“One more time.”
Eli was standing across the wide, hematite-lined room, holding a tennis ball in his right hand. Nina watched his hand as he threw the fuzzy green ball, trying to focus on the moment the sphere left his hand.
Stop, she thought.
It kept going.
Stop! Stop! Stop!
The ball froze in midair four feet from her face.
“Good,” Eli said, pleased. “Now try releasing it.”
Nina focused on the white lines crossing the green ball and thought drop. Drop drop drop drop—
The ball dropped to the cobblestone floor, bouncing lightly toward her until its motion stuttered and it started to roll.
“Excellent!” Eli clapped his hands together. “Okay, I think that’s enough. It’s only been three days since we found out you had this power, so this is great progress. Let’s resume tomorrow. Lunch?”
Nina looked at the corner where Pryce slept. “No, I need to talk to Pryce about something.”
Eli tried to hide his disappointment. “Ah, okay. I’ll make you a sandwich for later, then.”
Nina started to say something else to him, but Eli turned away and hurried up the stone stairs to get more ingredients. He’d been doing that to her all week—after acting like everything was back to normal, he’d scurry away if she committed one of two sins: asking him about what his feelings for Lylah meant, and mentioning Pryce’s name. She could understand his hesitation regarding the former topic, but he’d been so relaxed around Pryce lately that his aversion didn’t quite make sense at first. She finally realized that he must be trying to avoid getting any closer to her by opening up. But why?
Nina hadn’t been able to talk to Eli about the weird tension between them. He shot her odd, indecipherable looks whenever he saw her with Pryce, but he hadn’t brought anything up, nor would he expand when she asked him what he meant when he’d called their situation a “relationship” in front of Lylah. He tried to play it off as worry, saying he was afraid Lylah would somehow find them any minute, but Nina didn’t buy it. They’d figured out that Lylah must have been tracking them through the weak version of the hive mind bonded dragons experienced; it was how she’d known when to send an arrow at them, when to plant the bomb, and when to signal Joey to lift the enchantment on his room. It was scary, but as long as they stayed below ground in the enchanted lair or wore protective charms when they went out, they would be safe from that particular brand of espionage. This didn’t seem to console Eli, however; in fact, when they told him why he couldn’t leave alone, he looked devastated.
“He feels guilty,” Rachel said wisely one day. “He’s the only bonded dragon here, so he’s the only one whose eyes they can look through. I’m sure they can sense you and Pryce to some degree, but Eli gave us away all those times. He’s having trouble living with himself.”
“He can protect himself, though,” Nina said thoughtfully. “And we have a new plan of action now. Why isn’t he happy about that? Why can’t he relax?”
“Maybe because it was Pryce’s plan,” Rachel offered. “Eli wanted to be the one to save you.”
Nina resisted the urge to believe this simple explanation, mainly because she couldn't bring herself to believe Eli would be so petty. He’d matured a little, hadn’t he? They’d even had two more threesomes, though Eli didn’t stick around in the afterglow anymore. Nina was more puzzled than ever.
She knew that his feelings for her had deepened tremendously since they first met; she could read that much in his energy. It made her uneasy to see how quickly they’d grown close. The problem, though, wasn’t that she didn’t feel the same way—the problem was that she felt the same way about him and someone else. Nina had gone so long hopping from one casual relationship to the next that she wasn’t sure what to do with the desire to actually get involved with someone romantically, let alone two someones.
“Who do you like more?” Rachel had asked. “Who fucks better?”
“Both,” Nina said unhelpfully. “I don’t know, Rache. I’ve only known them less than a week, anyway. How am I supposed to know if I really like them at all?”
So she’d made it her mission to get to know them both better. Eli seemed to be thwarting her attempts lately, though he was being unusually friendly to Pryce. Pryce was more cooperative with her, but he was also gone for long stretches of time, trying to make contact with Outcasts who might know where the Heart was kept. She wanted to take advantage of the few moments she had alone with him a day. After her training session with Eli, she made her way toward Pryce’s curtain. She stopped in her tracks as she caught a look at herself in the mirror.
