Page 107 of Wings of Shadow
Then, with a controlled breath, I pull back. I straighten to my full height, spine taut with resolve. “She’s not a pawn,” I say, my voice low and firm. “She’s the queen. And I’m the only one playing this game who knows how to keep her from falling.”
The words hang in the air, thick with truth and conviction.
Before I can speak again, my phone vibrates, cutting through the silence. Persistent. Urgent.
I pull it from my pocket, irritation burning—until I see the name on the screen.
Janik.
My chest tightens. He never calls twice unless it’s blood.
I answer. “What is it?”
There’s a beat of static. Then Janik’s voice filters through, grave and clipped.
“Mein König… It’s Miss Draken.” A breath. “She’s been taken.”
Everything inside me comes to a screeching halt. My heart. My thoughts. The air in my lungs.
“What the hell happened?” I manage.
“Ambush on the highway,” he replies, voice sharp and efficient. “Black SUV. Tactical gear. Military precision. It was clean, fast. But one of them…” He exhales. “One of them had a tattoo. A tiger. I’d know it anywhere.”
The name drops into my mind like a guillotine.
Mahindra.
I don’t say it aloud. I breathe it. A curse. A vow.
“Confirmed,” Janik growls. “It was them.”
A frigid calm seeps into my bones, replacing the burning anger with something far more lethal. My dragon stills inside me—no longer raging. Waiting.
Nikolaas sees the change in my expression. He steps forward, his gaze sharp.
“What is it?” he demands.
I lower the phone, my hand still clutching it. My voice is ice. “She’s been taken. By the Mahindra clan.”
Samara gasps. Nikolaas goes rigid, his face draining of color before rage surges in to replace it. His fists curl, his nostrils flare.
“What the hell do they want with her?” he growls.
“They want me,” I say darkly. “She’s leverage. A message.” My jaw clenches. “And a mistake.”
Nikolaas looks ready to shatter something, fury barely restrained. “You should have brought her straight here!”
“And you should never have left her alone in the first place,” I snap, my words biting. “But here we are.”
Nikolas bristles, but he stays silent, knowing I’m right.
Samara steps forward, her voice tight with anxiety. “Do you know where they’re holding her?”
My response is immediate. “I absolutely do.”
The silence that follows trembles, suspended on the brink of war. And I? I’m already walking into it.
I turn to them slowly. “The Mahindras will pay dearly for their sin,” I growl, my voice a low tremor that rattles the air.
