“Give me your hands.” Liam knelt at my hip. “We need to do this fast.”
“I’m going to move you just a bit.” Rían raised me until he could slide my upper body onto his lap. “There we go.” He stroked my cheeks with his thumbs, wiping away tears. “Are you ready?”
“Yes,” I rasped, throat sore from holding in sobs, the radiating agony tearing me to pieces.
Words that made no sense to me poured out of him, his accent worn and familiar around the sounds. The taste of copper filled my mouth. Blood? I wasn’t sure but swallowed eagerly. Questions, ones I could understand, drifted down to me in a soothing cadence.
The hurt receded enough for me to catch the smiles beaming down from the faces leaning over me as I finished the last words of a vow I could no longer recall.
A soft glow filled me, spilling out of my pores, and my dragon stretched her wings within me.
This was right. This was how it was meant to be. This was who I should have always been.
Had I ever doubted my parents belonged to this clan, that I had been born into it too, there was no denying the truth as the sensation of a snapped thread fusing together sang through me. The bond solidified, welcoming me home.
“Welcome to the clan.” Rían echoed my thoughts, kissing my forehead. “You’re a Walsh now.”
“You’re official.” Liam tousled my hair. “That means you owe me a drink.”
“I sense you again.” Sloane wriggled like a puppy. “I forgot how much I missed that feeling.”
“Mmm.” I did my best to get my mind back on track. “How did you all get here so fast?”
“We rode on Liam,”Sloane screamed loud enough to wake the dead. “Rían is too conspicuous, so it was Lizard Lips to the rescue.”
Wake the dead.
And just like that I was reminded I had been christened into a new clan above the grave of my old one.
“We’ll retrieve the body for you.” Rían pressed his forehead to mine. “We can bury Sartori wherever you’d like.”
“I won’t risk anyone for a retrieval when we know what they’ll find.” I breathed in Rían’s scent to soothe my ragged nerves. “The ground is unstable, and we can’t be sure that Mercer didn’t set more than one explosive.”
Bile rose up the back of my throat when it hit me how fast my mind had blanked, how quick I had been to hurry in and save him when I could have gotten myself killed with carelessness.
“There’s no rush.” Liam fiddled with his phone. “I’ve marked the site, so we can always come back if you change your mind.”
“Thanks.” I shut my eyes, and the warmth of connection with so many other souls washed over me, filling me, comforting me. “Can we go home now?”
thirteen
“This is new,”I murmured, aware of Rían’s location without opening my eyes. “Our connection is sharper.”
“You’re my mate.” His warm fingers traced the curve of my cheek. “Even without our bond fully active, you’re closer to me than anyone else in the clan.”
“Now I feel all fancy.” I cracked my eyes open to see him leaning over my bed with sunlight casting a halo behind his head. “Did I miss anything important while I was sleeping?”
“We took Zoe into custody.” His voice went hard. “The poisoner isn’t working for Mercer, as far as she knows. That makes it seem likely you were right about an enemy attempting to evaluate our risk factor by identifying the dragons among us. That, or they’re hoping to sell us out for profit. Zoe has offered to track them for us, since she has experience with witch charms.” He mashed his lips together. “I don’t trust how helpful she’s being, but I agreed to take it under consideration.”
“She was new to the pack when Fayne and Liam got me out of there.” I dragged a hand through my hair. “I’m not excusing her part in this, but she bit off more than she could chew. I saw it in her eyes when Carmichael hit me and again today when she defended her actions in Brentwood.” I blew out aslow exhale. “That knowledge didn’t stop her from climbing the ranks, though.”
Had she believed being at the top would make her safer? Offer her protection? She truly hadn’t known Carmichael if she believed that.
“It’s worse, really, if she knew it was wrong and went along with it anyway.”
“So did I,” popped out of my mouth without my permission.
Rían clicked his teeth together then slid his gaze out the window.
