Page 80 of Bite Me

A new energy renewed Ky and he tore through them like a rogue wave, slicing and smashing a path to Jada. She did the same pulling more squirt guns from a bag in her hip as she emptied them. He was getting her a goddamn super soaker when they made it back to the surface.

When only a handful of the demon dragons remained, most of them split, retreating down the hallway Ky had just come up. Jakob, Ciara and the black rogue finished the final ones off.

Jada dropped her final squirt gun to the ground and ran to him. She didn't give him a choice, because she slid right up to him and under one of his wings.

“I thought you were dead. I can't feel you, in here I mean.” She placed her hand over the bone carving that held his soul shard.

The one he had given to her, the one he'd been worried she didn't want.

Ky shifted into his human form and wrapped his arms around Jada. He couldn't help it. He had every intention of keeping her at arm’s length until he could figure out why this wall of mistrust was between them, convince her to come away from the dark side. He’d even make her cookies.

The way she sniffled against his chest broke that vow to protect his heart. Her tears threw the new wall he’d built around himself on the floor and smashed it into a million little pieces.

He laid his cheek against the top of her head and held her tight for just a minute. They were still in the bowels of hell, but he needed this. They both did.

She hiccupped and sniffled again. “Why can't I feel you?”

Ky hadn't realized that the droplets of Azynsa's tears were still surrounding his heart, his life force.

He released them with his thanks and pulled a few from Jada's face to replace them with. She gasped and they both groaned as their connection was restored.

The blue shard of his soul glowed brightly again on her.

“Sorry,wahine. It got a bit rough down here for a while.” He would tell her later about his meeting with the White Witch and the First Dragon.

Jakob cleared his throat. “Sorry to cut your reunion short, but I'd like to get out of here with my scales intact and my mate unharmed.”

Ky was going to ask Jakob why he brought Ciara at all, but nah. She was a white witch, one who was still learning her powers, but from the day they had all first met her, nobody told her what to do. It drove Jakob crazy, which Ky found hilarious until very recently when his own mate had him questioning, love, life, and the meaning of everything.

The answer wasn’t 42.

Jakob and Ciara were solid. They’d had a seriously rocky start. Like ships crashing on jagged spikes of rock in a storm with no lighthouse.

They’d made it through and were happy as Paua in the mud.

Would he and Jada ever be that way?

He had a million questions to ask her. It would be a difficult conversation. All of the whys would plague him if he didn't. He wanted to get on that path to forgiveness as soon as he could.

The way to do that was to get home.

“Match is down here too. Get this--he's chasing the Black Dragon's daughter.” Ky looked over at the rogue. “You've got quite the family.”

The black dragon shifted into his human form. He had no shard hanging around his neck, so Ky didn't understand how he was able to shift.

The rogue scowled at him. “They are not my family. I have no family.”

Portia stood up and tried to take the rogue’s hand. He pulled it away.

That was when Ky noticed the shard hanging around Portia's neck. It was a dull yellow, but he would recognize it anywhere. It was Cage's.

Was that why Jada had stolen the shard? To give it to her sister?

His questions were interrupted by Azynsa. “I'm not leaving yet.”

The rogue turned on her. He growled. “You need to get the fuck out of here. I've helped you as much as I could. But Kur-Jara will kill you if he doesn't get what he wants.”

Azynsa lifted her chin. Such a defiant mate she was going to be. “I don't care. That woman, Fallyn, she made a huge sacrifice for me and was punished because of it. I have to find a way to repay her.”

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