Kane groaned. “Please.”

  “Tell me what happened to Micha and Skye.”

  “All I know was that last night I tried to contact Igor but he was ghosting me,” Kane snarled. “He wouldn’t answer my calls or respond to my messages. Finally I tracked him to an old theater.”

  There was the soft tread of footsteps as Gabriel stepped back into the room. He’d obviously sensed the tension vibrating in the air. Kane was reaching his breaking point. The desperate male would either confess the truth or he’d attack Valen in an attempt to get his hands on the blood.

  “And?” Valen prodded.

  “And Igor was there. With Azra.”

  “What were they doing?”

  Kane briefly closed his eyes, his jaws tight as he struggled to remain conscious.

  “Igor was demanding the reward he’d earned for assisting the vampire in kidnapping Micha.”

  “What did he do to help?”

  “Something about making sure one of Micha’s servants was incapacitated and getting a driver.” Kane grimaced. “It didn’t make much sense.”

  Valen assumed that it was Igor who arranged the driver that dropped off Lynx in front of his lair and then helped in the getaway. But why? What could Azra possibly gain by kidnapping a member of the Cabal?

  Questions for later.

  “What did you do?”

  “Nothing.” Kane paused, and Valen frowned. Had the bastard passed out? Then, with a pained effort, he continued his story. “Before I could confront them, Azra casually reached out and ripped off Igor’s head. Just like that.” The vampire shuddered, as if genuinely troubled by the memory. “One minute they were talking and the next Igor was headless. Then Azra pulled out a dagger and gutted my servant like a deer. I’ve seen vampires consumed by bloodlust, but Azra...” Another shudder.

  “What?”

  “He looked bored. As if beheading and gutting demons was something he’d done a million times.” Kane shook his head before wincing as if every movement was agonizing. “That’s when I bolted.”

  Valen studied the male’s pale face. The words sounded true to his ears. More importantly, they matched up with the precious few facts he’d managed to uncover. Which meant that Ambassador Azra had been the traitor the entire time, and Valen had been even more blind than he’d first thought.

  Anger vibrated through him as he glared down at Kane. The male might not have been the one to kidnap Micha and Skye, but he’d stirred enough shit to distract Valen from the real threat.

  Whatever that threat might be.

  “How did you get in this room?” he demanded.

  “I tried to use the emergency exit to sneak in. I didn’t want Azra to know I’d seen what he did. But he must have sensed my presence at the theater. He followed me back to the lair and attacked me when I reached the garage.” Kane glanced down at the numerous wounds that marred his chest. None of them were healing in his weakened state. “I managed to get into an elevator and get down here. I knew you’d have a place to hide. That’s it. That’s all I know.”

  Kane flopped his head back and Valen straightened. This male had revealed all he was going to. At least for now. And it was time for Valen to turn his attention to tracking down the missing Azra.

  Lifting a hand, he waved it toward the waiting Gabriel. Instantly understanding what he wanted, the older male turned to gesture toward the guards, who eagerly rushed into the room.

  “Take him to the dungeons,” Valen commanded, handing the bag of blood to the demon in charge of the dungeons. “Don’t feed him until you have him chained.”

  The large male nodded and Valen turned to leave.

  “Someday we’ll finish this, Valen,” Kane rasped as he was roughly hauled off the floor by four goblins.

  “It’s finished,” Valen announced with a cold indifference that revealed his utter lack of fear.

  Kane might leave his dungeons. Some day. But he would never be a threat again.

  Valen headed out of the safe room, glancing toward Gabriel, who fell into step next to him. “Do you believe what he said?”

  “I believe he told us what he knows. Whether that’s the full truth is yet to be determined.” Gabriel shrugged. “What now?”

  “We call Sinjon,” Valen said. The ultimate leader of the Cabal needed to know he’d been betrayed by his servant.

  The sooner the better.

  “And if Sinjon is involved in Azra’s plot?”

