Chapter 37 Jesper #2
Raze came from the shadows in his albino basilisk form, posed for a strike. I didn’t let his unique coloring throw me off this time like I had with Zuko’s. This squad was filled with different breeds of supernaturals, it seemed.
I whacked his attack away with a talon, sending him through the same building I’d sent Zuko through.
“My turn now, huh?” Rune didn’t run toward me. She walked in a calculated way that made my scales lift. The magic within her pulsed steadily in rhythm with mine.
It reached for me. Something in me reached back.
I feinted right as she got close and threw a wing, trying to catch her with a ragged edge.
She dropped under it, feet kissing the bridge rail.
She pushed off a chunk of broken stone and flattened her palm around my forearm, fingers finding the seam between my scales.
Venom hummed at her fingertips as she pushed it into me through skin-to-skin contact.
It wasn’t a bite, and the shock of her venom entering me wasn’t pain or anything like it.
It was recognition.
My knees slackened from the way her touch and magic pressed against me.
Snarling, I drove a claw into the bridge to anchor myself as my wings faltered.
Rune didn’t retreat. She vaulted off the bridge railing, twisting midair. In a shimmer of magic, her normal form enlarged into her basilisk form. She was an incredibly long and thick serpentine with gold-sparkled scales that caught light like stardust.
The sound of her was a whispering rasp as her scales hissed over the cobblestone.
She raised the front part of her body with effortless control. Her eyes, still the same golden color in her regular form, found me through the slit of a predator’s pupil.
Fates help me, she was breathtaking in this form.
She wrapped around my chest in less than a second, exerting pressure at the right angles. She hissed before she sank her fangs into me, injecting her venom again. This time at the inside of a forelimb, where I was more sensitive.
Heat bloomed through me, not pain but that same resonance as before.
Mine.
Could she be—
My wings folded, and my body lowered of its own accord. Every trained instinct yelled at me to break away, but another instinct overpowered me to submit to her.
I let her bring me down.
Her coils loosened just enough for her to shift back. In one smooth motion, she had the enchanted restraint collar off her belt and snapped around my throat.
It glowed and set.
I could have shattered it, but I didn’t.
“Subdual achieved,” Rune announced, breath a little fast, crouched over my breastbone like a victory she didn’t trust yet. She shouldn’t trust it. “Target contained.”
The simulation fell away.
I pushed my magic down and let the collar force my shift. It was always worse when I rushed it. My wings sucked toward my ribs as my bones shortened too quickly. Magic collapsed through itself until the world throbbed in red and black.
By the time my vision cleared, I was flat on my back on the simulator floor, council-issued suit damp with sweat, and steam rising off my skin. The collar had shrunk with me and hummed low against my throat.
Rune was still there, kneeling over my chest, hand half-curled where scales had been a moment ago. Touching me like she didn’t want to stop.
I didn’t want her to stop.
I lifted my head and met her eyes. The wild thud of both our hearts were loud.
“You bit me,” I said hoarsely.
Her lips curved into a smile. “You asked for it.”
A breath scraped out of me that could have been a laugh.
She didn’t move.
Neither did I.
Something thrummed between us, our magic coiling and twining in a way mine had never done with anyone. Zuko’s venom still twinged, but the edge was blunted by the way Rune’s sat inside me like a protective ward.
“Your venom didn’t disable me,” I admitted quietly.
“I noticed,” she murmured, voice gone soft like she wasn’t sure why.
She shifted as if to stand.
My hand caught her hip before I could think. Not to stop her exactly, just to…touch her. The heat that jumped through my palm startled me.
I yanked my hand back.
I did not mean to touch her without her consent.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” she breathed. “I liked it.”
She was my mentor’s daughter.
My boss’s daughter.
And yet…
Our magic flared again.
“Let me,” she said, standing up and offering her hand.
I took it, letting her haul me up.
Rune had brought down a dragon—me—and I had let her.
Why did it feel like I’d crossed a line I couldn’t uncross?
Gavin cleared his throat. “Jesper…what was that?”
Rune turned toward him with the biggest grin I’d ever seen on her. She was beautiful. “I’m just that good, Pops. Don’t blame him.”
“My venom baby’s right,” Slater sang as he bounded over, throwing an arm around her shoulders. “I can’t believe you took down a dragon.” His red eyes slid to me, mouth curving into a knowing smirk. “Though, I have a feeling it’s because he let you.”
“Let me?” she gasped in horror. “Let’s do it again!”
“No,” Gavin chuckled before his knowing gaze swung to me. “You won fair and square. Right, Jesper?”
I nodded, feeling his gaze picking me apart. “She did.”
“What can I say?” Zuko ambled up with a smirk as he wrapped an arm around her waist. “My pretty little poison is just that amazing.”
“Understatement,” Koa added, ambling up with a sheepish smile.
“She did well,” Dimitri muttered, glancing away.
“So did you,” she told him. “You were the one controlling the mass of civilians panicking, after all.”
Much better than Hawk had.
Gavin nodded at the ten of them, narrowing his eyes at Eleanor. “Your squad passes. You took down the target in a surprising amount of time. Casualties were at a minimum because of that. Eleanor, go to the infirmary. Lorian, take her.”
“I’m on it,” Lorian said, already scooping Eleanor into his arms just as she finally passed out.
Rune and I shared one brief look as the others filed out. My magic still buzzed, reaching for hers violently.
If she was my mate, why wasn’t the bond snapping into place?