Closing my eyes, I curl my hands around it and recite a simple location spell. The flow of magic runs through my body, making me tingle all over. When I open them again, the hidden button is glowing blue to me. Only I can see it, so I need to step closer to Vaughn to push it. He freezes for a second, but his pulse accelerates. He isn’t unaffected by my proximity after all, and that pleases me.
Ignoring the stupid emotion swirling in my chest, I push the button, and a section of the wall opens forward, revealing a tunnel.
“How did you find the button so fast?”
I glance at him and realize we’re much too close. If I rose onto my tiptoes, our lips would be inches apart.
You’re playing dangerous games, Sophie.
“Magic. Come on. Let’s go.” It’s my turn to take his hand, and hell and damn, it feels nice to touch him.
What’s so special about Vaughn that can animate my dead heart?
Twenty-One
VAUGHN
Ihave no idea where the hidden tunnel is taking us, but I’m not as preoccupied as I should be because I’m way too focused on Sophie’s hands in mine. She reached for me this time, and maybe I shouldn’t read too much into it, but I think she likes my company.
I can’t deny that I had a blast playing air hockey with her, even though that’s probably going to be the reason for our demise. I doubt Larsson will forgive us for destroying his collection of sparkly figurines, and there’s no one around to help. Not that I think Lucca has a lot of influence with the dragon kingpin, and King Raphael isn’t available.
Sophie and I don’t need to run far until we reach a door. It’s solid metal with a simple handle.
“Do you think it’s locked?” I ask.
If it is, we’re screwed.
Sophie tries the knob, and surprisingly, the door opens outward to a narrow alley. “This must be the back of Ember Emporium.”
“Sweet.” I step out first and scan the area, just in case the Red Guard is nearby. “The coast is clear.”
“I could have checked it for myself,” she complains, surprising me.
I look at her. “This wasn’t me trying to be all macho. But the Red Guard is looking for you, and they don’t mess around.”
She crosses her arms. “I can handle myself.”
I squint. “It seems our truce is over, huh?”
Her pretty eyes catch the light as they open wider, pupils dilating slightly, and her luscious lips make a perfect O. Man, what I wouldn’t give for a taste.
“I… that’s not… you know what? I think we should go our separate ways.”
Disappointment floods through me. That’s not how I wanted our time together to end, but it was stupid of me to imagine anything different. She’s Jacques Tellier’s daughter, enemynumero unoafter Tatiana.
“If that’s what you?—”
An enraged roar comes from inside the building, loud enough to rattle my bones. Fuck. Larsson must have found his broken prizes.
Sophie jumps into me, grabbing my forearms as she stares at the door we just exited from. “That doesn’t sound good at all.”
“No. Maybe we should stick together for a while longer. Come on.”
We run side by side until we exit the alley onto a street parallel to Ember Emporium. If Larsson decides to come after us in his dragon form, we won’t get far, even if we run at top speed.
“We need a car,” Sophie says.
“My car is nowhere near here, and we have to cross in front of Ember Emporium to reach it.”