  “Then we’re screwed.”

  Chapter 18

  Micha instinctively stepped to block Skye from the vampire who was strolling toward them with obvious pleasure at their shocked expressions. He wasn’t sure what astonished him more. The fact that the vampire had followed them to the cavern. Or that he’d seemingly appeared from thin air.

  “Ambassador?” Lynx appeared equally stunned, his brows drawing together as he stared at the vampire wearing a long black robe. “Sinjon’s servant?”

  Azra hissed, continuing to move forward. “I’m no one’s servant.”

  Micha struggled to wrap his brain around the realization that the ambassador had arranged his kidnapping.

  “It was you,” he hissed.

  Azra shrugged. “You’ll have to be more specific.”

  “You arranged the keycard to get Lynx into Valen’s lair and told him where to find my room,” Micha clarified.

  The male stopped a few feet from Lynx, a smug smile curving his lips. “Guilty.”

  “No. That’s not true,” Lynx burst out, his eyes wide as he stubbornly refused to believe that he’d been used and manipulated by a vampire. “It was Igor.”

  Azra folded his hands together, looking like a prophet confronting his naughty disciple. Micha, however, sensed a wariness beneath the male’s calm demeanor.

  It was almost as if Azra was afraid of the fairy...

  No. Micha shook his head. It wasn’t Lynx he feared, it was the energy pulsing from the crystal clutched in the fairy’s hand.

  “Igor was a lump of muscle who proved to be a convenient tool, but he didn’t have the brains to tie his shoes without a vampire giving him directions,” Azra taunted.

  “A lie,” Lynx snapped. “He was the one who sought me out and revealed my destiny.”

  Azra laughed at the claim. “You gullible fool. You made it all so easy.”

  Micha narrowed his gaze. Ah. Now he understood. Azra couldn’t take the crystal by force. He needed the fairy alive to handle the thing. Was his plan to gain control of Lynx’s mind and force him to his will? Was that why he was deliberately provoking him? That seemed the most obvious explanation.

  “Was Kane involved?” Micha abruptly demanded, stepping forward.

  He could try to overpower Azra. He was stronger than the male, despite being a thousand years younger. But he had to get closer. Oh, and pray that the male didn’t have any nasty weapons hidden beneath his robe.

  “He was, but he had no idea he was being used,” Azra conceded, grudgingly glancing in Micha’s direction. “As usual, Kane was oblivious to everything but his obsessive fear of losing power. He’d approached Sinjon a dozen times over the past two centuries, complaining that he should be offered a Gyre in the new world. I suspected that it would only be a matter of time before he found an excuse to challenge Valen for his territory, and so I laid my plans. Then Valen conveniently mated a mage with the sort of magic that was destined to strike fear in the Cabal, and I knew it was the perfect opportunity.”

  “What plans?” Micha demanded.

  Azra pursed his lips, perhaps considering his options. The vampire didn’t have many, Micha reassured himself. No doubt he could smash his way into Lynx’s mind and force him to obey his will, but he still had Micha to deal with, along with a powerful mage.

  “First I began with Igor.” Azra forced himself to answer the question, pretending they had all the time in the world.

  Micha took another step forward. “Why him?”

  “I needed someone close to Kane to prod the impulsive idiot into making his challenge to Valen, plus I knew only a demon could approach the fairy.” He sent a sneering glance toward Lynx. “He would never have trusted a vampire.”

  “Damn right I would never trust a leech,” Lynx spit out in fury.

  “How did you convince Igor to betray his master?” Micha hastily regained the vampire’s attention. Azra appeared calm, but there was a layer of ice spreading across the marble floor near his feet.

  His control was razor thin.

  Azra sent him an impatient glance. “It was simple. I promised to kill Kane and free his mate.”

  Micha arched his brows. “Why was his mate imprisoned?”

