Page 15 of Firedrake Betrayal
My mother descended from House Kaida, where she had been a princess and my father her guard. They’d fallen in love, run away together, and built a new life for themselves in Chicago.
Kaidas were masters of an element called spirit. At least, according to Dominik. Is that what the jumbled, blue translucent ribbons I’d untangled were? Spirit?
“Air, chaos, fire, and spirit,” I whisper the words he spoke back in the collector’s cell.
I frown, trying to recall what else Dominik had told me. It might be the only way I get myself out of here.
Air enables flight. Chaos aids transformation. Fire comes to a firedrake in man or beast form. And spirit allows us to see through magic, which is only deception. You cannot hide the truth from spirit, and Kaidas are masters of spirit.
That’swhat he had told me.
I had looked at his chain and seen something.
I don’t know what spirit is, exactly, but I swore, for the briefest of moments, I saw some blue…thingwoven around his chain. Had that been spirit? I don’t know. Whatever it was, I’d broken the magic in his chain that wouldn’t let him transform.
And I had freed him.
I wish I’d thought to ask more questions. Knowing more might have helped me escape. Not that Dominik and I had much talking time.
Between Atticus continually gassing us and the friends he brought along to stare at us like we were animals in a zoo, Dominik and I had sex.
First, we pretended until a fertility doctor made pretending not an option. We had to do it for real. It had been awkward, and then it wasn’t awkward anymore.
It had felt good. Really good.
When I realize just how much my thoughts have wandered, I shake my head.
“Focus, Jade. Now is not the time to think of something that will never happen again. Dominik was using you,” I mutter.
Maybe everything he told me before were lies designed to get me to trust him so he could kidnap me.
I have a sudden flashback to a bolt slamming into Dad. Of him falling.
Maybe even dying.
Tears fill my eyes, and I dash them away.
“Now isnotthe time for crying.” I sniff as I shove myself to my feet. “This is the new Jade. The strong Jade who will get herself out of this shitty situation without falling apart.”
I get up and stalk over to the locked door, trying to ignore the part of me desperate to sift through the jewels or dive into it like Scrooge McDuck. The part that sees gold and wants.
I stamp that part down because this Jade is getting the hellout.
Then I think of Shep, Patten, and Isaiah. The only reason they were there in the first place was because I asked them to help.
They could all be dead.
“No. They are alive and I am going back to them.” I repeat it over and over, my new mantra until I break out of here.
I stare at the lock until I go cross-eyed, trying to see—or summon?—the blue translucent threads I briefly saw in Dominik’s chain.
When that doesn’t work, I close my eyes and lean my head against the metal door.
But concentrating is hard when I can’t stop thinking about how I trusted Dominik and he betrayed me. Or the fact I’m pregnant and bonded forever with him.
It’s too much.
Too much fear, worry, anxiety and terror. Not knowing how or even if I can do anything to help in Oklahoma. Getting back to Wilkerson is just the start of it, and it’s not even the biggest battle I’ll face.
