Page 30 of A Spark in the Ash

I let it slip when I was talking to Renwick. But I haven’t really confessed it to myself yet. Because it’s terrifying. If I love Jaxon, Davorian’s fears might come to life. It will leave me vulnerable to heartbreak.

Even though I know it’s too late. I know exactly how devastated I would be if anything were to happen to him or between us to end this.

Does he feel the same? Is Jaxon caught in this wild thrill of obsession for each other? Is he thinking about me every waking second, like I’m thinking about him? Is he prepared to throw everything he thought he once wanted out the window, just so we never have to say goodbye again?

His lips say yes. His hands at my back say yes.

“Serena, I—”

“Hurry up you horny insects,” Ascelin yells from the tunnel entrance. “If you don’t get something to refuel with, I’m going to kick both your asses tonight during training.”

I growl in his direction and flip him off. But he’s right.

We need to move along.

So, I take Jaxon’s hand, and we head back inside.

The hour is early.We’re all exhausted. We’ve been training all night, fighting like we haven’t fought in a long time.

But as we all lounge throughout the compound after breakfast, Jaxon suddenly stiffens.

“What’s wrong?” I ask as I sit up straight. I’m silently begging for him not to lose his control suddenly. He’s been doing so well.

He looks around, blinking hard. “I…I don’t know,” he says. He’s searching the place, but I have no idea what for. “I just feel…kind of weird. I… I need to be somewhere, Serena.”

It takes me three seconds to realize what’s going on. “Do you feel…antsy? Like if you don’t go and look for something right now, you’re going to burst out of your skin?”

His brows furrow as he looks at me, as if he’s wondering how the hell I could know this. But he nods.

A small smile pulls on my lips. “You’re sensing your first dusk. You ready to go exorcise it?”

His face pales just a bit and his expression slackens.

It’s one thing to be told this is your purpose for being. It’s another to have to go and do it.

He doesn’t even answer me. Suddenly he’s on his feet, and with long, quick strides, he heads down the passageway.

I look back at Davorian, who watches the whole thing. “Go with him,” he says with a nod. “Layla, Jasper, you too.”

The other two agents get up immediately, and all three of us follow Jaxon down the hall.

I grab Jaxon when we’re beneath the tunnel, and shift. We climb and rise through the sandstone. When we reach the surface, I shift back once more, and set Jaxon on his feet.

He’s quiet. His expression is intense, focused. He crosses straight to my car and I toss him the keys. I have no idea what direction we’re going. I can still exorcise a dusk, but I cannot sense them here in this verse.

I slip into the passenger seat and Jaxon revs the engine to life.

Layla and Jasper slip into the back seat just a half second before Jaxon hits the gas and takes off.

He heads to the dirt road, the one that leads to the highway. But once we hit that, we don’t turn right like we normally do into the city. He takes a left, taking us farther out into the desert.

No one says a word. Every one of us knows the rush this is. How it takes every ounce of your concentration and focus. It’s like being on the hunt. Jaxon can sense his prey, and now all he can focus on is taking it out.

The sky grows lighter as morning dawns. I’m pretty sure this area is part of some kind of national park, or something. Jaxon’s gaze is intense as he stares out into the morning, hitting the gas harder.

Suddenly, he makes a hard left turn, and rolls up onto a dirt road. There’s nothing around, but this road looks like it’s traveled upon every so often.

And then there it is. Up ahead, I see a trailer house. The outside is yellow and green, faded with time. There’s an old truck parked outside, and trash is spread all over the ground.

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