Page 43 of Firedrake Betrayal
Jade barely looks at them. “We can leave them. Clothes don’t matter.”
12
JADE
Meliah’s friend’s house is cozy.
A small space filled with color and texture.
Too small.
I still have yet to tell anyone that I’m emerging. And I am. Whatever happened in the cell after I freed Dominik from the chain, followed by those blue threads showing up in his hoard, means something is happening.
I’m changing into someone I don’t recognize, with no one I can trust to guide me through it. And this change will be big. Too big to manage on my own.
Too big to happen in a three-bedroom witch’s house that I am now—and for the foreseeable future—sharing with a firedrake, a shifter, starving vampire, and a demon.
And they want Dominik dead.
Patten tried to strangle Dominik.
Dominik curled his lip at Shep when he ordered him to get the bags, clearly unhappy at being forced to leave all those newly purchased clothes behind.
We could only fit one suitcase in the trunk. I said if it mattered so much to him, he could take one of his bags; I didn’tcare. And I left before he could argue like he looked like he wanted to.
We took my dad to Meliah’s house first. Once he was comfortable, Meliah brought us to her friend’s house and left soon after, not wanting to leave Dad alone for long. She’d set up a protective spell before she left, but he was still alone.
And I saw the suitcase that Dominik unloaded from Isaiah’s white Audi.
It was a bag he’d told me was one of mine back in New York.
I don’t like Dominik and I don’t trust him, but he keeps doing things that make me question him. He will say something that makes me want to kick him, then he’ll turn around and do something that makes me think I do like him.
Is he a terrible person or isn’t he?
After he kidnapped me, I know he doesn’t have my best interests in mind. He’s made it clear he wants to take me back to New York and that he doesn’t intend to share me.
If I ask him to tell me more about what my emergence would look like or how to prepare for it, he could tell me anything and I wouldn’t know if he was telling me the truth.
I want to go back to Chicago with Patten, Shep, and Isaiah, but I’m pregnant now. That changes things in a massive way.
They said it didn’t matter, and I believed them when they said it, but ever since Meliah drove us to this house, taking the long way around to ensure no one followed, I’ve had plenty of time to think.
And to doubt.
It’s been ten minutes. Not long, but ten minutes is a lot of thinking time when every minute the doubt ramps up a little more.
I told three men who came all this way to save me that I’m pregnant, and I’m terrified they won’t want me anymore.
Then there’s Dad. I agreed it was best for us to separate, and Dad said Meliah was safe. But is she really? Or have I crossed over from being too trusting to overly paranoid?
“Jade?”
I wrench my eyes from the gray granite countertop to focus on what truly matters right now. Helping Isaiah, finding and killing Atticus Chira, and then leaving this town forever. I’ll think about Dominik and this pregnancy another time. Maybe when my brain isn’t ready to explode.
We’re all in the kitchen portion of the open concept living space. The only one sitting is Isaiah. He’s at the kitchen island. I’m on one side with Shep, and Patten is beside Isaiah, watching him carefully. His concern surprises me.
They argued a lot in Chicago, and they still argue a bit here, but Patten got to Isaiah first after he fainted, and, though he seemed eager to slap Isaiah awake again, I think that was pretense.