First I need a shower, she decided. Space-time control was sweaty work.
***
Nina tapped on the side of Pryce’s curtain. “Pryce? Are you there?”
“Yeah,” he called. “Come on in, Nina.”
Nina moved the curtain aside and stepped into his sleeping quarters. She tried not to glance at his bare torso as she gestured to the small desk chair in the corner. “Do you have a few minutes for me?”
He smiled, clear blue eyes twinkling. “I always have time for you.”
Nina giggled, then was briefly horrified that she’d actually giggled like a schoolgirl. “Have you made any headway in reaching Clyde?”
“A little,” he admitted as he pulled on a black tank top. “My uncle is hard to pin down, but he’ll come up if you dangle enough money around him.”
“Really?”
Pryce laughed ruefully. “Really. I got him to come to my eighteenth birthday by promising him part of my inheritance.” He laughed again, but it was cheerful this time. “Joke was on him, though. My aunt hit him up for child support.”
Nina grinned. “I like hearing about your family.”
It was his turn to be surprised. “Really? Why?”
Nina fiddled with a lock of her wavy black hair. “I don’t know. I like knowing about you and your background.” She didn’t say that she also felt guilty about how much she’d looked down on people like him in the past—partly because she was still trying hard to avoid doing it at all.
“I guess it’s not that exciting to me anymore.” He cocked his head. “You’re exciting, though. I don’t know everything about you yet.”
Nina blushed, holding his gaze as she spoke. “What do you want to know?”
He rolled his eyes to the ceiling as he thought. “When did you decide you wanted to work for the High Horde?”
“When I was ten,” Nina answered immediately. “I was reading about the Council and how the people who worked at its headquarters had access to every part of dragon history there was. I had so few books at my disposal that the prospect sounded like heaven.” Her nostalgic smile flickered. “Now I know differently. The Council is full of poisoned seeds.”
“You liked reading as a kid?”
“I loved it,” Nina said. “Didn’t you?”
Pryce smiled. “Would you believe me if I said I didn’t?”
Nina paused. “No.”
He laughed. “Smart girl. I did love to read, actually. I was a huge nerd, and reading also let me ignore what was going on at home.”
His smile faded and he dropped his eyes. He seemed to slip away into another world.
Nina frowned. “What was happening at home?”
Pryce shook his head and raised his gaze again. “My dad was abusing drugs and treating my mom and I like crap. Until he took off when I was twelve.”
Nina wanted to hug him, but there was too much space between them.
“I’m so sorry.”
Pryce’s eyes hardened. “Apologize to my mom,” he said shortly. “It was the happiest day of my life at that point.”
Nina was shocked to hear him say that. “He was that bad?”
“Worse,” Pryce said softly. “If we weren’t dragons, he would have killed us.”
His gaze was haunted. Nina rose from her chair and sat next to him on the bed, unsure of how to comfort him, or even if he needed it.
“Pryce... I had no idea.” She looked at his rugged features and reached for his cheek, touching the scar under his left eye hesitantly. “Did he give you this?”
Pryce nodded, then took her hand and moved it to his rib cage, lifting his shirt so her fingertips could touch the raised scar tissue. “These, too. And a bunch on my mom.”
She pressed her hand against his side, aware that her energy was overflowing with sympathy and concern. “That must have been so awful for you. No wonder you’re so strong. You had to be.”
Pryce pressed his hand over hers, searching her eyes with his. “Why are you so strong, Nina? What are you protecting yourself from?”
Nina was distracted by his lips. “What do you mean?”
“You’re so strong-willed,” he said. “You really push for everything you want. We all nearly got killed because of it. I don’t blame you,” he said quickly. “I love your fire. I love your ambition.” He paused and cupped her chin gently, sending her heart into a wild cadence as he tilted her face upward. “I just wonder if it was born naturally, or built from a need to prove yourself.”
Nina blinked, surprised at his words. “I never thought about it,” she admitted. “I just... it’s just the way I am.”
