Chapter Thirteen

  Jade

  They took us to a warehouse inside Maven City, and the moment we landed, I was zip-tied.

  Not handcuffs.

  It bit into my wrists hard enough to make my fingers tingle. Someone yanked my arms behind me and shoved me forward before I could find my balance.

  “Move.”

  I stumbled. Concrete scraped my boots. The air smelled like oil, rust, and old rain—industrial and forgotten. A place people didn’t come unless they meant to disappear something.

  My head was still spinning from the flight. From the drop. From the way Ashira’s presence felt… muted. Not gone. Never gone. But distant. Like shouting through a closed door.

  “Where’s my dragon?” I demanded, my voice cracking despite my best effort.

  No one answered.

  They herded me through a wide loading door into harsh fluorescent light. The warehouse was cavernous—steel beams overhead, crates stacked like makeshift walls, old forklifts rusting in the corners. Too empty. Too clean for how abandoned it pretended to be.

  Then a woman reached into my jacket pocket.

  “No—” I started.

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  She grabbed Veyra by the body and yanked her out like she was nothing more than a toy.

  I froze.

  Veyra didn’t struggle.

  Didn’t scream.

  Her feathers were ruffled, one side clotted dark where blood had soaked through. And her wing—

  It was bent the wrong way.

  Backwards.

  Time stalled.

  My breath caught painfully in my chest, refusing to move. The bond flared once—sharp, contained agony—then went eerily still, like Veyra had locked herself down to survive.

  “Oh no,” I whispered.

  The woman glanced down at her grip, unimpressed. “Fragile little thing.”

  Rage surged so fast it made my vision blur. I lunged instinctively, zip-ties biting deep into my wrists as I strained against them.

  “Don’t touch her!” I shouted. “Put her down!”

  Veyra’s voice brushed my mind, faint but steady. “Jade. Don’t.”

  That hurt more than the injury.

  The woman adjusted her grip, careless, and Veyra made a small, sharp sound—cut off almost immediately.

  Something inside me snapped tight and cold.

  Ashira wasn’t here.

  But I was.

  And they had made a very serious mistake.

  They didn’t argue.

  They didn’t threaten.

  They just… separated us.

  Hands pulled me one way while another pair peeled Veyra from my sight. The woman carrying her turned without hesitation, disappearing through a reinforced door marked with peeling yellow paint.

  “VEYRA!” I shouted, fighting the zip-ties until plastic burned into my skin.

  No answer.

  The door slammed shut.

  The sound echoed down concrete stairs as they dragged me lower—past the warehouse floor, past the hum of generators and wards—into the basement.

  The air changed immediately.

  Colder. Drier. Sanitized.

  Lights buzzed overhead, harsh and white, reflecting off bare concrete walls and steel doors spaced at careful intervals. Each door had a small reinforced window. Each window was dark.

  Cells.

  They shoved me into one.

  A chair bolted to the floor. A drain beneath it. A single camera in the corner, its red light already on.

  The zip-ties were replaced with restraints—metal this time, etched faintly with runes that made my skin crawl. The rune over my heart throbbed angrily, like it was trying to claw its way out.

  “Where is my dragon?” I demanded again.

  Still no answer.

  The door shut.

  Locked.

  I was alone.

  Bonus Chapter

  Ashira

  Jadira.