Page 88 of To Spark a Dragon's Love
The stress of the apocalypse was getting to me.
“It’s not nothing.” Malachy did that deep-chested rumbling thing that eased all the knots in my muscles. “I can hear your thoughts racing from here.”
“It really is nothing,” I groaned, embarrassed. “I keep having this stupid dream with this creepy voice that talks to me.”
Malachy went rigid. “A voice? What does it say?”
I tried to wiggle out, but his grip was a vise. “It doesn’tactuallysay anything. It’s more of a vibe. Like ghosts rattling chains in a haunted house to tell people to ‘get out.’ Monosyllable type stuff like the B-movies Riley watches, except the voice seems to like me.”
He wasn’t pacified by my pacifying explanation.
That sucked because I thought I did it well given what I was working with.
Malachy jumped to his feet and grabbed my hand. “We need to go.”
“You’re scaring me.” I pulled my hand away when I saw the frantic look on his face. “Why are you freaking out?”
He dragged his hand through his hair, breathing in a shuddering breath and exhaling before speaking again. “Do you get sensations along with these voices? A pulling feeling? Like your skin is crawling or maybe it’s too tight?”
I huffed a laugh. “I might be infertile, but I still have a menstrual cycle and ovulate—though things have been wonky the last year—but that pretty much describes what I feel for two weeks out of every month.”
“No.” His eyes pleaded with me to understand. “Do you ever feel an urgent need to go to the voice?”
“No…” I started.
Malachy stared at me.
Dang this bond.
“The voice really wants me to come to it.” I winced.
“We’re leaving.” Malachy grabbed my hand again, not letting me go this time.
“Now I’m freaking out,” I cried as I hurried to gather my clothes. “What does this mean?”
Malachy’s words rumbled off the cave walls as he marched us straight through his treasure hoard. “It’s Earth. And She can’t have you.”
32
Malachy
Over My Dead Body
She can’t have her.
We won’t let it happen.
“I just don’t understand,” Willow was saying. “Malachy told me when we first met that Earth doesn’t really speak.”
“Technically it’s not speaking,” Riley said.
“And you didn’t actually hear any words?” Ember asked. “You only felt the words being spoken?”
I tuned out the women in the other room, leaving them to their investigations into Earth’s antics and knowing they wouldn’t make sense of it either.
No one could decipher Earth’s motives. She did what She wanted.
All I knew was that Earth couldn’t take Willow. I’d die before I’d allow it.
