His gaze riveted on Tyrez as the two of them approached.
Tyrez cleared his throat. “Ash, I need you to stay here with Dani. I’m going to check the house.”
Ash stiffened. “Rindek”—he stopped, and frowned—“is gone.” He glanced up the rocks, toward the house. “He had another gate.” Long fingers rubbed one temple. “You won’t find the lab. I will have to show you.”
Dani shot Tyrez a look. She didn’t think taking Ash to the house was a good idea.
But Ash had already turned to pick his way up the path. After a moment, they followed.
* * *
The past, present, and future crashed around in Ash’s brain as he led the way to the house carved from stone.
It was so confusing that he repeatedly turned to see who followed him. Every time, he experienced a shock when he saw it was Tyrez and Dani, and not Demeti.
His Oracle ability was totally out of control. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate, it wouldn’t settle down. The past that surfaced told him his brain wasn’t healing like it had before. That something was different this time.
The path blurred, and became Dragons, lying bleeding on the beach. He stumbled and halted until the path reemerged.
“Ash? Are you okay?” Dani asked, her voice filled with concern.
No. No, he wasn’t. What he’d foreseen now lay on that beach behind him—but he’d seen it before today. In the past. As part of the future...
His ability had always possessed the potential to drive him mad. But he’d always been able to sift through the crap to determine the connections and interpret them.
Now, it was running wild.
Dani stared at him, and behind her, Tyrez did too, the remarkable metallic eyes glowing. These two were part of him, somehow. It was the one thing that past, present, and future all agreed upon.
What if they knew how messed up he really was? He wanted them to stay with him.Neededthem to.
“I’m fine,” he lied.
He turned away and struggled to shut it all off. Focused on the house ahead, and the things he needed to showTyrez. He clung to the name like his life depended upon it. Because he’d had it before and lost it.
Tyrez. Sexy as hell, be he in Dragon form, or human. Long, silky hair to his waist, the color of midnight. Shoulders big enough to carry the world. More muscles than any man had a right to possess.
He’d touched them. It was like touching sunlit stone, they were that hard. The moment he’d made contact with the gleaming scales, it had felt like he’d come home.
They flew—hardly more than a few wingbeats, and glided down to the beach, but Ash’s heart had taken wing. He’d only ever flown in his dreams.
It was marvelous. He hadn’t wanted it to end, so he slid onto the gravel with great reluctance and had to force himself to remove his hands from the warm foreleg.
And then there was Dani.
She was the biggest surprise, arousing slivers of memories. Had he seen her in his dreams? A glimpse of a black-winged Dragon... He struggled to remember the woman who stood before him. The stud in her nose. The Dragon tattoo running up one arm, and the one on her chest. The touch-me-and-you’ll-die attitude she wore like a second skin.
He recognized that for what it was. Because he had been through hell, too. Yet he’d seen her embrace Tyrez, and the energy between them had crackled and pulsed. For a few moments, anyway, before she’d moved away.
So not as untouchable as she’d like to have others believe.
They looked at him with pity and worry in their gazes, and he felt naked before them. He was humiliated that his scales could barely disguise his hips. Clothing himself in scales had never been possible, not at the barely survivable level of crystal dust Rindek had kept him on. It was why he’d always worn clothing.
The nakedness wasn’t just physical. It was a thing of the soul. Like these two people could see him for what he really was.
Ash burned with shame. Because he knew the truth.
He was nothing.
