I didn’t say much as we rode in the taxi, Ciera’s bags in the trunk. I hadn’t told her yet that she probably wouldn’t see her apartment again. Not that she’d be missing much. The place was a closet. There was no way we could’ve shared that creaky old bed without breaking it.

One of those bags held her research. My heart clenched when I imagined how she’d react when I told her what needed to be done.

I’m so sorry, my love. I took her hand, and she squeezed, not knowing what I was thinking.

What was she thinking? A look at her from the corner of my eye revealed little. She was excited—being told to pack a bag and rushing out onto the street was exciting, I supposed. She was tired, for certain, and I could identify with that. She was uncertain. But she was there, with me, in that car. She hadn’t asked any further questions. She was willing to follow my lead. That had to say something about her feelings, didn’t it?

I could only hope I did them justice.

Miles had already informed the hotel staff that I would have a guest in my room, so they didn’t bat an eye when I walked in with her and two pieces of luggage.

Our ride on the elevator was silent, too. She looked around, taking it all in, keeping her thoughts to herself. I had never appreciated silence more than I did just then. There was too much banging around in my head to leave room for conversation. How was I going to break it to her?

As it turned out, I didn’t need to worry about it. My brother was more than willing to do it for me, the clumsy oaf.

“You told her she’s coming with us, then?” he asked, eyeing up her bags as we rolled them into the room where he was waiting with Miles.

I winced, closing my eyes briefly.

“I’m what?” Ciera looked up at me, eyes darting back and forth over my face. “What did he just say?”

“You dumbass,” I hissed at my brother.

“Oh. I’m sorry.” For once, he accepted that he’d said the wrong thing, and his face darkened.

“What did he just say?” she repeated, this time more pointedly.

“Sit down, please,” I replied, attempting to steer her to the armchair by the window.

Miles stepped aside to make room.

“Don’t coddle me.” She shook me off, whirling around to glare at the three of us. “I’m pretty sick of this three-against-one bullshit, to be honest. Just come out and tell me what it is I need to know, instead of glancing at each other and wondering how to break it gently.”

It fell on my shoulders, and that was as it should’ve been. I owed her that much. “You need to come back to the States with us for your protection.”

“Like hell, I do,” she said, tossing her head defiantly. “You’ve got another thing coming if you think I’ll drop everything and run off with you, just because you said so.”

“Ciera, please.” Miles was much more level-headed than the rest of us just then, the way he normally was. “Let me explain. Gate and I went back to the cave last night to do some more exploring. We found the place where you fell and hit your head. I’m sure you remember that.”

She touched the bump on her head, which I hadn’t realized until just then had been artfully hidden by her hair. “Yes. I do.”

“Do you remember how the wall looked when you woke up?”

“I dented it,” she grimaced.

“What else?”

She blinked. “Um… there was blood.”

“Right. Only there was no blood last night.”

I watched closely as she processed this. She frowned. “I don’t understand what that means.”

“Somebody else was there—likely after we left, since I’m sure we would’ve sensed an additional presence. They could’ve been watching to see whether any stragglers from the clan would return to the cave. They removed your blood from the wall. There’s no way of knowing what they did with it.”

“What could they want with my blood, anyway?” She looked at him, at me, at my brother.

Gate shrugged. “They might have only cleaned up for the sake of cleaning, but that doesn’t make much sense. Even though the cave is suspiciously clean and free of evidence. They might have taken a sample to see if they could test it.”

“Test it?” she gasped.

“To see if a human left it, or something else.” He shook his head. “We really don’t know. I wish we did.”

“Yeah. You and me both.” She finally sank into the chair, wrapping her arms around herself.

I wanted to protect her. My dragon wanted to protect her. As far as the dragon and I were concerned, she was ours. She always would be. It was fated. But I refused to push that onto her until she was fully aware of what it meant. She had to know the full truth of her situation before she could accept her role as my mate. I wouldn’t mark her until she knew it was forever.

She took a few shaky breaths, rocking slightly, as though she were trying to comfort herself. “All right. So, they may or may not have my blood, and they may or may not have nefarious plans for its use.”

