Vanish (Firelight #2)(28)

I nod, a lump clogging my throat.

“C’mon.” He opens the front door to the misty night.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“They’ll probably drop him in the usual spot. I want you waiting for him when he comes out.”





Chapter 11

I sip silent breaths from where I hide in a tree, the bark a rough scratch on my bare legs, needles poking me on all sides as I stare down at the spot where intruders who’ve been shaded are always dropped. It’s not far from the public road that carves deep into the mountain, the only official road this high. My heart still thunders in my ears from my mad dash to get here first.

The patrol moves quietly through the woods, but even so, I hear their slight rustling as they approach. Ludo breaks through the trees with Will slung over his shoulder, Remy right behind him. Wincing, I watch as Ludo drops Will unceremoniously to the hard ground. That had to hurt. If Will is faking unconsciousness and is actually awake, as I suspect, he did a good job masking any reaction to such rough treatment.

The two draki stare down at him for a moment. Remy nudges him sharply with his boot.

“C’mon,” Ludo says. “I’m hungry.”

I wait several moments after they leave, scanning the trees, making certain nothing moves and they are well and truly gone. Will lies on the ground very still, dead still, and I can’t wait any longer.

I climb down and rush toward him. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he’s not faking. Maybe he can be shaded.

I hover above him, holding out my hands in front of me, unsure where to touch. “Will.” His name escapes in a hush. As if I were afraid to say it aloud. As if giving voice to the name would make his being here untrue—make him vanish in a puff of smoke, into the mists that enclose us. As so much of me has vanished since returning here.

In the gloom, his eyes snap open. I jerk back, startled. He smiles those well-carved lips at me. Lips whose shape and texture are permanently imprinted on my memory.

I gasp, relieved, and say his name again, firmer this time. “Will.”

He stands in one easy move, with none of the lingering effects of someone shaded, confirming that I’m right. His draki blood has left him immune.

He moves toward me, and I meet him halfway—but then I recall myself and what I need to do. I quickly step back before we can come together. Holding up a hand to ward him off, I demand in a whisper, “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you.” The sound of his voice makes me tremble. The velvet rumble sends shivers along my skin and tells me everything I already know. He hasn’t forgotten me. He still wants me. I swallow down the thick lump in my throat.

It’s the same. The way it’s always been around him. The idea of forgetting him and putting him out of my life is easier when I’m not confronted with him.

“You shouldn’t have come. You risk too much.”

“Jacinda.” He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “It’s me.” He seizes my hand, tugs me forward.

And I can’t not have this. Wrong or right, selfish or not. I’ll take this. Steal a moment with him. If only that. I’ll make it last. Make it enough.

He hauls me into his arms and holds me so tightly I wonder if he might not crack a rib. I look up into the shadow of his face and crave to see more of him, more than what the muted moonlight reveals to me.

But I can’t. This will have to be enough.

I press a palm to his cheek, savor the scratch of bristle. My heart swells at the sensation of him, the simple touch of his flesh against my hand. Something I never thought to feel again.

“You remembered me,” I whisper, searching his glowing eyes in the dark. “You remembered that night—”

“When everyone woke up confused, I figured out what happened. I remembered you telling me about Nidia and figured that’s what Tamra became. So I pretended I was just as confused as everyone else.” He laughed once, the sound a rough scrape on the air. “My cousins still don’t know what the hell happened to them. All they can guess is that someone slipped them a roofie.”

“Only you can remember?” Relief slumps my shoulders as Will nods. “Yeah. That night is a complete blank to them.”

To them. I stare at the shape of him in the deep gloom, at the gleam of his eyes as I let it sink in why only Will is so special.

The blood.

“It’s because you’re like us,” I murmur.

“What?” He tenses against me and something vibrates in his voice that tells me he understands my meaning. More than he would like.

I suck in a breath, force it down my too-tight throat. “Well, you’re enough like us apparently. A shader’s talent doesn’t work on other draki. You must have been transfused with enough draki blood to form a resistance to being shaded. That would explain how you’re so connected to us . . . so good at tracking us. You’re like us.”

We say nothing for a long moment, and I wonder if he’s thinking what I am.

How else is he different? How else is he not like humans? How else is he like me? Like a draki?

I shake my head. It’s too much to contemplate. And there’s no way to know. Not right now. I don’t know if it’s something we’ll ever know. But then it doesn’t matter, does it? Because we only have now. For us, there will be no tomorrow. No future.