Page 64 of Feathers and Scales

“Along the link?”

He nodded and squeezed her once more. “I felt it before when the message came up on your laptop. If you get too close, I’ll be here to help you back. Just please don’t push me away. Caring for others can make you stronger than you think. If I hadn’t allowed myself to care, I wouldn’t have become a chief, and it’s the best decision I’ve made for my dragon.”

“The dragon that you can barely control.”

His jaw ticked. “I’ll admit my emotions can overwhelm me, but without them I wouldn’t have the passion to fly or the ability to cherish holding you in my arms. Don’t just survive, Izzy—live.”

Staring into the determination of his eyes, her heart opened, blooming with a hesitant newfound desire to finally let Daxton in.

Standing in the library as her spirit, Izzy ran her hand over the book titles again.Did I put that novel back?She leaned away from the shelf. The red book she’d been looking for sat cockeyed on the table.Damnit.She couldn’t concentrate.

Her back tingled, remembering Daxton’s heated touch as he’d connected them through the link again yesterday. She ran her hand over her hair—spirit fingers nearly numb to the touch.I’m not even in my body, and he’s still affecting me.She lurched back to the large table.

After last night, it felt as if her human side had broken free from its cage. All night she had tried to push her feelings toward him aside, but the intimate moment kept replaying in her mind.

The thoughts didn’t stop with the kiss. What would it be like for his lips to touch other parts of her body? What if she had explored his body?

She shoved her hormones in another compartment. If she didn’t, Daxton would have her entangled before she could stop it. And she needed to keep a clear head if they were going to search for clues at the fisherman’s cabin.

“La-ish-arum-dese-rub,”a voice whispered in her mind, tugging at her spirit. Someone was thinking of her Angelic name. The smoky shadow of anxiety grabbed Izzy’s throat in a suffocating grip. Gasping, she grabbed at her neck. That darkness swept her into another memory.

Blood splattered into the dish and onto the mosaic stone floor. An attentive Fotios stood over a boy, one of his pupils, lying flat on the table. The boy’s slit wrists dangled on either side of the table, and his head lulled from one side to the other.

Izzy’s heart hammered, and she crossed her shaking arms.

“Are you to be a ritualist now?” she shouted from the entryway.

Fotios glanced at her, wavy brown hair rustling around his stoic face. “This is research.”

The boy’s head fell limp, his chest ceasing to move.

Izzy stepped into the room. “You’ll kill him.”

Fotios raised his hand, stopping her. “There’s your weak compassion again.”

“What right do you think—”

“You’d stop my work?” he asked, an unfamiliar annoyance crisping his words as he tended to the cuts on the boy’s wrists.

“I fear what you’ll become if you don’t.”

Something patted Izzy’s back, startling her into the present.

“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Serephina asked, standing stock still beside her.

“I don’t know.” She rubbed her neck, heart hammering all the way to her throat. Her psyche was weakening, and she didn’t know what to think about the man in her memory. That hadn’t been the Fotios she remembered.

“La-ish-arum-dese-rub,”the voice whispered once more.

“Someone’s thinking my Angelic name,” Izzy said. “The one that can Summon me.” The name only one living being knew—Simon.

“Summon you?”Serephina asked.

“My spirit. Like how someone can Summon demons. If he’s whispering it…he must be in trouble.” As the words left her lips, Serephina’s phone chimed.

“It’s Daxton.”

Dizzy with the need to find out what was wrong, but stuck without a heading, she waited for Serephina to answer the phone.