Page 55 of Power of Draken

Logan pulls me against him. “Close your eyes.”

“Like hell I will.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you then.” He grabs me and leaps into the air, me against his chest and my stomach somewhere in my throat. It’s all I can do to stifle my scream of terror as we land on the other side and Logan sets me down on the slippery shingles.

“Close… your… eyes does not qualify as a warning,” I hiss between pants, putting as much indignation into the words as I can. Except this time, the quip is all strategy. A distraction from the hauntingly familiar tell-tale signs of a dizzy spell that are suddenly washing over me.

Not now, not now, not now, I order my body, trying to hold on to myself in space. The rain is wet. The wind is loud. Your fingers are cold. Concentrate on that.

"You alright, Ainsley?" Kai's voice is low and gruff, but I detect a hint of worry beneath the stoic exterior.

"I'm fine.” I blink rapidly to clear the spots dancing in my vision. "Just give me a moment to -” another wave of dizziness washes over me, this one in no mood to play. I’ve been here before. It’s how I’ve collected countless twisted ankles and bleeding foreheads and worse. “I’m -” The world tilts and blurs, raindrops running sideways across my vision. Then my knees give way.

Chapter 27

Kai

Icatch Rowan just as she starts to fall, my arms wrapping around her reflexively as my mind whirls to try and work out what just happened. One moment she was fine, getting her feet under her after Logan’s jump, and the next she was falling down, fully and suddenly unconscious. Her body is limp against me, her breaths shallow. My heart lurches into my throat, fear lancing through me for the first time since I’d come to Spire East. And it’s not just because if Rowan dies, then so does Lilith’s chance for a cure.

“Rowan.” I shake her gently.

Rowan’s head lolls against my chest, her skin ice cold. Clammy. Because the rain has all of us soaked, or is she hurt as well? Is she losing blood? Going into shock?

I quickly lay her on a flat section of the roof, my fingers tracing over her head, her limbs, her sides. Searching for any sign of injury. There’s nothing. How can there be nothing? No blood, no obvious wounds, just her pale face and shallow breathing. The rain pours down around us, relentless and cold droplets bouncing off her closed eyelids. My jaw tenses, my hands roaming over her body again, as fast and choppy as my racing heart. I must have missed something the first time. I have to find whatever it is. Fix it. Stars. I need to fix this.

Logan crouches beside me, his hand stalling my wrist. “It’s alright. She does this sometimes,” he mutters. “Gets dizzy and faints, I mean.”

“Why?”

“Stress, fatigue, something like that. It’s happened in the practice ring. She’ll be fine.” He brushes the hair from her face, away from her eyes, then strokes her cheek with the back of his hand. I should have thought to do that. To offer touch that would welcome her back instead of one that just prodded her all over. “Come on, rabbit,” Logan whispers. “Time to wake up.”

She does this sometimes. Did I know that? If I did, I never gave it much consideration. Not really. Because what did it matter so long as I was getting what I needed, right? What did it matter if I hurt her, and ignored her, and pushed her to literal unconsciousness, if it protected my own heart?

Stars.

I pick Rowan back up, unable to watch her lying on the wet hard roof. My grip tightens around her, my mind flying. What if Logan is wrong? What if this isn’t her normal collapse? Stars take me, since when is any collapse normal? She’s so damn vulnerable, and I know nothing about her—nothing that matters.

Rowan stirs slightly, a soft groan escaping her lips just as the pounding of footsteps echoes through the alleyway below. More mercs coming this way. Right toward us. And the noise Rowan makes is about to give away our position. Before I can think better of it, I seal my mouth over hers to swallow her sounds.

Rowan’s lips are cool, but they’re real, and they’re under mine, soft and yielding despite the rain. The connection is incendiary, an unexpected rush of heat that spreads through me even as the cold rain beats down on us. I didn’t think when I’d done this—I’d just acted. But now that I’m here, holding her so close, her breath mingling with mine, I can’t ignore the grip it has on me.

I feel Rowan respond a heartbeat later, just the faintest flutter, her lips parting slightly as if welcoming me. It’s instinctual, unconscious, and it’s more trust than I deserve.

I cradle her closer, using my body to shield her from the rain as much as I can. The way she relaxes into me, the trust of that movement, it nearly undoes me.

Because Rowan shouldn’t trust me. I’ve done nothing to earn it, and everything to push her away.

“What do you want to do?” Logan asks.

I want to get Rowan off these roofs, in from the rain, and out of this damn town. What in the hells was I thinking bringing her here?

“We go back,” I tell Logan. I’d take Rowan all the way to Spire East if I thought the commandant would let me take the lashes for her, but I know she won’t. That would be too easy. “And we aren’t dragging her around anymore. We’ll bring the checkpoint box to her.” Not from here though. With the trained mercs and their auric steel—probably taken off the very transports we ensured were ambushed—it’s too dangerous here.

Rowan stirs, her eyes opening as she comes to and squirms in an attempt to get down from my hold. Of course that’s her first order of business. Whatever trust and responsiveness she’d granted me when she wasn’t thinking clearly is long gone. Does she even remember my lips on her mouth? Does she remember letting me kiss her? Does she regret it?

I shove those thoughts from my mind and set her down carefully. This isn’t the time to argue whether her walking is the best plan for anyone. If she thinks she can, she is welcome to try.

But I am snatching her right back into my arms at the first sign of trouble. My gut argues that trouble is already here though, and a great deal more than we’ve laid eyes on thus far. But the same gut also warns me that snatching Rowan up without permission won’t go well.

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