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slightly, a match to her own. It was there, a rejoicing at the return of something she hadn’t known she’d missed. A filling of the emptiness that had plagued her for her entire life. And it burned. 
    All two hundred years of solitary existence—of being nothing but a number, a pawn, in an army of destruction—wiped away by his touch. Doubt removed and replaced by promise and acceptance.
    Louk.
    Hers.
    “You feel it,” the voice came from a distance, her mind hazy with the crush of the energy. “You can deny it, but you know that it’s there. The raven—the messenger of the void, the carrier of change and awakening. The light blue dragon—the courier of wisdom and enlightenment, the bringer of opportunity and balance. Together, The Two will see all. You must accept and defend. Prepare for what is to come.” 
    Sweat trickled down her spine, a sleek river of desperation. Louk’s chest rose and fell in deep huffs of physical exertion. His eyes had darkened to the deep blue of a pending storm, but he never looked away from her gaze. Didn’t look to the man who had moved behind them. Didn’t pull away from what was happening between them. From the energy that was pulling them together with an unrelenting hold. Instead, he inched closer and raised his other hand so both hands circled her neck. 
    She gasped and cried out at the wave of energy that slammed into her chest and raced through her body in a crashing surge of want. Louk’s head tipped forward, and he groaned deep and low in his chest.
    “Fight it no more,” the emphatic whisper brushed against her senses. “Trust in what the energy is telling you. Listen to its song and believe in the power. All that has come before must be forgotten. To reach the future, the past must evolve.”
    Airiana clenched her hands into tight fists to keep them from shaking where they rested on her thighs. Her dragon roared and arched in satisfaction. Fire shot from its mouth, the hot flames seeming to ignite the hairs on the back of her hand. The sensation stoked over her nerves and oddly calmed her rising distress. 
    A hand settled on the top of her head, at the same time she saw a hand rest on Louk’s, the ancient fingers barely resting against their scalps. The new energy washed through her in slow drips of white, liquid knowledge. Thousands of years of truth and sight were encased in the energy that now circled within her. 
    “Go and trust. Go and learn. Go and become who you were meant to be.” 
    Airiana felt the tingling encompass her skin and prepared for whatever was next. Louk was with her, she felt him in her energy in the heat of his palms against her neck.
    And for the first time ever, she was not alone.

Chapter Seven
    Dark corkscrews of frustration drilled deep into Louk’s gut, twisting, turning, grinding until they pierced his flesh in pointed arcs of pain. What in the hell was going on? Again with the autopilot porting. The loss of control angered him more than all of the events of the day.
    Airiana. It all came back to the lethal enchantress who abducted him with her fiery spirit and unbreakable will. 
    Shit. He should have turned her in when he had the chance. Instead, he chose the risk and look where that had gotten him.
    In the sweltering pits of hell.
    “So where are we, Airi?” Louk turned his head and looked down at her grim face. They were both braced with their backs against the cutting, sharp rocks of the cave wall behind them. They had materialized in the dank space just seconds before and immediately, automatically, assumed the defensive position.
    “How would I know?” she snapped back, her ponytail flipping when her head jerked to look up at him.
    “Dark cave, rank taint of sulfur, hissing stokes of flames…” he drifted off and shot her a look of expectation.
    “And?”
    “Kind of seems like your territory, you being the evil little dragon and all.”
    Her eyes tightened in irritation. “Why don’t you just leave? There’s