For Iz.
“Ready?” he said lightly, like he could have moved this whole time and had just been standing here for the hell of it.
Iz didn’t call him on it, even though he knew she could have. She just took his hand, lacing her fingers tightly through his. In a cute gesture of reassurance, Cat flicked his tongue against Logan’s wrist.
They stepped forward together.
Logan had never gone through a portal before. It felt like cold silk trailing over his skin, unsettling but not unpleasant—until he thought about where they were going.
The tunnels opened up before them, dark and endless.
As far as he could tell, it wasn’t the same cave system they’d been imprisoned in. It was much colder inside, like they were somewhere further north.
Smart. Sebastian must have guessed that they would have given Iz’s team instructions on how to find and access his old cave. Even changing locks took time; it might take even longer to completely overhaul a magical security system.
Maybe if he could keep himself concentrating on the abstract, he could avoid everything else.
Like the fact that no matter where he was, a cave was still a cave, and Sebastian was still Sebastian.
And the dark was still the dark, still filled with the musty smell of old stone.
It was all so familiar. It was, in a horrifying way, like coming home.
But he’d left idyllic, boring little Pebble Island because it hadn’t fit him, so he could leave Sebastian’s caves behind too. Home was a choice you made, and he chose Iz.
When he remembered that, he could make himself pick out the sweet, tart grapefruit scent of her shampoo. He retained a little bit of his hellhound’s heightened sense of smell even when he was in his human body, too, so he could even smellher, the truest scent of her skin and hair beneath soap and perfume. It was as heady as pure oxygen.
And it was exactly what he needed—shewas exactly what he needed—to go back down into the dark.
He led the way, trying to keep his footsteps as quiet as possible. A natural cave would have had more porous rock that might have swallowed up more of the noise of them passing through, but the glassy, dragon-burned corridors were smooth and hard and echoing. He felt like every breath was as loud as a whole orchestra, but that had to just be nerves.
Iz seemed to have no trouble moving quietly. It was like her natural grace up in the air in her shift form carried over, like his sense of smell, and let her walk without even touching the ground. She just floated along, equal parts driven agent and ethereal dragon heiress. She’d gone back to having human feet, he noticed.
He was on edge, wondering where Sebastian was waiting for them and what plans he had for their recapture.Wasthere any real hope of sneaking up on him in his own domain? Or should they just announce themselves and try to get this confrontation over with?
Logan didn’t know. The only consolation was that he was reasonably sure Sebastian wasn’t silently moving alongside them, because Logan couldn’t smell him.
There was a hint of dragon in the air, obviously, but nothing fresh. If he shifted, his senses would probably be sharp enough to track which way Sebastian had taken Elizabeth, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to sacrifice his human nimbleness for hellhound skills just yet. Flexibility could be key.
Besides, Elizabeth Benoit probably wouldn’t find it very reassuring to have a massive, fiery-eyed dog barrel towards her. Not unless he could immediately take a bite out of Sebastian, anyway.
Down at the end of their long stone corridor, Logan could finally see the flickering glow of lanterns. That had to be where Sebastian was holding Iz’s mom.
He stopped just long enough to point it out to Iz, who was still behind him. She nodded, her jaw tightening up with steely determination. They went back to inching forward, all their senses heightened so they could listen for the slightest sound of movement.
Slowly, as they got closer, Logan started to pick up on something. Stirring, breathing.Struggling.
Iz could hear it too, and they both gave up on the slow and stealthy approach. They bolted forwards and exploded out into the main cavern.
Shiftsilver chains bound Elizabeth Benoit to a chair, but by the look of her, she hadn’t stopped struggling against them since Sebastian had first locked them in place around her. Logan could see bruises where she had tried to wriggle free of them.
The last time he’d seen her, she’d been a figure of unmistakable elegance—beautifully dressed and perfectly groomed.
Now sweat was making her hair stick to her face, and her effort at pulling against the chains had shredded her designer clothes to ribbons. She was flushed and panting hard.
Reflexively, Logan had imagined that Elizabeth would melt with relief at her daughter turning up to rescue her.
That couldn’t have been further from the truth.