“I think it would be better to err on the side of caution. Don’t you?” Miles was as kind as he could be, but it was clear his patience was cracking.

None of us could understand why she was so slow to understand or accept what was obvious to us—but she didn’t have our experience, either. It had been ten hours since she found out who I was, that dragons even existed. Asking her to immediately go along with our train of thought was a bit of a stretch.

I knelt in front of her, forgetting the others for a moment. “Whoever they are, they must have something to do with our clan’s disappearance. Which means they’re powerful. We’ve talked about this. There’s no way I can run the risk of them finding out who you are, that a human knows about the clan’s existence. Do you understand what they could do to you if they found you?”

“You’re scaring me.”

“I don’t want to—but maybe you need to be scared, just a little. I need you to understand what we’re up against. This is why I already discussed with them over the phone the need for you to come under our protection. Which means coming home with us.”

“But… what about my work?”

I sensed the discomfort in the other two, and I glanced up at them. “Could you leave us alone for a little while? I know we could both use some rest.”

“You’re not the only ones,” Gate grumbled as he left. “We tried to get a hold of you all night.”

“I’m sorry about that,” I called out over my shoulder. They’d spent the night thinking I’d been captured.

Ciera rocked back and forth, still holding onto herself like there was a chance she’d fall apart at any moment. “What about my work? Why did you send them away?”

I placed a hand on her trembling knee. “Ciera…”

She wasn’t swayed by my touch. “You’re telling me I can’t use it. Isn’t that right? That I’ve wasted all this time on something I can never present, because if I do, somebody out there might find out and decide I know too much.”

The bitterness in her voice was nearly enough to break my heart, even as my dragon told me to ignore the guilt stirring in my gut. “I’m so sorry.”

“You were never going to let me finish what I was researching, were you?” Her eyes burned into me, forcing the truth I wished I didn’t have to reveal.

I shook my head. “I couldn’t.”

“You bastard.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “You should’ve just told me. What were you planning to do? Steal everything? Maybe when I was sleeping, and you were protecting me?”

“No. That’s not it at all. Don’t say that.”

“What, then? Would you have given me enough respect to warn me of what you were going to do before you did it? I’m honored.”

“Ciera, you’re making this impossible.” I stood and turned away, running my hands through my hair, wishing like anything that things could be different. But they couldn’t. We had to face reality. “Do you think I like this? Do you think this is fun for me? I came here with a single purpose in mind: to find out what happened to my clan. All I managed to find was their absence. No bodies, no clues, nothing. They simply vanished one day. We heard the heartbeats, as we’ve always done, and then they were gone.” I had told her about that over the course of the night. I had told her about everything but the treasure. No one was ever to know about the treasure.

I turned back, desperate for her to understand, even as the dragon raged for me to make her mine. That she was meant to be with me. That nothing else mattered. That was fine and good for him. I was sure he even believed himself. But it wasn’t enough for her. She deserved a little more than an order.

“And I found you. For some reason, something put us in that cave at the same time. Whatever that something is—call it fate, if you want—it pushed me in your direction. I felt it here.” I made a fist and pressed it against my sternum. “There was a certainty I never felt before. I had never even come close to it. That knowing. Knowing I had to help you. I had to protect you. I had to make you mine, somehow. It was meant to be.”

When she didn’t respond, I dropped to my knees again. “We’re meant to be. You’re my fated mate. And that means placing your safety above all other things—even my own safety. It means keeping you from being discovered by whatever forces are out there, trying to destroy us. This isn’t my fault. I’m doing everything I can to keep whoever it is from hurting you one day. I couldn’t possibly leave you for them. There’s no life without you now. I wish I could make you understand that. I don’t consider the work you did to be wasted, because it brought us together. And it could help the rest of us piece together what happened in the centuries since we left home. I can’t tell you what it means to be able to do that. You could be our salvation, you brilliant girl.”

I took a chance and reached up to touch her damp cheek. She didn’t pull back. A good sign.

“Ciera, no matter how mad this sounds, it’s the truth: I love you.” There it was. As simply as I could express it.

All that was left was the excruciating, breathless, crushing moment of silence that greeted my declaration.