“I think she might have been a relative,” I added.
“Well, she’s not with him now.” Riggs pushed his stack of books away, and his mind returned to his current obsession. “What does this sword have to do with me?” he sounded more than a bit desperate. “Cara said it chose me. I have no idea why. I’m nothing. I’m not even a Dragon anymore.”
“You are not ‘nothing’!” I winced, and lowered my voice when the librarian looked over at us. “It must have done it for a reason.”
“Like what? It’s a lot of weapon for a basic Shade operative.”
He looked so frustrated that I strove to reassure him. “You are trying to decipher Fate. Never an easy thing.” When his brows lowered even more, I felt compelled to offer an alternative. “Perhaps you are destined to bear it to another,” I suggested, “rather than carry it yourself?”
“Maybe.” He appeared more hopeful.
But as my eyes returned to my book, my mind spun. This sword had been connected to many important figures over the years, and they all had one thing in common—they were alive at a time when their kingdoms were falling apart.
Not all of them had been chosen to lead—but they’d been chosen tosave.
I sat across from a fallen prince of a Dragon Empire in desperate trouble. My heart twisted. Maybe, just maybe, the sword knew exactly what it was doing. Had it chosen him to guide the Empire out of ruin? No way to know. If Riggs was destined for that, where did that leave what was building between us?
Because he wasn’t nothing. But I was.
The answer was obvious, and it threatened to break my heart.
27
Tez
As I sat in the cafeteria, I could swear I heard my grandmother laughing at me.
She hadn’t laughed often. But she had done so every time I’d set out to prove that I had control over situations when I didn’t.
To give her credit, when I failed as a result, she’d never say I told you so. She would just laugh, then fix me withthat look—and ask me if I’d learned anything.
I would always say yes, even when I didn’t mean it. And we would carry on.
But now I could really use her advice. Because the woman I’d been sent to bring back to Victor was the same one who haunted my dreams.
I’d been given a detailed description of her. There were quite a few females at the academy, but from the moment I set eyes on this woman, I had no doubt it was her I’d been sent to fetch. Or rather, set up to be fetched.
Because it fit so perfectly with the fucked-up mess my life seemed determined to become. Every time I thought I had control, something happened to rip it away from me.
Nemi chirped from her perch on my shoulder as I rubbed absently at the earcuff. Sometimes, it itched, or seemed to heat against my skin.
The hummingbird chirped again and poked my jaw with her sharp little beak. I craned my neck to meet her beady little eyes. For just a second, I thought I saw them sparkle with humor.
I was losing my fucking mind.
Seeing the woman here had to be a fluke. She’d been in Drosfi—and now I realized I’d been an inadvertent witness to her fleeing the city. Why was I so fascinated? She was stunningly beautiful, so of course, I would fantasize about her. The fact I’d come full circle, and she was now my target, meant nothing.
Right?
It didn’t explain my almost visceral response when she’d walked into that cafeteria. The way I’d been unable to take my eyes off of her, to the extent that she’d given me the definite “keep staring and I’ll gouge your eyes out” glare.
According to Slade, her name was Bree. And she had fire. It was there in the gleam of her dark eyes, in the way she carried that luscious body.
Luscious? I had it bad, but I needed to get my head in the game here. So I did my best to shove thoughts of her aside and focus on the task at hand.
Nemi uttered the weirdest little chortling sound. And then she slapped me up the back of my head.
I froze. She’d taken her wing and clobbered me. Hard enough to sting. Just like my grandmother had done when I’d been particularly thick about something.
