Page 82 of Bound By Roses

And then there’s silence. Either he’s shut me out or he’s too lost in his own head. Or…

No. He was never a monster, so he hasn’t lost himself to it again.

I let out a frustrated cry and move to hit the wall beside me. Before my fist connects with the rock, a firm hand catches my wrist and halts my momentum as if there were no strength behind it at all. The hand is far too warm, and that’s all I need to know that it’s a dragon.

I reluctantly turn my gaze towards who I expect is Petra, but it’s Jade’s red-rimmed green eyes staring down at me.

“Let me go,” I say, pulling my arm from his grip. He releases me with apparent eagerness, as if he doesn’t know why he stopped me in the first place. If that’s the case, I should consider myself lucky that he didn’t set my arm ablaze by accident. Maybe he has more control than he thinks he does.

“A severed finger and a broken hand aren’t exactly a matching set, you know. In case that’s what you were going for.”

Maybe it’s him I should be hitting. “I can’t deal with you right now, so just fuck off.”

His eyes widen in either surprise or amusement. I don’t care enough to tell which. He’s silent for a moment and then his face falls. When he speaks, his voice is softer than I’m used to. “What would Jade do?”

“What?” I’m not in the mood for riddles.

“What wouldIdo if I wasn’t…This.” He gestures to himself, and I know he’s referring to the red lines snaking up his body, the pale hair that was once the colour of sand, and the striking eyes that have dulled since he awoke.

I let myself think about it. At the very least, this is a solid distraction to calm myself down before I figure out what to do about Quinn. He’s panicking enough for the both of us right now.

“I don’t know,” I say, finally. “Make a snide remark about how I picked the wrong mate?”

He doesn’t so much as smirk at my poor attempt at a joke. Not like I know the real Jade would have.

“Not doing that. Next?”

I shrug. “I guess he’d throw me over his shoulder and take me to Quinn.”

Jade’s eyes tighten and his brows crease, as if this is suddenly the puzzle he needs to solve. “He would do that even though it wouldn’t give him what he wanted?”

What he wanted was me. “Even then,” I sigh, because I know it’s true. As much as he probably hated it, as much as he would have denied it, more often than not, Jade did the right thing. He was selfish to a fault, but not when it mattered. I just wish I’d seen that sooner.

“I can’t carry you,” Jade says, eyes cast down at his hands now balled into fists in front of him. The red lines on his skin glow faintly in the dimness, threatening to turn the next thing he touches into ash.

“No one is asking you to.” I don’t even know why we’re talking about this. As far as I know, this Jade is still very much resisting the urge to snap my neck. I don’t expect him to help me.

“I can’t carry you,” he says again, this time bringing his eyes up to gaze somewhere behind me. “But Rhett can.”

Rhett must have heard his name—which is an unfortunate reminder of just how many people here have hearing well beyond my capabilities and have probably overheard this entire thing—because he trots over. Kaylee follows close behind him, a faint hint of concern on her face. If that’s for Quinn, then we need to find him fast. She can’t see his future, and that may very well be worse than if she knew his fate.

“We don’t even know where he’s going,” I say. If it weren’t the middle of the night, flying through the forest might be easy. Even if I asked the wolves to be my eyes out there, Quinn is hard to track when he wants to be.

To my surprise, Jade summons his wings. “I do.”

The flight isn’t as long as I’d expected it would be, and even less uncomfortable. Rhett is gentle with me in his arms, and as much as I hate being carried, this is probably the most pleasant experience I’ve had in the air with any dragon.

Despite the darkness, I can make out enough to recognize the open clearing we’d come to before. Both Quinn and I had dreams that led us to this place, so it makes sense that he would come here, but it doesn’t explain how Jade knew about it.

As if answering my thoughts, he says, “This is where I found him.” I know he means the night Quinn brought me that rose. “This is where he’s heading.”

We must have been flying faster than I realized, because if Jade is right, we’ve somehow made it here before him. There’s an unease to this place, and it has as much to do with the dragon at my side as it does the mysterious ash roses and potential of a rift opening.

“There!” Rhett says, pointing off to our left.

A silver wolf that can only be Quinn bounds through the trees and nearly stumbles into the clearing.

“Quinn!” I call to him, and his head whips around to face us.

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