And suddenly, the Watcher was gone. I’d never seen anyone move that fast. The door slammed shut behind her.
I took a step after her, but Matt grabbed my arm to stop me. When I glared at him, he turned to Haki.
“How much of that blueprint is in your noggin?”
The Dragon tilted his head. “Noggin?”
“Can you remember the key bits?” Matt pressed.
Haki’s eyes lit up, and his suddenly fierce expression reminded me of who he really was. “Get me a piece of paper,” he said to Jacques.
Jacques pulled himself up tall, and Sparkle, still sitting on his shoulder, twittered at me. “You don’t need paper,” he insisted. “You are going back to the academy.”
I noted the sudden lack of French embellishments. “No, we’re not,” I said.
The Satyr turned to me. “You do not understand,” he pleaded. “Xumi is dangerous. If you go pelting off after your Dragon friend, you will end up in chains, or worse.”
All my angst about Talakai and Sebastian, and my frustrations and worry over the lethality of my power, seemed to suddenly explode within me in a rush of energy.
“Get Haki the damned paper.”
My voice rang with power, and it hit Jacques like a tsunami. Sparkle gave a startled screech and teleported in a flurry of feathers and flame. The Satyr’s eyes widened as he backpedaled, beating the sparks out of his hair.
Matt growled at him. “We aren’t going back to the academy. So get the bleedin’ Dragon his paper.”
Jacques shot him a look, but when his eyes returned to me, I saw the glimmer of fear in them.
“What are you?” he whispered.
The look in his eyes twisted something inside me, but I wasn’t giving up. “No one seems to know,” I admitted. “But this is something we have to do. Even that Seer, Ash, told us we had to find the Dragon.”
Jacques’s mouth twisted. “My instincts say run, but my body...ma chéri.I do not know whether to run from you or bed you.”
Matt snarled, very loudly, very seriously. I shot him a startled look and saw the bones moving beneath his skin.
“Hey,” I said to him. “Get a grip.”
Jacques backed away from the Dire, his eyes wide.
I made a grab for my patience, which was a stretch, but at least my voice sounded more normal. To the Satyr, I said, “I suggest you find us some paper, and then show us how to get where we need to go.”
The Satyr wound his fingers together, the tips turning white. “This,” he finally said, “is amauvais idée.”
I raised a brow. “Paper?”
His shoulders slumped. “Papier,” he agreed, and trotted off to find some.
32
Talakai
I drifted in a fog of pain and sated lust.
And shame. I couldn’t ever escape that.
This time, I was stretched out on the metal table. Xumi lay across me, her talons tracing bloody lines across my naked chest.
I noticed that it was messing up my tattoo. As if that was my only worry.
