Chapter 38
Thirty-Eight
Ella
The rug twisted in my hands as I watched him go.
It was Dirk, but not Dirk. The way he walked, the body language, something was different. I had seen it as he stared over my head down the alley, where the Hunter had long departed in the opposite direction.
A darkness.
There were parts of Dirk I didn’t know, and he hadn’t let me in. I’d gathered enough to know it was painful and something he’d not totally let go of either. Much like me.
Perhaps it was time we moved beyond that and opened up fully to one another. Could I tell him the truth of my past, of what had been taken from me and now from us? The thing I could not give him?
I wasn’t sure.
Come back to me, Dirk. Don’t let wherever you went in that moment consume you. You’re a better man that that.
My mate.
The stress grew as I stood and waited for him to return, my nerves fraying by the second, though not for myself.
I didn’t feel vulnerable. As Dirk had pointed out, the city guard post was right there.
At a run, I could be in front of them in under ten seconds if I needed to.
The shop was empty up front, the owner chattering away somewhere in the back with an employee by the sounds of it.
I was worried about Dirk as I waited for my mate to return to me. The man had, unknowingly, helped me put the pieces of my life back together. For the first time since I’d been broken, I actually felt somewhat whole again. All because of him and his caring.
Maybe that was why telling him my past scared me. If he knew the truth, he might reject me, consider me broken and unworthy, despite all the things he’d said so far.
I couldn’t survive being shattered again.
I saw movement in the alley. I perked up, peering through the slats of the hanging rugs, but it wasn’t Dirk. He was still in there. I sighed, leaning back.
“Wait a minute,” I murmured, looking closer at the hooded figure. At his nails, as they clutched a package to his side.
It was him!
Andrik, or so we suspected. His hood was still pulled far forward of his head, obscuring any real facial features for me to identify him with.
Even if it wasn’t Andrik, I was positive it was still the same person we’d been following.
The perfectly fitting navy blue pants, the black top.
It all matched. But they were alone, and they didn’t look all that worse for the wear.
Dirk hadn’t caught up with them.
I looked at the size of the package tucked under his arm. Only one thing he could have gotten from that type of market would fit in such a package, perhaps a foot each side, but only an inch or two deep.
It was a heart scale. The central link on a dragon’s chest. Torn from the corpse of a freshly killed dragon, they could be preserved. When adhered to the flesh of a non-dragon, they would imbue that individual with its powers, including the ability to assume a dragon form.
What use could Andrik have for such an item? They were wildly illegal and actively punishable. Unlike trading in Grounded, which was only legal on paper, not in the real world.
This was it. I stood up straight as the realization hit home. This was the proof we needed, proof that illegal things were occurring within Mirko’s household. If his son was dealing in Heart Scales, and we could trace that to Mirko himself, he could be brought down.
So where in the abyss is Dirk?
The hooded figure rolled their neck, and then started away down the alley in the opposite direction. Still no sign of Dirk.
If he didn’t appear soon, Andrik, or whoever it was, would get away, slip into the street at the other end of the alley, and be gone. And our proof would be lost with him.
Unless I followed him.
I shouldn’t. I wasn’t trained for anything like that, nor did I know the city well enough. But Dirk wasn’t coming, and it was only the two of us. What choice did I have?
Cursing the entire stupid situation and every corrupt Elite ever, I slipped from my hiding spot and made my way across the street and into the alley.
Despite the risk, I couldn’t let the suspect get away. Finding this proof and stopping his uncle meant a lot to Dirk. He and his brother were trying to change things.
I thought of Anna and the risks she had taken going after Milly. A responsibility to do what was necessary, to change things for other Grounded so they didn’t have to suffer like we had. Like I had.
No way could I let my friend do that while I hid, as terrifying as it was.
So I walked slowly down the alley, doing my best to move from hiding spot to hiding spot to prevent a casual glance over his shoulder revealing me. There were plenty of places to use as cover, from jut-outs on buildings to piles of boxes stacked against stores and shadows galore.
I reached the door where Dirk had disappeared, pausing for a pair of seconds while hoping frantically that he was just taking his time to follow before he left the market.
But he never came. I walked past the door to the market, fighting down the knots in my stomach as they threatened to turn my feet around and propel me back out of the alley.
We went down another alley, a much smaller one. I fell back even further. Why was he going this way? But when he turned onto another large alley soon after, I relaxed. Andrik was likely just making sure he didn’t go home the same way he’d left.
I couldn’t blame him, knowing what he held in one hand.
I crept to the meeting of alleyways, my shoulders against one wall as I prepared to peek out and see how far away he’d gotten. I drew in a slow breath, counting down from three.
Three. Two.
“It isn’t polite to follow someone, you know,” a voice said from around the corner.
I yelped, backing away as the hooded figure rounded the corner from where he’d been waiting.
Whistling sharply once, he waited as more figures dropped from the rooftops. Three behind. Two more in front. All of them in the gray garb of Hunters.
I turned in a slow circle, analyzing the situation and trying to come up with a plan on how I could escape so I could get back to Dirk.
A surge of energy filled my muscles. Not just adrenaline. A cold lizard presence filled my brain and my body.
My dragon. It had been a long time since I’d felt her presence so keenly. Not since the mountains had we been this united, focused on the same goal.
Thank you.
For the first time in my life, she was present when I needed her most.
Power all but crackled through my veins, though I knew I was still in dire straits.
Taking on the six of them was a fool’s game, dragon or no dragon.
So I didn’t try. I focused on the one in the hood.
He was still holding on to the heart scale, which meant his right hand was occupied, making him the most vulnerable.
The main street wasn’t far away. I just had to get past him and run as fast as I could. Then I could scream for help, and the city guard would come. It wasn’t the best plan, but it had a much higher chance of success than fighting off all six men.
Surprise would be key. They thought I was a Clippy, weak and fearful. Helpless. So I played the part.
“Please. Just let me go,” I said. “I didn’t do anything.”
“I don’t think so.” The voice coming from under the hood sounded very much like Andrik. I’d only heard him speak a time or two, though, so I couldn’t be sure. “You’ve seen too much. You’re going to go with these men now.”
I shied away from him as he stepped closer, reaching for me with one hand.
At the last second, I moved, ducking swiftly under his fingers and lashing out at his stomach with every ounce of my new dragon strength.
The blow landed, and the figure doubled over with a whoof as air was expelled from his lungs.
I started to dash past, for freedom, but at the last second I reached out, clawing for the hood and trying to tear it free.
A hand came up to block me. Cursing, I backed away, driving an elbow into the sternum of the Hunter behind me. Something cracked, and he fell away with a cry of pain. I took off, disappointed I couldn’t reveal who had been under the hood. Freedom was more important, though.
One moment I was rounding the corner into the bigger alley and headed for freedom, and the next I was stopped cold, snapping forward painfully at the waist as my feet froze solid to the ground.
“Enough of this. Take her away now, before the other one finds out I gave him the slip. Make sure to leave a trail he can follow.”
The hooded figure swept past but not before I reached out and yanked at the cloth covering the package under his arm. It tugged free, revealing the shine of a heart scale.
A ruby heart scale, taken from the chest of a dead fire dragon.
Just like the dragons who ambushed Caz when he rescued Milly!
Mirko’s mate, Bryna, used wolves with fire dragon heart scales on them to try to kill Caz. It has to be Andrik. It has to.
But I couldn’t prove it. The figure snarled and pulled the cloth back into place. Then he backhanded me across the face. I couldn’t move, my feet stuck in place as pain exploded where the blow split my top lip open.
Then I was grabbed by too many sets of hands to fight and dragged off into the darkness of the alleys of Kylma.