Braeden closed his eyes and abandoned himself to the fire in his soul. A moment later, he had shifted, the body of his dragon filling the tunnel.
There wasn't enough space to fly—but his dragon could move much faster.
His claws struck sparks from the rock as he began to run, heading deeper into the mountain, the flame in his heart pulling him onward with sudden urgency.
At last, the tunnel ended. And there, right before him, a giant hole led straight down into the mountain.
Thousands of years ago, the mountain had been a volcano. Now all that was left was a giant, circular vent that led straight down into darkness. The sides were perfectly smooth. A long time ago, the rock had been under a terrible pressure as magma rose to the surface.
No wonder the fire dragons had built a lair here. It was a perfect defense against any sort of shifter without wings.
And it also meant that a human prisoner stood absolutely no chance of escape...
Still keeping a tight grip on his flame, Braeden spread his wings and dived down.
He descended for several minutes until he found a ledge, deep beneath the earth. Beneath him, the darkness loomed, and he felt a sudden, strange aversion rise inside him.
He’d never minded the darkness. He’d been born in it.
But something about the bottomless chasm set him on edge, the flame within him hissing and sputtering.
Anyway, there was no need to go deeper. The pull of duty led him to land on the ledge. He was not meant to go further down into the bowels of the earth.
He was meant to stay here, where another, larger tunnel opened up before him.
And there, at the end of it, he saw the familiar light of dragon fire.
He had made it to the lair.
Still in his dragon form, he made his way forward, holding his flame in an iron grip to keep his power from spilling out.
For some reason, the tunnel was empty, although he would have expected a sentinel to be stationed here.
But luck was on his side. Perhaps all guards had been called away to help with the search.
Braeden didn't see a single dragon until he reached the vast cave that opened up at the end of the tunnel.
He stopped to take a deep breath, instinctively hunching his shoulders as memories of his childhood rose up.
At the top of the giant cave, a ball of dragon fire burned, filling the cave with light and warmth.
Now that he'd spent so much time in the world of humans and other shifters, he realized that the colors were off. It wasn't the warm light of the sun that filled the cave. There was a reddish tinge to it, and shadows looked deeper, colors slightly off.
But it was the light that had illuminated his childhood. As strange as he now realized it was to spend so much of his life in a lair deep underground, it was also completely familiar.
This was who he was. This was where he belonged...and these people were his kin.
No.
He bared his teeth, shaking off the feeling.
He was a fire dragon. He was not ashamed of that.
But he was ashamed of hiding in the darkness. Ashamed that so many of their children had been denied the light of the sun.
Ashamed of the harm his own people could do if they were let loose on humanity.
Determined, he strode forward.