Somehow, Rune and Hadyn were suddenly alone in the war room, the quiet beeping of the machines their only company.
“I’m not great with words,” he said.
She huffed a small laugh, lips tipped up. “I find that adorable and also untrue. When you’ve needed to, you’ve made yourself perfectly clear to me.”
He rolled his eyes then put his forehead to hers, inhaling her fresh scent. “If things go bad out there—”
“They won’t,” she insisted.
He dipped his head, gaze serious, and waited for her to let go of her hope. Instead, she glowered at him. “They won’t.”
Maybe believing that was better for her, anyway. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I want you to know that.”
Hadyn’s expression softened, and she took his face in her hands. “I refuse to say goodbye to you, Rune Abaddon, and maybe I should learn your middle name.”
His lips twitched. Stubborn woman. “I don’t have one.”
“Mine’s Field. My mother’s maiden name.”
Another smile, and he tucked that information into his heart. “This isn’t goodbye,” he said. “It’s I love you.”
Hadyn’s green eyes turned a color so pure it stole his soul. “You do?”
He shrugged. “Against all the odds.”
“I love you, too.” The words rushed from her.
“Don’t.” He shook his head. “Don’t say that unless—”
“I’ve wanted to say that since the first time we made love. But it was…”
“Too soon,” he supplied.
She let out a long breath. “Exactly.”
He stared at her, wonder building inside his chest, warm and light and perfect. “My little fire.”
“Let’s go,” Finn’s voice sounded in his head.
Fuck.
Rune grimaced. “We’re out of time.”
“We’ll have plenty after this is done,” she assured him.
Then went up on her tiptoe and placed her lips over his in a kiss not soft but demanding—staking her own claim. Unconsciously, his hands dug into her hips, anchoring her to him as he took every demanding touch and returned it with his own.
Then he captured her sigh a heartbeat before she stepped back, blinking her eyes slowly open, breaking the kiss. “Now go out there and be the badass I know you are.”
His dragon whined in his head. “Take care, love,” he said, the words turning harsh and burnt in his throat.
“You, too, hot shot,” she whispered.
Then he turned and marched away. His time with her was turning into a long list of the hardest things he’d ever had to do. Worth it. So worth it.
…
Hadyn climbed onto Qara’s back along with one of the unturned mates who’d been in the dungeons with her dragon parents. Two more were already positioned on Delaney’s back and the last one on Cami’s. The three women in dragon form were truly glorious—Qara so green her scales put Hadyn in mind of a canopy of leaves shot through with sunlight, Delaney’s coloring similar to her soft gray eyes with a hint of Finn’s blue in the coloring, and Cami a brilliant blood red.
“As soon as we’re outside…” Qara’s voice sounded in her head, and she knew her mother was speaking to all of the women riding. “You can’t talk or make a sound. Dragon hearing is impressive, and you could lead them to us.”
“Understood,” Hadyn said, voicing the word for all of them.
“I’m waiting for Finn’s signal that they’ve cleared the mountain,” Qara said next. “We’ll turn south and a little east, heading for a small but populated town.”
Estes Park, Finn had said.
Apparently, a location the Huracáns had used before, a cabin in the woods, near enough to the town to take cover among humans if needed. They were to hide there until this was over. If it looked to be going badly, they were to fly to Denver and contact a woman named Delilah. The same woman who’d given the Huracáns false king’s marks on their hands.
Closing her eyes, she leaned her forehead against the spike that she’d wrapped herself around. Please let them all make it through this.
Not just Rune and Chaghan. She’d come to care for all these men and women. People who had stepped up and put their lives on the line for her family. For rogue dragons.
Unheard of, Chaghan had said when they’d been alone. He’d never expected to see anything of the like in his lifetime.
Because of Rune, she knew in her heart.
He’d shown the others the way—it had taken him decades and a lot of personal sacrifice, but he was the one. This was how you stood up and spoke against the wrongs of those in power.
“Hold on tight,” Qara said. “Here we go.”
She extended her wings, the membranes sparkling in the lantern light, and with a running start jolting Hadyn around, took off.
The tunnel leading out of the mountain was endless. Darkness and rock passing by in a blur, the cool air a rush against her skin. Eventually a pinpoint of less darkness showed they were nearing the end. The last part of the tunnel tipped upward to angle out of the mountain, the precarious fall of rock along the bottom where Calla and Deep died still there. They’d managed to clear out enough for the dragons to get by over the last couple of days.
Qara burst out into the clear black sky, stars an expanse of twinkling brightness above them. The chilly night air hit Hadyn’s skin, and she wrapped her hands into the sleeves of the black hoodie she’d snagged from the same room she’d been borrowing clothes from since arriving. Though the dragons, with their built-in heaters, had been fine, these caves were deep enough that the constant temperature was always a shade too cool for her. She hoped the other women weren’t going to freeze up here.
Her dragon mother gained altitude quickly and unimpeded, not a single dragon near them that Hadyn could see. She kept her head on a swivel, not that her human eyes would have much luck in the night.
She desperately wanted to ask Qara if she’d heard anything. What was happening with Rune and Chaghan and the others?
Please let them win, she begged any gods or goddesses who cared to listen. No deaths, simply…an end.
At least here in the colonies. That was worth fighting for.
She almost expected to see flashes of fire or hear a boom echoing across the skies. Their people had to have intercepted the Alliance’s forces by now.