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He obeys, but doesn’t move or speak after he releases his grip on me. Stepping around him, I have to snap my fingers in his face to make his laser-focus on the door Harrison just disappeared through snap back to me.

“What the hell was that?” I ask him.

Ewan’s muscles are rigid, his eyes molten gold as he stares down at me. A few long, silent seconds tick by, and the longer I look at him, the more worried I get.

There’s something… unsettled about him right now. Something fragile. It’s there, in the fires lighting his eyes, something that seems desperate and unbalanced.

“What’s wrong?”

He shakes his head, unable to answer.

I reach up and lay a hand on his cheek. “Talk to me, Ewan.”

At the contact, his eyes slide shut and a harsh breath breaks from his chest. Still, he doesn’t relax, and when he opens his eyes again, that fierce light in them is still burning.

“I… I need to take you somewhere.”

“Where? Your place?”

He shakes his head. “Just… away. Away from here.” His hands grasp my waist, dragging me closer to him. “Please, ember. Let me take you somewhere.”

I don’t know if I should trust him. Not now. Not like this. But when I meet his eyes again there’s not just anger shining there, but pain, fear, a shock of desperation that makes my chest ache.

“I’ll be safe?” I ask him in a whisper.

All that ragged emotion burns even more brightly. “Always. You’ll always be safe with me.”

I don’t know if that’s true.

Physically, sure. I’ve been certain he wouldn’t hurt me since the night he kidnapped me.

But beyond that? I don’t trust him for a second, not right now.

Because the way he’s looking at me—with all that pain and desperation in his eyes, all the silent pleading for me to agree—it reaches in and tugs at that stubborn, painful thing in the center of my chest.

And even as I nod, even as Ewan’s body starts to ripple and twitch with his coming shift, I don’t doubt for one single second that I’m a million miles away from safe right now.

32

Blair

There are no rational thoughts in my half-dragon brain.

There’s nothing but Kenna and Harrison and danger. The soul-deep need to get her away from here. Take her somewhere she’ll be safe. Keep her tucked away forever.

No. Not forever. Just for as long as it takes for me to be certain the danger has passed.

When I shift, she’s still there, staring at me with her big green eyes and a mixture of worry and shock and… fear?

Does Kenna fear me?

My dragon’s head drops low, showing her we’re not going to hurt her.

We’d never hurt her. Impossible. Impossible that we’d hurt her.

She draws in a long, ragged breath, and seems to remember the request I just made.

“Alright,” she whispers. “Alright. You can take me somewhere safe.”