Page 85 of Feathers and Scales

“If not, I’ll trap Fotios in the underground tunnels at my estate in England using a miracle.”

Simon’s grip on the steering wheel turned white. “And how will you draw him out?”

That was the question. She needed to find the chinks in his armor, like he did hers.

Deductions told her Fotios could have just killed her. Aros had deviated from his plans when he tried to take Izzy’s power. Fotios wanted her to join him. Because on some level he still needed her—cared for her in some obtuse Remnant to Fallen way. And that was a weakness she could exploit. The threat of taking herself out of the equation would have him up in arms.

“I’ll threaten to go Dormant and never wake up,” she said.

His lips turned down at the sides. “How can you guarantee that he’ll stay in the trap?”

“I’ll injure him enough, or he won’t leave if I’m trapped down there with him.”

“You’ll die.” His voice turned heated. Simon had only been through two reincarnations—too few to trust that she would come back. So she wasn’t surprised.

“It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Not before being subjected to some amount of torture. And what of Daxton? Do you expect him to wait years to see you again?”

She felt the flinch on her face before she could stop it. “There’s nothing between us anymore. The link is gone.”

The car swerved. “What?”

Izzy waited until Simon had the car in the correct lane.

“We both blocked the link, and it broke.”

“Bloody hell. He is—”

An amazing man? Someone who showed her how to enjoy humanity? Worth fighting for?No matter what Simon would have said, it didn’t change things, so she cut him off. “A distraction in my endless punishment.”

“Did you not hear what I said earlier? He’s the answer to your—”

“Enough.” Her tongue dried. “He’s nothing.”

Simon smirked with a huff. “You know I see through your mask, right? You’re running away from your feelings and trying to write them off as thinking logically. When you should be using those emotions to get the upper hand.”

She stared at him, not following.

“Do you remember during Prohibition when those notorious bootleggers were running our town and everyone was afraid to stop them, but I kept stealing from them?”

The memory came to mind as if it had happened yesterday. Simon had always looked dashing in his three-piece wool suit and derby hat.

“You stole a truckload of their alcohol, and when they caught you, I wanted to kill you myself.”

Simon smiled. “But you didn’t. You came in with a pistol, ready to take down anyonewho got in your way.”

She fidgeted with her glasses. She’d had no other choice since she could neither pay them nor rely on the authorities. The thought of hurting or killing humans sickened her, but not when it came to protecting Simon. She only had to aim her gun at an incendiary device she’d stuck to their booze for them to hand Simon over.

“That’s the day I knew you cared about me,” Simon said. “I thought, if stick-in-the-mud Izzy is willing to break the ‘no killing anyone for her Coheart’ rule of her contract, she must care. You’d always been so focused on your work and had these adverse reactions to anything touchy-feely that I could never tell with you. But that day you showed me. Of course, you wrote it off as needing to protect an asset, but you weren’t fooling me. You’d survived many lifetimes without me. And saving me gave you the will to focus your logic and further threaten them and kick them out of our town. So don’t let his words deter you from knowing that emotions aren’t a hurdle. They are the ladder to strength. And it’s the balance between logic and emotion that sets a person apart.”

Izzy gazed at the gray mountains fading in the distance, unable to deny the truth in his words. “Even if that is true. My mind is made up. My focus must be on bringing down Fotios. I just need to find a bargaining chip for the dragon fire.”

Simon was silent as clouds drifted by. “I may have a solution to that.”

“Tell me.”

He met her gaze. “How many feathers do you have left?”