Page 53 of Hopeless Sacrifice
He promises.
What a dick.
A smile tilts my lips.
What a smart and taunting asshole.
“I love you,” my voice shakes slightly. “Never promise me anything.”
His lips brush lightly over mine.
“Ipromise, I won’t.”
Those simple words make my heart flutter.
They almost make me forget the world for a few short minutes.
He pauses there, holding on to me for just a moment longer.
Ryder and Darrio both look to the two of us. I feel their gazes but I’m not ready to abandon the safe feel of his arms.
I pull back from him slowly.
It takes a second for me to find a sense of normalcy between the swirling calm and the fighting anxiety within me.
“Where’s Streven? He hasn’t come to warn us? Tristan really hasn’t crossed the sea yet?”
Darrio shakes his head slowly at me.
The sun is just beginning to creep onto the horizon, casting a hazy hue against the warm morning air. A table separates us, the glossy surface reflects the bright sunlight.
“Tristan’s plotting something.” I pause as I consider it. “He wants us to come to him. He wants to draw us away from these villages.”
“You really think he’s that smart?” Dax looks to me as my mind reels with the possibilities.
I begin pulling the dragon leathers over my head like a tee shirt. It’s tight, but I force it down. When I pull my hair back, the three men are all zeroed in on my chest. My shirt’s pulled down and the vest-like leather is thinner than expected. It presses snugly against my breasts, pushing hard against them until they’re amplified and—honestly—fantastic.
“Are they bigger?” My brows pull together as I look at myself just like the men are looking at me.
“Definitely.” Ryder’s voice is full of awe and appreciation. He’s all but clapping with gratitude.
“The enemy’s going to be really distracted when they see you.” Daxdyn still doesn’t meet my gaze and I have to shove his shoulder hard to get him to find my narrowed eyes.
“Sorry,” he says, looking quickly away.
“Anyway,” I breathe out a sigh. “We can’t go after him.”
My teeth sink into my lower lip as I consider our predicament.
“We could always smoke him out.” Darrio’s cocky gaze meets mine.
“The city’s already on fire. If he hasn’t been smoked out in the last twenty years, I doubt it’ll happen now.”
The visions the Travelers gave me flicker through my mind. I didn’t encounter Tristan until nightfall. We were losing when I did. The nix were ripping through this realm like they would devour it whole in less than an hour.
And yet here we wait.
“We need to find him. We need to draw him out.”
