by Olivia Ash
I trail off, letting him fill in the blanks and hopefully take the bait.
He doesn’t.
Instead of answering, he swings his blade furiously at my face. I duck, my sword catching his, and the momentum of our blades hitting throws me off balance. I lean in, twisting my heel into the dirt, but it’s not enough to keep my footing.
He circles me as I fall backward, his body a blur in my periphery. I expect to fall to the ground. To hit the dirt hard, to look up and find him smirking down at me.
Instead, I fall against his hard chest as he catches me. Our swords lock, the hilt of his intertwined with mine.
I'm instantly pinned.
Damn it.
In the past, he would have knocked me on my ass, held the sword blade to my throat and declared himself the winner of our little match. But for whatever reason, we simply stand there. I crane my neck to see what he’s up to, to try to figure out what he’s doing, and those stormy eyes of his snare me.
Just like that, I’m lost—in him.
My mind goes fuzzy, and inwardly, my treasonous body aches to be somehow closer. I instinctively lean into him, and his powerful arms subtly tighten around me. It’s a possessive motion, more than anything else—a silent way of saying, mine.
I debate wriggling out of his grip, but I'm curious. He doesn't usually pause in a sparring match. It's not his style. His style is brutal and fierce. Forceful. He doesn't hesitate, and he never gives his opponent a chance to catch their breath or recover.
With a deep sigh, he buries his face in my neck. His sword drops to the ground, and his muscled arms engulf me. He holds me tightly to his chest, my back to his body as he holds me tenderly in place.
“Fine,” he says quietly.
His touch is electric. It burns through me like lightning, like desire and joy, and I impulsively wrap my fingers around his wrists as my body reacts to his presence. Our connection only bristles with more power as I quietly give in, the fiery sensation of our magic bubbling beneath my fingertips.
Deep within me, my dragon reaches for him, aching for him, somehow needing to be even closer to him than this.
“You have fourteen active bounties on your head,” he says quietly. “Three of those were added just this morning, and those are just the ones that want you dead.” He presses his jaw against my ear, roughly sucking in a deep breath as if he’s trying to calm himself. “Nine more bounties placed in the last few weeks want you brought in alive.”
My chest tightens, and for a moment, I can't breathe. Throughout my life, I've had a bounty on me here or there—but nearly two dozen, all at once?
“Hit squads have been after you since you arrived here,” he continues. “I've intercepted all of them, but they're becoming more frequent. Every time a hit comes, they bring more men. They’re getting brazen. Desperate, even.”
I elbow him hard in the stomach and wriggle out of his grip as he chuckles in surprise, holding his stomach where I hit him.
“Jace, why didn't you tell me?” I snap. “This has been going on from the beginning? I thought we had a deal!”
He gestures vaguely to the forest around us. “What good would it do? You needed to focus on your training and not be distracted. Besides, I'm protecting you. You're fine.”
I grimace in annoyance. “I'm not some stupid kid! I need to know things like who wants to kill me, Jace!”
He groans in aggravation, like I’m being entirely unreasonable.
Me. For wanting to know who’s trying to off me.
I shake my head, stabbing the blade of my sword into the dirt as I process what he's saying. “Even after everything we've been through, you don't see me as an equal. I'm just something that needs constant safeguarding.”
“That's not true,” he says quietly.
I wait. I want him to continue. I want him to finish that sentence.
But he doesn't.
I cross my arms, pacing the small clearing we'd been sparring in as I try to reconcile what he’s saying with what he’s done. His actions and his words don’t match.
And I’m running out of patience.
I want him on my team. I want to trust him. I want this back and forth of ours to end. But he is so goddamn stubborn.
He doesn't see my strength at all.
Jace slowly closes the gap between us, and I'm tempted to simply walk away. To be done with this conversation and with him, at least until I can think about it all without this simmering anger in my chest.
But I let him get close.
I let him take my hand.
I let him pull me near, and I let him set his forehead against mine. As our skin touches, the electrifying connection we share coils through me once again, and a little bit more of my anger fades away.
It’s like he knows what he does to me, and I freaking hate that.
I try to hold on to my rage and remind myself of why I'm furious, of why this isn't okay. But I can't.
“I want to,” he says quietly, his hands holding either side of my face.
His tone is intimate and soft, unlike I've ever heard it before. With the tender undercurrent in his voice, I’m speechless. I simply watch his face, waiting for more.
Waiting to understand.
“I want to let go of this,” he confesses, his eyes darting back and forth between mine. “To give in to you, to tell you everything. But every bit of my training says I can't. Every time I tell you something, know that I had to fight my very nature to do it. Every time I tell you something that could put you in danger, it violates my dragon’s need to protect its mate. To protect you.”
He swallows hard, his eyes squeezing shut like he's being tortured. “I want you so badly,” he says, practically growling with lust. “To give you everything you desire. I just don't know how.”
“All I want is your trust,” I say quietly. “To be seen as your equal.”
He opens his eyes, staring into mine with an intensity that I’ve never seen on his face. It's like he wants to tell me everything, like he wants to let his inner world pour out of him and into me.
