Breathing Fire

My profile was facing the door, so it was out of the corner of my eye that I saw Dom enter, and head straight for the kitchen. I heard him pour himself something on ice. Whiskey, I thought. He was having a bad day, too.

“We need to talk,” he began.

I tried to stifle a laugh. Why did that strike me as funny? I didn’t know. We’d been going through a rocky patch for the last couple of months. One thing after another seemed to be putting distance between us. Too many people wanted us apart. Team that up with some very unfortunate misunderstandings and we’d had some big fights that weren’t easily resolving themselves, as they always had so easily in the past.

He tried to ignore my rude outburst, starting again. “Declan is sending me out of town for about a week. The timing is bad, but unfortunately I don’t have the luxury of ignoring a direct order. My flight’s in a few hours, but we need to discuss a few things before I go.”

My breath caught at the news of his trip. Of course Declan was sending him away. It was his best chance to snare me in his trap. No wonder he’d gotten so aggressive of late. What Declan wasn’t counting on was that it would also create the best circumstances for me to implement my own plan. A few hours, I thought. So this was what it came down to for Dom and I. My mind seemed to be moving like molasses, but I understood that part right away. This was goodbye for us, and Dom couldn’t know it. I didn’t know what to do with the tightness in my chest, the thickness in my throat that felt like it could turn to tears if I let it. I’d never allowed myself to get this close to someone before, so close that they could tear me apart. I’d never even wanted to before Dom.

“Your behavior lately is baffling to me,” he was continuing in a hard voice. I tried to pay attention. “Is it too much to ask that you show a little civility, a little decorum, when dealing with my people? If you had set out on a deliberate campaign to systematically alienate yourself from the druids as a people, you couldn’t have done a better job. You’ve put me in an untenable position.“

Wow, he thinks I’m trying to ruin his life, I was thinking to myself as he spoke. I hadn’t expected him to make this easier for me, to give a speech that would actually strengthen my resolve to get out of his life.

“First, you throw a jealous tantrum and chuck Siobhan out of a twelve story window.”

I laughed out loud.

“You may think that’s funny, but I don’t think you understand how difficult this has made it for me to protect you and our relationship. Where is your self-control?”

I couldn’t seem to stop laughing, but it wasn’t happy laughter. It was more the hysterical kind. I finally got ahold of myself, wiping my eyes. “You really think that’s what happened with Siobhan? She said something to piss me off, and, in a jealous fit, I couldn’t stop myself from throwing her out a window?”

For the first time since he’d entered the apartment, I looked at him. He met my wild eyes with his own. His were beautiful, and mismatched. One was a jewel-toned blue so perfect it was almost violet, catching the highlights in his raven hair. The other was golden, and otherworldly. A wolf’s eye. They were the legacy of his mothers side of the family, a mark of druid pride carried on only in his powerful bloodline. And he was the last to carry them. They were the most beautiful eyes in the world to me. I could lose myself in those eyes. I had, many times. And right now, they were as angry, and as cold, as I’d ever seen them. “I think Siobhan has a vicious tongue, and I have no doubt that she provoked you deliberately.”

“And that’s it? She insulted me and I threw her out of a window? Does that really add up to you?”

His eyes narrowed. “Why don’t you speak plainly? If that isn’t what happened, tell me what did. I’m all ears.”

I was a breath away from telling him the whole story when I stopped myself. If this was last time I would see him, what was the point in alienating him from one of his staunchest allies? And wasting our last precious hours talking about that bitch. That thought made the decision simple. I remained silent, and shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

He raised a brow at me. “That’s all you have to say for yourself? It doesn’t matter? How about your hostility toward my Arch? I left you alone for two minutes at a social function, and you slapped him across the face in a room full of druids. Everyone there says he never laid a finger on you.”

“And did any of these witnesses happen to overhear what he was saying to me?”

His nostrils flared, as though sensing a threat. “No. Enlighten me, please. You keep telling me he’s a danger to me, but you never elaborate. What has he been saying to you that would elicit such a reaction?“

I debated what to tell him. It all seemed so pointless, with only a few hours left between us. I tried one last time. “You need to challenge him. You can beat him in a fair fight. But if you leave it to him to try to assassinate you-”

He made a slashing motion with his hand. “We’ve been over this too many times to count. I don’t believe in killing my way to the top. I’m not afraid of him. If he wants to kill me, let him try his best-”

“He won’t be challenging you to a fair fight! This won’t be a test of your strength or his! He’s feeling out all of the people close to you, looking for a weak link. It would only take one to get you a knife in the back!” I hadn’t meant to, but I was almost yelling at the end.