Stealing the Dragon’s Heart by Kiersten Fay

38

“She’s going to be okay,” Aidan reiterated from the entryway of their bunk, where Caryn now lay unconscious. Onnika sat at her bedside, holding her hand. Behind Aidan stood Lear and Asher, both tensely stoic. Onnika could tell they were every bit as anxious as she was.

Having the three big males in their tiny bunk made everything appear that much smaller, especially fragile-looking Caryn, but their presence was comforting. She felt safe. Guarded. Protected.

Dragoon, though grounded and suffused with the cloying scent of smoke and fuel, had been deemed safe enough to re-board.

“She’s just lost a lot of blood,” Aidan continued to assure her.

If she’d lost even an ounce more, she might not have made it at all. Knowing Caryn was a Phase Nine contestant, the doctor hadn’t been surprised by the very obvious stab wound, but he was perplexed by what might have caused the deep laceration across her right shoulder. He wrongly assumed she’d run The Gauntlet and failed, like so many of his other recent patients. Onnika and the others decided that it must have happened when Caryn had been sucked out of Tag’s ship. She must have caught a sharp edge of metal from the torn hull. Asher had a similar wound in his forearm, but had refused to let the doctor take a look until he had finished treating Caryn.

Onnika tucked the beige blanket tighter around Caryn, troubled by her sickly paleness. With her wounds tended to, her color should return soon.

“How’s Zeek doing?” she asked. To hear he’d survived had lifted a fraction of weight from her heavy heart, but he was nearly as bad off as Caryn.

“Bruised up and mad as hell,” Aidan responded.

She stifled a flinch. “I should go apologize to him.”

Aidan affectionately touched her arm. “It’s not you he’s angry with.”

“He should be,” she muttered.

“This wasn’t your doing.”

Onnika didn’t reply. Didn’t even look up. Aidan had no idea she and Caryn both should have gleaned what was about to go down. If they had been paying even the smallest attention to their magic, they could have taken some sort of preventative action…kept Zeek and the others out of it while thwarting Tag and his cohorts. As it was, the ship was trashed, their supplies plundered, and any hope of winning Phase Nine was doused. Not to mention the emotional damage to everyone involved.

“We should have left the ship when you tried to send us packing.” The pain in her voice was practically palpable.

“No.” Aidan knelt beside her and cupped her shoulders. Turning her to face him. “If you had, Tag would have taken you. And we never have known you were in trouble. You’d just be...gone.” He closed his eyes, a shudder running through him.

“But your ship? The race? Everything’s lost.”

“Not what’s important. Not you. Maybe you think you should have seen Tag coming for you. Berate yourself if you need to, but you’re both safe and back where you belong. Nothing else matters.”

She blinked at him, momentarily stunned into silence. He’d overheard her earlier conversation with Caryn and knew she was chastising herself for not anticipating Tag’s attack. She suddenly felt vulnerable and exposed, her skin itching with prickling sensations that made her want to close her arms around herself and hold on tight. Then the second half of his speech sank in. “Where we belong?”

He gave a curt nod. “We can get you back to your people. Where you’ll be protected from others like Tag.”

“Our people?” Her gaze darted around the room with apprehension, her mind whirring. “You mean the, uh, Pakovian?”

Aidan’s lips thinned with a touch of pity while his gaze held an ocean of knowing. He slowly shook his head and reached up to lightly pinch one tender point of her ear. “The Faieara.”

She gasped in a harsh breath and pulled away. Her hands shot up to cover her ears as her world flipped on its axis. Her holo-gear was gone. It must have fallen off at some point during her struggle with Tag. How long had she been without it, totally on display?

“Hmm.” He cocked his head at her. “I always thought it was a trick of the light, but your eyes really do flash silver with your emotions, just like Anya.”

She had no idea who Anya was, but her heart revved into hyper gear.

“Only yours are not quite so pronounced. I’ll bet anyone who sees it brushes it off as a trick of the light, as I did.”

She was still searching for her voice. He knew what she was. Had he encountered her kind before? He spoke as though he had. How was that possible, when she had never crossed paths with another of her kind despite having searched endlessly?

His gaze remained steady, burning with curiosity. “Of all the other ships you could have picked, it’s interesting that you boarded mine. I’d say it screams of fate, but I have to ask, does your magic guide you?”

He knows! Oh gods! He really knows!

Worse, he was making connections, ferreting out their powers.

The majority of her life had been spent artfully concealing her powers, hiding the truth of her origins. Now that she was exposed, she felt vulnerable and unprotected. Endangered. With the chaos of her sudden alarm crashing through her system, she leapt to her feet and backed away from him. The room appeared to shrink, the walls closing in, the ceiling dropping down, while her pulse beat in her throat like her heart was trying to claw it way out of her chest.

Bringing himself to stand as well, he put his hands up in a calming gesture. “Don’t be alarmed.”

The three males whose presence had been so comforting now resembled a threat. Lear and Asher stood shoulder to shoulder, blocking her exit. Not that she’d ever abandon Caryn in this state, even to save herself.

She must have looked like a cornered animal, because Aidan actually took several paces back as though not to spook her further.

“Look at me,” he said softly. “You know me. You know we’re not like Tag. We’d never harm you or Caryn.”

Lear and Asher crossed their arms in silent agreement. Did they not realize the action made them that much more imposing, blatantly telegraphing their ability to overpower her?

“You know you can trust me,” Aidan continued, drawing her attention back to him. His expression was earnest. Over these last few weeks Aidan had shown himself to be more honorable than any other man in her past. Such a rare commodity, honor. One many laid claim to, but rarely ever possessed. Still...

“I’ve trusted others before,” she said. “Never to my benefit.”

“It’s why you lie with such ease,” he deduced without judgment. “You’ve had to in the past. I get it. But I’m not them. Your magic led you to me for a reason. If nothing else, trust that.”

She glanced down at Caryn, now sleeping soundly. Caryn had been the one to lead them here. She had been so sure of Dragoon and its crew. Onnika recalled her actually reaching out for the ship that day like she longed for it. Or was it these people she’d longed for? A group who the two of them could finally trust? A group who could take them home?

“Can you really lead us back to our people? Will you?” She didn’t mean to sound so skeptical, but she’d been burned by hope too many times.

“I give you my word,” he vowed. “You’ll see your home again.”

She searched his eyes, and the truth she saw in them flooded her with emotions. But it was the honesty in his resolve her magic sensed that smothered any doubt, and a relief so staggering assailed her that she nearly swayed on her feet. With a sob, she rushed to close the space between them and threw her arms around him. He welcomed her into his embrace. “I’ll always keep you safe.”