It took everything he had to tear his eyes from the towers burning with orange and yellow flames. King Chalo was sure Ravi was underground. He wouldn’t be in the towers, so where was he? Where was the opening to the underground bunker?
On Sahan’s second pass over the city, Sora finally saw a bland grey door rolling open. It had been hidden by the earth during their first pass, but the new angle revealed how a narrow road led down into the earth and under the city.
“There!” he shouted. He leaned forward, pressing as close as he could to Sahan’s neck, and pointed toward the opening. “Ravi has to be down there!”
So close. He was so close to having his heart back.
An explosion echoed strangely through the underground tunnels, the boom seeming to go on and on until Ravi wasn’t sure if the sound was stuck in his head. It had been powerful enough to knock him off his feet, pulling his shoulders painfully.
What the hell had Nikki done?
Assuming they got out of this alive, Ravi would need to have a talk with them about what counted as a diversion and what threatened to bury both of them under thousands of tons of earth and concrete!
Outside his cell, shouts poured down the halls followed by pounding footsteps. Shadows flashed by the tiny window as the Jaeggi rushed down the halls toward the explosion.
Where was Nikki? They had to be close. The diversion needed to go off when they were close to the cell so they could slip inside with the damn key.
Maybe the explosion wasn’t Nikki. Maybe the explosion was Sora and Ravi’s family. The feeling of Sora’s love, his worry, was getting closer and closer. Ravi was sure it was only a matter of time before the dragons arrived, but Ravi’s goal had been to break free to help his family. It was more dangerous for them to all come underground looking for him.
The shouts and the sounds of footsteps died, until Ravi couldn’t hear anything over the pounding of his heart. It was as if all the Jaeggi fled the bunker, leaving him alone with the other prisoners.
“Ravi! Ravi! I got it!” Nikki’s excited voice jumped and danced through the window.
There was a scrape of the metal lock turning in its casing, and the door was jerked open to reveal Nikki’s smiling face. Their long hair was in a tangle, and there was a smudge of black dirt or soot across their face, but otherwise they looked fine.
“Thank goodness!” Ravi sighed.
It took three tries to get the key into the first manacle. Nikki wasn’t particularly tall, and Ravi was stretched just high enough off the ground to make the whole affair awkward. But with some cursing and sweating, the first manacle was unlocked.
Ravi groaned with relief and pain as he was finally able to lower his left arm to his side. He allowed himself only a moment before he grabbed the key to work on his other arm.
A second explosion rocked the compound, and the earth gave a long, slow, rolling roar as if someone had woken a giant under their feet. Ravi turned wide eyes to see Nikki’s matching startled expression.
“That—that was not me,” Nikki said as soon as they could manage the words. “I only set up one explosion. And it was a tiny one.”
“A tiny one?” Ravi squawked as he jammed the key into the second manacle. They needed to get moving, now.
“Yeah, I only used a little bit of reflected sunlight. And I scratched together a handful of griffon feathers. I didn’t think it would be so big.”
Ravi shook his head. He wasn’t nearly as knowledgeable about elements as the mages, but it sounded like Nikki was lucky they hadn’t torn a black hole in the world. Everyone was going to be a lot safer when Nikki had been trained up a bit by Lisette.
“I have a feeling the second explosion came from my family,” Ravi said as the lock finally clicked and the manacle opened. Pain shot through his other shoulder, and his calf muscles burned as he at last settled flat on his feet. He swayed a little, and Nikki was right there, wrapping an arm around his waist to steady him.
“Okay?”
“Yeah, just need a second. Did you remember to grab some clothes for me?”
“I did, but I don’t think you’re going to be too excited about them. I couldn’t find yours.”
Ravi shook his head. “Pants. Pants would be nice. I’m afraid of all my important bits freezing off. My mate really appreciates those parts.”
Nikki slowly released him, flashing a nervous grin before moving over to the knapsack they’d dropped upon entering the cell. Ravi placed one hand against the cold white wall to steady himself. Too many hours of hanging up like a side of beef, not to mention being underground, had left him unsteady on his feet. If he could get aboveground, breathing fresh air, he would be fine.
After some digging, Nikki tossed him a pair of somewhat dirty jeans. Ravi didn’t care, as long as they covered him and…okay, problem.
Ravi pulled them up to his waist and looked down at his feet, swallowed by six inches of denim. They were way too long, not to mention that a second Ravi could have climbed into the waist. He gathered the excess jeans in one hand and looked at Nikki, who was standing and had pulled the knapsack onto their back.
“Did you steal these from a giant?”
“You really don’t want to know where I got them,” Nikki muttered, not meeting his gaze.
Yeah, Nikki was right. He didn’t want to know. With the Jaeggi, it was a safe guess the previous owner probably wasn’t alive any longer.
Ravi started to reach for Nikki to usher them out of the cell when a sharp sensation had him gasping. Sora. Sora was there.
And he’d just started tapping into Ravi’s dragon power to fuel his own spells. Ravi leaned back against the cell wall and had to blink back an unexpected swell of tears. His mate. Oh, god, it was like a constant flow of love and support. The connection ran so deep and was so intimate that it was knocking the wind out of him.
He’d listened to Alric, Baldewin, and Warin swapping stories about their mates tapping their energy for the first time, or the slow trickle of power that constantly ran from the dragon to the mage. There had been such a glow of happiness and pride on their faces. This was such a big part of what a dragon was born to do, and Ravi hated to admit that he’d been envious.
In all the chaos and excitement at the castle, the topic of Ravi supplying power to Sora hadn’t come up. They’d simply forgotten. Sora had been casting spells almost as long as he’d been walking, and he’d never needed a dragon to support him.
But he was here now, pulling energy from Ravi to support his magic.
To fight the Jaeggi.
Fuck. Ravi needed to find his mate, now.
“Ravi? Are you okay?” Nikki asked, reaching for him.
“Yep, but we’ve got to move, now. My family is definitely here and needs our help.”
With his jeans held in place with his left hand, Ravi grabbed Nikki’s hand and pulled them behind him. He eased out the door and looked both ways down the hall. The area was empty of people. Lines of doors identical to his ran down both sides of the hall, but all was silent except for the low sounds of battle and the shake of the earth. Probably the earth dragons.
“Right,” Nikki called out behind him, but he didn’t need the instruction. He could smell the faintest hint of fresh air. The way out.
Ravi paused and looked down at the long line of doors. He didn’t know who else was down here. Trapped mages clinging to life, assuming any of them were still alive after the Jaeggi’s draining sessions. He didn’t want to leave anyone behind, but they needed to take care of the Jaeggi first. Shoving away from the door, Ravi promised himself that they would search every inch of this compound to make sure every imprisoned mage was set free.