by Olivia Ash
“I didn’t want anything to happen to her because it would destroy you,” Jace adds, his voice gentler now. “I couldn’t watch you lose someone you love, not this close to seeing her finally get well. I just wouldn’t know what to do, or how to help you if that happened.”
“Thank you.” I smile, genuinely grateful for him. He cares about me, even if he doesn’t always show it in the most refined ways. It would seem I’ve been underestimating his capacity for compassion, if only a little.
“I would do just about anything for you, Rory,” he admits, still keeping his distance. With his arms crossed like that, he looks equal parts intimidating and reassuring. It’s such an odd combination, but on him, it somehow works.
This man surprises me, sometimes—there seems to be no halfway with him. It’s all or nothing, always.
“If you would do anything for me, would you also stop trying to control me?” I ask, legitimately curious.
His jaw tenses, and a small dimple appears in his cheek. For the moment, it seems like that’s the only answer I’m going to get.
“You know what I grew up with,” I say, gesturing to the muted security footage on the television as it plays in the background. “You know who controlled my life. What she made me do. Who she made me kill. You know she’s trying to drag me back to that. I finally have freedom, Jace. Why do you think I would just blindly obey you?”
“Because I know this world,” he snaps, suddenly furious. “And you have no idea how to handle any of this.”
Oh, hell no.
I bristle, my fury burning deep within me at the wildly inaccurate statement. I didn’t live a life under Spectre rule to be brushed off as an idiot girl in over her head.
But before I can even open my mouth to retort, he lifts one hand and closes his eyes to quietly center himself.
The anger in his face softens, and he seems to rein in whatever impulse drove him to say that. “Sorry. That’s not totally—it’s—” He fights to find the words, tortured as he tries to figure out what he wants to say. “Look, Rory, you’re brilliant. You’re a skilled fighter. A fast learner. Of every student I’ve ever had, you’re by far my favorite.” He pauses, smirking briefly. “And not just because of the way the mate-bond screws with my body any time you’re close.”
Despite my brimming anger, that disarms me. I laugh, shaking my head, but I can’t deny it. I feel the same any time he’s near.
“But even Spectres die,” he points out, his smile fading. “Even Spectres get killed. And you know why that happens?”
“Because you’re better than them?” I ask, barely masking my contempt. It’s such an arrogant thing for him to say.
“No,” he says, throwing me entirely off guard. “It’s because they’re alone.”
My shoulders relax, and for a moment, I don’t know how to respond.
“They’re alone, all of them.” Jace takes a few careful steps to me, the rigid muscle in his arms bulging as he keeps them crossed over his chest. “They rely on favors instead of a vast network of capable intelligence officers working in tandem. They ask for submission instead of loyalty. They rely only on themselves, and that’s why they fail. Every time one of them has come for me, I’ve seen the warnings a mile off.” He pauses, barely a few inches from me now. “Every time, except for you.”
I tilt my chin slightly, meeting his intense gaze. Those stormy gray eyes trap me, as they always do. As he leans in, my stomach churns with butterflies, and a crackle of desire snaps through me. A lightning storm of longing and hunger swirl suddenly to life in my core, and I never want to snuff it out.
And, deep within, my magic churns with its own desire for him. For his dragon. For our connection.
We stand inches apart, not touching even though my impulse is to run my fingers along his jaw. I resist, waiting for him to finish his thought, refusing to allow myself to be distracted no matter how gorgeous Jace Goodwin is.
“Rory.” His voice is like a rush of air, rough and growly, and he reaches for me as he speaks. His fingers wrap around my arms, tugging me gently closer, and he looks down at me with such an intense expression that I briefly wonder if I’ve lost him to the mate-bond. If he’s consumed by otherworldly lust and devotion, right now, or if this is really him.
“You’re not used to needing someone,” I say quietly, speaking for him. “I get it, Jace. If I die, you go feral—but you have to remember the opposite is true, too. People want you dead, same as me. I think you might actually have more enemies than me. When you put yourself in danger as master of the dojo, you put me in danger as well. It’s a two-way street.”
