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“I thought we had to be honest with people in relationships,” Honor returned.
The girl was merciless. I decided to ignore her, or at least attempt to. Honor was almost impossible for me to ignore.
“Once we find the pieces of the stone, I need to shadow travel to Caldren.” She chewed her lower lip. “Gods, I miss Jaik and Cal.”
“Why Caldren in particular?”
“He was the one who was being stalked by Ebba’s assassin.”
Being stalked.Past tense.
I dropped the map in the trunk and straightened. She took a step back, her eyes widening as if she just realized she’d made a mistake.
“And what did you do to Ebba?” My vision was suddenly dark around the edges with fear.
She tried to escape the conversation... literally. She tried to go around me and out the door. I leapt forward, slamming the door shut, and she faced me with her chest heaving.
I caged her with my arms against the wall.
Her gaze met mine defiantly, her chin tilting up. “I think you should remember who can shadow travel you home. Or not. If you piss me off.”
“No, I am not at all worried about pissing you off. I think you should remember who can spank your stubborn ass.”
“Only because I would let you,” she said heatedly. Then she stammered as if she realized what she had just said. “I mean, onlyifI let you.”
I caught her chin between my fingers. “But you would, wouldn't you? Because you know how wicked you've been, lying and keeping secrets from the ones who love you the most.”
Her lips parted, and it was my turn to realize that I had stumbled and revealed more than I meant. Had that beer this morning been laced with truth serum?
I added, “Jaik, Branok, Lynx, Tal and Arren... they deserve better from you, Honor.”
Her eyes flashed. “They wouldn't let me go and do what needs to be done if I told them.”
“No, that's not true. They couldn't stop you.” I studied her. “You're always so brave, except when it comes to relationships. You’re too powerful. They can’t stop you. But that’s not what you’re afraid of, is it? You don't want to fight with them. You can't deal with a little bit of their disapproval and anger. So you're dishonest with them, which is ten times worse than an honest argument.”
My voice came out clipped with every sentence, and her cheeks flushed darker with every sentence.
“Get away from me.” She ducked under my arm.
I caught her shoulders and spun her around. She ducked, lashing a leg out to hook my ankle. I jumped over her attack, but stumbled, and she pushed me. I let myself slam into the wall, pushed off it and caught her as she stormed off. I pressed her against the wall, caging her again. Her furious gaze met mine, her chest heaving.
But she could have stopped me if she wanted. She could have shadow traveled away.
Our eyes locked on each other’s. Her cheeks were flushed with anger and her eyes snapped, then softened. Her lips parted.
And even though I was furious at her, I wanted more than anything to cover those pink lips with my own.
“If you sacrifice yourself for them, you’ll destroy them,” I said, my heart hammering in my chest.
That was too damned close to telling her the truth.You’ll destroy me.I pushed away from the wall. I needed to get away from her before I lost all common sense and pushed her against the wall again and covered her with my lips.
Instead, I took the map from Joachim’s trunk and tapped a destination.Focus on the mission. Not the girl you can never have.“Can you bring us to this castle? It’s one he barely used, so I didn’t suspect it at first. Neither would the other Royals.”
Dragons needed to be close to their treasure. But Joachim had always had a knack for ignoring our natural desires, like the drive to love our children.
“Of course.” Honor sounded breathless still, but when I looked back, she looked unruffled.
I wanted to be close to her. No matter how much I told myself otherwise, the dragon within seemed convinced she was my treasure.
