“We need you to be safe far more than we want to stroke our egos by being the ones to save you, Saige.”
Kinsley pauses with a hand on the doorknob, glancing back to see if she needs another minute before he pulls it open and we force her to step outside of her comfort zone. “But dragons love to guard their princesses,” he teases with a wink.
She smiles, exhaling slowly and nodding to herself. “Then let’s go terrorize a village.”
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Chapter 13
Saige
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By slipping out theback of the house, I’m able to have a brief respite before needing to face anyone. The yard is a decent size, far too open compared to the walls I’ve been relying on. Rather than panic at the exposure and shut down, I turn inward, searching for my dragon like a security blanket.
She’s not freaking out in the slightest, completely at ease surrounded by our flight. It’s clear she feels we’re exactly where we belong and isn’t concerned, so I attempt to leech off of her confidence, to absorb some for my own. Whether I’m completely placebo-ing myself or psyching myself out, I like to pretend that it works, that my anxiety starts to ebb away more with each breath as I suck down lungfuls of cool air.
If this is some symbiotic relationship, it favors me far more heavily right now. I get a flight, extra abilities to protect myself, and a scapegoat as I work through some of my emotional issues. I’m scared about what will happen when the time comes for her to collect her side of the bargain. But at the guys’ urging, I’m beginning to accept that while fear is a perfectly fine thing to help keep me alive, it’s also keeping me from living. And even if it’s just for a short while, I’d like to truly live once before I die.
I have no aspirations of living until I’m old and gray, perfectly content with just a few nice years to counteract all of the bad. With no idea what’s waiting in store for me in the afterlife, I’d like some good memories to hold onto when I shut my eyes for the last time.
“You good?” Kahl asks, keeping his voice low.
Doing a mental check, I nod, feeling ridiculous for keying myself up so much. Not that I don’t have perfectly valid reasons, but I’m finally able to navigate my chaotic thoughts and emotions, feeling more secure and balanced rather than fueled by desperation.
“You know it’s not that I don’t believe in you guys, right?”
Silence meets me and I bite my tongue, hating that I put that doubt there for them. It’s been brought up enough times that I knew it bothered them somewhat, but with everything going on, I thought it would just naturally resolve itself with time as things smoothed out. Since I’m already facing the world head on, it seems like the perfect time to address this too.
“I came back here for a reason, you know,” I admit, glancing around at the sheer abundance of houses surrounding me that I haven’t seen up close since I was a teenager, minus my quick sprint out of town a year ago that didn’t give me much time to appreciate the view. “Part of it was that I knew you guys were connected to what’s happening to me, though a bigger part was that I not only missed you, but I’ve never felt safer than I do here. And it’s not because of Hadeon, it’s because of the three of you.Youare what makes this place safe.”
Kinsley scans the area nervously, seeing a few men walking on the sidewalk at the opposite side of their yard pull to a halt as they notice us. “Then why leave at all? If you felt that way.”
The guys start heading in our direction and I stuff down the reaction to cling to one of their arms, palming my closed knife beneath the long sleeve of my jacket instead.
Taking the plunge, I release a long whoosh of breath. “Because I love you too much to let you ruin your lives trying to constantly protect me. You already gave up so much to take care of Ezra and Eli that I didn’t want to add more to your already full plates. It may be easier now that I have claws, but back then you knew as well as I did that you could have been arrested for hiding me. You can’t fight the entire world and I’d never ask you to.”
Kaiden raises an eyebrow in challenge, unamused. “Who says? I’ll fight whoever I damn well please, and if they try to take something that’s ours, they chose their fates. I didn’t lose any sleep after killing the bastard that tried to rape our sister long before she met her mates and I won’t be bothered slitting someone’s throat if they try to take you away from us either.”
Kinsley leans in to kiss my cheek. “We would gladly cut off our noses just to spite our faces, love. So this was never even up for debate.”
As the men get closer, Kahl wraps an arm around my collar from behind, plastering my back against him as he casually rests his chin on the top of my head before proclaiming, “As you well know, if a dragon doesn’t go down fighting, they were never a dragon at all.” Softer, he murmurs, “Our kind fights just for bragging rights, Saige. You’re a predator now; time to act like it.”
“Turn into a stalker, got it,” I joke breathlessly, forcing my muscles to loosen up as the men get within striking distance.
One of the men has hair only a shade darker than his skin, with bright, copper eyes. The other has an olive complexion with matching dark hair, but his eyes are a dull blue. They both have the same build as most dragon men; looking like they’ve stepped out of a story book about gladiators. They’re a stronger stock than humans, naturally blessed at birth for everything to fall into their laps. The only saving grace for humans is that’s all they have going for them unless they find a mate. At this rate, if the humans can just manage to wait them out, the world might swing back in our favor. Or at least give us a fighting chance, though they better start working out in the underground, if it even still exists.
I couldn’t bring myself to check out the rumors that the women in the mountain sometimes spoke of for two reasons. One, I couldn’t get past my fear of crawling beneath the earth after just breaking free of Hell, the traumas too fresh to want to risk it. And two, because I started to change not long after the triplets and I parted ways. Any humans would have killed me on sight, and I ran the risk of leading anyone following me right to their door.
I’m really not human anymore. Maybe not a dragon either, but an abomination of my own breed. The missing fucking link between the two.
The thought doesn’t make me as sad as it did before, though. The humans have never done anything worth feeling proud over, it was just what I was born as. I’ve hated the dragons for what they did, but I’m able to separate it out now that it isn’t them against me.
It’s them againstus.I’m not alone anymore, and it’s clear that not every dragon is in favor of the way their government is running things. But without a way to easily share information without knowing someone to call in another state or country, how could you rally everyone to rise up? All television is localized to a few surrounding cities at best. Newspapers are censored. It’s a miracle the humans managed to pull off a simultaneous global strike.
It dawns on me suddenly, and I have to fight to school my reaction, letting the guys talk with the strangers while I have an epiphany.
They found a way to connect to all of the humans involved in the uprising without the dragons realizing it. So there’s something out there, a secure network that only certain people can access. Not a phone line, since those can be traced or tapped. And they wouldn’t want to risk sending letters that could be intercepted...
