Page 22 of Must Love Dragons
Damn it, he was so stubborn!
“I know you don’t trust magic, Zay.Or me.”Shit, that hurt to say.She rubbed the space over her heart where a part of him was already embedded inside her.They were connected whether they were mated or not because that’s just what happened when truemates met.It meant that somewhere in his heart, he felt connected to her.He just didn’t want to admit it, and that burned like real fire.Then something occurred to her.She tilted her head and looked up at him.“You’ve lost a lot.You aren’t giving me much to go on about your past, but I do know there was a great battle between a clan and a warlock coven, and I can guess that you’ve lost many people who were important to you.And maybe the reason you’re pushing me away has less to do with my magic and more to do with you not wanting to lose another person who’s important to you.”
The rumbling growl grew louder and she knew he was struggling.He might know they were truemates, but he didn’t trust her because she was a witch.She could understand how he felt because of what happened to his people, butshewasn’t the one who’d attacked them.He was holding her accountable for what someone else did.
His body tensed more, like a bow about to break.
They were so close now that only inches separated them.
His gaze dropped to her mouth.
This was it.
She knew it.He knew it.
She tilted her chin up.The heat coming off him was so intense that her own fire magic was responding, making her fingertips tingle.
And then he jerked away like he’d been burned, a low, “I can’t,” passing for an explanation.Shaking his head like he was dislodging some awful thought, he added, “I won’t.”
His rejection stung like a million bees.
“Why?”
Damn it, why had she asked?What was the old saying?Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to.
She put up her hand.“Never mind.I can’t force you to understand that I’m not a dark magic user and that I only have good intentions when it comes to you and your clan.I don’t want to fight with you.”
She turned to walk into the rescue and get a little space from him.Her heart hurt.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her back around to face him.“I lost almost everything in one terrifying night.Only my uncle and my younger sister survived from our family, and now my uncle is gone.The same warlocks who hunted us have taken my uncle, I’m sure of it.And he might be dead by now, I don’t know, but I have to find him.I don’t want to lose anyone else.”
His words hung in the air between them.
Anyone?Was she included?
But she didn’t get a chance to ask, because a voice interrupted them.
“Hey, we need to talk,” Venice said.
She extracted her arm from Zay’s grasp and turned to find Venice and Delaney walking out of the rescue.Brody was inside the rescue where the sunlight couldn’t get to him.
Nysa hurried from the rescue where Kinsley had left her when she’d gone to the docks with Zay.She knelt and picked up her familiar, burying her face in her fur and trying to settle the emotions that were rioting inside her.
“Hey kits,” she whispered.Then she lifted her head and looked at her friends.“What’s going on?”
“Cassian got us the video from the lighthouse’s security cameras and that included a download link to the live footage,” Venice said.“We can show you what happened on the docks, and we did see a warlock in the parking lot watching you two.He disappeared, but Delaney thinks he was probably using a cloaking spell and just walked away.”
On a tablet, they watched the footage of themselves on the dock, seeing the shadowy figure watching them.There were flickers and flares of magic coming from him, which told Kinsley that he was definitely a warlock.
How close had they come to being attacked on the docks?
She shivered.
Then they watched the footage of a group of males in dark clothing loading a person onto a boat.One of the males looked up at the sky and stepped onto the dock, then cast a spell that shot a strange-looking bolt of lightning into the air.
Kinsley looked at Zay.
“That’s when you were hit,” she said.
