Page 13 of Amethyst Flame
“I need to guarantee Ms. Taylor wasn’t compromised.” Dane pinned me with a charcoal-gray stare. “Stay here.”
What, likeIwas the problem? I drew a breath to yell at him. But couldn’t.
Pulling out his phone, Dane stalked over to the foyer area by the door and started talking, low and fast, to someone who’d apparently been ringing through. I looked longingly the other way toward the windows. Moths could shatter glass but could they stop me from shattering bones if I jumped?
Jacob shifted beside me. “Mo—”
It took everything I had not to wrap my arms around my half-nekkid self. I wasn’t going to be ashamed that I’d thought this could’ve been special. “I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Listen, I’m just making nice with the secret agent. You know I’m Team Mo.”
I didn’t believe him.
Jacob sighed. “You’d said a couple times how hard it was, not knowing what might happen to you, not knowing exactly what you might do.” He looked at me. “Do you remember a month ago when you called me in the middle of the night?”
I swallowed hard. “Yeah.”
I’d fallen asleep over some homework and had a nightmare that the moths turned to fire and ate me from the inside. I’d tried to scream but my lungs and then my vocal cords and my tongue and teeth turned to ash, and I crumbled into a Mo-shaped stain on my bed. Which had been perfectly made at the time. Shoulda clued me in it was a nightmare. But it felt so real.
As a Mo-ghost, less than ash, I’d drifted up to the ceiling and stayed there, staring down, until Gwumpki the cat jumped onto the bed, sneezed once and scattered the dust, so that when my mom came in not even a clue remained that I’d ever existed…
Her cry had woken me up, and I realized she really was crying in her room. Normally she pretended everything was mostly fine, but that night, the pain in her back had gotten to her. And somehow I’d heard—or my moths had. I wanted to take her to the hospital, or at least call one of her doc friends, but she’d shut me down.
“This is my life now,” she said. “Sometimes I cry, but that’s not going to stop me.”
I’d done the massages with the CBD oil that helped, and eventually she fell asleep. By then I was wired so I called Jacob on the encrypted phone he’d sent me.
We’d talked for a while, and I remembered telling him about worrying I might die before Mom. I rambled about thinking maybe I could infuse some of my moths into her, to help with the pain, but what if I made it worse…
Mostly, I’d always made things worse.
He’d listened without trying to tell me everything would be all right. Not many people could do that, just shut up and listen. I guess I hadn’t realized just how much he was listening.
He cast a quick glance at Dane. “You have to know I have your back. I know what you’re up against. And I promise youIwon’t keep you down, like this guy. I’m going to find a way for us both to end up on top. But I gotta dance with Dane to do it.”
The White Wafer of Doom was packed with data about the Molecular Tactical Hive program. But none of their sketchy human trials had found a way to integrate a hive with a person, and so there’d been nothing about reversing the process either.
Jacob shot a look at Dane, who had pivoted back to face us though he was still on his phone. Before I could formulate a reply, Jacob took my hands. Quite the backpedaling from that scorching kiss with his hands cupping my ass, but maybe somehow more comforting. “And I thought your butterflies were beautiful.”
I bit my lip to stop myself from smiling.
The difference between these two assholes was that Dane wanted to clip my wings, and Jacob wanted to help me fly…albeit with him tagging along, but still fly. I knew which I preferred.
Dane stalked up while we were holding hands. His thick eyebrows were drawn into a crow-in-flight unibrow, but I didn’t think it was our snuggling that bothered him; he just always looked annoyed. “We have some loose ends,” he announced. He snapped his gaze to Jacob. “You. You think you’re good on a computer?”
Geez, it was like a Legendelirium non-player character challenging SirLancelot to a quest. Jacob puffed up bigger than his avatar. “I’m good, yeah.”
“Can you hack the venue’s security system and wipe the tapes?”
Jacob half-closed his eyes. “How well do I have to cover my tracks?”
“Just enough for plausible deniability.”
“Then I guess we’re partners now.” Jacob smiled at Dane.
Dane’s mouth twisted back. “Yeah. No.” He turned to me. “You stay here. Finish the food and get some rest. You look…terrible.”
“You look like an asshole.” The words popped out, but I didn’t try to stop them.