Pryce smiled. “Yeah. That’s what I thought. You were made for this kind of stuff.”
Then he kissed her. Her body responded to him immediately, a wave of lust flooding her senses until the only thing that remained was the need to soak in as much of him as possible. His lips were softer than they looked, and his pressure was gentle, but Nina soon found that she didn’t want it to stay that way. Will he push me away? she wondered.
Her hand moved to his chest, feeling the thick muscle of his pecs as his hands wrapped around her waist and pulled her onto his lap. Pryce turned her so that she could straddle him on the bed, and Nina cradled his face with both hands, tongue plunging between his lips as though she were searching for treasure. He leaned back, sliding one hand down to cup her ass and sending the other upward to rest in her mane of soft, thick hair.
“You taste like coffee,” he murmured against her lips.
Nina giggled again. “Sorry.”
He kissed her neck. “I love it.”
She looked toward the curtain before she could stop herself.
Pryce saw her glance. “You’re wondering if Eli is still here.” He frowned. “Is it bothering you? His weirdness?”
Nina sighed. “Sort of. I guess I don’t understand his hot and cold act. I keep trying to air things out, let him know I’m not upset about Lylah... but he won’t give me the chance.”
“I think he’s just tense because of what’s going on,” Pryce said seriously. “Someone who he once trusted, admired, and even loved, has been trying to kill you—someone who he trusts and admires and loves now. It’s a big shock. He thought the Council was infallible, even if some of the people were a little selfish.”
Nina thought about that. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s just not okay with an... open relationship.”
Pryce sat up, sliding Nina back on to the bed. “Is that what this is?”
Nina blushed. “Well, yeah, now that I know you’re okay with it.”
He slid an arm around her waist. “Maybe you should talk to him, though, make sure he’s aware that this is an open thing.” Pryce’s expression grew serious. “Although, I don’t think he’d mind. He’s in love with you. Like, completely head over heels.”
Nina gaped at him, shock spreading through her until she felt numb. Her mouth was strangely dry, and her heart was pounding in her throat.
“He told you that?”
“He didn’t have to,” Pryce said simply. “I saw it, clear as day.”
Nina’s mind flashed back to a few days before, on the day Joey had tried to kill them. When they’d all gathered in the lair, Pryce and Eli had a strange moment where they exchanged nothing but glances and energy; they’d told her that they’d reached an understanding, she’d recalled.
“You reached an understanding,” she said slowly, narrowing her eyes. “Is that what that whole stare-down was about? You finding out he was in love with me?”
Pryce did something she’d never seen him do up to that point: he blushed, and it made his sky-blue eyes sparkle with affection. “Sort of. It was more like... we both realized we were in love with you. And decided we needed to live with that fact.”
She could tell it had taken him a tremendous amount of effort to say those words to her. She felt a gentle flutter of nerves in her stomach, followed by an alarmingly intense sensation of giddiness. A smile swept over her face before she could figure out how to navigate the storm of emotions taking hold of her; was she ready to get involved with people who already felt so strongly for her after a single week? Why did knowing Eli was in love with her make her so afraid? Hadn’t she been waiting to hear that the whole week, especially after finding out about his past with Lylah? She felt an extra stab of fear at the realization that Pryce might not even want to be serious with her after the way she’d treated him due to his Outcast status.
Then Pryce smiled back at her, and the wave of adoration that rolled from his aura of energy broke apart the anxiety in her body to make room for her heart to swell with love. Nina flung herself forward, straddled him, and wrapped her arms around him, feeling incredibly at home in his embrace. He rested one hand in her hair and kissed the top of her head, his energy rumbling around them happily.
“I love you,” he whispered. “God, it feels so good to say that. I know it seems impossible,” he continued. “And you don’t have to say it back... but I think part of me loved you the moment I saw you. And I was yours by the end of that evening. Even though I thought I had no chance.”
Nina was moved beyond words. She didn’t know what to say, nor did she trust herself to try to speak. So she chose action instead.
