Chapter Seventeen

OLLIE

I caught up with Archer at the car, where he was leaning with his arms folded on the roof, staring along the beam of his phone into the night.

"Any head of family demands respect, but they're not a god." My voice shook slightly with how important this was to me. Also because I'd run the last bit of the way to catch him.

He withdrew his attention from the horizon to look at me, his brows drawing together.

"Sorry, but you're not. I mean, I disagreed with my own head of family at the moot."

He was still miles away from me somehow, and I had to put this in words of one syllable to get through to him. "I wouldn't sleep with you because you told me to. Not if I didn't want to. And the thing is, you haven't told me to, yet I really, really want to."

Something about his mouth changed at my sincere declaration, but I couldn't tell what.

"Come on, what's the worst that could happen if we have some fun?" I flung my arms out, showing off the amazing body that was his for the taking. But as I did so, my arms were caught in his flashlight, and my gut lurched. My wrist was bare.

"Oh, fucking hell. " The world tilted. I couldn't breathe. "It's gone."

"What is it?" He was beside me before I'd noticed him move, his hand on my shoulder. "What's wrong?"

I was going to throw up. "My treasure." My voice wobbled. How could I have lost my lifeblood?

"It's okay." His grip tightened, reassuring me.

It wasn't okay. Nothing would ever be okay again. A gaping chasm of loss opened up inside me, a void so vast and black I thought it would swallow me whole. My breaths were shallow and rapid, the weight of the loss crushing my lungs and suffocating me.

He pulled me to him and held me, arms strong around me, his body warm and comforting and steady, but not enough to counter the emptiness inside me. "We'll find it," he promised.

We wouldn't. I didn't even know which way I'd come, the trees blurring together in my rush to catch up. My stupidity, my carelessness, the fact it was gone —each thought cut deeper than the last until I broke, my knees buckling as I sobbed into his coat.

"I swear to you, Ollie, we'll find it. I'm not leaving here until we have." He cradled my head against his broad shoulder, his warm breath brushing my ear. "Breathe. It's okay."

His calm authority was a lifeline. I clung to his words and forced myself to breathe. My gut was still clenched tight in terror, but he sounded so sure.

I finally sniffed back my tears and pulled away. His eyes were dark pools in the light of his phone.

"Okay?"

Nodding, I wiped away my tears with the back of my hand.

He told me to stay well behind him as we retraced our route, and I realised why when I heard him sniffing. Not for the reason I was—a nose full of snot and tears that kept me sniffing to keep it all in—but because he was trying to scent the path I'd taken.

Nothing. Every step without finding it sent my heart deeper into hopelessness, the sharp edges of loss clawing at me.

Eventually, I followed him into the clearing where we'd shifted. He was crouched by a hazel tree, his head tilted towards me. There was something in his expression, something quiet and sure.

"It's here," he said gently, and with a sob, I raced to him. I could see silver, smooth and beautiful in the light of his phone, nestled into the grass and waiting for me.

I had just enough sense left not to snarl at him for being so close as I snatched it up and clutched it to my heart. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God." The words tumbled out, and I couldn't stop shaking. "Thank you."

Archer had found it. And he'd been so respectful, not touching it. He was even more amazing than I already knew him to be.

"Put it on," he suggested. "Make sure it's safe."

With fumbling fingers, I clasped it around my wrist. Only then did the tight band holding my chest loosen so that I could finally breathe properly. I laughed unsteadily and wiped the tears from my eyes. Archer was probably appalled by my carelessness, but at least he understood the horror of a dragon losing their treasure.

I only realised how shaken I still was when he stepped forward and folded me into his arms. I clung to him, needing that support and warmth to dispel the last remnants of terror.

After a while, he gently drew away. "We should get back to the car while my phone's still got enough battery to see the way."

It sounded like an excuse, but I was such a mess that it was probably for the best. I wanted to kiss him again and keep kissing him forever. And that wasn't me. Kissing was part of sex—a great part—but nothing more than that.

Back in the car, I was content to sit in my seat and hold onto my cuff, reassuring myself that it was there.

"We'll be home soon," Archer said as he started the car, and the low voice with a hint of growl in it was precisely what I needed. He'd been precisely what I'd needed through those minutes of terror. Somehow, he'd known what to say and do to stop me falling apart completely.

ARCHER

Ollie didn't say anything as I pulled out of the parking area onto the narrow country lane. I glanced at him, but there were no streetlights, and the light from the dashboard didn't give me a clear view of his face. I was aware he was sitting very still, his left hand cupped around the bangle on his right wrist.

The bangle couldn't be all of Ollie's treasure—although it was nicely made, it wasn't worth more than about eighty pounds—but I'd been terrified when he said it was missing. All dragons feared the terrible and tragic impact of losing even a piece of their treasure. I'd had visions of calling the entire Talbot family out to hunt for it, equipped with metal detectors, but it was simply that he'd never put it on again after flying. My fault. I'd run away after kissing him, and he must have panicked that I might leave him here.

God, I'd been a stupid, selfish idiot, and his distress had been all my fault. Filled with the wildness and freedom of flight, I'd accepted his tentative invitation to play, and then a savage exuberance had taken hold of me, prompting other instincts. I'd known I shouldn't touch him, but I wanted him so badly. And for the wrong reasons. Not only his body, though God knew, I wanted that, but I'd been desperate to bask in his lightness, his joy. To take it inside me and make everything better. It had been selfish and grasping, and I should be flamed for it.

I concentrated on the road ahead of us rather than Ollie in the seat beside me, his tense stance a world away from his happy slouch on our drive there. If we hadn't found his cuff…

But we had. And I'd make sure never to give in to impulse again.

OLLIE

When we got back to the Court, Archer seemed to know that all I wanted was to curl up somewhere private and guard my treasure. He let us into the house in silence and watched me trudge up the stairs. The shock of what had happened had hit somewhere deep inside, and I needed to sleep for a month. And not to think about my brothers, who would be so smug at having been proved right about my choices yet again. I'd been unbelievably stupid ever to take part of my treasure away from my hoard.

I stripped off and got into bed, cupping my left hand around the cuff on my wrist and wishing fiercely that the rest of my treasure was here. I needed the comfort of its presence and to know it was still mine.

A knock on the door caused me to turn over in bed. "Yeah?"

Archer stepped softly into the room. "I know it's not the same, but I brought these if you want them."

He was holding the silver candlesticks from the dining room, and my eyes filled with tears. Taking them from him, I tucked them under the covers with me. "Thank you," I said, but he was already gone.

They did help. They weren't my treasure, but silver was the most soothing and fulfilling thing in the entire world. Comforted by their presence, I fell asleep.