Considering what we’d be up against? “Agreed. Though I keep the Chains of O. And their key.” I’d have my reprieve.
“Agreed,” he echoed. Then he fished the key from his pocket, unhooked the shackles from his belt, and handed over both to me. He stretched out his arms with his wrists pressed together.
My lips parted in a gasp. “You’ll let me bind you without a fight? Make you helpless?”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “I’m never helpless. But either way, you’re not leaving this realm without me.”
Head high, I snapped the chains into place and turned on my heel. “Then come.”
He arched a brow. “You taking me in the air or using the traveling stone in the warehouse?”
I ground my teeth. Of course he knew of my ultra-secret doorway between realms. “Is it the passage you used as your second entry?” Bypassing my security?
“No. There are several dotted all over the United States, and the griffin king has soldiers who can be bought.”
Malachi. Irritation scraped my insides raw. “We’re returning to the warehouse to shower and change. We’ll use the doorway there,” I bit out, finally answering his question. “No doubt shifters are watching the sky.” The very reason I kept a doorway on land. Also, I didn’t want Taron riding my air current. An intimate experience. “They cannot know I’m taking you to Ashmorra.”
Silent now, he collected his backpack.
We didn’t speak again as we walked to the warehouse. Didn’t speak as I dealt with security and marched him past a growing cluster of my soldiers, who were still whispering about Taron’s ability to calm me.
After showering and changing clothes, we descended to the lowest floor, stopping at a reinforced, well-guarded concrete and rebar room housing the traveling stones. Once secured behind a solid steel door, I faced him. The embedded scale glowed brighter and brighter through his shirt, as if welcoming him, recognizing his right to be here. I felt an answering glow inside me. But that couldn’t be true. On either front.
My heart hammered, and I swallowed past a lump in my throat. If this didn’t work…if he died…
I would be desperate without him? This could be a trick, so I’d follow his script.
Thanks to the effects of the Yrnblade, I would long for him until my last breath.
“Perhaps we should stay here,” I rushed out. My scale might not work as well as Lorik’s. Shifter scales might differfrom berserker scales. Maybe I shouldn’t have switched them. “There’s a private room at the back of the warehouse. We can talk there. Ja. That’s–”
“Take me to Ashmorra, Olyssa,” he interjected, his tone firm. “Some things shouldn’t be discussed in human lands. I’ll survive this, I swear it.”
I shouldn’t believe my enemy…but I did. “Hold tight,” I croaked.
He wrapped his arms around me, and I had to fight the urge to melt against him. Then the light bent and rippled as the portal fired to life, drawing us through…
Chapter
Seven
They may wish to “train” you. Let them try. Failure teaches them what not to do.
-Humaning for Beginners: A Dragon’s Tale of Human Management
Keep your cool. Say nothing. Don’t even think.
I repeated the mantra as I stalked through Castle Ashmorra. And yet, despite my efforts, my thoughts whirled with tsunami force. Now that Taron had survived the traveling stones and the shock of it all had dwindled, I circled back to his miraculous feat. He’d calmed me from a berserkerage, as only a firebrand could.
I’d told myself the Yrnblade bond was responsible. But was it? Its connection wasn’t genuine, and a lie was never as strong as truth.
And yet, other than the blade, what could I blame?
Somethinghad given Taron power over me. If I must make a list and scratch out every possibility, I would. For now, I stuck with the Yrnblade. Break its connection, see what happened.
As my council had said, my weakness equaled my people’s weakness.
Taron marched directly behind me, his wrists bound by the Chains of O. A contingent of armed berserkers trailed us. The whispers among my guards didn’t lessen but magnified. And my desire to test the mortal in my flames? Yeah. It had magnified too. But I resisted.Not here, not now.