  “If you and your fellow Cabal members hadn’t been so self-obsessed, you would have known that Kane never earned the loyalty of his people, he forced it,” Azra taunted. “He filled his very large dungeons with hostages and kept them for as long as their loved ones were useful. After that...” Azra snapped his fingers. “They simply disappeared.”

  Micha felt a small stab of guilt. It was true that he’d turned a blind eye to Kane. And a lot of other things. As long as it didn’t directly affect him, he was happy to remain hidden in his caverns and allow the world to drift along without his interference.

  It had taken his beautiful Skye to lure him out of his self-imposed exile.

  Oh, and the threat of the earth being drowned in flames.

  “What does any of this have to do with Lynx?” he demanded, refusing to waste time debating Kane’s vicious leadership skills.

  Azra risked a quick glance toward the fairy, his jaw tightening as the crystal continued to pulse with a crimson glow. His desperate hunger to complete whatever had brought him to this place tainted the air with a sour stench.

  Micha released a pulse of power, creating a crack in a nearby column. Just a reminder that he possessed the ability to destroy the cavern and bury them all beneath a mountain of rock.

  “You want the truth?” Azra tilted his chin to a defensive angle. “Fine. I’ve never had any power. No matter how hard I trained or studied, I could never match my brothers. I’ve been weak my entire existence.”

  The confession resonated with a blunt candor, making Micha frown in confusion. “You’re Sinjon’s most trusted companion.”

  Azra released a bitter laugh. “Companion? That’s a joke. I’m a pampered pet who is kept on a very short leash. And if it wasn’t for my ability to share my mind with Sinjon, I’d be begging for crumbs.”

  Micha couldn’t argue. Azra was weak. And without his ability to act as a spy for Sinjon he would no doubt be a servant who was barely above a demon in vampire society.

  Micha shrugged. “We have all endured resurrections that left us at the bottom of our society.”

  “Yes, and with no guarantee the next resurrection will be any better. For all I know I might be stuck in the gutters for an eternity,” Azra snapped, as if Micha had to be reminded that vampires had no idea when or in what form they would be returned to the world. The only thing they knew for certain was that they entered an afterlife and that they would eventually be whisked back into a vessel that had been chosen from among the humans. It could be weeks or endless centuries later. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the process. “Thankfully, I had a vision,” Azra continued, his bitterness replaced with a grim resolve.

  “A seer?” Skye demanded from behind Micha.

  “Better. Sinjon isn’t the only powerful creature who can enter my mind.”

  “Lynx?” Micha guessed.

  Azra made a choked sound of disgust. “A fairy? I’m not that desperate.”

  “The original one,” Micha clarified.

  The ice spread across the marble, revealing Azra’s shock that they knew about the origin of the crystal and what had happened in this cavern. Then, with a deliberate motion, the male ran his palms down the smooth material of his robe, as if forcibly calming his nerves.

  “Very good,” he murmured, although it didn’t sound as if he thought it was good. Just the opposite. “No, Lynx was an important part of my vision, but he wasn’t the one who offered me a new destiny.”

  “Then who?”

  “Zanna.”

  It was the obvious answer. There had to be a reason they were standing in the cavern that had been lost and forgotten for thousands of years, right? It wasn’t like they’d gathered there because they got a thrill out of battling lethal foliage or walking over floors made of lava, although that did sound like something humans would pay to do.

  Still, he couldn’t keep himself from demanding confirmation. “The dragon?”

  “Dragon Queen,” Azra chided.

  Micha glanced around the empty cavern. “She’s in hibernation.”

  “For now.” A creepy anticipation rippled over Azra’s face. “Soon, however, she will once again be free to walk the earth.”

  A dark dread spread through Micha as he glanced toward the fairy, who was glaring at them in confusion. They’d feared that the dragon was somehow involved in Skye’s vision. But a vague suspicion wasn’t the same as having a demented vampire threaten to waken the Queen of Dragons to destroy the world.

