Page 31 of Dragon's Honor

“Why?”

“There’s too much you don’t know.”

Nadine looked like she needed some popcorn while she watched the ping pong match between the two of them.

“Then tell me.”

“Impossible.” Ash stood up. “I’m taking you home. This adventure is over.”

“The hell it is.” Finley stood up, standing toe to toe with him, tilting her head up to glare at him properly in the eyes. “I’m finally getting somewhere. Did you know about these other incidents?”

The muscle in Ash’s jaw ticked. “Yes,” he ground out.

“What is Dragon Fire?”

He closed his eyes and shook his head like he was trying to erase the scene in front of him. “It’s supposedly a drug,” he said simply.

“How does it make people spontaneously combust?”

“Sawyer, I’m not talking about this with you.”

Finley sat back down and leaned forward toward Nadine. “Why were there only seven at Club Opal?”

Nadine shook her head. “No idea. There are all kinds of theories. I’ve heard it’s a ritual sacrifice and someone screwed up at the club. I’ve heard the two survivors were maybe immune to it.”

“The only way they could be immune is if they were…” Ash cursed and sat back. What the hell was he doing?

“If they were…what?” Finley prompted.

Ash shook his head. “What else?”

Nadine listed off a bunch of reasons that got more and more farfetched.

He looked displeased, like he expected the truth to be in her answers somewhere.

“Who’s doing this to people?”

“Unknown,” Ash replied simply.

Finley sat back in her chair. “I feel like all this stuff is related somehow. It’s almost like magic is the key ingredient in this drug. There is nothing known to us that can create that kind of havoc in the human body. I saw it up close and personal. It didn’t look like science to me. It looked like magic.”

7

Secrets and Magic

Finley Sawyer was nothing but trouble. Ash had gone to her place expecting to keep her company while she did laundry or went to the mall. He hadn’t expected her to be on the hunt. If he’d known that sooner, he wouldn’t have come.

That was a lie.

He needed to see her. He ached to be in the same room, breathing the same air with her. With his cuff back where it belonged, he thought the need for her would go away. Instead, he was a moody sod, and Henrik had all but ordered him to go find Finley.

He did it because he wanted to even though he knew it was a bad idea.

What was worse, she was even closer to finding out that she’d been drugged that night at Club Opal. He hadn’t fully realized it at the time, even though he could smell the drug in her drink. Finley had distracted him from his missions—from both Dragon Fire and Tristian—and because of it, she could’ve paid with her life. She and her sister both could’ve burned, just as quickly as the other seven did.

Except, neither one of them went up in flames.

It didn’t make any sense. The small bits of Dragon Fire they’d managed to get their hands on was volatile.

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