She covered his mouth with hers again, willing herself to move slowly. The hand in her hair dropped and curved around to the front of her body and cupped her breast, massaging it until Nina moaned into his kiss; he used a thumb to slide over her nipple until it was hard. He twisted it between his thumb and forefinger until her moans grew louder and more urgent, nipping the sensitive skin of her lower lip playfully as she writhed in his lap. His touch was so expert that it was like they’d already made love, and he knew the topography of her body like the back of his hand. Slow, she told herself. Slowly.
Moving slowly became much harder when his hips started to rock against her, slowly but surely, the bulge of his erection massaging her nether lips just firmly enough to tease small moans of pleasure from her. Every time she tried to grind herself against his hardness more firmly, he grabbed hold of her hips and held her still, refusing to let her stimulate herself any more.
“Pryce,” she said, frustrated. “Don’t tease me, please.”
“What do you mean?” he breathed against her ear. “I’m just taking my time, beautiful. You think I just want to hit it and quit it?”
Nina froze, pulling herself out of her haze of happiness just long enough to push herself up into a sitting position on top of him. “Wait. You don’t?”
Pryce shook his head, brow knotting together in confusion. “No, of course not. Why would you think I would?”
“Because we just met,” Nina answered. “Because you’re busy. Because I was so shitty about the Outcasts. Because,” she said hesitantly. “I still have some kind of thing going on with Eli.”
Pryce laughed. “It’s not an ideal situation, Nina, but I’m also not going to tell you what to do with the rest of your time. I can’t make you be exclusive with anyone, and I’m also not jealous enough to stop seeing you altogether. Not jealous enough,” he stressed playfully. “I am jealous, though. Big time.”
Nina laughed, leaned forward, and kissed him again. This time he let her grind herself against his rigid cock, taking one hand and palming her right breast as she rode him over his jeans. She ground her mound into him, relishing the tiny sparks of pleasure she got from rubbing her clit against the outline of his shaft. Pryce was moaning softly as her body made contact with his. Nina was spurred on by his soft noises, her hips quickening against his.
“Still want to go slow?” Nina whispered in his ear when she pulled back briefly.
“I don’t think I can,” Pryce murmured.
In one fluid motion, he gripped the end of her cotton sundress and pulled it over her head. Nina was surprised, but the surprise gave way to need as his work-roughened hands slid up her back to unclasp her bra. His eyes were locked on hers, and shiver of desire slipped down her spine like warm syrup. She saw how much he was enjoying the sight of her, and it gave her immense satisfaction to realize that this whole time he really had been watching her just as she’d been watching him.
“Wow,” he said softly, gazing at her heavy, tear-drop shaped breasts as she straddled him. “You’re perfect.”
His thumbs hooked her panties and started to tug them down, and Nina lifted her hips to help him wiggle them off her body. Her nether lips were already slick with her own desire, and Pryce’s thumb slipped between them to tease her clit for a second, pulling away as soon as she started to moan.
Nina got off the bed. “Your turn.”
She unbuckled Pryce’s jeans and slid them off of his muscular thighs, eyes widening at the thick muscle rising from a crop of curly blond hair between his legs. His body was so perfect, even with its twisted scar tissue; Nina was struck dumb for a moment, taking in the body of a man who looked like he should be painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Pryce smiled shyly as she got back on the bed, apparently waiting for her judgment.
“You’re perfect,” she whispered as she gripped the base of him and lowered herself onto his rigid member, pressing her hands against his broad chest to steady herself for the ride. She wanted to find a stronger word for his beauty, but her brain lost its ability to utilize language as she started to sink onto Pryce’s erection.
They both gasped as Nina’s body swallowed Pryce’s cock, and their sighs of pleasure were in sync when she dragged herself back up its moistened surface. Nina watched his gorgeous blue eyes close as she slid down his shaft, his face a picture of bliss. She felt his head brush over her g-spot before she pulled her hips up again, and his hands held on to her soft waist as she started her slow grind toward their mutual release. Nina leaned close to him so she could kiss his soft, full lips as she raised and lowered herself on his cock again, happy that she could be as loud as she wanted; she didn’t think she could be quiet this time.
