I kissed him. I took his face in my hands and kissed him long enough for him to get the message. Then I pulled back and looked into his eyes. “You could take her right now, right in front of me and I would hate it, but I would never be angry or upset if it means you live long enough to be mine again.”

His shoulders sagged. “Then why do you assume I would feel any different about tonight?”

Tears filled my eyes.

“You cannot stay with me, my love. No matter how badly I wish you could, you must go. Every minute you remain within this dreaded castle my fear comes closer to suffocating me.” He took my hands in his. “You have the page. I’ll handle the decoy. Go home to me.”

But I shook my head. “I need you to be there, Everest. I need to know you’ll be alive when I get back. I cannot leave while you hold the decoy. I don’t want to get back to my future and find you died three hundred years ago from Sweyn catching you.”

His face fell just as a massive shadow passed over us. He hauled me to his chest. I spun in his arms to watch a huge dragon land right in front of us. Before I could take another breath, ten more dragons landed behind the first one. Each and every one of them lowered their heads and growled so loud the ground shook. The heat from their breaths melted the snow between us.

And then the biggest one in the front, the one with shiny black scales and bright purple eyes, sniffed me. He flinched then shook his head. His eyes narrowed on me. I knew this wasn’t some dumb beast, this was a shifter, and if his coloring meant what I thought it did . . . this was the King of shifters.

He smells coven magic.

I bowed and glanced over my shoulder. Everest held both hands up in surrender.

The trees rustled in my peripheral vision then a giant eagle shot like a rocket and landed at the black dragon’s feet . . . in human form. Except, this wasn’t Akecheta’s face. This was a new face, a new disguise. I remembered hearing him explain to Koth in the future that he had to take on new identities, like Elan that they knew. So, this version with the pasty pale skin and blue eyes with brown hair was evidently the current Akecheta. Black lines stretched across his face. His eyes flashed through about a dozen colors before returning to their natural black.

“Get back in there. Now.” Akecheta’s voice was the same as I remembered. “Finish this. For us.”

I nodded. “Gracias.” Then I spun on my toes and sprinted for the castle.