Page 34 of Dragon's Flame
She shook her head. “No. I don’t accept that. You—untracked me.”
“They already knew who you were. Where you lived.”
“Then—put me in some sort of dragon-knowing witness protection program,” she said, and he had no idea what she meant by that. “But I’m not going to go to ground for the rest of my life, with a stranger, his brother, and a talking dog.”
Tarian tried to build the walls he’d been letting crumble back up, but he couldn’t; her words hurt him.
“And are you sure I am such a stranger to you?” he snarled, panicked—her seeing his dragon had been his last, most desperate card, and if that did not trigger her memories, he had no idea what else might. He pointed at the sky behind him. “I felt you out there. I know you felt me too! Do not lie to yourself anymore!”
It was the exact wrong thing to say—he watched her anger flare, brighter than the fire behind her. “I’m not lying! I don’t know you!”
The words hit him like a slap—especially because heknewthat they were true.
“Then I am no longer asking that,” he said, his chest heaving with sorrow, looking at the ground, feeling lost, before daring to raise his gaze back up. “What I am asking, then, is this—could you...want to?”
25
KENNA
Kenna stood there, stricken. Her heart was in her throat, all of her blood was below her knees, and her stomach was three states over and driving away at full speed.
“I—” she began, words failing her, as he waited for her answer, “I don’t know.”
Tarian regrouped at once. She felt doors slam between them, their connection dulling like he was locking himself inside a vault. “I see.”
“It’s not the same thing as no,” she said, though whether she was trying to ease the burden on her conscience, or keep at least a fingertip between her and a fully slammed door, she wasn’t certain.
“No. I understand. You and I, and this,” he said, gesturing between them, at the line that connected them, heart to heart. “It is misplaced. None of that changes the truth of any of what I said, though. If you went back now, you would still be hunted, because of your relationship with me. I am sorry to have ruined your life.”
“Yeah,” she said, circling around him, to sit in front of the fire. Unfortunately, she believed him. “Me too.”
He sat a safe distance away from her. “I fear this magic between us was cursed from the start.”
“What makes you say that?” she wondered, taking off her boots. If they were going to spend the night here, she didn’t want to sleep in them slightly more than she feared getting sand in her socks tomorrow.
“What I did was not allowed—apparently for good reason. I merged my soul with Seris’s, and dragon magic is powerful. Worth killing for. But I did not turn her into a dragon, to protect herself. And—worse yet—I didn’t tell her I’d done anything.”
Kenna gave a soft gasp. “Why not?”
“Because I didn’t want her to know,” he said, glancing in her direction. “You may think you are not alike, but in many ways you are. She was stubborn. She would’ve been mad at me. I just thought I would perform it, and then she would live forever alongside me, and I would keep her safe.”
“I take it things didn’t go to plan?”
“Not in the least,” Tarian said.
“And . . . all the scars, all over your body?” she pressed.
“Were the cost of my betrayal. Easily paid, and I would live through them again, if?—”
“It meant having her again,” she finished for him. She dug her pedicured toes into the cave floor sand—she’d had them done in a very light blue, so they looked like little shards of shells that birds had brought in here to crack and then discarded. “Well, I guess you’re stuck with me,” she said, with a light snort, and then an awkward pause passed between them, until she looked up, and saw Tarian watching her closely, like he’d been lying in wait to speak.
“I do not think it is so bad.”
Kenna felt a rare flush come up from her toes to the crown of her head. “Has anyone ever told you you come on a little strong?” she asked, determined to only stare into the fire for the rest of the evening.
“No,” he answered, and she knew he was being truthful, not sarcastic. Especially when he followed it up with, “Is it a bad thing?”
She knew she should’ve shot him down—but at the same time, there was a lot to be said for knowing precisely where-the-fuck a man stood. “No. Just...unusual.”
