Page 65 of Feathers and Scales

“Raz informed me there was an explosion at Izzy’s estate,” Daxton said over speakerphone. “Simon was there.”

The news spurred her into action. Spirit vibrating, she focused on sending herself to her house. Daxton yanked the link with protective instincts to keep her there, but she blasted him with the panic clawing up her throat. He released her, but a heated weight pressed on the link. His soothing presence calmed her even amidst the turmoil. She pictured the house in her mind and raced toward Tennessee at a speed close to light.

At her home, hidden away in the timber, she gave her form enough power for anyone to see or touch. Black smoke billowed into the evening sky. She gasped. In a gray haze overcasting the last red hues of the setting sunlight, her house was burning from the bottom floor up, flames licking out the windows.Simon.

Wings dimmed to hide them, she focused on appearing as herself in her elderly form. Someone Simon would recognize. She hoped her appearance would fool the Archfiends if they planned an ambush.

She clambered to a firefighter battling the blaze. “The owner…” She pointed to the house, voice too raw to speak.

“Ambulance on the road,” he yelled back.

She shot down the mountain as fast as she could. At the bottom, a collection of emergency vehicles dominated the asphalt. An ambulance truck sat farther away from the other vehicles. A man, sporting a leather jacket and brown hair, stood at the rear, auburn eyes scanning the area as he held a phone to his ear.

His dragon spirit imprint gave him away. Raz. The Rogue dragon helping Daxton. Izzy couldn’t make out the huddled form sitting behind Raz, but she strode forward, hoping it was Simon.

“Hold it.” Raz held up his palm when Izzy stood three feet from him. Izzy had to look up to meet his gaze.

“Izzy,” Simon called out.

Izzy’s reserved shell cracked under the hoarse voice. She darted around Raz as Simon rose from the truck. A gray blanket slipped from his shoulders as he placed a dusty, scratched laptop in the ambulance behind him. The sight of him—an oxygen mask covering his face and bandages wrapped from his hand to his shoulder—caused her breath to hitch.

The numbing shock melted away.She shook with the urge to hug him.I almost lost him.

“But you didn’t,”Fotios whispered in her mind.“And he caused you unjust fear that most likely led you into a trap. Stop caring, or it’s going to get you hurt.”

Izzy tightened her arms around herself. Fotios was right, but…Simon’s impossible to replace—she shook her head—a Coheart was hard to replace.

“Why did you come back here?” she asked.

He winced. “I needed the data and the samples.” He nudged toward Raz, hinting at what he referred to. “I wanted to run the GRS one more time. The analysis had just finished when something exploded in the tower. This darling pulled me from the wreckage.”

“Even while he was passing out, the idiot wouldn’t let me take him without the damn laptop,” huffed Raz.

Simon had the same drive as she did to solve impossible questions—the urgency to figure out the truth burned like an addict’s desire for their next big hit. Daxton’s blood had been an anomaly Izzy wanted to compare against her own using their homemade gamma ray spectrometer, especially after the clues fromher research.

Izzy rubbed her hand against her forehead as a headache bloomed. “That’s no excuse, Simon. You knew the danger.”

“But it was worth it. The results yielded a spectrum similar to your spirit blood. I don’t understand. Is he like a Fallen?”

She blinked, fingers shaking with excitement.Could that really be my solution?Her human blood didn’t carry the same radioactive fingerprint as her spirit blood. But Daxton’s human blood did—meaning he and the dragon were fused. If her hypothesis was correct, it meant a dragon’s spirit energy could be what kept them from aging. So, to have immortality, she’d need to fuse her body and spirit in the same manner, but how could she—

“Tune in, Izzy. What’s going on?” Simon asked, waving his unwrapped hand in her face.

“I’ll tell you later.”

“Fine. I won’t tell you what else I found, then.”

She stared back, unyielding. “It’s not my truth to tell.”

He sighed. “I thought I might have other results to share about your blood, but I think it’s just cross-contamination. I would have been able to determine more if the lab hadn’t well…”

“Keep me updated on that.” She leaned back and took in the gash on his temple, closed with a butterfly strip. A weight settled in her stomach, and she tried to ignore that guilt. “How are you feeling?”

He removed the mask and let it hang around his neck. “I just wanted to taste the oxygen, gaffer. Really, I’m good. I would have called as soon as Raz pulled me free, but I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be too dangerous for you to arrive here.”

“Where are the paramedics?”

“This is our vehicle,” Raz said. “Our Healer is off finding an inconspicuous vehicle while the others scout the area.”