He opens his mouth to speak, but the crash of footsteps interrupts us.
We both flinch, turning our heads toward the sound even though they’re still a long way off. Whoever it is, they’re running toward us quickly, and they'll be here soon.
“Jace—” I start to say.
He shakes his head. “We'll continue this conversation later.”
I frown, rolling my eyes. Of course.
A soldier crashes into the clearing, his chest heaving as he tries to catch his breath. “Sir,” he says breathlessly, “Harper is on the way, along with—.”
“Already?” Jace cusses under his breath, interrupting the soldier before he can finish.
I frown, confused by his tone. He had clearly been expecting them, but that wasn’t as surprising as the subtle hint of anxiety that laced his words. Whatever they were going to discuss, he wanted to put it off a little longer.
“What are they here to talk about?” I ask.
He hesitates, his gaze settling on me as if he’s debating answering the question.
In the end, he apparently decides not to.
“We'll continue our training tomorrow, Rory,” he says with a shake of his head.
With that, he jogs after the soldier toward the dojo.
Sighing in annoyance and frustration, I grab our swords off the ground. Before long, I can't even hear their footsteps anymore, and all I can feel is the faint tug on my navel as he moves through the woods, our connection hot and burning as I sense him move farther away.
There's a shift in the air, like I'm not alone anymore. Carefully, I tilt my head so that I can see behind me—only to find Drew leaning against a tree trunk nearby.
Huh. He managed to sneak up on me—I must be more distracted than I realized. Not good.
The fire dragon’s arms are crossed, one leg propped against the tree, and he leans back against the trunk with a smirk. “What were you
two talking about?”
I debate telling him, but I figure messing with him is more fun. “I have secrets, too, you know.”
He chuckles, running a hand through his hair as he rolls his eyes. “Fine. Be difficult.”
“I will, thank you.”
“Are you going to follow him?”
“Duh,” I say with a grin, returning my attention to the path the dojo master had taken. “It's like you don't know me at all, Drew.”
Chapter Five
Drew and I steal through the dark tunnels beneath the dojo, the only light coming from the occasional lone bulb hanging from the ceiling. We slip through the shadows, silent as ghosts.
The fact is I don't know how far my access will get me, or if I can even eavesdrop on Jace’s conversation with Harper at all. Jace gave me the codes to these tunnels as a sign of peace. It was a truce, an act of goodwill to make me feel more at home here.
But he said himself that even my access had limits. I haven’t yet had a chance to fully test my newfound freedom through the dojo.
Time to see what I can get away with after all.
The path splits, and both of the new paths lead downward. I hesitate, my eyes darting between the two, uncertain of which to take. The way these tunnels are designed seems to be intentionally confusing, like an orchestrated attempt to sink you deeper through the maze and get lost in the labyrinth.
I, however, have a secret weapon.
“Drew, which way?” I ask.
He stands beside me, his thick and muscled body towering over me as he gets his bearings. His eyes narrow ever so slightly as he looks in each direction, studying each path.
For a moment, he doesn't say anything. He simply stands there, thinking, and I give him the space that he needs.
“Left,” he finally says. “I'm pretty sure.”
“Pretty sure will have to be good enough.” I run my hand along his arm in thanks. As my fingers graze his skin, a fiery current shoots through me, one of lust and desire.
But most of all, gratitude.
Out of the corner of my eye, he smirks. It's brief, but happy. His gaze lingers on me for a moment, and I pretend I don't notice as I lead the way into the darkness.
As we continue to steal through the shadows, I wonder what this could possibly be about—this meeting between Jace and Harper. The way his expression shifted in the forest struck me as so odd. Like he knew this was coming and still wanted to avoid it.
I have the sinking feeling it’s about me.
We pause at a corner in the tunnel, and I carefully peek around the edge only to find a steel door barring any further movement through the passageway. A camera in the corner monitors the hall, and I freeze at the prospect of getting caught. It’s an instinctive hit of adrenaline stemming from my years as a Spectre—when getting caught meant death.
Thankfully, the stakes aren’t quite as high this time.
Grateful for the stealth training, my mind buzzes with ideas on how we can avoid detection. But after a moment, I notice a small, silver device implanted in the wiring on the camera, and that's when I realize there's no red light.
That's one of my voids.
Without a word, I shoot an accusing glare at Drew because I know exactly who put it there.
He grins sheepishly. “Thanks for letting me borrow one, I guess?”
I shake my head in exasperation. “You've been down here before, then?”
“Of course, I have,” he says with a mischievous grin. “But I can never get past that door.”
“Why not?”
“No code I ever had let me through.” He shrugs, shaking his head. “Any time I tried, it alerted somebody. I nearly got caught about half a dozen times.”
“You're getting rusty then,” I say with a smirk.
He chuckles. “Well, let's see you get through it.”
“Maybe I can.”
Since the camera is taken care of, I step into the hallway, knowing no one can see me as the last ten recorded seconds of the camera feed loop indefinitely.
