But this.
This was the kind of anguish I wouldn’t even wish on my worst enemy.
Glistening tears ran down Kysha’s cheeks. She bundled up her wife in her arms and turned the wailing female away from us. They rocked together, their grief filling the air. My eyes pricked and the back of my throat burned as Daegal and Ryllae’s faces flashed in my mind. Xander was a statue beside me, staring at the two grieving females.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” he mumbled disbelievingly.
Placing my hand on his arm, I waited for his gaze to meet mine. “What?”
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” he said again. His nostrils flared, and he shook his head as the dragon flashed behind his eyes. “This wasn’t the plan.”
Pulling away from me, he slammed his fist into the wall. Once. Twice. Three times. The stones cracked beneath his touch, and a trail of blood ran down his arm.
He roared, “None of this was supposed to happen!”
Anger pulsed through the bond, matching the ire in my bonded mate’s eyes. Scales rippled on his skin, and I could have sworn that smoke billowed from his mouth. Xander grabbed the map from around his neck and flung it on the ground. It rolled away as he threw back his head and screamed.
“No one was supposed to die!” he yelled at the cavernous roof of this horrible mountain. “No one!”
Xander’s fury mixed with Maiela’s anguish, and my heart ached. Everything burned. Picking up the necklace, I tucked it into my pocket before pulling out my daggers.
This couldn’t be right.
They couldn’t be dead.
They just… couldn’t.
I was halfway up the nearest road before Xander’s rough voice came from behind me. “Where are you going?”
“To find them,” I replied. “I don’t… they can’t be dead.”
Not waiting for a response, I ran down the street, retracing our trail through the city. We had come so far through the stone buildings. Red and black blood was everywhere, leaving an obvious trail to follow.
Footsteps came from behind me. Xander cursed the gods in the Common Tongue before switching into a language I did not speak. By the tone of his voice and the rage coming through the bond, I knew the words he said were not good.
With every passing moment, desperation grew within me.
They weren’t here. I made it back to the entrance without seeing a single trace of them.
Blood and dust and gore were everywhere, but Daegal and Ryllae were nowhere to be found.
I ran down the path again.
And again.
I ran until my muscles burned, and then I walked, calling their names.
Maiela’s steady sobs were the only sounds in this cavernous city of death.
Hours went by.
Eventually, Xander and I returned to the square. Defeated, I sagged against my mate. He supported my weight, but I could feel his anguish as though it were my own.
“They’re not here,” I whispered, hugging him tightly. “They’re not… How could this have happened?”
“I don’t know,” he said.
Maiela had stopped crying. She sat with her back against a stone building, her eyes red-rimmed and her nose swollen.