Trial By Fire (Going Down in Flames #3)(38)

“I don’t care if it’s a wooden bead on a piece of string. Wearing something from another male is disrespectful.”

“You’re being ridiculous,” Rhianna shot back.

Jaxon’s eyes narrowed. Frost shot from his lips as he spoke. “Let me make this simple. If you insist on wearing that bracelet, we’re through.”

Rhianna sucked in a breath like he’d slapped her.

And all of a sudden, this became way too serious. There had to be a simple answer.

“What if it wasn’t a bracelet?” Bryn said. “What if she put it on the strap of her book bag, like a decoration to show she’s a member of a club?”

Neither Rhianna nor Jaxon spoke. They just stared into each other’s eyes. Rhianna blinked like she was trying to hold back tears. “I’ll put it on my bag as a decoration. Does that work for you?”

“I’d rather you throw it in the trash, but I can live with it on your book bag.”

Rhianna unclasped the bracelet and slipped it in her pocket. “Then that’s what I’ll do, but you can’t hold the threat of abandonment over my head every time we argue.”

Jaxon pressed his lips together in a thin line and nodded in agreement. She held out her hand to him. “Let’s go.”

After a moment’s hesitation, he took her hand, and they walked toward the Blue dorm.

“You should become a negotiator,” Valmont said. “That was brilliant. Jaxon is still an idiot, but that was brilliant.”

“The thing that’s making me crazy,” Bryn said, “is I can kind of understand where he’s coming from.”

“You’re not serious.” Valmont pointed in the direction Jaxon had gone. “He’s a manipulative, insecure control freak.”

It was Blue dragon logic and the fact that she understood Jaxon’s thought processes scared the hell out of her.





Chapter Twelve


Sunday morning Bryn woke tangled in her blankets and breathing like she’d run a mile. Kicking and wiggling, she shucked off the blankets and headed for the shower. As the warm water sprayed over her body, she tried to remember what she’d dreamt about which had left her so twitchy. Something about the Black dragons from the forest and a group of militant hybrids hunting her across campus, killing anyone who got in their way. A lump came to her throat as the all too realistic image of Ivy laying on the ground, gutted, in a pool of her own blood, flashed in her mind.

She washed her hair twice, hoping it might help scrub the disturbing images from her brain, but it didn’t work. Maybe one of the Green dragons could create a selective memory-erasing drug. That would be awesome.

By the time she made it to the living room, she smelled coffee. She peeked around the corner. Valmont waved and held a cup of coffee toward her. “I wondered when your nose would wake you up.”

“Thank you.” She accepted the coffee and sat across from him. He seemed at ease this morning, so she relaxed back in her chair, took a sip, and sighed in satisfaction. At the moment, life was good.

Valmont drummed his fingers on the table. “There’s something we need to discuss.”

“No.” She set the cup of coffee down with a thump. “Whatever it is, just no.”

“It’s not bad. I think something is bothering both of us.”

“Can it wait until after I finish my coffee?” Just a few minutes of caffeinated bliss. That’s all she asked for.

“Sure.”

Once she was done, she scooted her chair back a bit, in case what he said really set her off. “What’s up?”

“I think we’re both a little freaked out about the whole bond thing.”

She nodded. Where is he going with this?

“I need you to listen to my words and really hear what I’m saying. Don’t jump to any conclusions. If what I say isn’t clear, ask questions. As your knight, I will never leave you. I will never want to stop being your knight. But, the fact that you could get sick if we get in an argument terrifies me.”

He was worried about her health. She relaxed back in her seat. “To avoid any fatal illnesses, how about I promise to understand that we may fight but you will never abandon me, like Jaxon threatened to do to Rhianna yesterday. That’s where some of this is coming from, isn’t it?”

“The look on her face when he threatened to end things with her…” He shook his head. “I was about thirty seconds from punching him.”

“I’m quite familiar with that feeling.”

“Did you see the look on her face?” Valmont asked. “At first she was sad, but then she looked angry. I bet if he tried to pull that crap again, she’d call his bluff.”

“The sad part is, he wasn’t bluffing.”

“You think he’d really leave her?”

She nodded.

“Why would he do that? He obviously cares about her.”

“As much as he’s capable of caring about anyone. If Rhianna ever crosses him, or he feels like she does, he’d walk away and never look back.” And then she might die in a car accident.

“I’ve lived around dragons my whole life, but some of their logic makes no sense to me.”

“At least you’ve had time to take it all in. I was dumped into this world without an instruction manual. For some of this crap, there is a steep learning curve.”