I walk up to the steel door, gently running my fingers along the cold metal as I eye the pad in the corner. I hesitate, almost not wanting to know if Jace gave me access to this area or not.
If he didn't give me access down here, it means he doesn't trust me. It means he doesn't want me to truly move through this place like it's a home.
Part of me doesn't want to know the truth, but I can't live in denial.
Not with him.
I take a soft breath and hold it, tapping the keypad and entering the code he originally gave me.
The day we met.
The one sentimental thing I've ever seen him do.
My finger hovers over the submit key, but I need to do this.
I hit it.
The door rumbles to life, swinging open and letting us through.
I grin, simply watching in awe for a moment, grateful and amazed. Dazed and a little disbelieving.
Maybe Jace is coming around after all.
Drew pats me on the back as he passes into the new hallway with an excited expression on his face, like a kid at Christmas. “Good job, Rory.”
“Oh, yes, thank you,” I say with a sarcastic nod as I walk through. “Entering the keys into the keypad was a very difficult task, after all. It's nice that my contribution is being acknowledged.”
He laughs.
“Drew,” I add, crossing my arms as I point toward the camera. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
The fire dragon pauses in the hallway, his gaze drifting from me to the camera and back. “You’re really going to ask me to remove the void?”
“You promised,” I remind him.
Any vulnerabilities in the dojo’s security compromises us all.
He knows that.
He just doesn’t like having to follow the rules.
Grumbling to himself, he rolls out the shoulders, and I can practically hear the gears turning in his head as he tries to weasel out of this.
“Fine,” he mumbles, reaching up to pluck the little silver device from the wiring.
I grin.
So grumpy.
He pockets the device in a motion so smooth I wonder if he thinks I didn’t notice—but honestly, I don’t care if he has the voids, especially a spent one.
Time to find Jace.
My first impulse is to scope for cameras as we walk through the doors, and thankfully, there's none in this stretch of the hallway. It's something we're going to have to be careful of, though. I get the feeling we're not supposed to be down here.
Well, I am. Drew's not. And technically, Jace didn't say I couldn't bring Drew. So, if we get caught, it's not the end of the world.
Much to my disappointment, there's nothing in the way of directions or navigation down here. It's just endless tunnels with the occasional vent near the floor, and I wonder how on earth we’re going to find him.
Drew jogs over to a nearby vent and leans toward the ground, peering through the gaps and into whatever room lays beyond. “Interrogation room,” he says calmly. “Empty.”
I nod, hands on my hips as I try to come up with a plan. “We saw them come down here. We just need to figure out where they went. They're here somewhere.”
As he jogs to the next vent, I close my eyes, mind buzzing with possibilities that I consider and just as quickly discard—until one becomes perfectly, astoundingly clear.
Jace and I can feel each other, and the sensation has been getting stronger lately. More powerful.
More than that, it's clearer. Recently, I’ve begun to sense what direction he's in—like after my sparring match with Irena, when I knew he was standing at the top of the stairs.
It's imperfect, of course. Just bits and pieces here and there. Sometimes it’s fuzzier than others, but maybe I can use this.
I take a deep breath, trying to center myself and clear my mind. My dragon stirs within, grateful for the attention.
And I listen.
T
he pull is sudden and fierce. It’s almost overpowering, but it only lasts for a second. I feel tugged to the left, away from where Drew is headed. It's like somebody stuck a hook in my chest and is yanking me, pulling me, almost dragging me away.
Jace.
“They’re over here,” I say quietly, my eyes still closed as I follow the connection Jace and I share.
Drew doesn't say anything. Almost instantly, I feel his presence beside me—his warmth, his towering body. He hovers nearby, his hand on the small of my back, and it's comforting to know he's close.
With every step, the sensation in my chest gets stronger, more powerful, more undeniable. This is the longest it's ever consistently burned for me, but I don't deny it. I don't fight it.
I just let it be, and I pay attention.
As we take the turns and corridors, the sensation pulling me toward Jace occasionally waivers and flickers like a bad Wi-Fi signal. I frown as our connection fades away yet again, and this time it fizzles out. I reach for it, almost trying to force it to come back, but it won’t cooperate.
I pause, biting my lip as I try to feel for the sensation again.
I’ve lost it.
My eyes open, and I find Drew standing in front of me with a frown on his face and his arms crossed.
“What?” I ask.
He shakes his head, looking away without a word.
But I know.
He's jealous.
He's jealous the mate-bond is stronger than it’s ever been.
Jealous and afraid he might lose me.
“Drew,” I say softly, running my hand along his bicep to comfort him.
He holds up a hand to interrupt me. “I know you, Rory,” he says simply. “I trust you, and I know.”
“Know what?”
“You're my woman, too,” he says with simple, utter confidence.
“Exactly.” I smile, and in that moment, I know we’re good.
A powerful burst through my chest catches my attention, and I gasp in surprise as the tug leads me down another corridor. I follow, and finally, I feel as though Jace is near. I can practically sense him on the other side of the wall. I lean my palms against the stone impulsively, my dragon aching to be closer.