Page 158 of Deadwood
Our kiss was just that good, Princess.
She shot me a glare over her shoulder. “Don’t play with me, Bowen.”
It means dragons aren’t the only ones with this ability.
I didn’t mention how my smoke could communicate with me if it so pleased.
“Can you talk to anyone else like that?” she asked.
Right now didn’t seem like the best time to explain what this meant. With her father on his way and what had transpired in the spring, I didn’t want to confuse Auria with more questions weighing down on her shoulders. She wasn’t fragile, not in my eyes anymore, but one could only take so much in a day. Even I knew that.
Like what? Like how when you released around my fingers, gripping them beyond comprehension, I wanted them to break inside of you so they would never have to leave your body?
I didn’t miss the heat that crawled up her neck into her cheeks at my words. It had the desired effect, both igniting her and making her questions cease.
I’d tell her everything once I knew we were safe and without threat of her father burning Deadwood to the ground.
It was time.
No, Princess. It’s just you and me in this bubble, and I intend to use it—my lips ghosted over her shoulder—to my advantage.
Within minutes, we were landing in the town square of Deadwood. Dust kicked up around us in a cloud as we descended Vulcan’s leg. As soon as Auria was steady on her feet, he took off, his shadow coasting over the crowd of irate people.
“He’ll try to kill us!” a man shouted as a few individuals closed in on us.
“The girl! The girl is the reason for his visit!”
“Send her to the desert, he can grab her there!”
“If we’re lucky, the sandwalkers will get to her first!”
Slight panic flooded Auria’s features, and smoke licked at my veins, begging to be unleashed.
Let me out, my magic purred.I will end them all where they stand.
I shoved its voice to the black depths of my mind as Raiden shoved his way through the crowd, coming to stand on Auria’s other side. “They’re not happy.”
“I couldn’t have guessed,” I muttered.
“Once word got out, they went feral,” Raiden informed me, eyes scanning the crowd for any advancing threat.
“They forget they’re fae.”
“You forget he has dark magic.”
At the mention of dark magic, my smoke banged against the steel wall I had forced it behind, demanding to be released.
“I can leave,” Auria spoke up, and both our gazes shot down to her. She was staring out at the roaring crowd, now kept a decent distance away by Flynt and Siara waving them backwards after they had showed up shortly behind Raiden.
“Auria—”
“They’re right.” A sheen coated her eyes as she looked up at me. “I’m the reason he’s coming. If I leave, he won’t storm Deadwood.”
“We don’t even know what his intentions are.” Aside from taking Auria back to that prison. Away from here. From me.
“We know enough. My father is not a peaceful man. It’s no secret, and they’re all aware of that.”
Raiden’s attention turned back to the roaring crowd, giving us a moment to speak.
