The Dragon's Hunt by Jane Kindred

Author:Jane Kindred
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Leo tensed beneath her. “Is that smoke?”

“I think the building’s on fire.” She swung off his lap, and Leo grabbed her arm.

“You can’t leave me in here.”

“Leave you? Are you insane?” She pulled away from him and grabbed the fish-scaling knife.

The smoke was getting thick as she sawed frantically at the leather. Rhea coughed into her sleeve, eyes watering.

“Let me do it.” Leo took the knife from her hand. “You go. Get out. I’ll be right behind you.”

“No, I’m not—” A coughing fit swallowed the rest of her protest.

“Get out, goddammit! Get the fuck out!” He’d switched on the rage as suddenly as before, though this time it was designed to anger her into leaving. She started to object once more, but he’d yanked the knife upward and severed the restraint. Leo grabbed her hand and ran with her for the exit.

The fire had started on the stairs. They could feel the heat through the door.

“There’s no back way out?”

Rhea shook her head, coughing. “We’ll have to go out the window.”

Leo grabbed the stool behind the counter and threw it through the window, shattering the pane, before she could tell him it opened easily from the inside. That was going to be expensive. The absurdity of the thought hit her. The whole building was going to be gone, if not the entire shopping center.

Leo kicked out the jagged pieces and took off his shirt, folding it up and placing it over the sharp edges still clinging to the frame, and held out his hand. “Come on, you first.”

Rhea peered out dubiously. They were only one flight up, but she was going to break her shins—if she even landed on her feet, which was doubtful.

“What are you waiting for?”

“It’s a little far down. I’m trying to gather my nerve.” The last word was a strangled cough.

“You don’t have time to gather your nerve.” Leo moved her aside. “If I go first and promise to catch you, will you jump when I tell you to?”

Rhea nodded, and he climbed through the window and leaped before she could even catch her breath. “Leo?” She hurried to the edge and looked down, expecting to see him digging himself off the sidewalk covered in scrapes and cuts, but he was standing there holding up his arms. Something crashed behind her.

“Jump, Rhea. Now.”

She climbed onto the shirt-covered frame and flung herself out, closing her eyes in her panic, and barreled into Leo like a wrecking ball. He broke her fall, catching her firmly in his shirtless arms without even stumbling back.

Sirens were blaring when she looked up at him, fire trucks already coming up the hill.

“You must be freezing,” was all she could think of to say.

“Not really.” Leo shrugged. “Feeling the cold must be a thought-self kind of thing.”

And he didn’t have his thought-self—and if they understood the curse correctly, he never would again. Rhea looked up at the flames engulfing her shop, the Demoness Ink sign singed around the edges. She

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