“I know,” he says.
“I didn’t come here to sit on your couch in the dark,” I continue. “I’m here to share my secrets, Jace. I’m here to give you what I can—and I can’t give you everything. Not yet. So, in exchange for my honesty, I’m asking for a bit of trust in return.”
My heart is in my throat. I almost can’t believe I’m doing this—showing my cards—and to a dragon, no less.
But this is Jace. For all his faults, he’s not a manipulator. He won’t lock me away, or leverage Irena against me.
I hope.
The master of the Fairfax embassy watches me, silent and intense.
Waiting.
“My only price in all of this is trust,” I repeat. “You might be the master of the dragon dojo. You might be general to the Fairfax army. You might train the most brilliant fighters in the world, Jace, but I was raised in an organization that hunted dragons—successfully, might I add. When I first got this magic and was utterly alone, I still managed to evade capture even while the entire world hunted me. I disobeyed a direct order from the Ghost—a death sentence—to save you, Tucker, Levi, and Drew. I carry the magic of gods in me, and I took my first kill when I was only twelve. I’m not a damsel, Jace, and I’m not going to sit in my room while you fight my battles and live my life for me. I need to know you see us as equals.”
His expression softens, and he tenderly sets his palm against my cheek. “You were only twelve?”
I swallow hard and quickly look away, trying to suppress the memory of my first kill. The screaming. The blood. The pain I caused a man who dared betray the Ghost, every strike I made done on Zurie’s command.
I quickly force a cough to rid myself of the stinging knot in my throat, refusing to let myself feel the guilt. “Yes.”
“Rory, it’s—”
“I’m fine,” I lie, standing a little straighter and looking him in the eye. “Are these terms you can work with, Jace?”
He sighs, frowning slightly as he studies my features, and I can tell he isn’t sure. He still sees me as in over my head, and the thought alone just pisses me off.
“What is it?” I finally ask. “What’s holding you back on this?”
He groans. “Rory, I’m more experienced. I can handle two dozen dragons at once, can take on an army, can fight brutal men and live to see another day. I have a network of soldiers at my command, a literal army to protect you. Elite soldiers to guard you anywhere you go. I have a network of intelligence officers that can give you insight on nearly any location before you enter. I have seven soldiers right now whose only job is to listen for intel on you.”
Wow, that’s amazing. Despite everything else, I’m kind of flattered he would put so many soldiers on that.
But he’s missing the bigger picture here.
“Can you destroy entire buildings with your bare hands?” I ask simply.
He hesitates. “As a dragon, sure—”
“Your bare hands,” I correct. “Not claws.”
He frowns. “No.”
“I can.” I nod toward the mountains out the window. “I blew a hole in one of those not that long ago, remember?”
That annoyed dimple appears again in his cheek, and I can tell he’s barely biting back a scathing retort.
“How much longer do you think you can keep up with me when we spar?” I ask, entirely serious. “My magic is growing
every day. How much longer will your thunderbird match it?”
“Don’t get cocky,” he snaps, sounding more like a teacher than a lover for a moment.
He has a fair point, though—one I’m ready to counter.
“I’m not getting cocky.” I shrug. “I’m entirely serious. This is the power of the gods, and I’m quickly mastering it. I’m not saying I’m better than you, Jace. I’m just saying this is earth-shattering magic, and a force to be reckoned with.”
Yet again, he doesn’t answer.
“We each have strengths the other doesn’t possess, Jace,” I point out simply. “We can complement each other or argue nonstop. What’ll it be?”
After a few tense moments of silence, he finally sighs and sets his hands on his hips. “I’m getting there,” he admits.
It’s not the answer I wanted, but it’s progress.
As the security footage continues to play in the background, I catch sight of the nurse and doctor. They enter the room seconds after the secret door closes, and the nurse leans over Irena’s bed.
