Revealing the Dragons (Stonefire Dragons #2.5) (14 page)

The mountain under their feet was actually one of the most secure AMT compounds in the world.
Getting in was going to be difficult, but getting out was going to take a bloody miracle, especially since he’d had to barter with his boss for the location of his brother. In exchange, he had promised to rescue not just Garrett, but one other unknown first-born as well.

Taka, the elemental earth first-born of Jaxton’s team, signaled he was ready. He nodded for Taka to begin.

As Taka reached a hand to the north, the direction of elemental earth magic, the solid rock of the mountain moved. With each inch that cleared to form a tunnel, Jaxton’s heart rate kicked up. Jaxton was the reason his brother had been imprisoned inside the mountain for the last five years and he wasn’t sure if he brother had ever forgiven him.

Even if they survived the insurmountable odds, located Garrett, and broke into his prison cell, his brother might not agree to go with them. Considering the rumors of hellish treatment inside the AMT compounds, his brother’s hatred would be justified.

Once the tunnel was big enough for them to enter, Jaxton pushed aside his doubts. No matter what his brother might think of him, Jaxton would rescue him, even it if took drugging Garrett unconscious to do so.

Taking out his Glock, he flicked off the safety. Jaxton was the only one on the team without elemental magic, but he could take care of himself.

He moved to the entrance of the tunnel, looked over his shoulder at his men, and nodded. After each man nodded, signaling they were ready, he took out his pocket flashlight, switched it on, and jogged down the smooth tunnel that would lead them to the inner corridors of the AMT compound.

If his information was correct, the AMT staff would be attending a site-wide meeting for the next hour. That gave Jaxton and his team a short window of opportunity to get in, nab the two inmates, and get back out again.

He only hoped everything went according to plan.

*~*~*

Kiarra Melini stared at the small homemade shiv in her hand and wondered for the thousandth time if she could go through with it.

She had spent the last few weeks racking her brain, trying to come up with an alternative plan to save the other prisoners of the AMT without having to harm anyone. Yet despite her best efforts, she’d come up empty-handed.

To protect the lives of the other first-borns inside the AMT, Kiarra would kill for the first and last time.

Not that she wanted to do it, given the choice. But after overhearing a conversation between two AMT researchers a few weeks ago, she knew the AMT would never again be safe for any of the first-borns while she remained alive.

The outside world might have chosen to forget about the existence of the first-born prisoners, but that didn’t make them any less important. Kiarra was the only one who cared, and she would go down fighting trying to protect them.

Even if it meant killing herself to do so.

She took a deep breath and gripped the handle of her blade tighter until the plastic of the old hairbrush dug into her skin. Just as she was about to raise her arm to strike, her body shook. Kiarra closed her eyes and breathed in and out until she calmed down enough to stop shaking. Ending her life, noble as her reasons may be, was a lot harder than she’d imagined.

Mostly because she was afraid to die.

But her window of opportunity was closing fast; the AMT-wide meeting would end in less than an hour. After that, she would have to wait a whole other month before she could try again, and who knew how many more first-borns would suffer because of her cowardice.

———————

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Author’s Note

I hope you enjoyed this novella. Revisiting former characters is actually extremely difficult for me, but I felt Melanie and Tristan’s story wasn’t quite done. I think we all now have a better idea of how they work as a couple and how things will be in the future!

As always, I have a lot of people who helped me along the way. I’d like to thank:

• Becky Johnson of Hot Tree Editing. She always pushes me to be better, and I love her for it.
  
• My betas: Iliana, Donna, and Alyson. They catch the typo or two that slips through the cracks. They also keep me honest, and I’m grateful for that.
  
• Clarissa Yeo of Yocla Designs. I don’t know what I’ll ever do if she stops making covers!
  
• My readers and fans. You all make this worth it!
  

Before I go, if you would like to interact more with me and my fans, you can join my Facebook Fans of Jessie Donovan group here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/335945189923923/

Thanks again for reading and I can’t wait to share Finn and Arabella’s story in
Healed by the Dragon.
I hope you continue to follow the story of Clan Stonefire (and Clan Lochguard). You can always drop me a line at:
[email protected]
.

See you around! :)

About the Author

Jessie Donovan wrote her first story at age five, and after discovering
The Dragonriders of Pern
series by Anne McCaffrey in junior high, she realized people actually wanted to read stories like those floating around inside her head. From there on out, she was determined to tap into her over-active imagination and write a book someday.

After living abroad for five years and earning degrees in Japanese, Anthropology, and Secondary Education, she buckled down and finally wrote her first full-length book. While that story will never see the light of day, it laid the world-building groundwork of what would become her debut paranormal romance,
Blaze of Secrets
. In late 2014, she officially became a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author.

Jessie loves to interact with readers. When not reading a book or traipsing around some foreign country on a shoestring, she can often be found on Facebook either on her
Author Page
or in her
Fan Group
. You can email her at:
[email protected]
.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the writer’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Revealing the Dragons

Copyright © 2015 Laura Hoak-Kagey

Mythical Lake Press

First Digital Edition

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Cover Art by Clarissa Yeo of
Yocla Designs

ISBN: 978-1942211129