“Tell you once we’re out.”
Miracle of miracles, the hallway was empty. Ivy jabbed at the elevator call button with a shaking hand. Her venom sweated into her gloves as the machine crawled upward agonizingly slowly.
Come on, come on!
She breathed deeply, trying to calm herself. She had to reduce the concentration of her venom, so that her touch would paralyze rather than kill. There was no way that a crime boss like Gaze would have left all the exits unguarded. If she couldn’t rush Hope past whatever thugs he had stationed in the lobby, she’d be forced to fight.
There was one line she’d never crossed. No matter what other terrible things she’d done, what mistakes she’d made… she’d never killed.
She’d sworn she never would.
“It’s okay, Ivy,” Hope whispered as the elevator binged at last, doors sliding open. “Everything’s going to be fine. Just breathe.”
“Leaving so soon, Ivy Viverna?”
Ivy’s hammering heart lurched. Thrusting Hope into the elevator, she spun on her heel. Gaze stood at the end of the corridor, calmly surveying her through his dark lenses. A pair of monstrous black dogs padded at his side, their coal-black backs level with his waist. A hot, baleful orange light burned in the dogs’ throats, behind their snarling fangs.
Hellhounds!
“Hope, go!” Ivy yelled, shielding her sister with her own body.
“Not without you!” From the sounds of the doors trying and failing to close, Hope must have been holding the Door Open button.
Once, just once, Ivy wished that Hope would do as she was told. She didn’t dare take her eyes off Gaze and the hellhounds. She kept her hands raised and ready, deadly venom gleaming on her palms.
“Stay back,” she warned, fighting not to show how she was shaking. “Or I’ll show you what I can do.”
She could only pray that he wouldn’t take her up on the offer.
“I would, in fact, very much like to see your skills.” Gaze’s hand went to his sunglasses, sliding them down his nose. “But first, I’ll show you mine.”
He looked straight at her.
The force of his eyes took her breath away. They were red, red as blood, from edge to edge. No pupil, no white. Nothing but crimson, filling her vision, swallowing her whole.
Ivy couldn’t look away. A strange fire filled her blood, like nothing she’d ever know. In all the world, there was nothing but him, and her.
Holy crap. He really is my mate!
Then, as the burning heat in her veins continued to rise, Ivy realized that her one true mate probably shouldn’t set her aflame with pain.
“I did say we had much in common, Ivy,” Gaze murmured. His mouth curved in slight, strangely wistful smile. “Wyverns are nearly as rare as basilisks.”
“Hey, asshole!” Hope yelled. “Think fast!”
Something pink and glittery hurtled past Ivy’s shoulder. Gaze’s eyes flickered, instinctively tracking the motion.
Ivy was never, ever going to complain about Hope’s terrible taste in handbags again. Her paralysis broke the instant Gaze was distracted. Before the basilisk could capture her again with his stare, she squeezed her own eyes tight shut.
“Hope, go!” Ivy shouted, and gave herself up to her wyvern.
It surging up from her soul in an emerald storm of teeth and rage. The corridor would have been too small for a proper dragon to shift, but when her wings were folded, Ivy was only the size of a large horse.
Still keeping her eyes closed, she braced herself on her folded wing-joints, and breathed out a blast of acid. Her wyvern wanted to melt the flesh from her enemy’s bones, but she held her full strength in check.
Even a mild dose of her acid was still enough to hurt. Yelps of pain echoed down the corridor. She hoped she’d gotten the basilisk, but she didn’t dare open her eyes to check.
To her eternal relief, she heard the elevator doors slide shut behind her. Hope was finally on her way to safety.