Jade looked into those aquamarine eyes that shone bright even in the dim light of the dungeon, and her hand shook. They were the same eyes she had seen in her fleeting memories, and the exact shade of the imaginary child’s eyes that kept appearing in her mind.

“Jade,” the High Lord repeated her name, his expression transforming from surprised to hurt as he looked at her.

Was he waiting for recognition? It wouldn’t come. Jade wished more than ever to know what this man was to her, but her memory didn’t come back simply because she wished for it to happen.

Regaining control of her senses, she forced her hand to still as she lowered the blade.

Her training had kicked in as soon as she turned the corner and saw the mountain of a man shoving the assassin into the cell. The sight of the rippling muscles on the High Lord’s back and arms had prompted her reaction, and the dagger had found its way into her hand before she could even think.

“You’ve got something in your chest,” she said, pointing at the dagger embedded under his ribs. “Follow me,” she added after he removed the blade.

His hand closed around her elbow. “Jade,” he whispered a third time, his voice as soft as a caress against her skin, causing goosebumps to rise all over her body.

When she didn’t move, he gently turned her to face him, his lips descending toward hers.

“I missed you—” he said, hovering over her mouth, and stealing her breath. His big body shook against hers.

A flurry of mixed emotions filled her heart and mind. Her heart raced.

The High Lord jerked away. “What—”

“Don’t touch me,” she said. The point of her dagger pressed against his heart.

“Jade—?” The dragon shifter opened his arms to the side and stepped back. His expression was one of a man who had been betrayed, and something stirred deep inside Jade, but she didn’t let the emotion take hold.

“I’m leaving.” She nodded at the gate that was starting to close and crossed the threshold without waiting for him.

“What happened?” the High Lord asked, a step behind. “Why are you acting this way?”

She didn’t speak.

“I deserve an answer,” he said, his voice charged with pained disbelief.

“If you want to remain alive, stop talking now and do as I say.” Jade had been running since leaving the medical bay. Fatigue combined with lack of proper sleep and hunger was taking a toll on her. “Move,” she hissed under her breath when she heard steps coming from further away.

Cupping her ear, she tried to figure out from which direction the danger was coming.

“From there.” The High Lord pointed to the right, where the hallway forked. “I can feel the vibrations under my feet,” he explained when she gave him a dubious stare.

Jade briefly debated if she could trust the man, then turned left and sprinted. The High Lord’s footfall was even softer than her own, and he kept his mouth shut the entire time she led him deeper into the Academy’s dungeons.

The closest entrance to one of the maintenance tunnels was right in the path of their pursuers, and the next opened near the very bottom of the dungeons. Jade stumbled once and pushed herself harder, her only goal to reach the exit before the trackers found her.

Her limbs slowed, but she ignored her body. If she stopped, all would be lost. Squinting through a thick fog, she looked for the door, but she fumbled as if she had hit a wall.

Strong arms grabbed her before she could fall.

“Where?” the High Lord asked.

“A metal trapdoor,” she whispered. “On the ceiling.” Held upright by a steely hand, she dragged her feet, one after the other.

Jade refused to faint. With what was left of her strength, she directed him toward their escape.

“This one?” the High Lord asked.

A small, rusty trapdoor was ahead of them, sunken in the ceiling and difficult to see if one wasn’t looking for it. The dim illumination created large shadows in which the hatch disappeared. The man’s shifter senses were more useful than she had given him credit for.

Relief flooded her chest. No more than a hundred steps separated them from safety.

The echo from a stampede reached her numbing senses. She looked over her shoulder at the branching hallway. This time, she didn’t need the High Lord to tell her from where the assassins were coming. The trackers had filled the adjacent tunnel and would soon enter theirs.

The High Lord grabbed her and ran toward the trapdoor. When he was directly under the entrance, he let her go and raised one hand. Thanks to his height, he only needed to raise himself on his toes, and his fingers grazed the hatch. He pushed at the round metal and carefully moved it to the side, before hoisting her up and into the hole.

Jade’s legs were as heavy as anvils, but she slid into the maintenance tunnel as fast as she could to make space for him. A moment later, the dragon shifter’s hands grabbed the edges of the trapdoor, and he pulled himself up with ease. She scooted further inside the tunnel, and he moved the metal door back into place without making a sound, plunging them into darkness.

Beneath them, the tunnel shook with the assassins’ passage, and someone shouted, “You go right.”

“Now?” the High Lord whispered.

Blindly, Jade tried to orient herself, but it was difficult to concentrate with the noise from her racing heart competing with the ruckus from the trackers outside.

“Up or down?” he asked, surprising her.

“Up, all the way to the hangar,” she answered.

The man’s senses were even keener than she had first acknowledged if he had discovered one of the Citadel’s most guarded secrets.

He took her hand and moved forward. A few meters into the tunnel, the ceiling became tall enough for them to stand, and he helped her up. When she realized that he could see in the dark, she stopped pulling at him and followed his lead instead. He kept his steps soft and never let her slow their pace. When her legs finally gave away under her, he took Jade in his arms and powered through faster than before.

“We should be close now,” he said after a while.

“Look for a door with a red H,” she said, her words barely audible, but he must have heard her because he nodded and sprinted faster.