  That same dread clenched his heart as he glanced toward Lynx, at last understanding exactly why he’d been kidnapped and why the fairy had been manipulated into believing he would find the vampire-killing sword in this cavern.

  “You believe the crystal will wake her up?”

  Lynx made a strangled sound, holding his hand over his head to allow the crimson glow to spill around him.

  “What are you talking about?” he snapped. “The crystal is a compass to the Tempest and my—”

  “Hush,” Azra interrupted the fairy’s angry words, and Lynx’s lips snapped together, as if an invisible force had glued them shut. Then the vampire returned his attention to Micha. “Where were we?”

  “Zanna,” Micha said, needing to know exactly how he intended to awaken the beast.

  “Ah, yes.” A strange, almost dreamy expression settled on the male’s face. “She came to me, revealing what had happened in this temple.”

  “The treaty?”

  “Exactly. A treaty she never desired and had no intention of honoring.”

  Micha didn’t waste time wondering how a dragon had managed to touch Azra’s mind. The creatures possessed enormous powers that had been forgotten over the centuries.

  Instead, he shuffled through the images that had been revealed in the memory spell.

  “If she didn’t want the treaty, then why did she seal it with her blood,” Micha demanded.

  “An unfortunate necessity. The dragons were weary of war with the vampires and pressured her into negotiating for peace.” Azra cast a glance toward the pedestal in the center of the cavern. “But she was wise enough to maintain a link to her captor.”

  “Captor?” It took Micha a second to realize he was talking about the male who’d witnessed the signing of the document. “You mean the original Lynx?”

  “Yes.”

  Micha ignored the muffled curses from the Lynx-wannabe. “What is he?” he asked. “A demon?”

  “She refused to tell me,” Azra admitted. “All I know was that it was the only creature capable of compelling both the vampires and dragons into signing the treaty. And that he forced her into hibernation.”

  Despite the urgency of the situation, Micha found himself overwhelmed with curiosity. The rare manuscripts he’d collected over the centuries had hinted at mysterious powers that could step in and alter the course of history. But he’d never been able to find a text that revealed details about the strange creatures.

  The thought that he’d seen one—if only in a memory spell—was dangerously distracting. His scholarly obsession demanded answers.

  “So Lynx was more than just a witness to the signing of the treaty,” he pressed. “He was some sort of enforcer?”

  “His magic created the crystal that holds the blood of Zanna and the vampire,” he grudgingly admitted. “And until the crystal is placed on the podium and the treaty destroyed, the dragons are stuck in hibernation. That’s why she marked him.”

  Micha recalled the female dragon running her fingers over Lynx’s neck. “What was the mark?”

  “A binding spell. Eventually the male would have been compelled to bend to her will.”

  Micha hadn’t spent much time studying dragons. There were thousands of scholars that devoted their lives to probing the history of the oversized lizards. Many of whom concentrated on how best to defeat them when they did waken. He hadn’t felt the need to add to the plethora of information filling the libraries.

  But what he did know was that dragon magic was some of the most powerful in the world. And it only made sense that the queen’s magic would be off the charts. So how had any creature managed to battle against the compulsion?

  “So where is the original Lynx? Why use the fairy to bring the crystal here?”

  “The creature realized what Zanna had done. After leaving this place he went to a remote location and sacrificed his life to protect the crystal.”

  “Your temple,” Skye said, moving to stand at his side. “That was the magic I sensed.”

  Micha glanced toward the beautiful mage. “That explains why the curse was so lethal. It wasn’t normal magic.”

  Azra shrugged. “Zanna believed she was doomed to remain trapped in hibernation. Perhaps forever, since no one could touch the crystal. Not until a century ago. Suddenly she could sense his power moving through the world.”

  Micha arched a brow. “How?”

  “Either he possessed the vampire skill of resurrection—”

  “Impossible,” Micha snapped.

  It wasn’t that he cared if other species possessed the ability to rise from the dead. But his vast research had never hinted at any other species utilizing that particular form of immortality.