Page 64 of What Whispers in the Dark
Jade stretched out her hand along the ground. Reaching and reaching and reaching. Toward that explosion. Toward those night-dark eyes and a face she couldn’t see or remember, screaming—wailing—as chaos and every damning thing rained around her like the sky opened up and delivered them a storm of hellfire and dragonflame.
The year-weathered scales of the red dragon’s paw, which she vowednever tobow to, slammed beside her face. A claw sank into her abdomen?—
Jade’s fist slammed into Aiden’s hand again, refusing the tears forming in her eyes.
Then a voice. Another voice. Much lower than the dragon lurking by her side, pinning her to the ground. His voice was too quiet to hear—or perhaps the coliseum was deafeningly loud—but Kieran … out of dragonform … was on top of her. Flipping her onto her back the moment Vaddrach released his claw.
His fist raised high as that red dragon shewouldkill prowled closer to the inferno.
Closer to that figure who … who no longer stood.
A mere heap on the ground. Burning. Dying. Probably already dead.
She didn’t make a sound before Kieran’s fist fell. Before the searing pain overcame her body, which was reformed by bubbling burns and cuts and wounds. Didn’t make a sound as darkness swept her away.
“No,” Jade snapped, not intending for it to be cruel and harsh, but regardless, it came out that way. No—she didn’t want to speak. Didn’t want to do anything but punch something because that stupid thing in her chest had hollowed out so viciously that all that remained to fill it was pain.
A fucking nightmare.Thenightmare. The one that followed her from Torgal.
It was why she was out there. Why she needed to punch something—anything.
Aiden must have recognized it the moment Deimon flew her into that garden.
Jade slammed her fist into him again.
Her sea-captain weathered it expertly, as he did each punch. Not only from her firsts, but over time, over the years since they found each other, the venom that spit from her words, too. Concern flashed across his features as his gaze flashed to the castle turrets so far in the distance they barely peeked through the trees.
Jade didn’t waste the opportunity.
Taking full advantage of his distraction, her fist barreled at his jaw, sending him stumbling back into the shrubbery.
“Leave me alone, Aiden.”Jade didn’t need to turn to growl her warning; no longer in the mood to be around anyone, should her temper worsen to the point of regretting her reactions and littering the earth with blood and bone and splinters of teeth.
Butthe fooldidn’t heed the warning. His rushed footsteps continued behind, drawing louder, despite the very real threat against his life. Scuffing along the dirt and stones of the path she had ventured to within the forest surrounding the castle.
With no actual plan other than finding a tree to obliterate with her daggers, she had happened upon this trail fifteen minutes prior. Recognizing it as one that the High Guard would march along. It broke into four paths eighty paces ahead, all leading to various training grounds, with one curving upward to the cliffside where they had watched Garrik and Ezander nearly batter each other to death.
“Jade—”
“No.” That one word carried more death than any of the daggers strapped to her side.
Again, those footsteps didn’t stop. Closer now. Much closer.
A hand curled on her shoulder?—
Before the gasp left his throat, Aiden’s back hammered against a tree. His throat worked against the cold angle of her karambit licking the soft tan flesh there. Putting her full weight into it, Jade leaned close while her teeth gritted to the point of pain, and her emerald eyes burned a disastrous promise into his darkened orbs.
“I saidno.”
Aiden didn’t fight back. He only relaxed against the tree and studied her face carefully. She half imagined him spewing some nonsense, when instead, he swallowed against the infernium steel of her homeland, and gently coaxed, “Love.” Why did it sound so … understanding? That pissed her off even more. “Please?”
Please?Please?
Why didthathave her heart—that stupid, useless, hateful thing—aching? Why did it feel like the fire in her veins extinguished to glowing sparks? Like her flaminghearthad settled to a spark?
Aiden wasn’t begging forhislife. She registered that. Made certain by the way his eyes softened. By the way he stroked his fingers along her side and back. Not pushing her away but holding her there like he had done countless times on his ship and by the cover of dark alleys under moonlight. Not allowing her to leave likeherlife depended on it.
Some nights, she wasn’t sure it didn’t.