“Nina.” Pryce said her name like a prayer, gaze sliding over her skin reverently as she moved against him. “I’m so glad I met you.” His hips thrust upward desperately as he tried to bury himself inside her as deep as he could go. “I’ve wanted this since the moment I set eyes on you.”
Nina couldn’t speak, because each and every one of her nerve endings were on fire with pleasure, and the flames were growing more intense each time she glided up and down his shaft. As he gazed at her, she noticed that his soft blue eyes had a golden ring around them that was glowing like the sun; when she locked eyes with him, a violent shiver passed through her, chilling her before it gave way to a bewildering warming sensation that seemed to be coming from inside her own body.
Their hips bucked together on the huge bed, bodies moving rhythmically to a beat only they could hear. Nina’s slick walls were convulsing from the pleasure of being filled by him; his cock was slipping between her walls so forcefully now that each stroke was nearly knocking the breath from her body. It was agonizingly pleasurable, and she tried to contain her screams before realizing no one would hear them, anyway. She couldn't keep her hands in one place—first they cradled his head as her hips bounced on top of his, her fingers tracing the ecstasy in his expression, then they traveled down to the scars on his muscled abdomen, pressing into his body as he started to pound his delicious thickness into her so hard that Nina’s sharp moans were more like yelps. Finally, one hand stopped at his navel, separating their bodies while their hips bucked together deftly, the sounds of their lovemaking filling the small, curtained space like a carnal symphony flooding a cozy concert theater. Pryce took her other hand in his, and Nina saw that the golden ring circling his eyes had overtaken the green.
At the same moment, she felt his energy stir and swell, crashing over her like a tidal wave slamming into a beach. Her own energy answered immediately, inflating and drawing itself up before tumbling forward to spill into Pryce’s aura as his had done to hers. Their bodies were slamming into each other’s now, both of their passionate moans blending together to make a single rapturous voice.
“Pryce!”
Nina pressed her breasts against him as he clasped the soft folds of her ass and drove himself inside her with abandon, his breath becoming ragged and hot against her neck. His strokes were no longer rhythmic; they were both frantic as their hips pounded together, rocketing toward their climaxes as their dragon essences coiled together in bliss. She threw her head back and screamed his name again, unable to contain herself as her orgasm started to rip through her muscles. Distantly, she heard her own name being shouted as well, but there was a different noise at the forefront—the roar of their energy swirling, twisting, binding together.
What’s happening?
Before she could give the thought any attention, Pryce plunged himself inside her to his hilt and exploded, demolishing her focus and sending a second wave of ecstasy shooting through Nina’s body. For a moment, it felt like she was inside Pryce’s mind, looking at her own naked body as it thrashed around on top of his.
She felt an incredible sense of awe and admiration as she watched herself move, and a whole tangle of other emotions that seemed too complicated to separate from each other. She looked into her own light brown eyes and felt a flash of something that she couldn’t name—something that reminded her of beaches and campfires and flowerbeds, somehow. Then the moment was over and she was back in her body, sliding sideways off of Pryce and collapsing to the bed, skin slicked with sweat.
“Mm,” Pryce vocalized, slinging an arm across Nina’s bare stomach. His eyes were powder blue again, and they were twinkling as he looked at her. “God, that was incredible, Nina. Please tell me it was good for you.”
Nina was silent. Her head was spinning, but not just because of the sex.
Pryce propped himself up on one arm, his lustful expression growing worried. “Nina? Is something wrong?”
Nina thought about what had just happened between them, trying hard to find the right words. “You were amazing,” she said first. “But... that wasn’t a normal orgasm, Pryce.”
Pryce’s eyes grew serious. “No, it wasn’t,” he admitted. “I didn’t think you’d notice.”
Nina laughed incredulously. “What? How could I have not noticed that our energies decided to fuck while we were fucking?”
“To tell the truth,” Pryce said softly, “I assumed you wouldn’t think much of it because it probably happened with Eli.”
