconds before resuming a weak, erratic rhythm.

“She’s crashing,” Cole announces, already moving to disconnect the extraction apparatus. “Medical team, now!”

Creed steps back, a mixture of fury and satisfaction on his face. “We have what we need. A daughter. This changes everything.”

“She’s non-responsive,” Cole reports, checking Lila’s pupil response with a penlight. “Complete neural shutdown.”

“Can you revive her?” Creed asks, unmoved by the sight of Lila’s blood-streaked face.

Cole’s expression hardens with barely contained rage. “This isn’t a fainting spell. You pushed her into a coma. She may never wake up.”

His words send me reeling. I clutch the edge of the console, struggling for breath.Never wake up.Three words that tear through me with more pain than I’ve felt in decades.

“Unacceptable.” Creed’s cold voice carries through the speaker. “Find a way to revive her. We need more information about this daughter.”

“You’ve destroyed her neural pathways,” Cole snaps, professional veneer finally cracking. “There’s nothing to ‘revive’ if you’ve burned out her mind. She’ll be of no use to anyone then.”

Creed shrugs. “No matter. If there’s another one, we don’t need her, anyway.”

The medical team rushes in, transferring Lila’s limp form to a gurney. Her face is ghostly pale beneath the streaks of blood, dark hair spilling over the edge of the stretcher like water. The same hair I’d tangled my fingers in during our kiss. The body that had pressed against mine with such unexpected hunger.

Now still. Broken. Perhaps lost forever.

I sit frozen, shaking with a rage I haven’t felt since London burned. Since I watched my mate die because of Syndicate cruelty. A rage I’d thought safely buried beneath decades of control.

But this… this is different. This isn’t about old wounds or past failures. This is about Lila. About what they’ve done to her. About what I failed to prevent.

About the crushing realization that I care far more than I should. Far more than my mission allows.

The security feed from the medical wing shows the team working frantically over Lila’s unconscious form. Cole stands at the foot of the bed, his face a mask of controlled fury as he issues orders to the medical staff.

My mind races with implications. If this Elena is truly Lila’s daughter, everything changes. Our extraction plans. The Aurora Collective’s strategy. The balance of power between dragon factions.

And beneath it all, the knowledge that I can’t leave without her. Can’t complete my mission while she lies broken. Can’t walk away from the unexpected connection that burns between us.

Lila’s final words echo in my mind, a prophecy delivered directly to me across impossible distance.

She rises. My daughter rises from the flames.

A warning? A hope? A destiny?

Whatever it means, one thing is certain: the stakes have risen beyond what even Viktor anticipated. And Lila—fierce, defiant, beautiful Lila—might never wake to see the outcome of the battle she’s been fighting.

The thought is unbearable.

---