Page 14 of Ashborne: Defiance

With a panicked, guttural cry, I shoved myself away from her, scrambling back, releasing her, stumbling over a small rock that caught the heel of my boot and almost sent me ass-over-tit to the ground.

Grace swayed forward, blinking as if coming out of sleep, the consternation and worry pinching her pretty features as she stared like she didn’t understand what she saw.

And why should she?

She knew nothing.

She couldn’t.

She had no framework for this. I was stunned by it, and I’d been aware of a portion. Her dragon was wild, and she’d never spoken to a dragon rider.

As the two dragons came together, ecstatic with bliss, my body trembled in a wave. Hands tightening to fists until my nails threatened to puncture my palms. My breath did not slow, but tore from my throat. My heart hammered on my ribs—harder when Grace found my eyes with hers, and I heard the question, the plea in that vulnerable gaze.

Mine. All mine. Why did you pull away?

“No,” I hissed, shaking my head and taking another step back.

Grace visibly flinched. “V-Vane, what’s wrong? Can’t you feel that… that—?”

“No,” I snarled again, shaking my head faster this time, backing away further, because it needed to be true. I needed to make it true.

This couldn’t be. Between us? Never. I wouldn’t be taken by—

“But—”

“No!” I roared, stumbling back, snapping a hand up, palm flat, to stop her when she tried to reach for me. “Don’t touch me. We can’t… this isn’t…”

“We can. We must.”

“No!”

“But, why?”

God, my chest ached. She was on the verge of tears, and I felt her confusion. Her desire suddenly tangling with fear.

“Vane, you touched me and I wanted you. Did you not feel that as well?”

As if on cue, the dragons raised their song again, and my knees threatened to give. I groaned and clawed both hands into my hair, digging my nails into the back of my skull to ground myself. Remind myself. Remember.

“No,” I rasped. “I’m sorry, Grace,” I croaked when her face crumpled. “No. I can’t.”

And then, like the fucking coward that I was, I fled.

6. This Too Shall Pass

SOUNDTRACK: The Death of Peace of Mind by Bad Omens

~ VOSKI ~

I tore through the woods, heedless of direction, my only thought to run, to get away, to flee. The noise in my head was nothing short of terrifying, the contents of a jar, shaken and rolled, clattering, and impossibly jumbled.

My dragon.

My mother.

Kham’s mate.

My father.