Yeah. My kind is cool with genocide.
Not that dragonkind was ever friendly to witches—there were just as many casualties on our side. It was a simple numbers game in the end.
We share a history of murder and betrayal, and this new situation I’ve found myself in is the first known voluntary collaboration between the two races.
The operative word beingknown. Maybe there were other witches who fell in love with dragons. I should research that someday, when I don’t have my family hot on my heels.
Their reason for wanting to keep tabs on me is probably selfish: I told Alice I’m using magic again. In the presence of humans, no less. She wasn’t happy when I spoke to her on the phone, but I didn’t think she’d go to these lengths to track me down. What if more bugs are waiting in the boxes we couldn’t bring on the small plane, the ones we left in storage in Anchorage? I’ll have to get to that airfield and comb through all my belongings.
But again, that would mean having to talk to Aiden, so I’ve been avoiding the issue. If I want to keep the villagers safe, though, I need to figure out what Alice is playing at. Is she working on her own, trying to satisfy her curiosity, or has she told the rest of the family that I’m practicing magic again?
I should call her and explain how hurt I am that she did this. She’s only a phone call away. And yet I haven’t mustered the courage to do that. I’m too afraid that I won’t like what she has to say to me. If the coven is coming to shackle me permanently, I won’t give up my magic easily. They have no right to it, not after they cast me out. And now that I’ve seen how beautiful magic can be, how much I can accomplish with the guys’ help, I want to learnmore.
I get up from Jack’s bed, trying not to jostle either one of the guys. It’s two a.m., and I’m too hot to sleep—sea dragons are furnaces, and Ty has been hugging me close for hours. I go to the bathroom for a glass of water, then return to the bedroom. I don’t lie back down. Instead, I curl up on Jack’s little couch and watch them sleep in the near-black darkness like a complete weirdo.
Jack’s tall form takes up most of the bed, and he’s lying on his back, his arm thrown over his head. He’s naked from the waist up, the intricate lines of his tattoo barely visible. Ty sleeps on his side, one hand on Jack’s stomach now that I’m no longer there, and his black hair is a mess, falling into his eyes. This brings home the realization that I’ve been here for two months already: when I arrived, his hair wasn’t nearly this long.
And I’ve fallen so deeply in love with them, I can’t bear the thought of them being hurt. I can’t fuck up their lives because my sister is a nosy asshole. There has to be a way to protect them and keep the witches—whether it’s just my sister or the entire coven—away from here.
Wait.
I sit up straight as an idea pops into my brain. I might not be able to perform that intense protection spell yet, but I couldleadthe witches away. Make them think this village—that’s not even on any map—was only a stop for me and the boxes Alice sent me. I could travel on to Juneau or a smaller town along the coast. It’s a stretch, because the tracker probably transmitted this location clearly, but at least they wouldn’t focus all their energy here.
As quietly as I can, I get to my feet and tiptoe out of the room. Sea dragons have sensitive ears, but Jack and Ty are dead to the world. The door closes behind me with a quietsnick, and I relax a little.
Now, if I could just find those bits of the tracking device Aiden smashed and repair them using my powers, I could leave in the morning. I’d have to ask someone to fly me out or take me by boat. Maybe Aiden would do it—I certainly couldn’t ask Jack or Ty. They’d never let me go. But their place is here, among their kind, and I can’t take them away from that.
I hurry downstairs and follow the pattern in the carpet to Aiden’s office. I don’t switch on any lights in the hallway because I don’t want to wake anyone. The door to the office is closed, and I’m sure for a moment that it’s locked, but the knob turns in my hand and reveals the dark space within. Aiden is either keeping all his valuables in a safe somewhere or he’s confident no one would dare break into his office. I know the Lodge’s security system is tight, so he probably simply trusts Jack and Ty, his roommates.
And me. I’m now living here as well, so this means he doesn’t think I’m a thief with an agenda, either.
Aw, he’s warming up to me.
No. I bite the inside of my cheek to clear my thoughts. Aiden isnotwarming up to me, and the unlocked office doesn’t mean anything. He probably forgot to lock it. My brain is an asshole, and I won’t let myself read into things. Not anymore.
I slip through the doorway and shut myself in. Aiden’s space is neat, as always, and I’m half tempted to root in his drawers and leaf through the clan’s ledgers. I’m dying to learn what goes on in his head. I want to know how he runs things, what he does every day to keep his people safe and happy. If I’m being honest, I’d hoped he might want to share that burden with me someday, but I guess we’re not meant to be. I wish he’d trust Jack and Ty with his problems: they want to help him out, I’m sure of it. But he insists on doing everything on his own, the stubborn sea serpent.
I don’t dare linger. My eyesight at night isn’t any better than a human’s, so I flick on the desk lamp and pull the trash can from beneath the desk. Hopefully, Aiden has had enough on his mind these past two days that he hasn’t emptied it. Yep, it’s filled with scraps of paper and Post-it notes, energy bar wrappers, and…Jackpot.
The pieces of the GPS tracker lie at the bottom, black plastic and broken wires. I pick out the bits one by one and place them on the desk. I’ll wrap them in a piece of paper and take them somewhere private to study them. Aiden did a really good job of smashing the device, though, so I’m not at all sure how much I can accomplish. If I could find a tutorial online, I’d have an easier job, especially if I also used my magic to fix the programming.
I’m so immersed in my task, I don’t hear the footsteps in the hall until it’s too late. I have nowhere to hide—and besides, any sea dragon would sniff me out in seconds.
The door flies open, and Aiden stands there, a hunting knife in his hand.
Eight
Aiden
“Skye!”I lower the knife immediately and slip it into its sheath. “What the fuck are you doing in here?”
She’s staring at me with big, round eyes, her hand still in the trash can. Illuminated by the desk lamp, she looks sleep-rumpled but still undeniably gorgeous. I cock my head to the side, puzzled.
“I’m sorry,” she blurts out. “I didn’t think you were awake.”
She pulls her hand out and gives the trash can a subtle push, as though I might not notice what she’d been doing.
“I heard a noise,” I tell her. “I thought you were a burglar. Or a bear.”
