“Yeah, that’s right, I read my mother’s journal. Ophelia was my father’s dragon, not yours. She was his companion. Your dragon was killed, wasn’t she? What, were you too out of it to realize your own dragon was being killed?”

Erik didn’t say anything, hell, he couldn’t.

What did you say when the truth was flung into your face? The worst part was, I wanted him to be a real part of my family, of my life. But he was proving as unreliable as my mother made him out to be in her journal. I’d wanted her to be wrong.

What a fucking disappointment.

I turned my back on him and strode toward the barn, but Liam and Alex were standing beside Blaz, a bag on Liam’s back.

“Blaz, can you give us a lift?”

Of course. You know, they could follow us.

“They won’t follow. That would take balls.” I pulled myself onto his back. Liam strapped himself second, and Alex behind him. Blaz took off as soon as the last buckle was clicked.

“That’s why you weren’t sold on him, isn’t it?” Liam asked as he handed me a sandwich.

I took a bite, chewed and swallowed. “Yeah. I read all about him, and there was even a picture of him in her book. He was an ass to them both, was jealous that my father was a demon hunter of the first order. Erik did all the training, was a Slayer, but my dad was better.”

“So he could still help you.”

“If he didn’t let me get caught by each demon first to teach me a lesson. Maybe he hates me, because of who my parents are, and who he was to them. It doesn’t matter now, I’m done with him.” I took another bite, grateful for the food. How long since we’d last eaten? Shit, I could barely remember but my body was suddenly craving the peanut butter and jelly. I downed the last of the sandwich and Liam handed me another without being asked.

“You aren’t taking me with you, are you?” Liam asked and I felt Blaz stutter underneath us.

You’re taking the wolf. There is no other way.

“Milly can’t jump him out. Which means he can’t come with me and Alex.”

Then we go back for Erik. You bloody well cannot go by yourself.

“We aren’t going back for Erik. He’s proven quite freaking nicely that I can’t trust him. He’s too busy trying to rewrite the past.”

Liam grabbed my arms, squeezing them hard. “Rylee, don’t be stupid about this. I realize I can’t go. I get it. But Erik can. And even if he hated your parents, even if he is on a vendetta of his own, he can help you in there, he can be the person at your back while you face down demons.”

I twisted in my seat. “Yeah, and when he puts his blade between my shoulders and hands me over to the demons in exchange for his own skin, what then?”

I can’t believe he’d do that, Rylee. I can’t.

“Have you been in his head, Blaz?” I snapped. Anger and fear for Pamela and Milly made me less than tolerant. “You don’t know him. You hardly even know Ophelia but I would trust her over him. My father …” The words choked in my throat for some stupid reason.

He loved her dearly, didn’t he?

I nodded, took a breath and finally got the words out. “He died before my mother, and Ophelia nearly died with him of a broken heart. My mother’s journal said Ophelia was never the same after he died, that something broke within her. I’m surprised she’s as cognizant as she is, considering what my mother wrote.”

Regret flowed from Blaz into me, and I realized he knew very little about Ophelia, that he’d made snap judgments about her because his heart was tied elsewhere. He back drafted his wings so our forward progress stilled and he tread the air. My jaw ticked.

I will speak to her before we go farther. If she vouches for him, will you take Erik?

Shit, I’d just said I trusted her over him. And I did trust Blaz. “Fine. If she will vouch for him, if she would trust him with me, then I will take him.”

Blaz gave a nod and his eyes half closed. Minutes passed and several times he shook his head, letting out long low growls. Finally, he turned his head back to me.

She will vouch for him, she says he has changed, and she knows he is not the man he once was. If he was still that man she would have killed him herself.

“And she speaks truly?”

For all her faults that I see now were my own, yes, she speaks the truth. He started off again toward the badlands, heading to the mineshaft.

“Is he going to help?”

No. He’s not.

Fuck a duck, why was I not surprised?

Chapter 9

Standing with Rylee and Alex in front of the doorway within the mineshaft that led into the castle where red caps waited was one of the hardest moments of his life.

“You still trust me to do what I have to?” Rylee lifted her eyes to his in the flickering light, an eyebrow arched in query.

“I said I did. I stand by it. Doesn’t mean I damn well like this plan of yours.” Actually, his gut was churning with fear for her. The red caps were one thing, but going into the deeper levels of the veil, which neither of them knew anything about, with no one to guide her… the thought pulled at his soul. Going with her through the doorway wasn’t an option and it killed him.

“Thanks.” She leaned up and kissed him, pressing her lips hard to his before backing away. “I don’t know how long we’ll be.”

“How long do I wait before I come after you?” Because that was a distinct possibility.

She shook her head. “You don’t. Because if I’m wrong and I get killed then I’m not the one the prophecies speak of, and you will be one of the last few who has an ability to face demons.”

He sucked in a sharp breath. “That does not help me let you go.”

“But it’s the truth.”

Alex’s tail thumped the ground and he tugged at Liam’s pant leg. “I take care of Rylee.”

Liam looked from Rylee—her jaw hanging open—to Alex and back again. He didn’t want to change the subject but … “Did you hear that?”

She sputtered, “He used ‘I’ instead of ‘Alex.’”

“Shit, he really is coming around.”

Alex grinned at them and even winked at Rylee. “I keeps her safe, boss, no worries.”

Without any thought other than to hold her one last time, Liam wrapped his arms around her and held her against his chest. “Come back to me, Tracker.”