And panic, sheer panic, as I tried to save a dying man and myself from recapture . . .
I gulped for air, fighting the tears, fighting not to remember—to see—anything more. I scrubbed an arm across my eyes, and said, “They were waiting for us. I don’t know how or why, but they were waiting for us.”
He leaned forward and touched a finger to my cheek, catching a tear I missed. “Why were the scientists even hunting you? How would they even know either of you existed?”
“Because we’d been their captives for the last ten years. Well, eleven in my case.”
“What?”
My gaze searched his, surprised. “Egan didn’t tell you?”
“Egan didn’t have a whole lot of time to tell me anything.” He hesitated. “I thought he’d sounded strange—distant. I guess now I know why. He was dying.”
And even in dying, he’d thought about others. Had contacted Trae to look after me.
More tears tracked down my cheeks. God, he’d deserved more—so much more—than what life had dished up to him these last ten years.
I sniffed, and continued. “They were shooting at him more than me. I didn’t think they’d want either of us dead, but I was wrong. Egan fought back. He . . .” I stopped again, trying not to think of those burning figures, trying not to remember the smell of their flesh or the way they’d screamed. Trying to remember that in many ways, they’d done far worse to both Egan and me.
“Burned them?” Trae said softly.
I nodded. “We broke free, but one of them jumped out in front of us and shot Egan in the chest.”
“How did you escape?”
I closed my eyes. “I called for help. I called the sea.”
And she had answered, rushing up over the white walls, crushing the vibrant red hibiscus, sweeping away the man who threatened us even as she left Egan and me untouched.
“You called the sea?”
“She is ours to call, much like flame is at your command. A large wave came in and over, sweeping away the man who’d shot Egan.”
Swept him away, and swept him deep. Because I had asked it, because I had called. The scientists hadn’t known about that power. They’d never suspected that we were the water to an air dragon’s flame. That same energy had helped us get far away from San Lucas. But in the end, it had not saved Egan.
Of course, the scientists now knew of the power. And they would want it, want me, even more fiercely. Maybe that was why I was still alive and Egan was dead.
They only had two sea dragons. They had six other fire dragons to examine and play with.
“Egan should have been able to survive a gunshot if it didn’t kill him straightaway,” Trae said.
I smiled bitterly. “Except that no man—no matter how gifted, how strong, or how magical—can survive having his heart shot to smithereens.”
Trae reached out to touch me, but I jerked away. “Don’t,” I said. “Just don’t.”
I don’t know why I said
it when I actually hungered for his touch. Maybe it was just the sympathy in his eyes. The feeling that if I did give in to the need to be held, it wouldn’t end there.
That I would come to depend on him, just as much as I had come to depend on Egan.
I couldn’t let that happen. Couldn’t let anyone else get captured or killed. I had more than enough blood on my hands already.
He let his hand drop. “You don’t trust me.”
I met his gaze squarely. “It’s not a matter of trust. It’s a matter of believing that your help probably isn’t the best option right now.”
“Egan believed otherwise.”