Her reply was quick and surprisingly mischievous. “Because you want to have sex with me.”
Hadrian smiled. “The firestorm doesn’t work like that, unfortunately, but I trust its choice. We should be partners. We could satisfy the firestorm, and create a son. You’d have a future then...”
“There is no future for Others,” she said, interrupting him flatly. “Whether they’re swan maidens or dragon shifters. All Others are doomed.”
“Not if the Dark Queen is defeated.”
“You won’t have my help for that. I owe her everything.”
“She’s made you what you are,” Hadrian acknowledged. “But what if that’s a lot less than what you could be?”
His mate stared at him in surprise.
“Are you happy?” he asked. “Do you like what you do? Are you fulfilled? I’m thinking not. I’m thinking you’re being manipulated by the Dark Queen to help her get what she wants. I’m skeptical that she cares whether you ever get what you want. She doesn’t even want you to figure out what that is. I doubt she cares whether you live or die.”
“You are stalling,” she said.
“What do you want?” Hadrian asked. “What’s the one thing you want more than anything in the world?”
“Why would you care?”
“Because you’re my mate, and that means I’ll do whatever is necessary to fulfill your dreams.”
She shook her head. “That’s a lie. You’re not dying very easily and that’s what will fulfill my assignment.”
“Can you blame me?” he asked with a grin.
She laughed then and he was surprised again by how pretty she was. “No, actually, I can’t. I respect that you want to live, and that you’re willing to talk or fight, whatever it takes. It doesn’t matter though. You’re just delaying the inevitable.”
“True,” Hadrian said, not believing any such thing. “Look at this, though.” He showed her the prophecy on his phone. She considered him, then came to stand beside him and read it.
“So now you’re making up stories about us,” she said, flicking an upward glance at him through her lashes. “Poems even.”
“Not me.”
“You have to know by now that I’m not much for romance.”
“That’s not what this is about. This is the prophecy associated with our firestorm. It means the firestorm is real and that you are my destined mate. It’s a Pyr thing.”
She read it again, more slowly this time, and he was glad that she was curious. “Where’d you get it?”
“From Sara, the Seer of the Pyr. She’s the destined mate of Quinn.”
“The Smith.”
“She just sent it to me while you were gone.”
“Where did she get it?”
Hadrian shrugged. “She just hears them. She’s going to send me a book, too, one called The Swan Maiden.”
“Too bad you won’t have time to read it,” his mate said, lifting the blade.
“Can I see the kesir?”
She gave him a pitying look. “You think I’ll just hand it to you, after what you did with my other two knives? After you show me a poem that says I’m a lost soul and that you can save me? I don’t need to be saved, Hadrian. I have a job to do and I need to get it done.”
“So, that’s a hard no on the kesir.”
She rolled her eyes, exasperated with him but humoring him.
“It was worth a try,” he said. “I’ve never had the chance to really look at one. Does it really have an essence of its own?”
She shook her head. “Close your eyes. It’s time.”
“How about one last kiss?”
“Another final wish? How many of those do you get?”
“As many as I can negotiate.” He grinned again and once more she laughed.
“Relentless. Incorrigible. Stubborn.” She walked around the end of the table, stalking him from the other side. It was probably a better angle for a strike. Her eyes gleamed with intent and the kesir blade caught the light of the firestorm. Hadrian held his ground, knowing that if the sight of his mate closing fast was the last thing he ever saw, it would be all right.
She stopped right in front of him, her gaze running over his face. The firestorm burned and crackled, its radiance so white that it was blinding. Its insistence made his toes curl and his breath catch—when he felt his heart match its pace to his, Hadrian couldn’t complain about his situation. He looked at her mouth, so soft and red, and watched her lips part.
“Irresistible,” she whispered, as if reluctant to make the concession. Then she swore under her breath and reached for him, sliding her free hand into his hair and