Page 12 of Entwined
Azar launches from the apartment upstairs into the sky and begins to move away from me. I grunt and wrap one arm around my stomach, not that it helps in any way.
“Are you alright?” Gideon’s eyes scan me head to toe, looking for some kind of malady.
“Fine,” I say. “We’ve decided that, just in case that’s not quite right, maybe we should try getting a little bit of time and distance from one another. See if we can—” I freeze as a pulse of pain pounds through me.
“He’s really. . .what? Just flying away?”
I nod.
“That’s—can he hear me right now? Through the bond?”
“I’m not sure,” I say. “I can’t hear him, but I don’t know whether he’s communicating with anyone else.” I don’t bother explaining that most dragons communicate exclusively telepathically, and that isn’t as easy to monitor through the bond anyway.
He sighs. “It seems like you should know more about this by now.”
“You know, I accidentally threw the How to Manage Your Conquering Dragon manual away.” I snap my fingers. “What was I thinking?”
His smile’s wry. “Well, listen. This may end with me being roasted over a spit, but I’ve learned never to miss my window.” He steps closer.
“Um, you’re wearing a towel.” I can’t help my eyes tracking down his torso to where the towel meets the bare, gleaming skin of his waist.
“Right.” He nods. “But there may not be time—listen to me for a second, okay?”
I shrug, another pulse of discomfort rolling over me. Now that I know it’s coming, I can take it better. Maybe we can do this. Maybe by practicing dealing with—another wave hits, and I grit my teeth.
Gideon clears his throat and looks around. And then he starts to whisper. “I know they’re forcing you to do and say things now. Azar’s stronger or more demanding than Axel, but even with him at the helm, you’re still you. I know you’re in there.”
“Gideon,” I say. “I am still me. All the time.” Another wave hits, and my nostrils flare.
He notices. “It hurts you for him to leave, like, physically hurts you.”
I shrug.
“But while he’s gone, we should come up with a plan. I have a way to get a message out, I think. Or, an idea, anyway. I’m not going to share that for obvious reasons, but listen. How terrible do the dragons feel if their Ensnared humans are killed?”
I don’t love where he’s going with this. “Not good,” I say. “I’m not sure how long they’re down, but I got the distinct impression it would incapacitate them. Or at least, they all thought that killing me would make Axel easy to defeat.”
“The red nightmares are the two beasts that no one can destroy. Without them, the others are much more vulnerable.” He lowers his voice to a mutter. “If you consider the humans needing to use blunt force trauma to rip off their heads ‘vulnerable.’”
Part of me agrees with him. Part of me is horrified at the idea that if they could only remove the two red ones. . . “Are you suggesting. . .that I kill myself?”
His entire face falls. “Liz.”
“It’s a decent plan, but Gideon.” I have to freeze for a moment, while I ride the worst wave of pain yet. My hands are shaking when I finally start talking again. “There are two fire dragons now, and Hyperion doesn’t have a bonded human.”
“But if ripping you away from the other one stuns him,” Gideon says, avoiding Azar’s name like using it might summon him, “and killing the other humans incapacitates the other dragons. . .” He shrugs. “We might have a chance.”
When did I stop thinking about ways to take the dragons down? When did I become complicit in their plans here, to subjugate whatever humans they need to in order to find this heart? I start pacing a little, walking all the way into the living room and back to the foyer, pausing only when another pulse of misery threatens to drown me.
I’m getting better at ignoring the pain waves, and they don’t seem to be worsening. They’re more consistent, but not more incapacitating. “What do you want me to do?”
“Nothing,” Gideon says. “It’s too dangerous to have you thinking about this at all. But when you see us making our move, get as far from the red one as you can.”
Can I do that? I mean, I am trying right now. But increasing the latitude I’ll have to operate apart from or against Azar may not be enough. Plus, we’re not making a lot of progress. “You’re wasting your time if you’re focused on a plan with the US Military. It was delayed, but we really are leaving for Iceland soon.”
Gideon frowns. “Are you worried about it?”
“You mean because of my kidnapping when I was little?” I’m whispering the words, and I hate that the memory still has the power to upset me. I shake my head. “Of course not. I have a massive dragon at my back this time.”