That wakes me up. “What’s going on?”

“Your dragon’s attacking.” Emma puts an arm around my waist. “Azar’s thugs are waiting for him to swing close enough so they can throw some fireproof nets over him and bind his wings, like they did with Zohr.”

“Zohr?” I rub my forehead, because I must be more out of it than I realized. “Who’s Zohr?”

“The other dragon.” She hauls me up against her side when my legs wobble. “You need to walk this off, girl, because we don’t have much time. Tell Dakh not to come closer or he plays right into Azar’s plan.”

Babe, why are you here? I send out, miserable at the thought. I told you to stay away.

Because I will not let them hurt you. The thoughts are dominant, strong. Proud. Brutal. You are mine, and I am taking you back. I do not care if he is Salorian. He has no control over me in this world, not if I do not tap my mind to his and give him control. I will take my mate back and we will get out of here. Show me which window you are at.

“He wants to come to the window,” I tell Emma. “Where are we at?”

“He can’t,” she emphasizes again. “Are you listening to me? They expect him to come for you. There are men waiting in the rooms above, below, and to the sides of this one with nets. If they get his wings, he’ll fall to the ground, and then Azar will have him. He needs to stay high in the air until we figure out how to get you out of here.”

Oh. Right. I communicate this all to Dakh, who isn’t thrilled with the idea. We can’t risk Emma, I tell him. Or you. We’ll find a different way.

Then I will keep attacking, he tells me. But the moment you are in danger…

I know, babe. I promise, I’ll be safe. I pat Emma’s shoulder. “I think I’m awake now. What’s the plan?”

She hands me a can of what looks like an old energy drink. I pop the top and gulp it down, grimacing at the awful taste. I don’t know if it’ll even work considering that it’s seven years expired, but I’ll give it a shot. “There are two guards outside this room. We need to create a diversion and then distract them and steal their weapons. Once we do, we can try to sneak out of the building. Then I want to go and save Zohr.”

The other dragon—she knows his name. “Are you and him…did you…”

“What? No!” She looks startled. “But it’s my fault he’s here, so I feel responsible.”

“We can’t save him,” I tell Emma with a shake of my head. “If we let him loose, he’s going to attack everyone and everything. Dragons are dangerous—”

“You think I don’t know that? My family died because of dragons! Well, except for my dipshit brother.” She puts a hand to her forehead and makes a sound of distress. “Okay. How do I save him? How do I make him not crazy?”

I stare at her. “Emma…there’s only one way to make a dragon un-crazy. You know how.”

Her face turns bright red. “You know what? Scratch that. We’ll figure something else out for Zohr. Right now we just need to get you out of here. One thing at a time.”

“Okay,” I breathe. “Tell me what to do.” In the distance, I can hear the dragons roaring, and I smell smoke and fire. Be safe, Dakh.

His thoughts are nothing but a jumble of flame and anger.

Emma paces, hugging her arms to her chest. She thinks for a moment and then races back to my side. “Here’s what we do. I’ll lie on the floor and pretend to be unconscious, and you can scream for the guards. When they come in and check on me, try to take the gun from at least one of them and we’ll wing it from there.”

“What if they both come in at the same time?”

She wrings her hands. “I don’t know! We’ll figure it out. Do you have a better idea?”

“I can barely think straight,” I tell her. I’m still groggy from the drugs.

“I wish we could flip it and have you on the floor, but they won’t care if you’re still unconscious.” She twists her hands again and then gives her body a nervous shake. “Let’s just do something before we second-guess ourselves into being found out. Hurry. They still think I’m checking in on you.” She moves to the floor and lies face down, then gives me a thumbs up.

“Okay,” I whisper. I can do this. I can do this. Call the guards in. Steal a weapon. Figure shit out from there. No problem. I head to the door and pause.

“Hurry,” Emma whispers. “We can’t let Dakh land or he’s screwed.”

God. She’s right. I can’t keep wasting time. I suspect that Dakh’s sanity hangs by a thread, and the longer I stall, the more I risk his life. I send a surge of affection to him. I love you, I tell him. Just in case this all goes south.

My fire, he replies, sending back his own fierce surge of love.

All right. No more fucking around. I glance over at Emma one more time and then give a little scream. I bang on the door. “Help!”

I can hear the guards moving on the other side. “What do you want?” one calls through the door.

Uh, this isn’t working like I planned. “The girl that came to bring me food…she’s dead!”

“Dead?” Emma whispers. “The fuck?”

“I don’t know,” I hiss back. “Shut up!”

“Dead?” The guard calls through the door.

“Yeah,” I call nervously. “She handed me my food and then just fell over. I think she OD’d on something.” Actually, that sounds pretty good to me. Lots of people OD on cheap-ass drugs as an escape from fort life.

“Goddamn it,” I hear a guard mutter, and then the sound of the lock in the door turning.

This is it. I hover, worried, as the door swings open. I take a step back as a short, stocky man covered in tattoos pushes his way inside. He’s got an assault rifle in his hands and gives me a dirty look as he steps past me to stand near Emma, who’s doing a great job looking dead. She’s facedown on the floor, and I can’t even see her breathing.

A second later, the second guard starts to come in through the door, and I panic. If both of them come inside, we’re screwed. I don’t know what to do. As I see the gun barrel of the second guard move through the doorway and his hands on it, I take a risk.