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front lawn as he left a huge trench behind him. Bastian jumped back to avoid getting hit as he skidded by, jostling the beat-up Buick with his hind leg.
    Movement flashed in his periphery. Blond hair and green scrubs came into focus seconds later. Bastian growled and shifted, shielding Myst as she made a mad dash toward the hatchback sitting undamaged beside an old tractor.
    The cloaking spell gave way, dispersing like vapor into thin air.
    Fantastic. Just what he needed: a renegade female who couldn’t follow orders.
    Bastian killed the urge to pick her up and paddle her behind. Teaching her a lesson would have to wait. He didn’t have time now. Shit-for-brains was back on all four paws, his gaze narrowed and locked on Myst.

Chapter Five
     
    Myst took off as though she’d been shot from a cannon: the newborn a warm weight in her arms, the Lord’s Prayer on her lips. The baby hampered her, messing with her speed, but she refused to leave him behind. No matter what happened, she would protect the precious bundle she carried.
    At all costs.
    Caroline had died so he could live. And dragons or no dragons, the vow she’d made to her dying patient stood for something. Meant more to her than self-preservation.
    That left one choice. Run and pray.
    Air rasping in her chest, the words fell in a messy tumble. “Our Lord who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…”
    She mouthed the rest, knowing God would understand.
    Head low, knees pumping, arms sheltering her angel, she kept her eyes on the prize. Her keys were in the center console of her car. All she needed to do was reach them. She visualized her escape…imagined sliding the key into the ignition and her smooth getaway. Time slowed down, the scene coming to her in distorted waves, like sound through water: the black smoke, the chill tinged with the scent of burning rubber, the slide of grass underneath her shoes.
    Fifteen more feet. Now ten. Please God, let me make it. Help me keep him safe.
    “Fuck.” The growl came from behind her, a little off to one side.
    Oh, no. No. No. No. Bastian had spotted her and locked on like a laser beam.
    A sob caught in the back of her throat. She pushed herself harder, held the baby with one arm and pumped the other to help her run faster. Air sawed in and out of her chest. The relentless burn hurt like hell but she didn’t stop. No way would she make it easy for him. If he thought that she would turtle, roll up and die, then he was in for a nasty surprise.
    He’d betrayed her. Had told her to trust him, but…
    He wasn’t trustworthy. Bastian was one of them . A monster with claws and fangs, the stuff of nightmares.
    Myst skidded around the end of her car. Both feet churning up gravel, she grabbed the back bumper and pulled, helping herself change direction as she zeroed in on the driver’s side door. Just another few feet and—
    An ominous hiss snaked through the air, turning into an unnatural roar. Her hand clamped on the door handle. She looked up into yellow eyes with narrowed pupils. Brown with a single jagged horn in the center of its forehead, the dragon snarled at her and drew a lungful of air past razor-sharp teeth. Struck stupid, Myst froze and watched as a glowing orange ball gathered at the back of his throat.
    Oh, God. Fire.
    “Myst, run!” Bastian’s voice came through loud and clear, but Myst couldn’t move. She was locked into yellow eyes, her legs the consistency of Jell-O. “Shit! Rikar!”
    A cold wind blew in. The autumn air went murky, a cloud of frost and mist on the verge of snow. The icy fog billowed over the hood of her car, settling around her like an Arctic blanket, but it was too late. She could already feel the heat and hear the hungry roar of the inferno as the fireball gathered speed. It was going to eat her alive, leave nothing but ash in its wake, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
    Despite her promise, she turtled, curling herself around the newborn. The broken “Sorry” she