The truly terrifying part?
For the first time, I wasn't entirely certain he was wrong.
“Enough.” He pulled out his phone and showed me the screen—a timer, counting down from sixty seconds. “You have one minute to agree, or I’m going to have my associate remove every finger on your mate’s right hand. Difficult to hold a hockey stick without fingers.”
Behind me, Dante made a sound of protest. I didn’t turn around. Couldn’t turn around, because if I saw his face right now, I would lose what little control I had left.
“Don’t,” Dante’s voice was rough, desperate. “Theron, don’t do this. I don’t care, but don’t—”
“Forty-five seconds,” Odin said calmly.
“Please.” Dante was begging now, and the sound of it was breaking something fundamental in my chest. “You have lots of people who need you, players who depend on you. Don’t throw that away for me.”
“Thirty seconds.”
I turned then, meeting Dante’s eyes across the room. His good eye was wide with panic and pain and something that looked heartbreakingly like love. The plan was screwed. None of us had thought of this. One kilogram of highly enriched uranium could unleash explosive power equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT. Butrefined into reactor fuel, that same 1 kg provided clean energy worth billions.
I was supposed to distract the guards and pretend to make gold or whatever he wanted. I wasn’t supposed to…I don’t have a choice.Ignatius was using thermal imaging because he knew my temperature. He would know by now where we were. I just had to be the distraction. Get them away from Dante so he could be rescued.
“I’m not throwing anything away,” I said finally. “And you’re wrong,” I said quietly. “You’re worth everything.”
“Twenty seconds.”
“I’ll do it,” I said, the words scraping my throat raw. “I’ll attempt the fabrication. But I want five minutes alone with him first.” Enriched uranium was a gas he wanted fabricated into dense, harmless, solid ceramic pellets that could be loaded into a reactor. It was a process worth billions. And I almost laughed at the pathetic imaginings we had of turning lead into gold.
Odin considered that, then nodded. “Five minutes. My men will be right outside, and the cameras stay on. Try anything, and I’ll have them shoot him in both kneecaps before you can shift.”
He gestured to his security team, and they filed out. The door closed behind them with a heavy click that sounded far too final.
I crossed to Dante immediately, dropping to my knees in front of his chair. My hands found his face, careful of his injuries, and I felt him lean into my touch despite everything.
“You can’t do this,” he said, his voice breaking. “Theron, please. Radiation? Even I know that is fucked up.”
“I’ll survive.” The lie tasted bitter. “Dragons are resilient. I just need you to trust me.”
“I do trust you. That’s why I’m begging you not to do this.” His good eye was swimming with tears. “Let them take my fingers. Let them hurt me. I can live with that. But I can’t—” His voice cracked completely. “I can’t live in a world without you.”
I pressed my forehead to his, breathing him in. Even beaten and terrified, even with blood on his face and bruises blooming across his skin, he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
“Listen to me,” I said quietly. “You don’t need to worry.” I stopped, forced myself to sound firm. “I love you,” I said, and the words were so inadequate they almost broke me. “Desperately. Completely. In ways I didn’t think I was capable of.”
His breath caught, and I saw fresh tears spill down his bruised cheeks.
“I should have told you that weeks ago instead of pretending distance could protect us. I should have been honest about what I am, what you mean to me, what this bond between us actually signifies.” My hands were shaking as I held his face. “But I was a coward. I love you, and I was too terrified you couldn’t possibly love me back”
“Baby.” His voice broke completely.
“I love you,” I repeated, “but you need to be brave while I do this.” I kissed him. Carefully, mindful of his split lip, but with every ounce of feeling I’d been holding back for months. He made a sound against my mouth—half sob, half surrender—and I felt moisture on my cheeks that might have been his tears or mine or both.
“I love you too,” he whispered when I pulled back. “God, Theron, I love you. Which is why you can’t—”
“Time’s up,” Odin’s voice came through a speaker I hadn’t noticed, and I heard the door beginning to open.
I pressed one more kiss to Dante’s forehead, breathing in the scent of him—blood and fear and something uniquely him that my dragon recognized as mate. “Be strong for me.”
“Theron—”
I forced myself to stand, to step away from him even though every instinct I had was screaming to stay. To protect. To fight.
