She expected his usual lecherous grin, but instead, he merely replied. “There is someone here who needs to speak to you.”
Dani stiffened as her suspicions were confirmed. “I don’t want to talk to anyone.”
The Satyr’s brows dropped. “What youwantmay no longer be acceptable.”
She glared at him. “It’s all that matters to me.”
Jacques drew himself up. “The woman I thought I knew would do whatever it took to help someone she cared about.”
Dani’s heart twisted. “That woman only existed in your mind, Jacques. Leave me alone.” She spun and headed back up the alley.
“Tyrez is dying.”
Her heart froze and her feet rooted to the ground. She turned back to the Satyr. “What? He’s as strong as—well, as a Dragon. He can’t be dying.”
Jacques’s eyes sparked dark fire at her. “Do you think you can just flaunt Fate, and everything will return to normal? He and Ash are your soulbonds, Dani. When you walked away, you fractured not only your connection to them, but theirs to each other.”
A pulse of anger flushed through Dani. She’d been over this already with the Satyr, who persisted in bringing it up. He was wrong, and she explained why. Again. “They have each other. Ash and Tyrez are soulbonded, I’m not part of that. I was just an accident. Tyrez’s virus saved my life, but it pulled me in where I didn’t belong.”
Usually, she walked away after this explanation, but this time the Tyrez comment held her in place.
Unfortunately, it gave him a chance to beleaguer the point. He tilted his head to regard her, and asked, “Why do you think you didn’t belong?”
She raised her hands. “They don’t need me.”
“Two months without you proves you wrong. They are both languishing. No, it is worse than that. Ash is hanging on, but Tyrez—he eats only when Ash forces him to. He’s not taking enough of his crystal supplements, and the jobs he’s been on are damned dangerous. Ash is terrified he’s going to get himself killed.”
No. This couldn’t be true. Tyrez was a Legion Dragon. Powerful. Nearly invincible.
Except he wasn’t a Legion Dragon anymore. And that was because of her. He’d given up his whole life to save hers.
But Tyrez was a big boy. He was strong, mentally, not the type to pine away for something that should never have existed in the first place. Besides, he and Ash were fated to be together.
Jacques had to be wrong.
Dani began to walk away. But Sparkle materialized directly in front of her, embers drifting into her hair. While she beat them out, Jacques grabbed her by the arm.
When she wrenched it away from him, he frowned and insisted, “If this keeps on, he will die, Dani. Talk to Ash.”
“Ash?”
“He’s here. If you don’t want to believe me, fine. But talk to Ash before you walk away.”
Ash is here.The longing that swept through her threatened to take her out at the knees, and suddenly it was hard to breathe.
Dammit.She couldn’t walk away from Ash—Jacques had likely known that.
A subtle tickle along the link, the first sign of life it had shown since she’d walked away. She stubbornly locked it down. Her reasons for cutting it off were as valid now as they’d been when she first did it. No one controlled her. Not ever.
If Ash wanted to talk, they’d do it in person. Aloud, like normal folks. She’d get it over with and return to her life on the streets.
She turned back to Jacques. “All right. Take me to him.”
Sparkle flew ahead as Jacques led her deeper into the alley and then climbed a fire escape ladder that had been lowered to the ground.
Of course, Ash would be on the roof. He was a Dragon, after all. Dani sighed and began to climb.
She was out of breath by the time they reached the top of the three-story building. Jacques stepped off to the side as a slim figure moved out of the shadows.