“I don’t like her,” I confess. “She asks too many questions.”
“She really does,” Jace says with a sigh, taking a wary step backward and slipping his hands in his pockets. “After reviewing the footage tonight, I’ve had her transferred to another building and had her access to Irena revoked. She won’t go near your sister again.”
My eyebrow lifts in surprise, and I study him for a moment in bemused silence. “Did we just agree on something?”
He chuckles. “It would appear we did, yes.”
I laugh, enjoying the reprieve after such a heavy conversation. “How soon until we can move Irena here?”
“After the fourth dose, which will be roughly a week or so from now. By then, she’ll only need a few vitals monitored, and a nurse or two should suffice. No one will even know she’s here—especially not Harper,” he adds with a frustrated shake of his head. “With Irena’s positive reaction to the last few doses, she may even wake up shortly after the fourth one.” He smiles reassuringly at me. “I’ve made the arrangements. It’s just a matter of waiting at this point.”
“Thank you,” I say again, smiling with gratitude. He didn’t have to do any of this, but he did.
For me.
“Of course, that would make for two Spectres taking refuge in my dojo,” he adds with a wry grin. “Honestly, woman, can’t I just have a bit of peace?”
I shrug playfully. “Nah.”
He laughs and switches off the television. With a heavy sigh, he relaxes onto the couch and drapes his arm over the back of the sofa, taking almost the exact position I’d been in when he walked into the room earlier.
I sit on the coffee table across from him, propping one leg on my knee as I try to find a way to finish what I came in here to say.
For a while, we simply sit in awkward silence. The smiles fade. The tension grows. I don’t know how to change his mind, and I wonder if delivering an ultimatum would just destroy this inelegant but surprisingly satisfying ceasefire we’ve somehow constructed.
“I have guards around the perimeter of the hospital,” Jace abruptly says. “They noticed you leave and tried to trail you, but you were too fast.”
“At least I’m not getting soft.”
Jace frowns. “They were looking out for you. Protecting you.”
“Why didn’t they just approach me?”
“You’re damn fast, that’s why,” he says with a sigh. “But I also told them to keep a distance, to just observe unless you needed help. I figured this might keep you out of trouble.” He laughs, rubbing his eyes. “I’m astonished you escaped their notice, but I guess I shouldn’t be.”
I grin, taking that as a compliment. “You’re really not going to like what happened next, then.”
He lifts his gaze, watching me warily as his smile fades.
Time to bite the bullet. “Someone tried to tranq me a few miles out, while I was looking for a car.”
“What?” Instantly, Jace sits upright, watching me with a fierce expression, like he’s ready to break necks the moment I give him a name.
“I think it might have been a Knight, judging by the way he moved.” I briefly let my eyes glaze over as I recall the evening, trying to comb through any clues I might have missed earlier. “An exceptionally good one, but he was no Spectre.”
“A Knight went after you by himself?” Jace frowns. “That doesn’t make any sense, Rory. They work in teams because they’re not trained enough for single combat with a dragon.”
I smirk. “I’m not a dragon, Jace. Not yet, anyway.”
“You might as well be,” he says matter-of-factly, standing to pace the living room as he silently processes this new information.
I tilt my head away to hide the beaming smile of pride. I’ve come a long way to take that as a compliment.
“I’ll find out who it is,” Jace promises, his shoulders tight and squared. “I’ll find him and take him down.”
“We’ll take him down together,” I correct.
Jace groans and shoots me an exasperated look over his shoulder. I’m tempted to dig into him, to drag this argument to the surface again, but I’m not sure if I should bother. We’ve said everything already, unearthed every point to be made, and neither of us can agree.
“I debated waiting to change the codes on the tunnels until you got back,” he says in a transparent attempt to change the subject. He crosses his arms and leans against the wall, studying my face as he waits for my reaction.
He won’t get one.
