Chapter 42
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
PHOENIX
Idon’t know how long I just stand there, still as a statue. My eyes are trained on the sky, right where the dragon disappeared behind a mountaintop.
She didn’t choose me.
The dragon I came here for, the one I trained for, and prepared for, the one I tracked for a week…just refused me.
No.
This cannot be happening. Not when so many things are at stake!
A branch breaks behind me, startling me out of my thoughts. I don’t have to look to know it’s Jax.
Oh gods…
He was here, watching this whole thing go down…
Through our bond, I sense him, the thoughts running through his mind.
His concern.
His pity.
He breaks the silence first with, “Phoenix…”
I don’t need his pity.
My words are cold as ice. “Don’t.”
Tense silence stretches between us. I can’t bear to face him. Not yet. So I stand with my back to him.
“Elder Arcon’s trackers briefed me on the tracking protocol,” he says, carefully. I bristle. “We shouldn’t have engaged the creature here, but we can still—”
Anger bubbles to the surface so quick it takes my breath away. It coils like a snake, and strikes.
I whirl on my heel. “You think I don’t know that?”
Jax snaps his mouth shut, blinking at me.
“Elder Arcon and his trackers briefed me too,” I say sharply. “I’m well aware of the protocol. Have you forgotten it’s my path to walk?”
“I know, Phoenix. I’m not saying you’re not capable—”
I cut him off again. “Really? Because it sure sounds like you’re trying to guide me where the guidance is not needed.”
Jax presses his lips into a thin line.
I’m so furious I can barely breathe. “I don’t need you. This is my journey, my path to walk. I don’t need you following me like an obedient puppy, trying to manage me. I have spent years before we met doing just fine on my own.”
I survived the fire that claimed my family.
I escaped the Greedy King and his damn Royal Guard.
I earned my way into Vasquez’s crew.
I’ve spent months with pirates, sailing to Ekios.
I trained day and night to join the Order of Ezkai.
I don’t need him telling me what I should or shouldn’t do.
“I’m your Blood Sentineal. It’s my duty to—”
I scoff. “Oh, your duty? Your only duty is dying for me when the time comes.”
Jax flinches at that as if I slapped him across the face.
I crossed the line.
I know it the moment the words leave my mouth.
I don’t take them back, though.
But I bite my tongue and hold my ground.
He was the one who drew a firm line between us the other night when he chose not to sleep at all rather than to share the furs with me.
I’m just solidifying the boundaries.
The door between us is slammed shut tight. Locked and bolted.
I can see him searching for the right words to say. I beat him to it. “We should go our separate ways. You’re a distraction for me. I don’t need a distraction. I’m going to track the dragon to her den by myself.”
Jax eyes me for a heartbeat. Then he shakes his head and says, “Fine.”
A muscle in his jaw ticks.
“Do it your way, General.”
Him addressing me with the cold, controlled “General” lands hard.
I don’t show it, though.
Instead, I whirl on my heel and head the direction where the dragon flew.
Just as I reach the edge of the forest, my steps halt. I don’t glance back, but I know Jax is still standing there, watching me.
For a second, I almost turn back.
Almost say, “I’m sorry.”
But in the end, I don’t.
I keep walking.