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“Kill him?” Jameson’s disbelieving question rang through the air, cutting over even the sounds of the engine. “You’re the one at a disadvantage! We’re landing soon, and you’re completely outnumbered—even with any other surprises she might have up her sleeve.”
“I don’t care about anyone else.” Titus’s expression had shifted from soft to stone in an instant, and he moved from me. “I’ll take care of them when the time comes. Right now, I wantyou.”
I’d grasped Titus’s arm and peeked around the dragon. The onmyoji was staring at the man in front of me, and, slowly, his victorious smirk faded into an expression of doubt and slight fear.
“It’s not going to matter,” he told Titus, his squared shoulders lowering slightly. The plane roared around me. “You’re still going to be captured again.”
Titus stepped forward and I dropped my hand from his arm, wrapping my fingers, instead, around a belt buckle. “That’s for me to worry about,” the dragon answered, his stride purposeful and confident. He closed the distance between the two of them. “And, in time, everyone involved will die slow, painful deaths. But for now, I’m satisfied.”
He’d crouched as the end of the threat passed his lips, and then jumped at the onmyoji, hands outstretched to grab him; but the onmyoji was already waiting for an attack, and leapt over a row of seats, making his way to the opposite end of the cabin.
“Then that’s the way it has to be.” Jameson frowned at Titus, watching as the dragon straightened his stance. He twisted his left hand in another belt, reaching inside his jacket. He looked at me, and his hard features sent a chill down my spine, and my fingers tightened on the strap.
“It’s a shame we’ll never know what, exactly, you are,” he said.
My head spun and my world shifted as something pulled at me, and a large crash echoed over my ears as—at the same instant, the cold surface I’d been pressed against was gone.
The wind was knocked from me as I was thrown some feet away, crashing into the pile of olive backpacks, as an explosion rocked through the space.
I couldn’t breathe, and I looked back—Titus stood where I’d been, regaining his balance as he moved to leap away himself. But he stumbled, dizzy, as he was suddenly caught in the path of fire and sound.
Everything happened so fast.
The emergency exit door was blown away. Deafening winds whipped through the cabin, pulling at my clothes and hair. But I was safe enough here, far from the opening. However, Titus—who stood exactly where I’d been—didn’t fare quite so well.
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. One second, he was there, and the next, gone.
