“Valen, can’t you go look for him?” I ask, almost fumbling over my words in my haste to end the rising conflict.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Then I’m going.” Druin turns and disappears into the hallway. Valen follows him, and not a half-second passes before there’s a loud thud and a low growl.
“Valen!” I scramble from the bed and wrap the sheet around me, then run into the hallway.
Valen has Druin pinned against the wall, his forearm across Druin’s throat.
“Stop!”
Valen’s fangs are longer now, his eyes that cold blue. “He’s threatening your life. His rashness, his foolishness—faults of his youth, but ones I can’t forgive.” He holds one hand out, claws where his nails usually are.
Druin struggles, his wings pinned behind him. “Fuck you! Fucking Dragonis,” Druin chokes on the words.
“Don’t!” I run to them, my heart pounding, a cold sweat coating my skin. “Stop!” I grab Valen’s wrist. “Please, please don’t.”
“I won’t let him harm you.” He turns to me, his feral gaze more animal than man.
“He’s not. He wouldn’t! Please! We can work this out. Look. You go bring Coal back, okay? You can move around and be the Specter and grab Coal. Druin will stay here and keep me safe. Right?” I turn to Druin. His golden brown eyes are lasered in on Valen. “Druin!” I yell. “Agree!”
“He was supposed to keep you safe when Whitbine took you. Did you think I’d forgotten?” Valen snarls at him. “That I could forgive you for putting my Blood in danger? I would’ve crucified you and watched the sun take you if it weren’t for Coal.”
“Valen!” I yank on his wrist. “Listen to me! If you harm Druin, I won’t forgive you!”
Valen turns to me with his unnatural quickness.
“Seriously, let him go. He’s my friend. He would never hurt me. Please, just go and look for Coal, then come back. Okay? Please?”
“You abuse your power.” He slowly lets up on Druin’s throat.
“What?”
“Your power over me.” Valen advances on me until I’m backed against his bedroom door, his broad frame blocking out everything except him. “You’re wielding it against me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I gasp when he wraps his hand around my throat.
“You do,kedves verem.” His lips ghost against mine.
My knees go weak as he squeezes the sides of my neck lightly, his lips teasing along my cheek and then my ear. “I will do as you ask, but when I return, there will be a price.” He meets my eyes, and I realize his are no longer the cold abyss he’d shown to Druin. For me, they’re molten, a raging blue of water and sky. I shudder at his touch, at the intimacy of this, ofus.
My heart pounds, my eyelids fluttering as he presses a kiss to my lips. And then he’s gone, storming past me and dressing so quickly he’s nothing but a blur. By the time I have my shirt on, he’s nowhere to be found.
Once I’m dressed, I hurry to the staircase and climb until I find Druin sitting on the steps and leaning against the stone wall.
“He’ll find Coal.” I sit beside him.
“You don’t know that. I should be out there looking for him. He’s Corvidion. Mydirectline.” His golden brown eyes don’t focus. He stares past me, as if he can see through the earthen walls and all the way to Coal. “I should be flying for him. Not sending a Dragonis.”
“Valen was out of line.”
He shakes his head. “No, he wasn’t.”
Perplexed, I stare at him.
He sighs and bounces the back of his head on the wall a couple times. “You’re his mate. He’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”
“Mate. What does that mean?”
