Page 11 of Must Love Dragons (Sable Cove #4)

Zay walked with Kinsley into the abandoned warehouse.

His head was on a swivel and his dragon was alert for anything that might harm them.

He sniffed the air, finding it reeking of the sulfur scent of dark magic.

He was uneasy, and it had as much to do with the dark magic in the air as it did with the female next to him.

Despite how intense things had been at her house, he couldn’t bridge the emotional gap between them. She was acting distant now, and he wasn’t surprised since he’d been distancing himself ever since they’d had sex.

She was a witch.

Filled with magic.

And it was good magic; he could feel that it was. Not tainted and twisted like the warlocks who’d attacked his clan. But he couldn’t bring himself to let go of the walls around him. Every time he got close to her, he felt like he was betraying his people.

How could he have a witch for a mate when magic was bad and dangerous?

Shaking his head, he pushed away the thoughts of his fucked up personal life and focused on the warehouse. He needed to find his uncle, but it didn’t look like there was anyone in the building.

Kinsley moved with purpose next to him, delicate hands wrapped around protective wards that he didn’t trust. He trusted his own power and strength.

They searched the warehouse, and at the far corner, he pulled up short at what was before them.

An altar, blood-stained and carved with symbols, reeking of dark magic.

The air actually shimmered with the remnants of the dark magic used.

He shuddered, thinking of the last time he’d seen magic like that.

When his parents had been cut down in front of him.

The air hummed with malevolent energy, and he immediately wanted to shield Kinsley from it. Could she be tainted with dark magic? How the hell did a good magic user even become a dark magic user?

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he looked around, wondering what was causing his wariness.

Kinsley stepped toward the altar and it was then that Zay saw the symbols carved into the floor and knew that something bad was about to happen.

“Kinsley!”

An explosion, aimed right at Kinsley, knocked her off her feet, slamming her into a nearby pillar.

Ash rained down on them from the burning altar.

He rushed to her, his protective instincts kicking in.

She was crumpled into a heap at the base of the pillar, blood pooling under her from a cut on her forehead.

He put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a gentle shake, but she didn’t stir.

Listening intently, he picked up her shallow breathing and slow heart rate.

And then he heard something else.

A strange ticking.

Another trap?

He couldn’t waste a second.

Scooping her into his arms, he raced for the entrance as the ground began to shake. He threw himself through the door, curling around Kinsley as he rolled onto the broken concrete of the parking lot. The warehouse exploded in a flash of bright red light, and flames licked at his skin.

Scrambling to his feet, he raced to the car, opened the back door, and laid her on the seat while Nysa meowed loudly in worry. He got behind the wheel and tore out of the parking lot as fast as he could, foot on the floor and heart in his throat.

“Stay with me, Kinsley,” he said. “Fucking stay with me.”

* * *

He had to use the car’s GPS to get back to the familiar rescue because he didn’t know the way. He kept checking in the rearview, but Kinsley didn’t move, her skin turning gray and her breathing getting shallower.

She’d tried to help him find Rorik and had gotten hurt.

And he’d been a total ass to her.

Shit, he wasn’t ever going to forgive himself.

His dragon growled in agreement.

When the familiar rescue came into view, he breathed a slight sigh of relief, thankful to be where she could get help. The brakes squealed as he stomped on them, the car rocking on the tires.

He unbuckled Nysa to let her free, then carried Kinsley into the rescue and laid her on the couch where he’d woken up. He hurried across the main room and knocked on the door of Delaney and Brody’s home.

“Delaney! Kinsley’s hurt, I need help!” he yelled, knocking again.

The door opened and a disheveled Delaney seemed to be trying to wake up. “What’s going on?” she asked.

“Kinsley’s hurt.”

Delaney followed him to the room and she gasped when she saw her friend. He told her about the symbols on the floor that he suspected had tripped a warlock trap.

“Okay, step back and let me work, I need to check out what her injuries are. Nysa!” The cat hopped up onto Kinsley’s lap. Delaney put a small turtle next to Kinsley on the couch. “This is Mimo my familiar. He’ll help me perform the healing spell better.”

“Whatever you need to do,” he said.

Fear was making him shake and he clenched his hands, trying to keep a lid on his freak-out.

He stepped away to let Delaney do whatever witches did when they healed people, and a thought occurred to him.

