Page 36 of Magick and Lead (Dragons and Aces #2)

ESSA

I drew my dagger while Charlie went to the window and looked out.

“Way too high to jump,” he muttered.

“Then we’ll have to fight our way out,” I said.

“There are six intelligence agents out there,” he hissed.

I tilted my head at him, a look that said, really?

“I know you’re a mighty dragon rider and everything,” he said. “But intelligence agents are nothing to mess with. We?—”

Something thudded hard against the door. Already, the door frame was cracking. Ready or not, they were coming in.

I could hear muttering and shouting outside in the hallway. There had to be more than six voices there. I glared at the doorway once more, adjusting the grip on my dagger, then I turned and hurried over to the window.

“Open it,” I said.

“We’re four stories up,” Charlie protested. I brought up my boot and kicked out the glass. It fell, sparkling, into the night.

“Now you owe Suzie a new window,” I told him, sheathing my dagger. “Take my hand.”

He looked aghast. “You’re kidding.”

“Listen, Charlie. I know you have no reason to trust me,” I said. “Just like I have no reason to trust you. But…”

There came another thud at the door, rattling the whole apartment.

“I can trust you,” he crossed his arms. “If you’ll trust me.”

I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt. “You lied about your identity. You pretended you thought I could win the trial when you really thought I would die. You stole secrets about my country. You betrayed me, Kit.” I shook my head, correcting myself.

“Charlie! Ugh, see what I mean? I barely even know your name.”

“My name doesn’t matter. You know me, Essa.” He put a fist over his heart. “You’ve always known me.”

A body slammed into the door again.

“Gods, you really are a poet,” I groaned, offering him my hand again. “We’re out of time. Jump with me or stay behind.”

I could hear the door cracking behind us, heard the groan and crackle of breaking wood.

“Hey,” I turned at the sound of a voice to find Suzie standing in the bedroom doorway, a silk robe thrown about her, holding a pistol.

We were caught.

There came another bang at the door. The knob rattled violently.

“Suzie…” Charlie started, putting a pacifying hand out toward her.

But she only smiled.

“Don’t worry, I’ll distract them. But you can’t jump out that window. It’s way too high. Unless…” she arched an eyebrow. “Unless you have magick you can use… princess .”

She gave me a wink. I looked to Charlie.

“Are you coming, or not?”

“I’ll always follow you, Essa,” he said. “Even if you’re crazy as hell.”

From behind us, I heard the final crack and bang as the door flew off its hinges. Charlie grabbed my hand, and together we stepped into the frame of the window. Our eyes met. Then I tugged his hand, pulling him off into the night.

“Call me!” Suzie shouted after us.

The stone on the necklace warmed against my chest as I summoned my dragon magick. The wind responded, rising up from beneath us in a gust that sent leaves and newspapers skittering into a whirlwind below. It spun us around several times, then set us down in a stumbling landing upon the sidewalk.

An old woman walking her dog stood watching us with her mouth agape as we landed.

“The elevator was out,” Charlie shrugged.

Then off we ran, hand in hand beneath the streetlights, looking over our shoulders all the while for Kitty and her black-clad friends.

We ran past a dozen streets—blocks, Charlie called them—before catching a late-night streetcar back to his apartment.

We didn’t dare go inside in case the place was being watched.

Instead, Charlie sat on a two-wheeled necromancer machine he called a motorcycle.

He pushed down on some lever with his leg, and the thing turned on with a sound like a small explosion.

Then it was running, grumbling like an irritated dragon.

He looked at me expectantly, but I backed up.

“Come on,” he said. “If I can jump out a window for you, you can ride a motorcycle for me.”

When I still hesitated, he threw up his hands in frustration.

“We have to get out of the city. The farm is the only place safe to hold up for the night. You want to walk thirty miles?”

I frowned at the contraption rumbling between his legs.

“You’re not still scared of necromancer technology, are you? That’s superstition, Essa.”

“You’re burning the dead,” I said. “Look, I can see the black spirits rising from the tailpipe.”

“Listen, Princess. We ride the dead or we become the dead.”

“I can summon Othura,” I suggested.

He looked up at the night sky as if praying for the gods to come and help him deal with me.

“Listen. There are air raid lookouts all over the peninsula. One of them spots a dragon in the sky, we’re going to have more than six guys in suits to worry about. We’ll have a whole squadron of fighters—probably with your new buddy Blaize at their head.”

His jaw flexed with tension at the mention of his rival pilot. I was glad I’d made him jealous.

“I don’t think Major Blaize would try to hurt me,” I crossed my arms. “He’s a gentleman. And he seemed to like me quite a bit.”

Charlie’s expression grew dark, and I marveled at how many different moods could exist within this one man. An hour ago, in Suzie’s apartment, he’d been every inch the poet. Now, he was an ace again. All speed and fire.

He revved his motorbike, and it gave a ground-shuddering roar. Above, a light in one of the apartments clicked on.

“Get. On. The damned. Motorcycle,” he said.

He was speaking to me like my mother would have.

Which made me realize I was, in fact, being a brat.

I didn’t have to like his necromancer technology, but the Earth Mother certainly wouldn’t smite me down for riding it just this once—especially with enemies pursuing us—enemies who might catch up to us at any moment.

“Fine,” I huffed, getting onto the saddle behind him.

We rolled forward a few feet, then he stopped.

“Wait,” he muttered, slipping out of his suit coat and handing it back to me. “It’s going to be cold when we’re moving.”

I wanted to protest. To tell him I didn’t need his clothes, didn’t want his sweet gestures.

And yet, my exposed shoulders and arms were already goosebumped by the night air.

The coat smelled like him and was warm with his body heat.

I couldn’t resist putting it on and being enveloped by his presence.

I nuzzled into it, put my arms around his waist, and held on as he kicked us into motion again.

The seat rumbled beneath me, making me aware of all the sensitive parts of my body he had so recently touched and brought to life.

That was a problem.

I was a queen. I was to remain pure. It was a grave transgression to give myself to anyone, much less a foreign enemy.

But then, I’d never been one to follow anyone else’s rules.

And my body still ached with satisfaction at the memory of his touch.

As I closed my eyes and laid my head against his back, I couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of safety and belonging.

I wished I could just be here like this forever.

The wind in my hair, my face pressed against Charlie’s strong back, my arm clasped around his waist, feeling his body expand and contract with every breath.

You love him , Othura whispered in my mind.

Shut up and eat your rats.

I felt her smiling as she retreated from my mind.

But even after she was gone, her words kept echoing through my mind.

And as we sailed on that black road, under those stars—the same stars that shone above Maethalia—I couldn’t help but feel that flying through the night on the back of a motorcycle wasn’t so different from riding on the back of a dragon after all.