“We’re all set, then?” I glanced at Ciera, who sat by the window with her feet tucked under her.

She twirled a strand of hair around one finger as she read, lost in thought. So deep in whatever it was she examined, that she didn’t notice me watching her.

“We’re good,” Pierce confirmed. “And she understands everything?”

“Everything. We’ve been over all of it.”

He paused. “It’s not too big a sacrifice for her?”

“Did you ask Jasmine that same question? Or Alina, or Cari?”

“Fair enough. But still. I had to ask.”

Another look at Ciera, still deep in her book.

She would be right at home in Smoke’s library. I wondered if I’d ever see her again once she set eyes on it.

She was the one we’d been waiting for, the dragon and me. He was finally satisfied, for the first time in my life. He rested in deep contentment—probably exhausted after pouring all of his energy into this—me, her, mating—which we had done four times in less than a day. If it wasn’t almost time to leave for the airport, I’d happily throw her onto the bed again. He wouldn’t complain.

She was one of the few things in my life that I’d ever been fully sure of. I understood why Pierce was willing to take such risks in saving Jasmine’s life. Why Smoke took the chance of looking for Alina. Why Cash dared to rescue Tommy, all because he knew Carissa couldn’t live without her nephew.

When a dragon knew what he wanted, there was no stopping him. It would be as big a waste of time to try as it would be to try and change the tides.

Pierced and I were just about to hang up, just about to say goodbye when something stopped us both.

The quiet, almost nonexistent sound of a heartbeat.

I held my breath, desperate to be sure I wasn’t only hearing what I wanted to hear. I was afraid to breathe. Afraid it would go away if I did. It was so very faint.

“Do you…” Pierce whispered into the phone.

“I do. You do, too.”

“Yes.”

I ran to the door and threw it open—only to find both Gate and Miles rushing down the hall from their rooms.

Both of them wore expressions like what I imagined mine to be. Almost afraid to believe it was real.

“Pierce hears it, too,” I said, pointing to the phone still against my ear.

“What do you think it means?” Miles asked. I turned the phone’s speaker function on and motioned for the two of them to enter the room and close the door.

“You still there,” I said into the phone’s microphone.

“Yeah. Smoke’s here, too. He hears it. It’s definitely there.” The excitement in Pierce’s voice was impossible to miss.

“It’s never been so faint before, though,” Gate pointed out. “It was always audible. So very audible. Now, I can hardly make it out.”

“I can’t imagine what that means.” Smoke’s uncertainty was clear. “I’ll look through my books, but I can say that I don’t remember ever reading about a lessening of the heartbeat.”

“Then again, it never disappeared before now, either,” I reminded him. “This is a first, all of it. But I think it’s safe to assume somebody’s still alive. Somewhere out there.”

“And you didn’t find anything that could provide a clue as to what happened?” Pierce asked, as though he had never asked before.

I couldn’t blame him for it. I would ask the same questions if I were still back in the caves, unable to do any searching myself.

Miles’s face settled into hard lines. He didn’t like being second-guessed. “Absolutely. We searched for hours the second time we visited the cave. Not a single clue.”

“It wasn’t only that,” Gate added. “There were no clothes or other belongings. There was no food. Like somebody had gone through and cleaned the place out. The only thing we found were the two computers, and we shipped the hard drives to Mary.”

“Her team will work on taking them apart. Maybe we’ll find something there.” Pierce sighed. “But somebody’s alive. Out there, somewhere. By the time you get home, we might have some answers.”

We couldn’t get there soon enough.

When the call was over, I turned to Ciera. She had remained quiet throughout, but the look on her face told me she was listening. And she was excited.

“This is huge,” she whispered when the guys left to finish packing. “This means…”

“It means somebody’s still out there. We haven’t lost all hope.”

She rose and walked into my waiting arms. She fit perfectly, like she was always meant to be there. Because she was, of course.

She nestled against me. “I’m so glad. I would hate to think of you making this trip and going home with nothing to show for it.”

“Nothing?” I couldn’t help but laugh a little. “You shouldn’t call yourself nothing.”

“You know what I mean.” But she laughed, too. “I’m glad you think I was worth the trip.”

“That’s an understatement.” I kissed her forehead, just beside the spot where she’d hurt herself.

There would be a bruise there for a while, but I couldn’t even be sorry for it—outside the pain it had caused her, of course. If she had run from that cave, we might have missed each other. And she might have gone on with her work, even published her research. And I would never have the chance to protect her from whatever force was out there in the world, working against us. And she wouldn’t be mine.

“I never thought I’d be glad to be such a klutz,” she sighed.

Almost as if she were reading my thoughts.

For all I knew, she could. Standing on tiptoe, she rubbed her cheek against the stubble covering mine before planting a kiss there.

“I’ll be sure to order padding for all the bedroom walls,” I promised with a grin.

She grinned back—wickedly. “I’ll settle for padding the headboard, thanks.”

“Careful,” I warned, sliding my hand down her back and over the curve of her ass. “You’ll make us miss our flight.”