Chapter 2: Bound to the Monster

LEIF'S POV

She screamed.

The sound didn't come from the dragon. It came from the woman I'd just destroyed.

Pain exploded beneath my ribs so suddenly that I staggered backward and pressed a hand against my chest. I couldn't understand what was happening. The sensation wasn't mine, yet somehow I could feel it as clearly as if it were happening inside my own body—crushing despair, haunting terror, and beneath both of them, something deeper that made even less sense.

Longing.

'What the hell...?'

Before I could make sense of it, the first chain burst apart. Iron links shot across the floor and struck the stone like shrapnel. Another chain snapped, then another, and dust rained from the ceiling as the entire tower trembled around us.

She folded over, both hands clutching her chest. Blood spilled from the corner of her lips as she forced herself to look at me.

"I... told you." Her voice sounded wrong, deeper beneath the pain. "Please... run."

I tightened my grip around the sword and pointed it at her chest. How could the woman I'd spent fourteen years hunting be the one telling me to save myself from her? Nothing about this made sense.

A bitter laugh escaped me. "Why should I run now that I've finally found you?"

Fourteen years. Fourteen years of waiting for this moment, of carrying the memory of Oakhaven through every hunt, every training session, every night I'd fallen asleep imagining the day I would finally stand before the creature that had destroyed my home and killed my mother.

"Tonight, it ends." I stepped closer, keeping my sword between us. "Either you die by my hand, or I die by yours. There is no other option."

The sword felt heavier than it should have. My hand twitched at the memory of grabbing her waist during the kiss. I hated that my body remembered it. I hated even more that some part of me wanted to believe what I'd felt when our mouths touched had been real.

I pushed the thought away.

'She is the dragon.'

The woman suddenly arched backward with a scream. Bones cracked beneath her skin, snapping and reshaping as black scales pushed through her forearm. Her fingers curled, stretching into claws while another chain broke beneath the force of her transformation.

I circled her slowly, keeping my sword ready. Hunters didn't rush wounded prey. We waited until the creature exhausted itself, then struck when it could no longer fight back.

"Run..." she whispered again, her voice breaking. "...please."

A bitter smile touched my mouth. "Why should I?"

I stepped forward, my sword still trained on her. "Why should I run when I've spent fourteen years chasing you?"

She looked at me with something that wasn't anger. It looked almost like grief.

That unsettled me more than rage would have.

I ignored it and lunged.

The blade cut toward her shoulder, but she stumbled backward and barely avoided it. I followed immediately, forcing her toward the wall.

"Fight me!" I shouted.

She didn't.

I struck again. She moved away from the blade without trying to counter. She could have fought me. Even half-transformed, she was faster and stronger than I was. Every lesson I'd ever learned about dragons told me that once cornered, they attacked.

So why was she refusing to fight?

"Don't be a coward!"

My next strike caught her arm. Blood immediately soaked through her sleeve, and she cried out as she stumbled backward.

"No!" she gasped. "I only want you alive."

I froze.

For half a heartbeat, I couldn't move.

She looked at me with such unbearable sadness that something beneath my ribs twisted again.

'Why is she looking at me like that?'

I shook the thought away and raised my sword.

Another scream tore from her throat. The force of it threw me backward, and my shoulders slammed against the stone wall. Pain shot across my back.

When I looked up, black claws had emerged completely from her fingers.

Her eyes were gold.

Then she moved.

She crossed the distance between us faster than anything human should have been able to move. Her claws came straight for my chest. I swung my sword, but I was too slow.

Her claws stopped inches from my heart.

For one suspended heartbeat, neither of us moved.

A low growl rolled through the room. Her eyes flickered between gold and darkness as her entire body convulsed. One hand seized her own wrist while the other fought against it, forcing the claws forward before dragging them back.

I stared in disbelief.

It looked as though two creatures were fighting inside the same body.

"No..." she gasped. "Please..."

Both hands locked around the same wrist. One pushed toward me. The other fought desperately to stop it.

Then her eyes met mine, and something changed.

Her claws turned inward.

They drove straight into her own chest.

Blood exploded across her dress.

My eyes widened in horror. The claw that should have gone through my heart was buried in hers.

She gasped, blood spilling between her fingers, and pain stabbed beneath my ribs at the exact same moment.

I staggered and pressed my palm harder against my chest. "Impossible."

She was the one bleeding. Yet I could feel it—the pain, the terror, and that strange warmth that seemed to connect us.

She stumbled backward and collapsed onto her knees. Blood spread across the stone beneath her.

I couldn't move.

Every instinct I'd been trained to trust told me to strike. Her heart was exposed. One thrust, and fourteen years of hatred would finally have an ending.

But she'd given me the opening I'd been waiting for.

And she'd chosen herself instead.

My sword lowered an inch.

"You're dying," I whispered.

She looked up at me through tears.

"I begged you..." Her voice broke. "Why won't you run?"

I tightened my grip on the sword and forced myself to step closer. "Why?"

I couldn't let myself believe what I was seeing. "You make it sound as if you want to save me. Maybe you're just trying to escape."

Her lip trembled.

