Brandon's POV
I woke up bleary-eyed and unbelievably sore. The night before was a haze of sex, some pleasurable, some painful. I looked to see North rubbing his neck in confusion as well, but Firecracker wasn't in the room. We made our way to the dining hall to find everyone except Gabe, Victor, and Firecracker looking as bad as we felt.
"What the fuck happened to all of us?" I asked finally. No one answered, looking confused and embarrassed.
"The Shadows," Quin said. He hung his head, "I was forced, please, you need to find them quickly, and you need to either magically bind me or kill me before I do it again."
"Do what?" Kota demanded. "What have you done and who do we need to find?"
Quin seemed to be fighting with an invisible force as he gritted his teeth, "Victor, he has them - the shadows overtook him as well. I used my essence against you all to lure her to him." His eyes began to flare red and I felt the tinges of desire like I did last night.
North groaned, "Someone do something before I rip his head off." He was starting to shift, his claws elongating. After what Quin had just said, I'm not sure any of us really wanted to stop North, but we needed more information.
"Nate, Corey!" I yelled. We began to form a triangle around him, Corey and I surrounding him with sunlight, but not enough to kill him, while Nate tried his best to bind him. Sean and Owen had run off to find some of the council members to help.
Quin began to screech as Mistress Thrain entered the room, adding her magic to Nate's. When we finally managed to subdue him, Zura began to question him using some kind of white light that seemed to calm him. As she chanted, she placed a collar on his neck and his eyes began to dull.
"Tell us what happened, Quin," she said in a firm tone.
His eyes never focused as he spoke in a hollow voice. "The shadows made me collar her and lead her to the dragon. He told me to release my essence to distract the others."
"What does he plan to do with Eveleen and Gabriel?" she continued.
"The shadows told him to mate them, bind them to his dragon so they can transition. He left with them a few hours ago. I don't know where they went."
"Were they both collared? Could the magic in the collars be tracked?"
"Yes, they were. It might, they were from the requiem room."
"Thank you, Quin. I'm going to put you into a slumber state until we can resolve the matter. You will be placed in a magic suppression cell, do you understand?" She asked him.
"Yes. I am sorry." His words were odd since his affect was completely flat. Zura did something and he slumped in his seat, completely unconscious. Servants came in and carried him off as we all tried to figure out what to do next.
"Nate, you are going to have to track them. Your magic is tied to Gabe's so it might work. I need to warn you that Victor may react violently. If the shadows have overtaken him, then he isn't truly in control. That may also be the case for both Gabe and Eveleen by the time we locate them." Zura said quickly. "I need all of you to join hands. Let Nate draw on you and your own magic to help find them."
We linked hands and looked at Nate. Poor guy, no pressure, right? He began chanting in Norse, "Ta meg til valkyrien min (Take me to my Valkyrie)." The sensation reminded me of when Loki teleported us. The air seemed to be sucked out of the room and suddenly we found ourselves on a high mountain outcrop. Two loud roars shook the ground as we saw Victor in dragon form fighting with another dragon with deep russet-colored scales.
Wait, is that Gabe? What the actual fuck!
At the entrance of the cave, there was Firecracker. She seemed to be in pain and fighting to stay standing. She was screaming something, but we couldn't hear her over the roars.
Author's Notes: Short transition chapter before all heck breaks loose...
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