Page 69 of Black Wing and Shadows
“I won’t try to sneak into any dragon vales…”
“Or get into any unnecessary fights with bigger people?”
“Um, I can’t promise that. Some people want me dead around here.”
“Or get stumbling drunk and have a—”
“Hey-uh. I get it, you’re worried. I survived when you left, I will be a-o-fucking-kay.”
“You always say that.” Lili gave me a look, the one that said she wasn’t buying it for a second. Before I could answer, a shadow fell across the table.
“Some things never change,” Alex said, voice edged with something I couldn’t name. He stood there in his cadet blacks, a drink in one hand, eyes fixed on me like we were the only two people on the field.
My heart gave a stupid little lurch—memory and muscle reflex tangled up together. I hated that he still had that effect on me.
Lili’s eyes flicked between us, narrowing to a sharp edge. “Alex.” Her voice landed flat, heavy with warning.
“Lili.” His gaze never left mine. “Can I sit?”
“Yes,” she said.
“No,” I said at the same time.
That old, dangerous mix of familiarity and unfinished business tightened around us like a noose. He sat down like he hadn’t actually asked a question, his eyes darting from Lili to mine.
“Do you need something?” I asked, giving him a stare down.
“No, not really. I figured I would stop and say hello while your bodyguard isn’t here—”
“He’s not my bodyguard. Gods.”
“Yeah, yeah, your mate, whatever.”
“I feel like I should go get a drink and let you both get out whatever you need to say,” Lili announced. I shot her a look, furious at how she could even consider leaving me here with him. Before I could say anything, shespun around and walked away, leaving us sitting across from each other at the table, staring in silence.
“Well, our buffer is gone… so that’s fun.”
He laughed. “Who are you kidding, with or without her, you’ve never cared to say what you want.”
“That’s fair…”
“Look, I am mad, and I am working on it,” he said, looking across the field at Zane. “You are the first female I was with, the first person outside my family I loved. I hoped we would grow older and mature, eventually finding our way back to each other. I thought we would start anew when I returned from summer break, now that we're both here. But you rejected me, and my world shattered when Zane told me about you and him being mated. I will always love you, accepting that it will only be as friends.”
His words sat between us like a live wire—dangerous to touch, impossible to ignore.
“Alex…” I hated how soft my voice sounded. “We were bad for each other. We burned too hot, too fast, and we both got scorched. You know that.”
He gave a half-smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Doesn’t make the fire any less beautiful.”
My chest tightened. For a heartbeat, I was seventeen again, pressed against the cold rookery wall with his jacket around my shoulders. As quickly as those thoughts came, I also remembered every fight, every bruise we left on each other’s hearts.
“Zane makes me better.” The words scraped out at last, heavy on my tongue.
Alex nodded once, sharp, like he’d been expecting that answer but still hated hearing it. “And I make you worse.”
“That’s not what I—”
“It’s fine, Ella. Really.” But his knuckles whitened around his cup, and the muscles in his jaw worked like he was chewing down something bitter. “Please… don’t disappear completely, alright?”
