Page 46 of Dragon's Flame
“Hey!” she squeaked, as a gust of cooler air joined him—her hair was practically yellow from all of the unguents she’d rubbed on top of it, and she was working at the bottom half of it with a comb.
“So this is what’s been keeping you,” he said, stepping into the shower with her. He had fresh clothes of his own, recently purchased, outside—and the flipflops, which had seemed fairlyfoolish earlier, now made excellent footwear, seeing as it didn’t matter if they got wet.
Without asking, he plucked the comb from her hand. “Turn around.”
She huffed, but did as she was told, and he started working on untangling the bottom of her hair. The substances she’d put on it were slippery, so they helped, but there were parts that were so hopeless, he had to clip knots out with his fingernails.
“What is a mall?”
She looked over her shoulder at him. “Like—a big place. Where they sell things.”
“And . . . apples?” he questioned.
Her face lit up, and she laughed. “No. Noooo. Phones. Apple’s just a brand.”
“Ahhh,” he said, pulling his hands through her hair, making sure the rest of the knots were gone. “That makes much more sense than what I was thinking.”
She turned off the water and reached for a towel. “You know, you can just ask,” she said, blotting off her hair, and he frowned.
“I would prefer not to feel . . .”
“Like you don’t know things? Well, I don’t know shit about dragons or magic, so I’d say we’re good. And besides—when it comes to a lot of things...you know everything you need to know.”
He squinted at her. “Kenna Murillo, are you making an innuendo?”
He watched her flush, her blood rising, slightly darkening her already dark skin. “And you know what an innuendo is, see?” she said, dancing out of the tub. “You should bathe too.”
She paused once she was outside of it, looking back at him longingly. He didn’t like the distance she’d just put between them, not when her tempting flesh was behind a rudimentary towel, but they both knew what was at stake: the safety of herfriend. He’d convinced her to wait until it was dark, for the element of surprise, but the “mall” closed soon, and they needed to get going.
“I’ll be fast,” he swore, pulling off his shirt.
When they returned that evening,Kenna had what she needed, although Tarian didn’t understand it. She’d played with the phone the entire way back to the hotel. Things on the screen kept popping up, making her mad, until she’d finally cracked what she needed to, crowing when she managed it.
“I just had to remember like twelve million passwords, but,” she announced, holding it out to face him, “this is where she’s at.”
There was a red dot, like a tiny pin, on an unfamiliar map.
“I finally got into our shared friend-finder app—that’s her,” she said, pointing to the screen. “Or at least it’s her phone.” But then the red dot moved, and she gasped. “It’s definitely her!”
Or it was definitely a trap,Tarian thought—but either way, they were going together to meet it.
39
KENNA
She let Tarian drive, as their path wove up into the Santa Cruz mountains. He’d wanted to fly, but she didn’t think his dragon would be wieldy through the redwoods—and besides, the mountains had burned more than once before, she would feel awful if he used his fire and five different small towns went up like a tinderbox.
Whether or not she could live with the alternative—Sarah suffering because of knowing her—was something she wasn’t ready to face. Rocky was sitting on her lap, and she was petting him with her free hand, trying to stay calm.
“The road curves to the right,” she said, and Tarian followed her directions, as they kept going higher. They were past the places where she’d gone hiking now, up into the deep woods, and of course it’d occurred to her that whomever they were dueling could be playing them, too, toying with Sarah’s phone just like Tarian had their tracker.
But she didn’t feel like they had a choice—and neither did Tarian, or they wouldn’t be here.
“Thank you,” she said, looping one of his hands with her own.
He glanced over at her briefly, before returning his eyes to the road. “Of course.”
She hadn’t broached any of the things she’d said last night again—about them being one-and-done—mostly she needed him now, and also it felt impossible. Somewhere along the way of him claiming her—because that’s what it had been, his mouth ravenous against her skin, the way he needed to sink into her, as if to save his life—she’d gone past overwhelmed and literally become entwined. Not just with his limbs, and his lust, but something inside her soul had reached out and met his, and while she still wasn’t his Seris, she wanted to be with him, just as badly as he wanted to be with her.
