Page 21 of Smoke

I told you we should have kept her here. I told you she was ours! He would never let me live it down—and for once, I didn’t blame him.

There was only one solution. “We have to find her.”

Jasmine jumped up. “You think we can?”

“If you try hard enough to track her—I mean, wouldn’t her emotions be running at full-tilt right now? You got through to her once. You can try again. Maybe she’ll hear you, and she’ll know we’re coming.”

“What about Pierce?” Her voice dropped to a whisper.

“Where is he?”

“He had to go for supplies.”

“Then we don’t have much time,” I decided. “Pack a bag. Hurry. We’ll go out through the back entrance and take the Jeep. We’ll have to ride down the mountain to avoid running into Pierce on the main road.”

I went straight to my room, and she went to the one she and Pierce shared.

He would kill me for taking her without consulting him first, but I didn’t care right about then. Neither did the dragon. For the first time in weeks, he roared in approval. And the need for vengeance against whoever pushed Alina to the point where she was that desperate.

But I could wait for vengeance, so long as I had her with me.

It wasn’t ten minutes before we were on our way through the tunnel, running side-by-side.

“Did you leave a note?” I asked.

“Yes, of course. He would never forgive me if I didn’t. I told him Alina’s in serious trouble and we went to find her before things get worse.” She looked at me. “I mean, what happens to her out on the road? All alone?”

“I don’t know, which is why we have to hurry. I don’t want to give her enough time to get into any trouble.”

We’re coming, Alina. We’ll find you. Just hold on.

“Are you sure this will be safe?” she asked as I started the Jeep.

“It’ll be bumpy, but you’ll be okay.”

“I don’t mean that—not just that, anyway.”

“What else do you mean?” I hit the gas, and suddenly, we were plunging down the side of the mountain on the dirt path.

Any questions Jasmine had were temporarily forgotten as she squealed and groaned and gasped with every bump the Jeep hit.

“You’d better know what you’re doing!” she shouted.

“I do!”

“I hope so!”

I stole a quick glance at her at one point to find she was squeezing her eyes shut, her teeth clenched tight in a grimace.

It took less than twenty minutes to reach the base of the mountain, and when the ground leveled out, she let out a gasp. “Wow. Talk about a shortcut.”

“It comes in handy,” I agreed, as I thanked whatever forces were on our side for giving us a stretch of dry weather. If the ground was wet and muddy, it might have been a different story altogether. “What now? Where do we go?”

She chewed her lip, looking right and left. “I wish I knew. It seems to me that she’ll try to find us. Which means she’d be coming in this direction.”

“What makes you think that?”

She rolled her eyes and gave me a withering, are-you-serious look. “Where else would she go?”

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