Dropping down, Kai quietly moved to the wide door. The hinges weren’t well-oiled, which meant they’d make too much sound. He continued moving until he turned the corner and examined the other side of the barn. One of the windows didn’t have any glass in it. While high up, it was his best option for getting inside.
When he reached just below it, he jumped up and just managed to grab the ledge. He slowly pulled himself up. As he attempted to lean inside the window to check the surroundings one more time, something scratched his arm. He dismissed it as remnants of the former window. However, when he finished his sweep of the interior, his grip slipped. He tried to catch himself, but his fingers barely responded. Kai fell and managed to tumble into a somersault to avoid making too much noise.
Inside his mind, his dragon curled into a ball. So much noise. Make it stop.
Kai heard nothing.
Carys appeared at his side. One look at him and she crouched down, slung his arm around her shoulders, and helped him up.
As his dragon started to roar, Kai barely paid attention to what was happening. Only when he heard Carys’s voice was he able to note they were back inside the cover of the trees.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Scratch on my arm…” His dragon roared louder. “Something is wrong. Get me back.”
His beast flicked his wings and pushed to the front of Kai’s mind. He managed to whisper, “Drug me,” before he was tossed inside a mental prison and forced to watch his dragon thrash about uncontrollably.
Carys placed a hand over his mouth and quickly extracted a pre-filled syringe from one of her pockets. Kai’s dragon bit her palm, but she merely grunted and stuck the needle into his skin.
In the next instant, Carys flew several feet into a tree. To her credit, she didn’t cry out but rolled right back at him.
Kai wanted to stop his beast, but could do nothing but pound against the invisible prison.
Carys reached him with another needle in her hand. Kai had no idea if the first one hadn’t worked or wasn’t doing anything.
Kai’s dragon lunged at her, but Carys sidestepped and swept his leg. He faltered and she jumped on his back with an arm around his neck. His dragon growled, but Kai could feel the prick of another syringe. His dragon continued to buck their human form until Carys was thrown against another tree trunk.
His dragon turned their body toward her, but as he took a step, he faltered and fell to his knees. After another second, the world went black as Kai silently hoped his dragon hadn’t just alerted the inhabitants to their presence.
~~~
Jane stood with Lily and Gareth Owens on the outskirts of the landing area. Snowridge’s leader had told them Kai had been injured, but nothing more.
While her mate had been hurt in the line of duty countless times before, Rhydian not telling her or Lily the details didn’t bode well.
Lily put an arm around Jane’s shoulders. “I’m sure it’s nothing, Jane. If he were dying, Rhydian would’ve said.”
What Jane didn’t mention was that there were worse fates than death for dragon-shifters. Between going rogue or inner dragons going silent, there were many things that could be wrong with Kai.
Not usually one to wring hands, she couldn’t help but twist her fingers around each other. On Stonefire, she would already know what was going on. Being the outsider on Snowridge seemed to cause one complication after another.
A red dragon came into view. Behind it was a black dragon. Since Kai was a golden one, he had to be in his human form with one of the two beasts.
As they drew closer, Jane focused on the red dragon, which was slightly smaller and meant it was a female. From the way her hind legs were close to her body instead of down and behind, it meant the dragon was carrying something.
Soon enough she could make out a human form clutched in talons.
It was Kai.
Never taking her eyes off her mate, Jane watched as the red dragon made it to the landing area, hovered, and gently laid him on the ground. The instant the dragon moved away, Jane raced to her mate’s side.
Kneeling down, she checked him for injuries. But beyond a scratch on his arm, she didn’t notice anything else.
The red dragon had shifted back into Carys’s human form. Jane looked at the dragonwoman. “What happened?”
The dragonwoman shrugged. “I’m not entirely sure. All I know is that his dragon took over and immediately treated me as an enemy. Kai mentioned the scratch, but nothing else.”
Jane looked back to her mate and placed a hand on his chest to ground her. She’d never be able to help her dragonman if she broke down and lost focus.