He cared about Kinsley.

And he was trusting her healing and care to another magic user. Even if Delaney was Kinsley’s friend, Zay didn’t know her.

Hell, he barely knew Kinsley because he’d been determined to ignore the bond between them. He’d shut her out immediately after they had sex, even though it had been incredible and life-altering.

And even when she’d been hurting because he hurt her, she still tried to find his uncle.

Something had happened to him when she got hurt.

Maybe it was seeing her so determined to help him despite his asshole behavior and the deliberate way he tried to hurt her feelings and keep her at arm’s length.

Or maybe it was knowing that her life was on the line and he was helpless to heal her, and that the only way she was going to get out of this situation alive was with magic.

Magic that he’d hated for the last two years.

Magic that had stolen everything from him.

No… it was different, wasn’t it?

Dark magic destroyed and ruined. But regular magic, good magic , healed and helped.

His heart hurt and his dragon was a mess, letting out mournful cries and hoping to see their feisty mate again.

What if she didn’t recover and the last thing that he’d said to her hadn’t been that he was sorry and he cared for her, but that he didn’t trust what she was doing when she was walking into the warehouse?

The warlocks continued to take from him, not only his clan and family, and Rorik, but now Kinsley.

The traps they set were meant for them, they’d expected her to locate them at the port and set the trap to harm them.

She’d taken the brunt of the attack, he hadn’t been fast enough to stop her from crossing the symbols on the floor.

He wanted to punch something.

A wall.

A door.

A warlock.

Nysa purred loudly as she jumped from the couch to land at his feet. He reached down and picked her up. She smelled like fresh cut grass and catnip and her purr was as loud as any dragon growl he’d ever heard. Burying his face in her fur, he shuddered at how much of a jackass he was being.

He couldn’t hold Kinsley to his past. She wasn’t a dark magic user. She was good.

So fucking good.

“Hey!” Delaney said.

His head shot up and he brushed at the tears on his cheeks. “Sorry. What?”

“You’re distracted, it’s understandable,” she said.

Zay set the cat down on Kinsley’s stomach and she immediately purred louder. “What’s happening? Is she going to be okay?”

There was a pungent herbal poultice on the cut on Kinsley’s forehead and her color wasn’t so gray anymore.

Kneeling next to the couch, he looked at Delaney.

“She’s going to be okay. She’s asleep until she’s done healing.

The good news is that whatever trap the warlocks set wasn’t dark magic per se, it was just a regular trap.

The symbols acted like a trigger, but that was as far as the magic went.

Unlike when you were attacked in your dragon form and the magic was dark, she was hit with an explosion that knocked her out. ”

He breathed a sigh of relief.

“How long will she be out?”

“I don’t know, a few hours. Healing the kind of injuries she got from the explosion isn’t fast. Did you find your uncle?”

He shook his head. “The warlocks had been there, but I don’t know how long it’s been. I did pick up my uncle’s scent, so he was alive when he was there.”

“That’s good news.”

There was tension in the air that was entirely coming from the witch. He looked up at her and she was scowling.

“Did you want to ask me something?” he asked.

“Yeah. Are you going keep being an ass to my best friend? Because if you are, then you should just leave. She’s tripping over herself to help you, and she could have died in that damn warehouse trying to find your uncle. If you say one bad thing to her, I’m going to flay you alive.”

“I’m not going to be an ass to her. I know what she’s been doing to help me.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair and looked at Kinsley as she lay unconscious, healing with the help of magic.

“Oh. Good. Then I’ll leave you alone and get back to my mate.” She picked up her turtle familiar. “Holler if you need anything.”

“Thank you, Delaney.”

“You’re welcome.”

When he was alone in the room, he took Kinsley’s hand in his own and brought it to his lips.

What a fucking fool he’d been.

The greatest treasure in the world was right in front of him and he’d nearly lost her because he was an idiot.

But not anymore.

“I’m sorry, Kinsley. I’ll tell you everything when you wake up.

I’ll lay my soul bare, and I promise I’ll make it up to you.

I know I made mistakes. Too many. But I promise to be better.

I’m not going to pretend what we have isn’t real because it’s very real, and it’s just what I need.

And I promise to be the kind of male you need me to be. Just wake up. Just come back to me.”