Dani was unprepared for the way her heart leaped, and she had to throttle her urge to run to him.
She needn’t have bothered. Ash didn’t look like he’d welcome her advance. He stiffened, his eyes scanning her as if he could see straight into her soul. Knowing who and what he was, he likely could.
Uncomfortable, Dani stopped a few feet from him. “Hi, Ash.”
“Hi, Dani.” His remarkable metallic eyes sparked silver fire in the darkness. He wore only his golden scales, but they covered most of his body and gleamed in the moonlight. Yet, even after two months, the bones were still far too close beneath his skin. Why hadn’t he gained more weight?
He tilted his head the tiniest bit as he examined her and then offered his opinion along a similar theme. “You’ve lost weight,” he noted.
She looked down at herself. It surprised her he could interpret that through the trench coat. She was eating as well as she ever had. Yeah, she’d dropped weight. So what?
“I’m fine,” she replied. “But what’s up with Tyrez?”
A spasm crossed his face. He didn’t answer right away but leaned against an air condensing unit, looking up at the stars.
Dani swallowed hard. “Ash. If I’ve hurt you, I’m sorry. But you guys don’t need me. You have each other.”
The luminous gaze lowered to hers, and she was shocked to see his eyes filled with unshed tears. “He’s trying to kill himself. He won’t admit it. Refuses to see it. But deep down, he’s broken. And I can’t fix him.”
Ice flooded through her. Her Dragon could sense his words were laced with honesty. Ash was quite certain that what he spoke was the truth.
“What have you foreseen?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Too much. The timelines diverge around a single point.” His silver gaze locked on her. “You.”
“Me?” Her heart began to pound.
“You are the key. I can’t see why. Or just how, either. But it all revolves around you.”
No. Not again. Why was she the catalyst for all this stuff? She didn’t believe in Fate, but Fate sure as hell believed in her.
Dani could sense the abyss opening before her. Her heart slammed against her ribs and then fluttered. A harbinger of another attack.
Dammit.She knew how to survive on the streets. There was a freedom here. She was only responsible for herself.
But Ash hadn’t been wrong. Physically, she wasn’t holding her own. The crystal she consumed wasn’t sustaining her, and she didn’t know why. She’d dropped more weight since returning to the streets. Couldn’t even climb a fire escape without panting. And it dovetailed with a slow, emotional slide into an oblivion that would eventually result in her getting devoured by sharks. She knew it. Just refused to admit it.
Until now.
Was this happening to her because she’d denied her link to Ash and Tyrez?
Was she the cause of Tyrez’s decline?
She took a deep breath. “Are you saying Tyrez’s situation is because of me? Because I”—she hesitated, remembering the way she’d mentally yelled, and shoved them away—“I-I left?”
Ash rubbed a long-fingered hand over his face. “You made it pretty clear you wanted to go. I didn’t want to let you. But Tyrez said we had to. That you couldn’t put chains on something that needed to be free.”
Dani almost choked as her throat tightened and her eyes filled with tears. Tyrez had said that? When had he come to know her so well?
But now that she thought about it, when hadn’t he? It was what she had sensed from the big Dragon right from the very beginning. That the gruff exterior hid an enormous heart.
He’d offered it up to her. And she’d shoved it right back down his throat.Effing hell.Thiswasall her fault.
She stepped closer to Ash. He straightened and gazed down at her. Dani reached out with her hand and took his, wincing when he throttled the energy that tried to surge through their touch.
Could she salvage what lay between them? Was she sure she wanted to? It meant crossing lines she’d sworn she’d never cross.
But Tyrez was dying.
