Page 60 of Power of Draken

I raise my face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Kai pinches the bridge of his nose, shaking his head. “Nothing.”

It’s not nothing. I try to summon my anger again, but I just have nothing left. “Fine.”

“I just meant that things are always different in real battle,” he says more gently. “It’s always harder. Unpredictable. It’s normal to be surprised.”

I know he means well, but all I hear is that it’s normal for me to be a mess out in the field. Which isn’t news to me, but it still stings. “Give me your shackles.”

“Why?” He asks but moves his legs toward me obediently.

“Metal,” I place my hand on the chain. “I can’t melt it or break it like another enchanter might, but maybe I can manipulate it on a molecular level. Weaken it.” Or maybe I can’t. I don’t know. But it’s better than sitting here being cold and useless.

After a few minutes of intense focus, I feel Kai's gentle touch on my shoulder. "Aisnely, stop.”

I shake my head stubbornly. “I can do this.”

He pulls my hands away from the shackles. “You are exhausted.”

“And you aren’t?” I try to shake him off. “Kyrian isn’t? Logan? Wherever the bloody hell he is now. Whoever else they are holding hostage in this inn? Everyone is exhausted, Grayson. And, unlike me, they didn’t take a little nap in the middle of a battle, causing their team to get shot and captured.”

"No. Ainsley. Rowan." Kai kneels over me, his attention and warmth wrapping about my shoulders. "This isn't on you. Not any of it."

"Don't lie to me." The words come through clenched teeth. I wish I could drown in his murmurs, take them as the kindness they are offered as, but I can't. "Please. Just don't lie to me. That's all I ask. No lies."

"Alright," he agrees with obvious reluctance. His hand moves to cup my face, tilting it up so I'm forced to meet his intense gaze. Even in the dim light of the cellar, his eyes are piercing, filled with a mixture of determination and something softer that I can't quite name, but instinctively know is rare. "No lies. This isn't your fault."

"You wouldn't be out there if not for me," I say.

"That's the job I signed up for."

"I... swooned. What kind of soldier swoons?"

"The kind who has a unique skill set in alchemy. Or did you think everyone wants you for your size and brawn?"

"I made the arrow," I confess. "The auric alloy the steel was treated with. I made it. I could feel the composition."

"And had that arrow been the work of another alchemist, the metal may not have obeyed you. You saved my leg." His thumb brushes away a tear I didn't realize had already made it to the bottom of my jaw. Another tear. What is happening with me? Why am I suddenly falling apart when Kai looks utterly put together.

Taking one of my hands, he presses it against his chest, right over his steadily beating heart. “I’m alright now,” he says. “See? You made me alright. You did that.”

I smile weakly and he nods, his touch sending a shiver through me and making me suddenly and acutely aware of every inch of him—the way his muscular thighs press against my own, the bend of his shoulders as his lean body hovers protectively over mine, the spicy masculine scent of his skin.

His hand moves from my face to the nape of my neck, fingers tangling in my rain-dampened hair. I can feel his heartbeat quicken, matching the frantic pace of my own. We're balanced on a knife's edge, and I'm not sure if I want to pull back or lean in. The only heat in the whole place is the furnace of his body so close to mine.

Kai's lips part slightly, and something in my subconscious finds the movement familiar. As if I'd felt his mouth on mine recently, an anchor amidst the pouring rain, wind, and fear. Did I imagine feeling him kiss me? Or is the phantom image new, a desire turned into a taunting memory? Does it matter?

I want to taste him. I want him to taste me.

"What do you want?" Kai whispers against my ear. "No lies, Rowan. Tell me what you want."

"I want to not be here," I say. "At least for a while. I don't want to be here."

"I think I can do that," Kai replies, and suddenly the feel of his lips on mine is anything but an illusion.

Except hadn't Logan once promised me something similar?

Chapter 30

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