Page 73 of Feathers and Scales

Something tugged at his mind. The chasm in her speaking to him. He had the feeling she meant they had spent that much time together. Was that possible?

“At least we understood each other so well until closer to the end.” She stared past him.

“What do you mean?”

“Our relationship probably wasn’t healthy. I’d placed him on a pedestal, but that’s what love does. It blinds. Along with hearing his voice, sometimes I have snippets of memories. Some of them I don’t want to believe are real, but in the back of my head, I think he was hiding something from me. And when he was gone—” Her voice broke.

Daxton’s heart crumbled. He squeezed her fingers.

Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. “When he was gone, I hallucinated to get by. And not long after, the first Archfiend presented itself. Fotios told me to go Dormant—a condition where we force ourselves not to reincarnate. It’s unpleasant to stay conscious enough to secure yourself to a dead corpse. It’s like a never-ending nightmare, really. After I woke centuries later, I distanced myself from others. It was the only way to survive this long existence without losing my mind.”

“I can’t imagine forcing myself to stay anywhere for that long, especially a corpse.” He shook his head. “Do you still feel that distance is the only way to survive?”

She slid her hand from his and grasped her wineglass, bringing it to her mouth. “To survive, yes.” She winced. “But not to live. This moment, spending time with you—I’m reminded of what it means to be alive.”

Her words twisted him open. He smiled. “You’re falling for my charm?”

She giggled. “I didn’t say that.”

He chuckled. Gazing upon her as she continued to eat, he recalled the article he’d read on the web,Missing Girl, Camilla Andrews, Dies Tragically in a House Fire.“Changing the subject…do you want to explain how your current Coheart successfully pulled off your death as an accident?”

She shrugged. “It’s simple enough to put money in the right pockets to burn a place down and include bone evidence. We have contacts set up for that line of work.”

“Do you do it often?”

“Yes. My family believes they carry a curse. Terrible tragedies tend to happen to Andrew’s women. Sometimes posing a death is the easiest way to break free from them after I regain my memories at puberty. It also helps to get certain interested parties off my tail.”

Their link simmered with amusement as she reminisced in a memory.

“Let me guess,” he said. “You’ve faked death to escape arranged marriages?”

“Don’t be so ghastly…” She grinned. “Running away usually sufficed. Though there were some troublesome suitors who required more drastic measures. One in particular was a prince. A Coheart is a must for such intricacies.”

He snickered. “I bet you have some stories.”

She forked another piece of asparagus and took a bite. “So, why did you go into the real estate business?”

“I loved working with my hands, so I ventured around doing odd jobs in construction. But property started to have a price, so I had no choice but to become an official landowner. I dealt with territorial disputes between chiefs and humans, selling what we could. Soon it became an empire. I had to learn the business trade, and I’m damn good at it. But I’d still rather be building something from scratch.”

“Why don’t you sell your shares?”

He grimaced. The last time he had asked that exact question was when she had watched him walk away from her to answer his phone. “It’s one of the main forms of revenue for the dragons. Land is also a nonrenewable resource, and dragons value green space. I direct when needed, but the Prater family has been watching over the company for generations.”

“You really are an integral part of the dragon community,” she murmured as if she referred to an earlier conversation, one that hadn’t included him. Her neck and cheeks were flushed. Through the connection, he received impressions of her world moving, thought processes languid.

“And what about you? Why knowledge?” He took another sip.

Her lips tilted up in a haphazard smile, and she swayed slightly. “Among the Fallen, I’m not strong. I can’t create a solid enough light to fly outdoors, and I have a minimal talent with weapons. I use information as my weapon. It’s always made me feel powerful, I guess.”

His heart ached. This magnificent creature before him could have killed her own kind to increase her power, and instead, searched the world’s knowledge to gain strength—a warrior in her own right. He resisted the urge to touch her skin glowing brightly under the sunlight.

“You were in an army, though, right?” he asked.

“I didn’t fight. Each of us had a role, and each color has its strengths and weaknesses. Yellow, though weak, can be limitless. It’s the difference between a sprinter and a long-distance runner. I was responsible for…” She paused a moment before her finger shot into the air. “I have an idea.”

Along the link, he perceived a splitting of her mind, as if she yanked away from humanity. She streamed into her spirit, giving him mere seconds to catch her corporeal form before it fell off the boulder. He growled and set her body down softly. He would have reprimanded her, but a tremor of excitement ran through their link.

“What are you doing, Izzy?”