Zenith glanced to where the dragon shifter had been. He’d gone, and the unicorn had disappeared, too. Her shoulders sagged.
Paden pointed a long stick at her. “It’s the last time you steal from anybody in this world.” His smile sent shivers through her.
“What are you doing?”
“Ridding my world of lawbreakers.”
Zenith raised her hands and let magic flood her. She didn’t know how to do anything, but she had to try. Every inch of her hummed with the energy she pulled in.
A hood dropped over Zenith’s head, blinding her. She yanked at the black material, trying to dislodge it. Vice-like hands captured her arms and forced them behind her back. Metal clamped around her wrists. The edges cut into her skin, and the surge that had filled her winked out.
A woman snickered. “You’re mine now.”
“What do you mean by that?” If only she could summon magic at will. She could call the blue sword, start slicing, and break free.
Zenith tensed her whole body but nothing happened.
Harsh hands and gruff voices dragged her along. It sounded like a dozen men, but it might have been only three. They yanked her this way and that. Then the sound of something powering on.
The ground beneath them rumbled, and Sam screamed. A man grunted in pain. Paden cursed beneath his breath. Dread poured through Zenith, and her knees buckled. In her head, all she could see was Sam on the ground, staring into the afterlife.
I can’t breathe. What’s happening?
“Sam, it’s okay, I’m here,” Zenith yelled. “Sam? Are you ok—” Her voice broke. Please don’t be dead. They’d survived so much together.
“Zenith, what’s happening?” Sam’s timid voice sounded closer now.
Zenith shifted in place.
“Be still,” somebody growled.
“Stay calm, Sam. We’ll figure it out. It’s okay,” Zenith called toward the sound of Sam’s voice.
Sam whimpered.
“Raise the hood,” Paden commanded.
The fabric disappeared, and he stood quite close to her. Behind him, a metal circle focused energy until the middle glowed.
Sam’s forehead creased. “What are you going to do to us?”
Paden raised an eyebrow. “Send you far away from here. You’ll never trouble us again, and I’ll use the money you earn to buy my way back to Eilean Ren.” He waved and one of the Fae carried Sam through. Two others led the blindfolded unicorn to the portal. Another carried the dragon shifter.
“Let them go,” Zenith cried. “They had nothing to do with this.”
“Can’t have witnesses to tell the mayor, can we? Besides, a dragon shifter fetches a pretty penny in the mortal ‘verse.”
Zenith hunched her shoulders and stared at her feet. A crow cawed overhead.
Paden grasped Zenith’s chin and forced her to meet his gaze. He leaned forward until his nose nearly touched hers. “I’ll come visit you soon, Zenith. I’ve always wanted to get to know a blue feet better.” His smile twisted into something sickening. Then he raised his hand and slammed it into her jaw.
The world went dark.
When Zenith woke, she had been stripped of her clothes, gagged, and strapped down to a hospital bed, her body half-inside a tube with gadgetry she didn’t recognize. She shivered from head to toe. Her head had been elevated just enough that she could view the rest of her body. Bright lights seared her eyes, and everything had been covered in white, disinfected of color. Acrid smells burned her nostrils. A monitor beep-beep-beep-ed in the corner.
Sam was nowhere in sight. The dragon shifter and the unicorn were also missing.
Binds held her wrist and her ankles. They’d exposed the blue scales that covered her legs from the knees down. How long had it been since Zenith had seen her own skin? How could they expose her shame like that? She squeezed her eyes closed and hot tears slipped out.
Zenith tried to spit out the gag, but it wouldn’t budge. Instead, it scraped against her tongue and set off a series of dry heaving she couldn’t shake. How long had it been since they’d eaten? How long had she been passed out?
She pulled at the wrist ties until her skin felt raw. Bright red drops of blood slid out from beneath the cuffs, down her dark skin, and dripped onto the pristine sheets.
A sliding door whooshed open and closed a moment later. It sounded almost like an airlock. Why would Zenith have been quarantined? Her frantic thoughts tumbled one after the other.
A sour-faced woman in a white lab coat leaned over Zenith, checking eyes, nose, and flicking her veins. “My name is Dr. Veem. Welcome to New Haven City.” She loosened the gag on Zenith’s mouth. “Now you make speak. You probably want to after you abduction.”
The room spun, but Zenith fought to stay awake. “I’m in the mortal world?”
“Of course.”
Zenith’s stomach churned. “Why did you bring me here?”
The doctor straightened. “Weapons development. The amount of money mortals will spend on building up a false sense of security…” She stared past Zenith. “It’s astronomical.”
“Why me?”
“You’re an interesting specimen. We’ve never had a hybrid in our labs before.”
“I can’t magic,” she whispered.
An eerie glow filled the woman’s eyes. “Then you will be trained.”
Zenith fought back a gag. What had happened to Sam? Or the dragon-shifter boy? Where had they gone?
“If you’re wondering what’s happened to your little friends, they’re waiting for their own exams. You were far more interesting than they were, but whenever you disobey, we’ll hurt them.”
Zenith yanked against the binds that held her.
“Now, remember, if you disobey any instruction at all, your friends will feel the consequences,” she paused, “and you will have a front row seat.”
Zenith stared, horrified. The woman said it as though it was the most normal occurrence in the world. Zenith turned her face to the side and spewed bile all over the hospital room floor.
The lab-coated woman pursed her lips. She took a syringe from a metal tray near Zenith’s head. “Do try to refrain from that. It makes extra work
