Chapter 17 #2
Elena pulls away from Caleb with uncharacteristic roughness. Her eyes are red-rimmed, voice thick.
“Mara, you can’t just… We’ve been mourning you! I’ve been—” She cuts herself off, swallowing.
My heart breaks a little. I hate doing this to her.
“I know, babe. And I’m sorry.” I let the tenderness show. My hand reaches out toward the screen like I could touch her through it. “But trust me… what I’m doing matters.”
“What are you doing?” Luke’s voice. Finally speaking up.
I force the grin back. “Lukester! I missed you, you boring bastard. Can’t say yet. OpSec and all that.”
The room dissolves into argument, everyone talking over each other, demanding, pleading, questioning.
I cough again. Harder this time. Have to double over briefly before straightening with effort that costs me. The hike down here must have taken more out of me than I realized.
“I’m alive. I’m safe enough. And I’ll check in when I can.” I wipe my lips.
Shit. More blood.
Viktor leans forward, silver hair falling over his forehead. I’ve never seen him this rattled. “We have a strike team deploying to the Carpathians. They can retrieve you—”
“I’m not in the mountains anymore.” My voice sharpens. The last thing I want is for them to send in the cavalry before I’ve figured out how to find K. If the Syndicate gets spooked, they might kill him.
Behind me, something scrapes—Andrei shifting position, maybe. Or just wind against stone. I glance over my shoulder.
“Then where?” A new voice. Calm. Controlled. Must be Riven.
“Somewhere I need to be.” I meet the camera without flinching. “That’s all you’re getting.”
I let my tone shift. Genuine now. Almost gentle.
“Look, I know this is hard. But I’m asking you to trust me.” My eyes find Ember through the screen. Hold her gaze. “You trusted your instincts in those mountains. Trust mine now.”
“Mara—” Ember starts, and I hear the conflict in her voice. Relief and hurt tangled together.
“I’m okay, Ember. Promise.” My voice goes soft. “And I’ll see you again.” Pause. “When this is done.”
“Done?” Caleb demands. “What do you mean, done? Mara, as your employer, I’m ordering you—”
I don’t respond to him. Instead, my eyes sweep across all of them one last time. Linger on Elena, whose shoulders shake with silent sobs.
“Take care of each other. Don’t wait up.” I try for another grin. It’s strained, my mouth twitching with effort. My chest is really aching now.
“Mara, at least give us—” Viktor starts.
I end the call.
The screen goes dark.
My hands are shaking. I stare at the phone, at my reflection in the black glass.
Pale. Bruised. Blood on my lip.
What are you doing?
The question sits heavy. I just lied to everyone who cares about me. Refused rescue. Committed to a plan I don’t fully have.
All for a man who called me another woman’s name.
A man I’ve known for barely a week.
A man who’s a dragon and doesn’t even know his own history.
A twinge in my ribs has me looking down at my damp shirt. Blood. I lift the hem to see a thin line of torn skin across my torso.
When did that happen?
Probably during the run-in with those Syndicate fuckers. With all the excitement, I didn’t even notice.
“You are brave or foolish,” Andrei says, returning. “Perhaps both.”
“Definitely both.” I straighten my shirt and pocket the phone. “Can you get me closer to that road? I need to see which direction they went.”
He studies me. “The elder said to bring you back.”
“The elder can wait five more minutes.”
For a moment, I think he’ll refuse.
Then he nods. “Five minutes. Then we return, or I carry you back myself.”
“Deal.”
We move through the trees, staying low and quiet. The road grows clearer—definitely wide enough for vehicles, relatively well-maintained despite being “abandoned.”
And there: tire tracks. Multiple sets, heading east just like Andrei said.
Toward the border. Toward civilization.
Toward wherever the Syndicate is taking K.
I memorize everything. The direction. The approximate width of the vehicles. The spacing between tire marks suggesting a convoy.
Intel. Concrete. Useful.
“We must go,” Andrei says quietly. “Before they send patrols back.”
“What’s wrong with going now, dammit?”
“Without a plan?” He tilts his head. “That would not be wise.”
He’s right. I nod, taking one last look at the road.
I will come back for you, K said.
“Yeah, well maybe I’ll be the one coming for you,” I whisper to the snow and stone and empty road. “You just try and stop me.”
We climb back toward the village in silence.
My mind is already working. Planning.
I don’t know where the Syndicate is taking him. Don’t know if I can reach him before—
Don’t think about that.
But I know the direction. Know they’re using vehicles, which means roads. Infrastructure. Places that can be tracked.
And I have resources now. A phone with signal. People who can help.
I just need a location worth sending them to. Information so they know what they’re up against.
The village appears through the trees. Dragana waits in the square, expression unreadable.
“You found what you needed?” she asks.
“A direction. Not a destination.”
“Directions are a start.” She studies my face. “But you cannot follow tonight. You are injured. Exhausted. The mountain will kill you before those men do.”
I want to argue. Want to insist I’m fine, that every second counts, that K is getting farther away while we stand here talking.
But my body betrays me. Trembling from cold and adrenaline crash. The blood on my lip a reminder that I’m not as healed as I pretend.
You died last week.
The thought comes back to me, along with memories of bone-crushing pain.
“Tomorrow,” Dragana says. It’s not a suggestion. “You rest tonight. Eat. Recover strength. Tomorrow, I send guides. They know the roads, the passes. They will help you follow.”
“Why?” The question slips out. “Why help us? You barely know us.”
“Because our kind have been linked with his since before my great-grandmother’s time.” She pauses. “And because you care for him, even if you have not named it yet.”
I stare at her.
“I don’t… We’re not…” I stop. Can’t finish the denial.
Because it’s a lie.
And I’ve told enough of those.
Dragana’s expression softens fractionally. “Rest, child. Tomorrow, we find him. Tonight, we plan.”
She turns and walks away, leaving me standing in the square with Andrei and the knowledge that I need him.
A week. That’s all it’s been.
Seven impossible days where he saved my life and carried me through mountains and kissed me… touched me.
And I’m falling for him.
Idiot, I tell myself. Reckless, foolish idiot.
But knowing it’s stupid doesn’t make it less true.
“Come,” Andrei says gently. “You need food. Warmth.”
I follow him back to the dwelling. The one K and I shared.
The fire still burns. Our pallets still side by side.
The space where we came together and fell apart in the span of minutes.
I sink onto my pallet, pull his cloak around my shoulders.
It still smells like him.
And I let myself break.
Just for a moment. Just long enough to feel the fear and rage and helplessness.
Then I rebuild the walls. Lock everything down.
Tomorrow, I follow the road.
Tomorrow, I find where they’ve taken him.
And then, God help anyone who tries to stop me. I’m getting him out of there.