“Since you haven’t asked, let me reassure you that you should have no problems returning here with my treasure.”
It’s something small, then? I lower myself into the kayak. That’s something, at least.
“I’ll remain here until sundown. If you’re not back by then…”
Then I’m sure your pair will turn up to keep you company.
I’m off-balance, still finding my seat in the kayak, when he grabs me. One hand around my waist, the other forcing my chin up.
This is it. It has to be. I fix my eyes on his, ready for whatever compulsion he’s about to place on me.
Ygdris’ eyes are like frozen stars. I fall into them, cutting myself into pieces on their broken shards. I’m ready. God, I’m so ready.
I just need him to tell me what to do. Take away my choice. My doubts.
My responsibility.
Then he closes his eyes and rests his forehead against mine.
“Tell me I’m not sending you to your death, Tay Walker. That this isn’t the next act in the tragedy that my life has become.”
I open my mouth and he kisses me. This isn’t just a brush of lips like yesterday. His mouth is hot against mine and he flicks his tongue out, sending a throb of desire straight between my legs. I gasp. Our breath mingles as he pulls me closer against him.
Lightning flashes in my mind. It splits, arcs, and buries itself somewhere deep inside me. A wave of dizziness strikes me.
—Broken, weary, unravelling, too weak to do the only thing that could save us both—
“What the hell was that?”
It wasn’t slick, clinging black, like tar boiling on a hot day. It was fever-bright. Electric.
Ygdris looks as stunned as I feel. Then his face closes over. “Nothing that need concern you.”
I sit back in the kayak, wrapping my arms around myself.
“Right. Of course.” I can’t keep the bitterness out of my voice. “See, this is why I do
n’t ask questions.”
I grab the paddle and push away from the veranda, away from Ygdris, without another word.
My skin crackles the whole time I’m paddling towards the Spire. I glance back, just once. Ygdris is pacing like a caged animal.
Bastard. If anyone should be feeling trapped, it’s me.
I can’t get his expression out of my mind. And I can’t shake the feeling that struck me when he kissed. Not just the longing. The pain, like my body was only holding together by a thread.
But it wasn’t my body. It was Ygdris’.
I swallow, dread pooling inside me. There’s so much about Ygdris and the whole situation that I don’t understand.
What this missing treasure is. Why the Protectorate took it. How he knows my name, without knowing my past… and why he’s never transformed into his dragon form.
Where the fuck his pair is.
Too many questions. Too many missing pieces in the puzzle, and the more I realise just how little I know, the more I’m afraid of what the full picture will be.
I have to focus. Retrieve the treasure. That’s what I’m here for. Retrieve the treasure, get the defence orb for Sia, and… get back to surviving.