Pure Destiny (PureDark Ones #12) - Aja James Page 0,110
prayed for a miracle.
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Sophia’s eyes rolled and twitched beneath closed lids, her face contorting in frowns and grimaces in the throes of a terrible nightmare.
She dreamed of being buried in a watery grave, of lungs screaming for oxygen, of a monstrous giant octopus and a nine-headed Hydra set on taking vengeance against her friends…
Her love.
Dalair.
That dreaded familiar iciness began to enter her veins, replacing hot blood. Her body jerked, trying to get away from it.
She didn’t want to become the Destroyer. She wanted to stay in the Light. She didn’t want to kill and blanket the world in nothingness and silence. She wanted to heal, to hear the cacophony of life.
Where was her sunshine? Her favorite little person in the world? He always took away the seething darkness with a happy smile.
Benji.
The Hydra had him.
No!
Her hands clenched and unclenched in the bedsheets, grasping for something to hold onto.
But, then, he came.
A beautiful black dragon with topaz blue eyes and fierce determination. He protected her friends, her love, her light, fighting off the Hydra with everything he had.
Dalair, Benji and the others hustled into the helicopter. Got airborne.
They barely gained altitude before one of the Hydra’s heads shot a silvery volley of hellfire right at them. At the last second, the black dragon used all of his remaining strength to knock the Hydra off balance, making the projectile flame veer off target.
But the aftershock still stalled the chopper’s main blades, making it spin out of control midair.
Dalair and Tal beside him pulled up on the yokes in concert, primary and auxiliary, as Eli shifted to wind to rebalance the helicopter, aided by Rhys in eagle form.
Barely had they righted and regained control of the helicopter before the Hydra shot another flaming volley at them with a screech of fury.
Dalair turned and accelerated just in time to avoid the worst of the hellfire. They were out of range by now.
The Hydra must have realized it too, for it turned its attention fully to the black dragon that was pinned down by five of its heads, their strangling necks, and its thorny tail that lanced all the way through its enemy’s chest.
Sophia whimpered in her sleep.
The black dragon was hurt so badly. He sustained mortal wounds.
She could feel his life force fading…fading…
She saw the black dragon sink with the Hydra into the depths of the lake through Dalair’s eyes as he glanced out the side window, their bodies entangled in a savage, bloody knot.
She heard what Dalair heard in their joined consciousness:
Keep Benjamin safe. Hide him away. My son…
Keep him safe.
And that’s when she realized fully—
The black dragon was Erebu.
Sophia came awake on a broken sob, her mouth open with horror, her cheeks wet with uncontrollable tears.
“Ere! No!”
“Be calm, Sophia. It’s all right.”
Distantly, she was aware of Rain’s soothing voice, her soft, gentle hand upon Sophia’s brow.
Sophia frantically looked around, but she couldn’t see clearly through the deluge of tears.
“Dalair! Benji! Where—”
“Here.”
Familiar strong arms enfolded her, pulling her body into a warm, solid embrace, tucking her face into a hard, naked chest.
She clutched him to her with all her might, desperate, greedy. She inhaled his unique scent in great shuddering gulps as if she’d been drowning alongside them in the underwater cavern of the Hydra’s lair, and this was the first draw of clean air into her burning lungs.
“Dalair…” she breathed, trying to get even closer, trying to crawl right into his body.
She barely noticed when Rain withdrew quietly from the room. She clung to her Mate with every limb, her arms wrapped around his neck and shoulders, her legs squeezing tight his waist and hips.
“I had a terrible nightmare…I was so afraid…”
His hands rubbed soothing circles on her back, smoothed the disheveled hair from her face. But he didn’t answer. He didn’t tell her that it was only a dream, that it wasn’t real.
She looked up into his face then, impatiently wiping her eyes clear of tears. What she saw there confirmed it.
“It’s true then. The nightmare. It all happened, didn’t it?”
Holding her wide and wild-eyed gaze, he nodded once.
“Oh Goddess!” she moaned. “The black dragon…Is he…”
“We cannot know,” Dalair murmured. “After we do a thorough reconnaissance of the area and can be sure that there is no danger, we will rake the entire bottom of the lake if we have to, to search for any sign of him. But it’s too soon to do so now. We cannot risk confronting the Hydra again without a veritable army. It