Page 49 of Dragon Unleashed
My comforter is on the floor. The dresser has been cleared off, all its contents in small piles beside it. And the bookshelf I’d packed with romance novels is now empty. Instead, books are piled high along the wall beside it.
My eyes land on the bookshelf’s angle and the way it’s been pulled out from the wall. Directly above it, a chunk of ceiling is missing, leaving behind a gaping hole that leads to who-knows-where.
I have a feeling Aries knows where. Dammit.
Heart pounding, I cross the room and peer up into the darkness.
“Hello?”
No answer.
“Aries?”
There’s shuffling from inside the ceiling, and then drywall rains down in dusty flakes as Aries appears through the hole.
“Paige, you’re back.”
“What the hell are you doing in the ceiling? And why does my apartment look like it was ransacked?”
He climbs down feet first, using the bookshelf for support before swinging himself easily to the floor. Then he smacks his hands to dust them off. His clothes—a pair of shorts that are oversized on me but way too tight on him, and a t-shirt that looks painted onto his large, muscled arms—are coated in dust.
Honestly, the thirst trap that is Aries, King of Dragons makes me care less about the mess in my apartment. I should be furious, but that fury makes way for heart-pounding lust.
Especially when he raises his blue gaze to mine. “I’ve been investigating all of the possible ways the intruder could have gotten in last night. I think I found something.”
I stare at him. “You think whoever it was came in through the ceiling and then—what? Patched it up as he left?”
“Not exactly. There’s a narrow passage behind your closet, did you know that?”
“Are you serious?”
“I’ll show you.” He leads me back to the entryway where a small coat closet stands beside my front door, and, sure enough, when he opens the closet door, the back wall is now a gaping hole.
“How did you find this?” I ask, staring in horror.
“My dragon can sense things like empty space.” His expression darkens. “Especially if it feels confined.”
Shit. His dragon is probably going crazy in this tiny-ass apartment. I hadn’t even thought of that. Of how it must feel to be unable to access a part of you.
“This passage opening is cut directly into the wall with a door that slides free if you apply pressure here.” He demonstrates and I watch as the door slides shut, looking like nothing more than the back wall of an old closet.
“Holy shit. I never knew,” I say.
“With everything you had shoved in here, it was impossible to notice.”
The jackets. Now I understand why they’re littering my floor.
“Do you know where it leads?” I ask, fear lacing my tone. I shove it aside in favor of irritation at the mess. “And did you seriously have to destroy my apartment?”
“It was necessary,” he replies quickly, though he doesn’t bother to explain justwhyhe needed to turn my entire place upside down when the empty space he sensed is in my closet. “And no idea where it leads yet. I didn’t want to use this entrance in case someone else is monitoring the other end.”
I cross my arms. “So, you made a hole in the ceiling instead?”
“I had hoped to catch a scent,” he explains. “Something I can track. But there’s nothing.”
“Does that mean no one’s used it?” I ask hopefully.
“That,” he says slowly, “Or they’re using magic to cover their tracks.”
