Darkblood Prison - G.K. DeRosa Page 0,7
of dark smoke curled around my grandpa’s legs, then surged up his body until it blanketed his tall, lithe form. “Goodbye, princess.” His words evaporated with him, the lingering echo of his voice leaving me hollow.
Chapter Four
I stared in quiet shock as Talon muttered an incantation at the onyx wall. When he’d brought me down to Scom, the guys’ own SIA clandestine office in the basement of the prison, I thought he had to check his email or something before our departure.
Instead, he stood in front of the beautiful framed landscape he’d painted uttering the words to a vaguely familiar sounding spell. The charred scent of magic filled my nostrils and a moment later, the rock wall juddered, and a thin fissure raced along the black surface. The obsidian parted with a sharp crack and revealed a dark tunnel behind it.
I gasped. “That’s how you guys get in and out of here?”
“That’s right, one thirty-eight.”
I popped my hands on my hips and glared up at him. “Can you not call me that? Especially not when we’re at the SIA? It doesn’t exactly instill the most confidence.”
The ghost of a smile hitched up the corner of his lip. “You’re right. I’ll make sure not to call you that while we’re at the agency.”
“Great,” I mumbled.
Talon took a step inside the murky tunnel and blew out a soft breath. A brilliant orange flame burst from his lips and lit the torch I hadn’t been able to make out on the wall. He neared the old lantern and blew again, this time more forcefully. The flame jumped from the first torch all the way down the line, igniting the tunnel in a soft golden glow.
If the dragon didn’t drive me so crazy all the time, I might’ve thought it had been a pretty cool move. Too bad he’d never hear me say the words out loud.
“Let’s go.” He motioned toward the seemingly never-ending corridor, and I scrambled past him.
As soon as I crossed the threshold, a wave of damp air wafted over me, followed by a frosty chill. Since I’d arrived in Draeko I’d only been outside once—in the boneyard, an experience I hoped to never repeat, and now I remembered the other reason why. It was freezing. If it was this cold down here, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like atop the mountain.
I must have shuddered unconsciously because Talon moved beside me a second later. “I’ve got warm clothes for you in a go bag further ahead.”
“You just so happen to have girl clothes in your emergency SIA duffle?”
He shrugged. “I don’t only work with male agents. There are quite a few females in the agency as well.”
I nodded, not sure how to answer that. Even if he had female partners at the SIA why would he carry around their clothes? I chased the errant thoughts from my mind. It didn’t matter anyway. Talon and I were nothing more than a bothersome blood bond. “So how are we getting there?”
A mischievous grin tugged at his lips, revealing that elusive dimple on his scruffy cheek. It was the closest thing to a smile I’d seen from the surly dragon in a while. “Flying, of course.”
My jaw dropped, and I halted mid-stride. “Seriously?”
“How else did you think we were going to get off this mountain top? Unless you wanted to take the stairs down? Because I don’t think opening a portal into SIA headquarters would go over well.”
“Touché, dragon douche canoe.”
“How colorful, one thirty-eight.”
I grunted and continued traipsing down the dim passageway. Flying? On Talon’s dragon? My insides twisted into a giant pretzel, without the delicious cheesy dipping sauce.
“What’s the matter, you scared of heights?”
“No,” I hissed. I wrapped my arms tighter around myself. “It just sounds like it’s going to be frigid.”
“You’ll be fine. My dragon’s pretty hot.” Again, that smirk.
“Are you actually making a joke? I didn’t think you were capable of such lighthearted banter.”
He shoved his fingers through his dark hair, driving up the spikes. “You don’t know anything about me, Azara. Just like I know nothing about you. We met under difficult circumstances and maybe things between us would’ve been different otherwise.”
He picked up his pace, leaving me slack-jawed once more. What did that even mean?
I let the silence linger and stayed a few feet behind him. Talon was the most exasperating man I knew. One second he was a complete beast and the next he was almost human.
“We’re almost there,” he called out over his shoulder.
Sure enough,