This was just getting better and better. “Then put them on a plane in the Broken and have them cross into Adrianglia through the Edge at the eastern coast.”
Kaldar sighed. “Being in the Broken didn’t protect your brother. Besides, even if I bought tickets and made them go through security, they’d escape the moment our backs were turned. They’re here because they want to be here, and they are clever enough and well trained enough to be trouble. Trust me, I’ve spent two days thinking it over, trying to find some way to get out of this blasted screwup. The kids have to remain with me. That’s the safest option.”
Audrey couldn’t handle being responsible for the deaths of two kids. In her head, it wasn’t even George and Jack specifically; it was all the Jacks and all the Georges who lived in the Edge. All the lives her stupid caper had put at risk.
Some things even a Callahan couldn’t live with. “Then there is only one solution.”
Kaldar crossed his muscular arms. “Please. I’m all ears.”
“I have to get the diffuser bracelets back.”
She had to set it right. She would fix this, whatever it took.
“Why the sudden change of heart?”
Audrey shrugged. “Who else is going to do it?”
“Me.”
She gave him a drop-dead stare. “Please. You got yourself Tasered and tied to a chair because you were too busy watching me eat little mints.”
Kaldar grabbed her. One moment he was there, and the next he clamped her to him in a firm grip. Suddenly, his face was too close. His eyes were pale brown, like old whiskey, and he looked at her the way a man looked at a woman when wanting her had pushed every other thought out of his brain. A little electric thrill danced through her. She was pretty sure that if a volcano suddenly erupted in the cabin, neither of them would’ve paid it any mind.
“Mmm, Audrey,” he said, his voice low and intimate. The sound of her name caressed her like velvet against her skin. Tiny hairs rose on the back of her neck.
“You should let go of me now.”
“You know what the difference between you and me is?”
“I can think of several.” Oh yes, yes she could, and what fun differences they were. And at a different time and in a different place, she might even consider exploring them, but not now.
Kaldar leaned over her. His whisper touched her ear. “The difference is, I don’t need a Taser.”
He turned, his mouth so close to hers, the distance between them suffused with heat. He looked at her, drinking her in, his gaze sliding over her eyes, her cheek, her mouth...
She felt his breath on her mouth, the first light, teasing touch of his lips on hers, then the stronger, insistent pressure of his mouth, and, finally, the heated touch of his tongue. She let her lips part, and he slipped his tongue into her mouth. They met, and his taste washed over her—he tasted of toothpaste and apricot and some sort of crazy spice, and he was delicious. He chased her, teasing, seducing, and she pretended not to like it, then teased him back again and again, enticing, promising things she didn’t intend to deliver.
They broke apart slowly. Her whole body was taut as a string stretched to its limit, and just before she took a step back, one of those differences he mentioned earlier pressed hard against her stomach.
Audrey looked straight into his smug eyes and slapped him. It was a good slap, too, loud and quick. Her palm stung.
Kaldar let her go and rubbed his face. “Really?”
“I told you no, and you still did it.” And it had been glorious. When she was old and gray, she’d remember that kiss.
Kaldar looked at her, amused and slightly predatory. All of his smooth polish had vanished, and the part that was left was dangerous, reckless, and very much up to no good. Audrey had heard about the Mire before. It was a savage place, and Kaldar had grown up there, which made him both savage and crazy. Now all his sleek manners had sloughed off, and the real man emerged. And he was hot.
He must’ve been a feral terror at eighteen, especially with that face. Now he was older and wiser, and he hid his crazy better, but it was still there, buried deep under the surface, and he had let it out for her benefit. Well, wasn’t she privileged.
Kaldar winked at her. “You enjoyed it. It made you feel alive. You were looking kind of green.”
You bastard. “Oh, so it was a lifesaving kiss.”
“Well, if you want to put it that way . . .”
Arrogant jackass. “Do me a favor: next time you think my life needs saving, just let me die. I’d really prefer it.”
He laughed.
She shook her head. “I’m going to the front with the boys. Don’t follow me. You and your paramedic kisses need time to cool off.”
Audrey swiped Ling off the floor and marched to the front of the cabin.
THE wyvern dipped down, banking above the clearing, which felt only slightly less thrilling than plunging down a drop in a roller coaster. Audrey clutched on to her seat. The front of the cabin offered only two seats, and the boys had graciously let her sit next to Gaston and the enormous windshield, which she now sorely regretted.
“It will be fine,” Gaston told her. “The wyverns are difficult to stop, so we’re just going to spiral down for a minute. Landing is actually kind of fun.”
Jack bared his teeth at her from his perch on top of a trunk. “He just says that because he isn’t human.”
Gaston laughed.
Audrey tried to look anywhere but at the rapidly approaching trees. “Not human?”
“His grandmother had sex with a thoas,” Jack told her.
“Why thank you, Jack.” Gaston showed him his fist. “You’re so helpful.”
“I like to be helpful,” Jack told him.
“I have strange teeth, and my eyes glow, while you turn into a lynx and run around spraying your spunk on bushes. And you’re calling me not human? That’s rich.”
George cleared his throat.
Gaston looked at him. “What?”
George nodded at Audrey.
“What is it?”
George heaved a sigh. “We have a lady in our company.”