Page 20 of Feathers and Scales

He strode close on her heels. Outside the room, she hesitated. Glancing back at him, she bit her lip again.

If Izzy thought she could stop him from entering the room, she had another thing coming. Sarah was probably telling her how stubborn he was. He had once demanded she take all the energy from him so she could heal a comrade after a Tattered One attack. She won the argument only when he passed out.

She sighed, as if knowing she couldn’t keep him away, and opened the door.

The afternoon sun’s rays filtered through the open curtains, casting a warm glow over the sterile room. It swept across a bed half-hidden behind a drape that showed a blue blanket tucked under a pair of feet and shins. Sarah drew back the screen.

Daxton’s throat dried.

She’s radiant.

The air flowing from an overhead vent danced with the curtain. The sun streamed like a blooming flower over her face. A replica of Izzy lay in the hospital bed. Her short caramel-blond hair accented her thin, narrow face and pointed jawline. Her eyelashes rested like graceful feathers against her cheeks.

Sarah walked to the head of the bed, while Daxton stayed at the foot. The unconscious woman’s forehead creased as if she was having a nightmare. She looked to be in her early thirties, but her eyes in her winged form had weighed with wisdom.

The lack of any visible gauze or external injuries comforted him. According to the heart monitor, her pulse thudded, strong and steady. His shoulders loosened. She was safe. A soft scent tickled his nose.She smelled like hospital soap, but hidden underneath, a citrusy tang wafted to him, reminding him of the time he lived in Florida.

The woman before him was human. No detectable abnormalities. It explained how her kind stayed hidden. If a Fallen passed by him, he never would have known. Izzy’s spirit form was merely a projection with no aroma, while the actual woman lay within reach. He hungered for her and wanted to rub her scent all over himself.

Sarah took the woman’s hand.

The hair on his arms rose as if static electricity crackled through the air. Sarah removed her hand from the unconscious woman. The heart monitor sounded erratic for a moment but calmed. Was the transfer complete?

Would her human eyes be the same sun-bright gold as the spirit being? He waited, willing those eyelashes to lift.

But she didn’t wake up.

Izzy hovered outside her own Spirit Cavity, not fully submerging herself into her human chest. Her shell lay in a coma because it lacked an integral part to function—her spirit. Her Cavity tugged at her more than usual, welcoming her with warm, impatient arms. But she couldn’t relax. At least, not yet.

Daxton’s presence heated her spirit, and her heart leaped in her human chest.

She wished she could go back to the time before her punishment, when she had no experience with emotions. Fotios always believed it was the strongest way to live.

Excitement, anticipation, and longing thrummed through her, a dangerous cacophony she couldn’t fully identify. The tightness in her chest and the shortness of breath as it transferred to her hovering spirit form tormented her. This was the type of raw, uncontrollable chaos that Fotios’s spectral voice warned her against daily—the precise mental break that haunted her. She couldn’t let her emotions spiral out of control like this, not now, not when she was just beginning to control the delusions. A life with little emotion or relationshipsmade her long existence bearable, but Daxton disrupted her carefully maintained equilibrium.

She might have made it back in one piece, but she needed distance from this link and the way he made her feel.

“Why isn’t she waking?” The desperate tone in Daxton’s voice tingled along her spine.

“She finished healing as we arrived here and mentioned it might take time for her to wake up,”Sarah said.

The conversation filtered through her human ears. So close to reconnecting, she perceived everything around her.

Sarah’s loud yawn interrupted the silence. “I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted. I need coffee.”

No…don’t leave me alone with Daxton.

Shoes squeaked against the tile floor before the door clicked closed. Izzy’s breathing quickened, and the tendrils of her Spirit Cavity hugged closer. Her humanity was desperate to escape its coma.That’s strange.The longing had never been this strong. She struggled to keep herself from connecting and willed herself to be calm.

Daxton’s hot, forceful presence dominated the room, pressing on her mind.

A prickling washed over Izzy’s skin like someone’s hand hovered above her arm. He must have moved closer. Her heart briefly stalled, echoing in her spirit form. Drumming fingers thudded against a nightstand at her right.

“I don’t know if you can hear me. But I…” Something that sounded like scratching against sandpaper caught her attention. She pictured him rubbing his hand over his five-o’clock shadow. “Thank you for trusting me with the knowledge of your kind. I know we aren’t in an ideal situation with the link between us, but I do want to keep you safe. Would you wake up and talk to me, please?”

Something pulled at her spirit. The sensation came through the link, as though his dragon pawed at her. The longing to unite with herbody escalated, growing with an intensity so great it tingled her skin. Izzy felt lost at the sensation and needed room to process the emotions his proximity caused. The heart monitor beeped louder, each sound wave getting quicker.

“You’re hiding from me, then?” he asked.