Page 125 of Ensnared
“But you promised me you’d train here every day so I’d be able to see you.”
That made my breaths come a little faster. “I did no such thing.”
His voice dropped. “In my head, you did.”
Oh. “I guess I should’ve told you I’d be coming in earlier.”
“I could skip out early—go with you to the carnival.”
“But you’re still at my gym.” I was nervous, even then, at the prospect of Gideon, whom I had known for my entire life almost, flirting.
“Does that mean we can’t go anywhere together?” His voice was light, but I could tell he was really, really serious. “And if two friends held hands, who would know?”
My breath caught.
“And if I were to bob for apples with you, and wipe the water from your face, or if I smashed the base of the strongman game with a hammer and rang the bell. . .or if I shot the most balloons with the dart gun and won you a stuffed animal. . .”
“It’s not a real carnival,” I said. “It’s a fundraiser for the school.”
“Is that a no? You don’t want me to crash this party?”
I did. I really, really did. But I was also going for Sammy, not to spend time with a boyfriend I wasn’t supposed to have yet. “I need my little brother to be my actual focus,” I said, regretting the words as they emerged. “But at the next carnival. . .”
“Maybe I’ll propose at the next one, with a ring in one of those dumb balloons.”
My heart stops.
“Or would that be too corny?”
“You’re thinking about proposing?” I can’t even swallow.
“I’ve been thinking about proposing for years, Liz. I’m finally talking about it.”
When I hung up the phone that day, I spent the next few hours floating around on a cloud. And then on the day of the carnival, that cloud burst and released a torrent of rain, drowning the world.
I have a track record now, of feeling joyful, of feeling hopeful, and then the world beneath my feet just collapses. After Axel heard about my dream, he started making plans to leave Houston. On the one hand, I was giddy. On the other. . .it felt ominous for some reason. All the dragons just arrived in a flurry, and then after one horrible memory from my brain was dislodged, they’re just magically pulling up the anchor?
“It’s not only you,” Axel says. “We’ve thoroughly searched this area. It felt like as good a place as any to start, but we’ve found no evidence of the heart, so it’s past time to move on.”
But that leaves us dealing with some tricky loose ends.
“She has to come with us,” I say. “We can’t leave Ocharta here, stuck in a red bubble.”
“She’s regenerated,” Axel says. “If we take her, she’ll be able to do whatever she wants.”
“But if you leave her, the humans will kill her, and my mom will die.” Which is the whole reason we didn’t kill her in the first place.
“We’d have to free her for her to follow us, and the risk to you will continue, unresolved.”
“I’m not bonded to an earth dragon she despises anymore,” I say. “Now I’m Azar’s entwined. Do you really think she’ll do anything to me?”
He fumes. “I don’t like the idea of letting someone who defied me free.”
I hate the idea of her being free as well. My own mother begged me to let her die, but I can’t live with that being my last memory of my mother. Hard things always seem the worst in the middle—we just haven’t figured out a solution yet. I’m working on it, though, learning about the bonds and trying to figure out how to transfer or dissolve hers. Without more time, I’m doomed. But with a little more study, I’m confident there will be something we can do.
I drop one hand on his arm. “Can you let it go anyway? For me?”
Axel pauses, and then he exhales slowly. “Fine. Fine.”
