the others?”
Eilea averted her gaze. “Back home.”
There was something she wasn’t telling her. “Why?” Tatiana’s breath hitched, and she wondered if her mates had refused to come help. If that was the case, then there was no way she’d ever bond with them. She’d die a lone wolf, with no family or mates to call her own. The thought was too depressing to fathom.
“I didn’t want them coming,” Eilea said.
“And they listened?” Tatiana glanced at Eilea’s swollen belly. “With you like that?”
“I knocked them out for a bit.” Eilea slanted a smile. “I couldn’t risk them getting shot.”
Eilea saved her all by herself? Her magic truly was powerful. Tatiana was thankful her mates were safe. She couldn’t go on living if anything happened to them, even if they no longer wanted her. “Are my mates worried about me?” she asked, holding her breath and berating herself for asking.
Eilea squeezed her hand. “They’re devastated, especially Dimitri.”
“I doubt that.” She snorted, averting her eyes. It was only last night that Dimitri had wanted the gods to bless them with another mate.
“He is. Promise.”
She looked into Eilea’s eyes and didn’t see any signs of deceit. Could Eilea be right? Could Dimitri be regretting his words? She hoped so, not because she wanted him to feel bad, but because she wanted him to love her. For five long years she’s pined for them, all the while torturing herself by denying what she wanted most in the world. If she and Eilea got out of this alive, she promised to make it up to them. They’d bond, and she’d be the most loving mate they could ask for.
“Are you okay?” Eilea asked, gesturing toward a bruise on Tatiana’s wrist.
“I am now.” She glanced at the two demons lying motionless on the floor. “But I wish I had my body back.”
“Let me see what I can do.”
Tatiana dared not get her hopes up, but she prayed to the Ancients Eilea could switch her and Balban and right the great wrong that had been done to her and her mates. She helped her drag Balban into the cell, feeling a strange sense of detachment as she stared into her sleeping face. Her lips and cheeks were bruised, her nose swollen. Who’d hit her? Tatiana hoped her body didn’t suffer permanent damage.
“I’m putting Balban back in your host body,” Eilea said. “And for that I need to chain you again.”
The thought made her head pound, but she let Eilea bind her. The whole situation was so fucked up, she suspected she’d need years of therapy after this. Too bad wolves didn’t have therapists.
Katarina stirred, and Tatiana didn’t like the glare she was giving Eilea. One more pile of shit on top of the giant turd bucket that was currently her life.
The moment Eilea grabbed onto her wrist, she felt a powerful tingling sensation pulsate through her. The room tipped and spun, a wave of nausea nearly overwhelming her. When Eilea grasped Balban’s wrist, she froze, feeling suspended in time, her body locked in place. Eilea mumbled something unintelligible, her fingers turning hot and nearly scalding Tatiana’s skin. The sensation that followed next would’ve been unfathomable if she hadn’t experienced it once before. She left her body, weightless as she hovered over Eilea, who had a strange pale glow surrounding her. She turned her attention to the body named Natasha. When the glowing spirit of a giant winged dragon left Natasha’s body, thrashing in the air and breathing a ghoulish green fire, Tatiana dove, falling into her skin with a sort of splash, like she’d jumped off a springboard into a deep pool.
She sat up gasping and looked for the dragon. “Eilea! The demon was a dragon that breathed fire!”
“It’s okay, Tatiana,” Eilea cooed, cupping her cheek in a motherly gesture. “Can you feel your wolf?”
Tatiana’s inner-wolf howled, and she smiled. “I can.”
“Good,” Eilea said and offered her a hand up. She touched Tatiana’s nose, mumbling a healing spell.
As the pain in Tatiana’s nose eased, she stumbled into Eilea’s arms. “Thank you,” she said, hugging her tight, not just because she wanted to convey her appreciation to her future mother-in-law, but because she still hadn’t found her equilibrium. Natasha’s body had been about Tatiana’s size, but she’d felt much different.
Balban, once again in Natasha’s body, thrashed and screamed, jerking out of Eilea’s grasp and spinning around. The body that Tatiana had recently inhabited was foaming at the mouth, a strange green goo the same color as the dragon’s flames.