Nina closed her eyes. “Something like this happened with him,” she said. “But... this was different.” She opened her eyes and turned her head to find Pryce gazing at her thoughtfully. “This is a new power,” she said suddenly. “But what is it for?”
Pryce smiled. “Maybe it tells you who you’re compatible with,” he suggested. “You know, before we had the Council, when we had kings and queens, sex was how a king chose his queen. Well, an intimate ceremony leading to sex.”
“Really?” Nina said, sitting up.
“Yeah,” Pryce said. “I expect the books you had as a kid weren’t actually adult-level history books, or they would have mentioned it. It was important for dragons to be compatible if they were going to rule together, or shit got bad really fast. The couple would fight instead of focusing on the realm, or indulge in the wrong things together because one of them was some kind of enabler... or fall apart and start trying to fill the voids in their life with other things or other people. That’s how the Civil War started.”
“I thought someone assassinated the queen?”
“Someone did,” Pryce said darkly. “One of the king’s lovers.”
Nina gaped at Pryce. “What? I read that it was a disgruntled citizen!”
“Basically, it was.” he said. “King Damian started stepping out on Queen Adama almost immediately, and when he realized that he had chosen for beauty instead of compatibility and that they had different things in mind for dragonkind, he started whining about it to his lovers. One of the lovers got it into her head that he wanted one of them to get rid of the queen, so she took a crossbow and shot her full of dragon’s bane.”
“Jesus,” Nina said weakly. “And that’s when the Council decided to form?”
“Yes,” Pryce confirmed as he stood to dress. “Some royal advisors and other ‘wise’ dragons decided we needed a governing body with more rules and restrictions than ever before. And we all lived happily ever after.”
Nina didn’t miss the bitterness in his tone. She felt closer to him than she ever had, so she allowed herself to feel curious about the Outcasts.
“Why did you become an Outcast, Pryce? Was it because of the Council?”
His angry expression cooled as he looked at her. “Not exactly. I don’t really buy the Council’s motives, but it has more to do with my family than anything else.”
When he sat down, Nina moved as close to him as she could while still being in her own space.
“What happened?”
Pryce looked at her with a guarded expression. “You really want to know?”
“Yes,” Nina said immediately. “I think... maybe if I know more about you, I won’t be so weird about Outcasts in general. I’m sure you’ve noticed I’m not exactly neutral.”
“I have,” Pryce said carefully. “But I didn’t think you cared enough to change.”
His words stung Nina. “I do,” she said bluntly. “I don’t like being unfair or prejudiced. It’s not becoming of a queen.”
Pryce smiled. “Okay. I’ll clue you in.” He looked down at his large hands, studying his blunt fingernails as he spoke. “My dad was a piece of shit, but he wasn’t just abusive. He was full of hatred, and he wanted us to be full of hatred too.”
“For the council?”
“No,” Pryce said sadly. “For the Outcasts. For ourselves.” He sighed and pulled his gaze up to hers. “My dad wasn’t an Outcast by choice. When he was younger, he shifted in front of his human girlfriend. The Council found out and gave him a choice: go to a dragon reform center or become an Outcast.”
Nina stared at Pryce, ashamed at how horrified she was at his father’s decision. “He chose to be an Outcast?”
“Yeah, he did. And instead of blaming himself or even the Council for their stupid fucking rules, he chose to hate the rest of us instead. He told me all kinds of shit growing up: we’re inherently inferior, we’d be lucky to get near a horde in our lifetime, we were made to die alone…” he trailed off. “That’s why he was abusive to us. He hated us, plain and simple. He only settled down with my mom because she was in the same boat, sort of.”
Nina heard the bitterness creep into his tone again. “Sort of?”
Pryce smiled, but it was so lacking humor that it was unsettling on his square-jawed face. He turned his green eyes downward again. “My mom was sexually assaulted as a teenager, and she shifted to save herself. They gave her the same choice as my father.”
A wave of revulsion swept over Nina. “They can’t do that—she was raped. She had to do something.”