Then another scream ripped through her.

The mark on her arm pulsed beneath the black scales as they spread higher, crawling toward her neck and across her jaw.

She was losing control.

Part of me felt relief.

"Finally."

I raised my sword again. "There you are."

Her eyes met mine, dark and haunted.

I told myself not to look at the woman anymore. I told myself she was already gone.

"Monster."

She flinched.

Something twisted inside me at the sight, but I crushed it before I could examine it.

I dragged the tip of my sword across the stone as I stepped toward her. Blood ran between her fingers, scales covered half her body, and every breath seemed to cost her more strength.

She slowly pushed herself upright.

Then she turned toward the broken window.

And ran.

My stomach tightened. "No. Come back!"

She didn't.

She jumped through the broken window.

For one terrible second, there was nothing beneath her.

I reached the window just as her body disappeared below the ledge.

Then I saw her falling.

My heart stopped.

"Why isn't she changing?"

The words left me before I could stop them. The wind screamed through the broken tower as her body plummeted toward the forest below.

'Shift.'

I gripped the broken window so hard that the stone bit into my palm.

Then I heard it.

Crack.

One wing burst through her back.

Her scream echoed across the red sky.

Crack.

The second wing followed. Bones snapped and reshaped. Skin tore as black scales spread across her body. Her spine elongated, her jaw shifted, and within seconds, the woman was swallowed by the transformation.

The dragon roared in midair.

Its enormous wings caught the wind.

She didn't fall.

The tension I hadn't realized I was holding finally released from my shoulders. I sagged against the window frame and let out the breath trapped inside my lungs.

Then I straightened.

I shouldn't have felt relieved.

I looked up again.

The dragon climbed higher until it reached the level of the broken window where I stood.

Our eyes met.

And suddenly the past came rushing back.

My mother's scream. Fire swallowing our home. Ash falling through the night. Her body crumpling beneath the flames.

Fourteen years had passed, but I could still smell the smoke. I could still hear her voice. I could still remember the dragon disappearing into the darkness while I stood there helpless, too young to stop it.

The hatred came rushing back.

I raised my sword toward the beast in the sky. "Right." My voice shook despite my effort to steady it. "Burn me."

I challenged it to finish what it had started fourteen years ago.

The dragon opened its jaws.

Fire gathered in its throat.

I tightened my grip and pointed my sword toward its heart.

But no fire came.

"Live..."

I froze.

The voice shouldn't have sounded like hers.

My lips parted, but no words came.

Her golden eyes remained fixed on mine. For one impossible heartbeat, the dragon disappeared from my sight, and all I could see was the woman in the tower—the woman who had kissed me, the woman who had looked at me as though I were something worth protecting instead of the man holding a sword against her throat.

Then she turned away.

The dragon banked toward the sea.

Its wings beat once.

Then twice.

It pulled farther from the tower.

Farther from me.

"NO!" The word escaped before I could stop it.

"Come back!"

She didn't.

I stared after her, breathing hard, and hated the way my voice had sounded. Something blurred at the edge of my vision, and I blinked hard before I could understand what was happening.

"No."

I straightened my back.

There was no reason for this.

There was only the dragon.

Then one thought struck me hard enough to bring me back to reality.

"Oakhaven."

My entire body went cold.

The village lay in the direction she was flying.

I looked toward the stairs, calculating the distance. Too far. If she reached Oakhaven before I did, there wouldn't be enough time to warn anyone.

I turned away from the window.

Then I ran.

I took three steps before throwing myself through the broken opening. The night air slammed into me as I reached for the nearest branch of the ancient tree growing beside the tower.

My fingers caught it.

The impact nearly tore my shoulders from their sockets. Bark ripped open my palms as my body swung beneath the branch, but I ignored the pain and hauled myself upward.

Above me, the dragon cried into the night.

It was already getting farther away.

"Damn it."

I launched myself toward the next branch, then another. Every jump rattled my bones, and every time the dragon gained distance, the strange ache beneath my ribs tightened with it.

I didn't understand the sensation, and I refused to waste time trying.

Fourteen years.

I'd waited fourteen years for this night.

I wasn't going to fail now.

The final branch bent beneath my weight. I released it and dropped the remaining distance, landing hard on one knee. Pain shot through both legs, but I forced myself upright and shoved two fingers between my lips.

A sharp whistle cut through the forest.

For a moment, there was only silence.

Then a familiar neigh answered from somewhere deep among the trees.

Onyx burst through the undergrowth. He barely slowed before I grabbed the saddle and swung onto his back.

I leaned forward, gripping the reins. "Go."

Onyx exploded forward. Branches lashed across my face as he tore through the forest, hooves pounding against the earth. Above us, the dragon's silhouette crossed the blood-red moon.

Then it lurched.

One wing dipped.

Then the other.

She wasn't flying anymore. She was barely staying in the air.

Blood fell from the sky.

One crimson drop landed on the back of my hand.

I wiped it away immediately.

It refused to leave.

I looked up at the fading silhouette and tightened my grip on the reins.

"Run all you want."

I dug my heels into Onyx's sides.

"You're dying."