“You wash my back, and I’ll wash yours while you tell me the rest,” I said.
He didn’t smile.But he did get into the shower with me.Instead of the heated looks and breathless moans that usually filled the space, he continued his story while carefully washing me.
Desperate, he’d burned any property tied to Hestian, the Hildcrasks, and the Stonestocks that he could find, convinced that one of them was responsible.He didn’t stop to sleep or eat, but searched relentlessly, terrorizing the city and growing more crazed with each passing minute.
Then, he’d finally felt me.
My fear.
And later, when I’d come to, he’d felt my pain.
While he rinsed my hair, I reached up to brush my fingers along his tense jaw.
“I might need more than ten minutes to tell them everything.”
“Then it can wait for a few days.Hestian won’t be going anywhere.I crushed his femur.I promise he won’t die.Dad won’t let him.”
He reached around me, turning off the water, his gaze showing a hint of the same defeat that Marta’s had.I caught his chin between my fingers and got his full attention.
“We’ll deal with what we’re feeling, but not yet.Give me just a little longer to get this hate out of my system before we start putting us back together, okay?”
He nodded and toweled me off before carrying me out of the bathroom.When he set me down in the closet and passed me the most unsexy underwear I owned, it almost brought me to tears.Without knowing anything about what had happened to me, he’d still understood enough to know I wanted nothing to do with sexy lingerie.
At least, not yet.
After I was dressed in comfy pajamas, Konni carried me back downstairs.Without the blood and ash, his exhaustion was obvious.
Kaya and Mom stayed in the living room as I gave my statement to the police and Felix, withholding two tiny bits of information.
Once they left, I looked at Felix, “I want to press all the charges possible for today and for what Mom and I have gone through.Even if it’s not all him, I want it to be loud.”
Felix nodded hesitantly and glanced at Konni.“Do we want to discourage other lawyers from taking his case?”
“No,” I said.“It won’t matter.”
Konni nodded, and Felix stood to see himself out.
His footsteps were still fading when I looked at Konni.
“Hestian wasn’t acting alone.”
He froze mid-bend to scoop me up again.
“He knew about my mark.He kept checking to see if it was fading.He knew not to hurt me too, which is why I was wearing the padded cuffs.He also said he’d given his word to someone that he wouldn’t take them off.
“Someone who knows a lot about dragons was either ignorantly feeding him information or outright helping him.”
Kaya swore in Italian.
“I’ll tell Balak,” she said as Konni picked me up.“And we’ll bring up something for her to eat.”
Konni walked away with me.
In our room, he tucked us into bed and just held me, nuzzling and cuddling.It was exactly what I needed.What he needed too.I felt the moment he gave in to sleep.His hold didn’t loosen, but the nuzzling slowed.
Feeling safe and protected, I let myself dwell on everything.I hated Hestian, and I’d make him pay for everything he’d done to me.And the more I thought about my time with him, the more certain I became that Lianna had helped him.
What other dragon would interfere with a bonded pair?