“Whoever attacked us came in that way,” Jace continues. “The investigation revealed as much, though I still don’t know how they acquired codes that suppressed even my private alerts.” He shakes his head in disappointment, clearly aggravated.
“Do you know who it was?” I ask hesitantly.
His severe gaze shifts to me, and I can tell he’s fully aware I already know the truth. “Is this one of those things you can’t tell me?”
I sit a little taller, taking a deep breath instead of giving him an answer.
He nods, almost to himself, and pushes off the wall. With his hands in his pockets, he slowly paces the room. “Rory, I’m legally obligated to press charges. They violated a treaty, and I’m sure they came for you.”
“Probably,” I say, playing coy.
“Rory,” he says, a warning in his tone. “If you know, you need to tell me.”
“If I did, wouldn’t that mean you would have to go off to war?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Only if they resist submitting to the treaty’s—”
“These people gassed your entire dojo—and we’re lucky they used non-lethal gas, Jace.” I stand and gesture out the window. “You think they’re going to roll over just because you find out who they are?”
To his credit, Jace swallows his pride long enough to not answer.
“If I did know, let’s just say I would keep quiet to protect you.” I cross my arms. “To protect your allies. Harper. Your soldiers. To save all of them from a pointless war.”
“I have to do this, Rory,” he says tensely. “It’s my duty.”
“I guess it’s a good thing I don’t know who it was, then,” I lie.
He rubs his eyes in frustration. “But you do know, Rory. My investigation turned up some interesting things in the logs. Unauthorized access that somehow didn’t notify command of the tunnels’ use. Strange times, and odd paths taken.” He sighs, running a hand through his hair. “How did you do it, Rory?”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” I say with a shrug as I examine my nails. “But you might want to hire a trusted hacker to test your security code for exploits. Someone new, who hasn’t seen the code before and can give it a fresh look.”
Truth be told, I don’t entirely know how Drew found the exploit. A good ethical hacker would, though, and that’s all I need to do to send Jace on the right path toward fixing this mess.
It stings to sit here and omit the truth because it feels like a lie. To hide Drew’s involvement, to absolve the Darringtons of their role in all this, feels wrong. One way or another, I’m going to hold Jett Darrington accountable for what he tried to do—I just have to figure out how to play his game, first.
“An exploit…” Jace shakes his head in disappointment, his voice trailing off as his mind races. “I bet Durand… That code was fine, but he insisted—damn it.”
Jace crosses to the window and stares out at the brilliant night sky. In the silence that follows, the silhouette of a dragon soars past. It’s a fleeting blur of dark blue against the pitch-black night, and I’m briefly lost in the wild beauty outside.
The dojo is magical.
“Thank you, Rory,” Jace says without looking at me. “I appreciate the nudge in the right direction.”
“You’re welcome.”
“And I came with an olive branch of my own,” he adds.
“Oh?”
“I created a unique code for you—one that opens the tunnels,” he says. “I never revoked access. I don’t want you to feel trapped here with me.”
“You did?” I tilt my head in surprise, completely caught off guard.
He nods. “The code is the day we met. Six digits.” He hesitates a moment. “Of course, you don’t get access to everything, but it should be enough to satiate your need to sneak through my dojo.”
“The day we met, huh?” I grin. “I didn’t know you had a sentimental side.”
He chuckles. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Rory.”
I chuckle, unsure of what to say—and, when in doubt, I usually crack a terrible joke. “You just did that so it’s easier to revoke my access if I piss you off, didn’t you?”
He smiles and briefly looks over his shoulder at me. “Rory, by the gods, can’t you give me some credit?”
I laugh, genuinely impressed by this man. Part of me wonders if there really is something soft in him after all.
After a few moments of silence, where we both simply watch the beautiful world outside the windows, he turns to face me.
And there has been a very clear, very distinct shift.
His expression is now intense and stoic, and all the laughter from before has faded. “I need you to tell me who you saw down in the tunnels. You have to tell me who is responsible.”
