Page 54 of Siren's Gift

There, strapped to a cold metal table, lay Rin. Tubes snaked into his body, and I knew from the notes we’d found that they would force the blue liquid into his veins. His chest rose and fell in an uneven rhythm, while vast swaths of his skin were charred black as if seared by an unrelenting inferno.

He wasn’t healing.

"Found you."

I whirled to face Keiko, my heart hammering as I angled my body to block the view inside the room. I couldn’t let her see what Ichiro had done. "What are you doing here? I told you to rest."

Suspicion crept into her expression, and her gaze darted from me to the window. "I knew you were going somewhere as soon as you got that text at Subliminal. Is he in there?" Her tone was both accusatory and desperate, a blend that made my stomach twist.

I hesitated. I hadn’t planned on answering her. Not honestly, anyway. But Keiko knew me better than anyone. To her eyes, every flicker of guilt, every hidden dread, was etched on my face like scars. It was as if she could read the tumult inside me as clearly as words in a book.

Her eyes narrowed. "Nic, move out of my way."

There was no point in trying to hide him now. I didn’t know how long we had until that monstrous machine roared back to life. The thought made my pulse spike, my mind screaming for immediate action. We needed to get him out. I moved away from the window and steeled myself for her reaction.

Standing on her tiptoes to see through, she stared with wide eyes as her brain processed the sight. Without another glance at me, she yanked at the door handle. It was locked.

"Rin!" She pounded on the glass. "Baby, hold on!"

Multiple clicks echoed down the hallway as all the doors unlocked simultaneously. Either the gods were finally getting involved or Aaron had arrived. My money was on the feline.

When Keiko pulled at the handle this time, the door swung open. She raced to Rin’s side and clasped his face between her hands. His eyes remained closed, his body limp. "Baby! Wake up, babe. It’s me."

Belatedly, I noticed the machine was whirring with activity again, forcing that mystery liquid into my best friend’s body. I tore the needle from his arm, but the blue liquid that had already entered his veins pulsed beneath his skin.

Rin’s dragon, Hayairyu, ripped from his body with a thunderous roar and climbed into the air, a trail of smoke in his wake. Across Rin’s right pec, only a raw red mark existed where the tattoo had been.

Oh fuck.

His dragon was untethered.

Without that connection, Rin wouldn’t be able to control Hayai. No one could. The tattoo that had bound the dragon’s soul to Rin’s led to the beast’s instinctual need for self-preservation. Killing the host meant death for the dragon too, which was why Ichiro rarely killed one of our own.

Now, nothing would keep the beast from killing his host if he so desired.

The untethered dragon dove toward us, unable to tell friend from foe in his fractured state of mind. I threw myself in front of Keiko and Rin. My dragon-hardened skin could take the brunt of the assault, but it would hurt like a motherfucker.

Jou crashed into him before flames licked my skin, sending both dragons hurtling toward the ground in a shower of sparks and searing flames. Their semi-translucent forms appeared to ripple through the fierce heat of the fire dancing across their scales.

Although Hayai was a massive beast, bigger than Jou, my dragon was still deadlier. His razor-sharp claws found purchase in Hayai’s side, and the bigger dragon crumbled beneath the onslaught, barely lifting his head in defiance. Whatever he’d endured here had weakened him significantly.

Keiko tore at Rin’s restraints with frantic, clawed fingers, trying to shred through steel like it was paper. Blood smeared her hands. With a frustrated hiss, she stopped tearing, only to slap him. Hard.

"Wake. The. Fuck. Up," she snarled through her tears. Slaps punctuated each word, every crack of her palm against his face echoing in the cold, lifeless room.

For a second, I thought she’d done it. His eyelids fluttered open, and his dilated gaze drifted to Keiko’s. His lips curled into a ghost of a smile before his eyelids slipped shut again.

He released an exhale. Shaky. Rattling…

Final.

This time, he didn’t inhale.

My heart stuttered to a stop.

"No, no, no," Keiko choked out, gripping his face between her shaking hands. "Don’t you dare leave me." Her voice cracked on the last word. "Rin. Please."

A cold, crushing weight settled in my chest. Rin—the man I’d called a brother, the one who had fought at my side, laughed with me, bled for me—was…

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