Page 74 of Dream Reaper

CHAPTER 18

JERRID

Ava’s mind felt different from Jerrid’s.

Dragon delved into it, escaping the prison of his own body and the screaming presence of the shadow trying to find him in the recesses where he had been hiding.

Her mind was open, eager, young. Full of life and passion and a desire to prove herself. A desire to be more. To be better.

What are you doing? Ava shrieked.

Her mind raced to understand what was happening, even as her body remained frozen in Jerrid’s arms, and poor, stupid Jerrid had no idea what was happening.

No, this was Dragon. He had figured out how to escape, how to reach Ava…

“I’m teaching Jerrid a lesson,” Dragon whispered to her. “He’s being stupid. Thinks he is in control. Thinks he knows best. But we both know differently, don’t we?”

Ava shivered as his thoughts brushed past her. In her mind, he felt unfettered—free. It was as if he were loose on the four winds, and all of Rhuin lay before him. Her mind was an open book waiting for him to explore. He nearly dove into her memories, eager to see, to learn, to know.

She had no defenses, had no need to ever build them. He could go and do as he pleased.

Yet he lingered on the fringes of her mind, held back by a sense of…

Was it honor?

He shook himself. He could have her mind if he wanted it. He knew she wouldn’t stop him, wouldn’t know how to, probably wouldn’t even know what he was doing.

But he would know.

“I’m sorry, Meat Pasty,” he whispered, brushing past her presence again as he swirled around and around just inside the door of her thoughts. “I should have asked.”

Asked if you could hear my thoughts?

Foolish girl. “No, I should have asked if I could enter your thoughts.”

Are…are you in my head?

Vaguely, he noticed their hands skimming through Ava’s hair, marveling at the silken threads that brushed over their callused fingers. In that moment, he hated Jerrid for being in the way. He was the intruder…or was Dragon the one intruding?

This mingling of minds was as intimate as the mingling of mouths, was it not?

But who was Ava kissing—Jerrid…or him?

“I need to know,” he whispered, coiling around her and flitting away. “Is it him…or me?”

What do you mean?

“You have feelings. I can sense them. But are they for him or me?”

Her thoughts went rigid, and a wall sprang up for the first time. Clever girl. So she did know how to block him…or at least, instinctively, she was learning. She was so clever, his meat pasty. So much cleverer than Jerrid.

I don’t know.

It was a lie. He could taste the uncertainty in her thoughts. Or maybe she herself didn’t yet understand her own heart. He could work with that. He could win her over, steal her from Jerrid…

He knocked on her wall, smirking when she squeaked in response. The echo of his hammering faded into the quiet places of her thoughts.

I like you both, the stubborn lass whispered. You’re supposed to be one person, not two. I don’t like him or you… I like the you that you are when you’re working together.