Chapter 176 Dante
“What happened to him?” I asked.
Lukas didn’t hesitate. “He lasted three weeks.”
Amara sucked in a breath.
Lucian swore under his breath.
“And then?” I pressed.
“He burned from the inside out,” Lukas said bluntly. “Fire tried to consume death. Death tried to extinguish fire. His body couldn’t sustain both.”
I clenched my jaw hard enough it hurt. “That won’t happen to her.”
“No,” Lukas said calmly. “It won’t.”
I snapped my gaze to him. “You sound real confident about that.”
“I am.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s not built like him.”
That mattered more than anything else he’d said so far.
Lucian stepped forward slightly. “You said there were other attempts.”
Lukas nodded. “After his death, others tried.”
“Of course they did,” Amara muttered. “Because nobody ever learns.”
“They were controlled attempts,” Lukas clarified. “Kings. High-ranking Dragonborn. Carefully monitored. They sought out other eggs, different elements, different combinations.”
“And?” I asked.
“They failed,” Lukas said simply.
“How many?” Lucian asked.
Lukas’s expression darkened slightly. “Enough.”
That wasn’t an answer. But it was.
“Different combinations didn’t matter,” he continued. “If the elements didn’t naturally align, the bond failed. Either immediately… or slowly.”
Amara crossed her arms. “And the eggs?”
“Disappeared,” Lukas said. “Destroyed. Lost. Hidden.”
Lucian frowned. “Extinct?”
Lukas nodded once. “As far as our records show, no viable dragon egg has been found in over five centuries.”
Five hundred years.
I looked down at Seraphine again. At the faint white at the tips of her hair. At the mark forming along her skin like constellations burned into her.
“And she just… found one in a box under a floorboard,” I muttered.
Amara let out a dry breath. “Yeah, because that’s not suspicious at all.”
Lucian added, “With a note about selling it like it’s a black-market antique.”
What are you talking about?” I snapped, my head jerking toward Lucian. “What note?”
Lucian paused mid-step, brows pulling together slightly like he was the one confused now. “The note,” he repeated, like that explained anything.
“I didn’t see any damn note,” I bit out, my patience already hanging by a thread.
Lucian exhaled sharply, already reaching into his jacket. “Yeah. There was a note. Folded under the egg box. I grabbed it before we left.”
Of course he did. Of course I missed it.
My focus snapped to the small piece of paper he pulled out, worn and slightly creased like it had been shoved somewhere and forgotten.
Lucian held it up between two fingers. “You were a little busy panicking over your mate touching ancient cosmic artifacts, so I figured I’d handle the reading portion.”
“Just read it,” I growled.
He didn’t argue. He unfolded it slowly, eyes scanning it once before reading aloud.
“Stephen—this thing is worth more than anything we’ve ever touched. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I know it’s old. Really old. Find someone on the black market. Quiet. No questions. Sell it for as much as you can. We need the cash. Don’t screw this up.—R.”
Silence hit the room. Heavy. Ugly.
I stared at the paper like it might suddenly change.
“…she didn’t know,” Amara said quietly.
Lucian shook his head. “Not even close.”
“She thought it was just money,” Amara added, almost to herself.
“Yeah,” Lucian said flatly. “A very expensive, very dangerous mystery egg she decided to toss into the hands of a guy already drowning in debt.”
I ran a hand down my face, dragging in a slow breath that didn’t do a damn thing to calm me down.
“So Renee didn’t know what it was,” I said, more to myself than anyone else.
“No,” Lukas confirmed. “But she knew it was valuable.”
My gaze dropped back to Seraphine. To the faint glow still pulsing beneath her skin.
“To the wrong person,” I muttered.
Lucian folded the note back up, slipping it away. “Which explains why Thane tore that place apart.”
I looked up sharply. “Yeah.”
Because now it made sense. Or at least part of it did.
“He wasn’t looking for Stephen,” I said slowly. “He was looking for that.”
“For the egg,” Amara nodded.
“For the power,” Lukas corrected.
My jaw tightened. “Of course he was,” I muttered. “If that thing can bond like that, if it can align with anything—”
“Then it removes the biggest limitation Dragonborn have,” Lucian finished.
“Balance,” Lukas said.
“Exactly,” Lucian nodded. “You wouldn’t need to worry about compatibility. You wouldn’t need to worry about elemental conflict. You just… add power.”
I felt something dark twist in my chest.
“Dual-bonded Thane,” I said flatly.
Amara grimaced. “Yeah, that’s a nightmare I didn’t need in my head.”
“It would make him nearly impossible to counter,” Lukas added.
“Nearly?” I snapped.
Lukas’s gaze flicked to Seraphine again.
“Depends on who you’re fighting.”
I followed his gaze. And something in my chest tightened again. Because yeah. Right now? She might be the only one who could even stand against that kind of power. Which made this whole situation about ten times worse.
“But that still doesn’t answer the question,” Lucian said, pushing off the counter. “If Thane has the serpent sage, or whatever the hell is helping him, why does he even need the egg?”
That was the part that didn’t sit right.
I frowned, pacing a few steps before stopping again, my mind running through it.
“He already has wards,” I said. “He already has necromancy. He’s already got something ancient backing him.”
“And that thing is powerful,” Lukas added. “More than enough to give him an advantage.”
“So why chase the egg?” Amara pressed.
“Greed?” Lucian offered. “Power-hungry psychopath wanting more power?”
“Too simple,” Lukas said immediately.
I nodded. “Yeah. Thane doesn’t do anything without a reason,” I muttered.
Silence stretched for a second.
“What if it’s not about more power?” Amara said slowly.
We all looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
She shrugged slightly, but her expression had sharpened. “What if it’s not about stacking power… what if it’s about fixing something?”
Lucian frowned. “Fixing what?”
Amara looked between us. “What if whatever he’s doing, whatever the sage is helping him do, it has a limitation?”
Lukas’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Go on.”
“If serpent sages use… whatever ancient magic they use,” Amara continued, “and if that magic doesn’t fully align with Dragonborn… what if Thane needs something to stabilize it?”