Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters #1)(83)

I shut my eyes tightly against a sharp rush of emotion. Rage, anger, and pain, oh yes, pain, washed through me. Pain for the death of a woman I had always liked and respected. But most of all, I felt guilt, that she’d died for my fight. The rage seemed to help some of the pain in my body. Revenge had always been my best motivator. Heads were gonna roll for what had happened to Sloan, of that I was sure.

“Did they mention anyone else? My sister was with me as well.”

They shook their heads in unison, and I cursed. They both cringed. “I’m not mad at either of you. And, though I know it’s hard to believe at the moment, I will get us all out of here. My kind don’t stay conscious and captive for long.”

Nix had a thoughtful look on her face. Thoughtful and determined. “So if you’re a dragon, can’t you make fire?”

I studied her for a moment, trying to see what she was thinking. “Of course.”

“Could you set me on fire from that far away?”

I just stared at her, a little shocked.

“Oh no, Nix! You can’t! You told me you’ll lose your memories! And it will hurt! You said you wake up in total agony.”

Nix shrugged. “I only lose some of my memories. As it stands, there are quite a few memories I’d love to lose. And I can take the pain. The only thing that worries me is how long it takes to recover from the change. It’s just so hard to predict when they’ll check on us.”

I shook my head at her, meeting her gaze squarely. “I couldn’t do that. I’m sorry, but I just can’t torch a little girl. I’m capable of some pretty dark stuff, but not that.”

She glared at me, but didn’t speak. I decided to cheer them up a bit. I pulled off one my faux black pearl earrings. I waved it at them. “My reclusive family must not know too much about druids and their tracking devices. Guess what these are, girls?”

They both just shook their heads at me, looking at me like I was crazy. I just smiled. “I’m being tracked by the druids, which means that, any minute now, we’ll be rescued.”

Nix and Leona both glared at me, as though I’d said something offensive. “The druids only care about their own. Why would they help us?” Leona asked, her tone accusatory and bitter.

My brows rose. “I’ll agree that the druids can be elitist bastards, but they would help you if they knew of your plight, that I can promise.”

Nix snorted. “These monsters have been working with some druids. We’ve heard them talk about it.”

That was a bit of a shock. I filed that away with things I needed to tell Dom the next time I saw him. Hopefully that would be very soon, like when he was busting the door down to free me. “That’s strange and disturbing information, but it won’t stop our rescue. The Arch himself is tracking me, so I guarantee our rescuer outranks whatever druids you’re talking about.”

Nix gasped suddenly, her hand flying to her mouth. She pointed at me. “You’re her. I’ve heard of you. Leona, remember the stories about the mysterious supernatural woman that the Arch is obsessed with. Everyone knows the story, how she bewitched him with some dark magic, and then betrayed him with the last Arch. She actually caused the one to kill the other.”

Leona’s lovely brow furrowed. “No, it can’t be her,” she said softly.

I sighed. I really was famous, far and wide. Infamous, rather.

“Yes it is her. You can tell, even with her all beaten up and dirty, that she’s exquisitely beautiful. Her long golden hair, and her pale blue eyes. She’s tall, with comic-book curves. I’ve heard her described tons of times. The druids hate her, every single one of them.”

Leona was still doubtful, but studied me intently. “No,” she said softly, less certain now.

“Tell us the truth. Are you Jillian?” Nix was nearly glowing in her agitation.

I grimaced and nodded. “Yes, I’m Jillian.”

Leona looked crushed and defeated at my admission. It made me feel bad just looking at her. “No,” she whispered. “But you’re…evil. The druids won’t be rescuing you. They hate you.”

“She gets off on tormenting people. I’ve heard that about her,” Nix spat. “She gave us hope, just so she could crush it.”

“Don’t believe everything you hear. I’m no angel, but I’m not evil, either. Dom put this tracker on me himself, and I swear to you that he will come here to free us.” I reached the device across the distance between our cages. It covered two-thirds of the distance, but Leona would have to reach to grab it. “Take one of these. That way, even if they separate us, the druids will still find you.” She hesitated, and my patience snapped even as the roaring in my ears grew with the huge presence trying to overtake my body. “Take it! What do you have to lose?”

My tone frightened her into obeying, but she backed away from my cage the instant she got ahold of the pearl.

“You’ll be okay,” I reassured the young girls, as well as myself. “No matter what happens, they’ll find you now.” I was folding into the corner even as I spoke, my body turning on me, as it tended to do lately.

The change started like a raging torrent in my blood. It was faster and more violent by far than any I had experienced before.

The girls looked on with horror as I lost all control of my body. I think my eyes went first, because my vision changed to dragon between one blink and the next. It’s impossible to say what changed next, it all happened so fast.