“Not according to the Council.” Pryce spat. “One day, though, my dad got word that an Outcast group was settling near a real Horde, and not underground and in remote areas like most of us. He took off to join them. He didn’t even think about taking us.” He closed his eyes. “He told my mother something before he left, and she would never tell me what it was. She just got really insistent that I take the ‘noble path’ and decided to send me to ceremony prep classes so I could become bonded. I told her I’d think about it, just because it meant so much to her. She didn’t want me to end up miserable like him. I hoped she’d be happy to see me try, at least. But a few years later, she killed herself.” Pryce swallowed, and Nina saw he was holding back tears. His voice trembled with rage, but his words were calm and clear. “My father didn’t come back for the funeral, but I saw him one time after that. I told him Mom had died. He said ‘at least she’s not an Outcast anymore.’ All matter-of-fact like that.” He made a noise of frustration. “I knew I didn’t want a system that had pushed two people into such miserable fucking lives. I didn’t want any part of it. I still don’t.”
Nina put an arm around his lower back and kissed his jaw gently. “I understand now.”
Pryce wasn’t finished. “I don’t want any part of it. But I’ll help you save it if that’s what you need to do.”
Nina was speechless. “You’re... I... thank you,” she finally sputtered, gazing into his eyes wonderingly. She had no idea that he was fighting his feelings of disdain so actively. “Pryce, thank you so much. Why are you doing all this for me?”
“Because I love you,” he said simply. His eyes sparkled again, and she saw how truly happy he was being open with her. “Didn’t I tell you that?”
She raised her gaze to his and was happy—and astounded—to find that that when she spoke again, it was with absolute certainty. “I love you, too, Pryce.”
He wrapped her in an electrifying embrace and kissed her again. Nina was on cloud nine as their lips massaged each other’s. The world dropped away when she was with him, she realized; is that why she liked spending time alone with him? Eli reminded her of how much she had to lose, and Pryce only reminded her that someone could lose everything and still be okay.
When they pulled away from each other, they were both slightly breathless. Pryce’s eyes were shining in a way Nina had never seen before.
“Maybe we should go grab some lunch,” he said. “We’ve both worked up an appetite.”
They parted the curtains and emerged in the main space arm in arm. Rachel was sitting on one of the thick velvet couches, eating an enormous sandwich. When she saw them, she froze, her mouth full of turkey and kale.
“Uh oh,” she said.
Nina laughed. “What’s wrong? Didn’t bring any for us?”
Rachel swallowed and stood up, her brown eyes wide with panic. “Oh shit. Oh my God.”
Pryce turned a look of alarm toward her, and Nina’s smile faded when she realized her sister wasn’t doing a bit.
“Rachel, what’s wrong?”
“You know how we’re not supposed to leave alone?”
“Yes,” Nina said slowly.
“Eli was down here when I got done raiding the kitchen upstairs. He said you guys had just taken off to a likely location of the Heart, and he was following you. Then he ran out the back door with a bunch of his stuff. I didn’t see you, so I didn’t say anything. But here you are!” she finished hysterically. “Here, and not searching for the Heart!”
Nina’s blood ran cold. “He’s gone?” she said, feeling her panic mount. “Eli’s gone?”
“Where did he go?” Pryce shouted, causing Rachel to flinch. “Where did he say he was going?”
“He didn’t say.” Rachel had tears in her eyes. “He took off so fast I didn’t want to stop him, in case it was time sensitive. Nina, I’m so sorry!” She collapsed on the couch, and Nina rushed forward to wrap her in a hug. Rachel’s body was shaking violently from the force of her sobbing, but Nina was deathly still. She rested her chin on Rachel’s crop of red hair and locked eyes with Pryce. She was remembering how strangely he’d behaved that week, how he'd refused to talk about anything personal, shot them guarded looks while he cloaked his essence, and left their presence immediately after sex. Now this—a blatant, half-assed lie that bought him just enough time to make a quick escape. She felt Pryce’s energy sweep toward her and knew he was thinking the same thing she was.
Eli had been working with Lylah. And now he’d gone back.