Destiny Kills (Myth and Magic 1)

Because I had no other choice. I needed those codes, and I knew nothing about breaking into houses, let alone safes. I crossed my arms and stared out the window, watching the tufted grasses that lined the parking lot sway lightly in the breeze. Remembered wind of a different kind—a wind that howled and moaned through long, dark nights. A wind so cold it could kill if it touched bare skin. We’d gone to the Arctic to avoid them when we’d first escaped, but hadn’t stayed long. It had been far too cold for an air dragon to survive, despite Egan’s protestations that he was fine. So we’d looped around Iceland, and had come back through the North Atlantic, making our way down and around South America before swimming—or in Egan’s case, flying—back up to Mexico.

It had all been for naught, because they’d been waiting for us. And yet Egan had been so sure that they wouldn’t know about the villa. So how had they found us so quickly and easily?

Trae snapped his fingers in front of my face, and I jumped. “What?” I said, scowling at him.

“You were off in your thoughts again.” His gaze went from me to the car and back again. “Tell me, why do you think they killed Egan? If he was the only full-grown male, it makes no sense for them to get rid of him.”

“I think they considered him to be more dangerous than Mom or me, and he did start the fire that allowed us to escape.” Even if the fire wasn’t his. I shrugged. “I’m sure they were intending to keep his body and study him that way, but I foiled that by snatching him away.”

“I would have thought being able to control water was a greater threat than fire. Especially when you’re all being kept beside a loch containing a huge amount of freshwater.” He leaned back in the seat as the old woman walked over with two coffees.

“There you go, loves. Breakfast will be another five minutes or so.”

“Thanks,” I said, giving her a smile.

Trae waited until she’d walked back to the kitchen, then added, “If a sea dragon can control any sort of water, why did you never call the loch?”

I grimaced. “I can’t tell you why my mother never did, because I just don’t know. In my case—”I blew out a breath. “I did try, but the loch didn’t answer. I thought at first it was because I was a half breed, that maybe I simply didn’t have the strength to make the water obey over any distance. When we finally realized they were giving us a drug that restricted our abilities and we managed to wean ourselves off it, I could have tried, but then there were the kids to worry about.”

He frowned. “Why would they be a worry?”

“Because while I might have been able to call freshwater, I can’t control its fury or its path like I can with seawater. Carli and a couple of the others couldn’t swim—I asked them. If I’d called the loch, they would have drowned.”

“Ah. A nasty situation, then.”

“To put it mildly,” I agreed. “What are we going to do about the car and the people within it?”

He picked up his coffee and took a sip. “First priority is to deflate the tires. Then we can ditch our car once we’re free and get a new one.”

I wrapped my hands around my coffee mug, but it did little to warm them. “You’re pretty free and easy with other people’s cars, aren’t you?”

He shrugged. “Part of the joy of being a thief is an easy contempt for other people’s belongings.”

“Does that include the girlfriends of other men?”

His sudden grin was so sexy, so filled with heat, that an answering flame rose from deep within me.

“I am not my father’s son. Not in that regard, anyway.”

“So you’re a one-woman man?”

“I will be, when I find the right woman.”

I raised an eyebrow. “So you’re totally unattached right now?”

His gaze met mine, and something in those bright depths sent a shiver through my soul. This man was hunting, too.

“Currently, I’m single,” he said softly. “But you never know when that might change.”

Another tremor ran through me, and I wasn’t sure whether it was anticipation or fear. I pulled my gaze from his and tried to calm the idiotic racing of my pulse. “How do you intend to get out of the diner without being seen?”

“Simple. I’ll go to the bathroom.”

I took a sip of coffee, and raised my gaze to his again. The heat of hunting had f

aded from his eyes, but not the amusement. It leant a warmth to the cold, bright depths. “So there’s a window in the bathroom?”

“A small one, but I should be able to get through it.”