Page 20 of Pierce

“Listen,” I said, holding my hands up in a defensive gesture but also to show him I meant no harm, “all I know is that the girl needed help. You know how it is with us. You wouldn’t have been able to let her go over the cliff any more than I would. None of us would’ve stood idly by and allowed another person to die that way. There wasn’t any time to think.”

I sighed, letting my hands drop. “But it’s more than that. There’s something… something about her. I don’t know what. My dragon seems to know, or at least have an idea.”

“You mean…” Fence’s eyes lit up. “Your mate?”

“Impossible,” Miles shook his head. “It’s been too long for that. We’re all too old.”

“We’re still breathing. We’re not too old. And hey, I don’t know that I believe it any more than you. Truly. But the dragon wanted this. For us to save her. To heal her. In the moment…” I shook my head, looking at the floor rather than looking any of them in the eye.

We didn’t exactly hang around, discussing feelings all the time. It was new for me to share with them how I felt on a deeper level. I had to search for the right words to explain something I didn’t fully understand.

“In the moment, there was nothing else to do. I felt desperate. Like everything hinged on her living.”

“And now?” Gate didn’t sound any less furious, but at least he wasn’t challenging me to a brawl.

“Now? I still feel the same way.” My mind went back to her in the cell, suffering. “Only there may not be anything else I can do for her. Did any of you know that our blood is toxic to the fae?”

“You mean, you’ve poisoned her?” Smoke asked.

“Something like that. I’m not sure. She says I did, and her shoulder looked worse than it had when I left her. Not that it matters,” I added with a growl. “She wants a healer. I’ve already told her there’s no way for her to leave, but when I offered to bring somebody here, blindfolded even, she refused that as well. She won’t tell us where they live.”

“Just like we can’t let anyone know where we are,” Miles mused. He looked sorry for me. I wished he wouldn’t.

“If she won’t allow you to help her, there’s nothing you can do.” Gate shrugged. “I’m sorry. I am. But maybe this is the way things are meant to be.”

“Can’t you see it’s impossible for me to accept that?”

“You may not have a choice,” Smoke pointed out, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, but you can’t force her. If the prospect of death isn’t enough, what is?”

“I wish I knew.” I looked around, desperate for them to understand. “I wish you knew what it means to go through something like this. I’m powerless, but the dragon won’t let her go. He keeps telling me there’s got to be some way to save her, because she’s ours.”

“It means that much to you?” Fence asked.

“You would know if you’d ever been through it. I can’t shut him up. It’s never been like this before.” I held my head in my hands, as if that would block out the incessant demands of the beast within me.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the girl in the cell, her big, luminous green eyes staring straight into my soul. That morning, I hadn’t known she existed.

Standing in the kitchen with my family, I knew in a deep and unfamiliar part of my heart that the world wouldn’t be the same without her in it.

“I could talk to her, see if there’s any way we can meet in the middle—though I can’t imagine a middle ground right now,” Smoke mused. “It’s one or the other. Live or die.”

“No. I don’t want you involved in this—not that I don’t trust you or believe in you,” I added when a frown touched his face. “If she dies before we can get help to her, I wouldn’t want you to feel like it was your fault. I brought her here, and I’ll handle the consequences.”

One corner of Gate’s mouth quirked up in disbelief. “Easy for you to say right now.”

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