Page 58 of Destiny of the Dragons

Jace considered squeezing his hand until Cross couldn’t breathe anymore. Smoke will help him find a remote place in the desert to hide the body.

But then the questions would start. The inquiries. The Matriarch of the Cross house wouldn’t sit idly by while her oldest son was murdered.

Mia would be blamed, in the end.

It was the only thing that stopped him. Not the thought of his mother’s displeasure or his place in the clan. If it got traced back to him, hell, even if not, Mia would take the fall.

He huffed and stepped back. “Get before I change my mind.” He let Cross see how close he was to killing him.

Cross winked. “We’ll invite you to the wedding. I’ll give her a couple extra thrusts for you.”

Jace’s temper popped, and he punched Cross in the face. There was a satisfying crunch of bone.

He expected Smoke to restrain him, but Smoke punched Cross himself. Smoke looked at Cross, and Jace didn’t think the man knew how close to death he’d come.

Cross slouched against the wall, chuckling.

Jace grabbed Smoke’s arm and they left the alleyway, Cross’s laughter following them.

Smoke was rigid, and if they paused for even a moment, Smoke would just go back into that alleyway and beat Cross until he was nothing but pulp.

Jace wanted to help. But in the end, Mia would be blamed and pay the price.

“Wait.” Jace’s voice felt like gravel. “We have to plan better. If he’s going to disappear, Mia needs to come away clean.”

Smoke growled but didn’t say anything.

Jace fumed all the way out of the Troll Market. He paused, almost ready to drag Smoke back to his cushy mansion in the hills.

“Let me look into some things,” Jace said. “We’ll figure it out.”

Smoke left, vanishing into the night like his namesake.

He would find a way to make Cross disappear, something ironclad. Then Mia would be safe and he could move on with his life, once and for all.

Mia filled her orders with precision. It had been three days since Mother told her about her engagement. In the back of her mind, she scrambled for a solution. She couldn’t marry Cross. There had to be a way out.

The only way out was her original plan, the spellbook.

If she left town, Mother would hunt her down, this time with the Cross witches on her side.

She didn’t want to die, and she couldn’t think of bait juicier for Mother than Mia marrying the Cross witches and getting her hands on the tracking spells.

She could have bargained with the Cross witches without marriage, but she knew Cross was behind this somehow.

He was at turns possessive and then cold. He was just jilted at the altar, so he had something to prove. Apparently, he decided Mia would be his next target.

Mia gritted her teeth. No, there was another way.

She had a last known address to Mrs. Ryder. Cross’s spells to trace her had so far lead to nothing, and Mia wondered if that wasn’t on purpose now. Cross was getting a piece of her mind the next time she saw him.

She would have to find Mrs. Ryder without Cross. She’d make up a reason to visit the last known address and go from there. If she was lucky, there would be something leftover from when Mrs. Ryder lived there, and Mia could use magic to trace her.

Of course, there was every chance Mrs. Ryder hadn’t left a single trace of her being there, but Mia had to start somewhere, and Internet searches had brought up too much. Too many people named Mrs. Ryder who were former residents of Las Vegas. It would take her years to sift through those names, and Mia didn’t have years.

From the way Mother was talking, she had months. At best.

The door to the antique shop slammed open. Cross stomped through the door.

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