Unknotted

Marathons and Cinnamon Gum

Rokan

Night was settling in by the time Topaz’s friends had loaded all the prisoners onto city buses that had “conveniently” been parked outside the station.

I waited on the side of the street, my feet firmly planted on Keadanian soil. Magic seeped through my soles, up my legs, and tickled across the wounds on my back. I closed my eyes and savored the sensation. The relief drew a sigh from me. Then another. Despite everything I had learned, it was still good to be back in my home territory.

I stopped short of healing my face, though I desperately wanted to draw in more magic, and it seemed to be urging me to do so. That would only anger Metallia, and she was already angry with me.

“No one should tell you how to use the magic.”

I forced my eyes open, lids weighted with exhaustion. Topaz was leaning against the last bus’s open door.

“My ultras ordered me not to.” I motioned to my face. “It’s punishment for my failures.”

“To catch me?”

I nodded.

With her mask in place, I couldn’t make out her frown, but her brows formed a hard line over her eyes. “That’s stupid. Isn’t there some unwritten rule that all failures fall on the leaders, or some such nonsense? Essentially, it’s your ultras who failed to catch me.”

I mulled that over. Tydeus frequently said stuff like that. “Yeah, it is stupid,” I agreed.

Drawing on the magic again, I relieved the ache in my nose, the pounding behind my eyes, and the swelling in my face. At the end, all I left behind was a few days’ old bruise under my eye.

Topaz pointed at it. “That one staying?”

I touched my cheek, the bruise sending dull pain across my cheekbone. “This one I deserved. A reminder to not lose control of my dominance. Even when confronted with an infuriating woman.”

Her cheeks bunched under her eyes from a hidden grin. Core between, I wished I could see her smile.

“How did your people manage to commandeer three city buses?” I asked.

“You know,” she said, hopping off the bus and waving for the driver to pull away, “you’re kind of cute when you ask questions you know I won’t answer.”

Her words fluttered in my chest, and I dropped my eyes before my face gave me away. Had she called me cute? Cute like a lost puppy? Cute as in attractive? As much as she drove me insane, I still really didn’t want her to think of me as a lost puppy. Though, with everything she had brought to light, I was feeling like one.

She drew close, stopping only a pace away. She held up hands, her wrists turned up and close together. “A deal is a deal. You helped me, so I’ll help you.”

My jaw loosened—any response stolen by my surprise.

Her shoulders lifted to her ears and dropped heavily in a nonchalant shrug turned into a resigned acceptance. “I might be a trickster, but I told you I’m not a liar, Whiskers.”

From my pocket, I removed the cuffs that had bound me not even a couple hours ago and set them against the side of her wrist. One flick and I would have her trapped, and this time, I didn’t think she would attempt to escape. Not while in my custody anyway. Though I was certain she would figure out a way if she had half a mind to.

The cords around us hissed at what I was about to do. Everything in me and in the magic filling the space between our bodies was telling me this was wrong. But to not do it would be to ignore orders. Metallia would kill me if I let this opportunity pass. What did I care what Metallia thought, or even what Glark did? Evidence that they were selling their people—my people—on the Shadow Market was mounting against them. How could I hand Topaz over to them now that I knew what I knew?

But what of Keadan? If we didn’t obtain the Tide Reverse first another territory would, and Keadan would be their first target. Then again, knowing what I did of Topaz, the race to catch her would be a marathon instead of a sprint.

I had too much energy to cut this race short just yet. I pocketed the cuffs and, at the question that shot into her eyes, said, “Consider it my thanks for not leaving me behind.”

She hooked her thumbs into her toolbelt. “I told you I came back for this.”

“So you say.” I pressed back the smile that threatened to touch my lips. “I’ll eventually catch you again. I do have my orders.”

“Don’t expect me to make it easy on you. Handing myself over was a once in a lifetime opportunity. It won’t happen again.”

Magic thrummed around us. As it had the first night we had met, it drew me a half step closer to her. I braced for her rejection, keeping a tight lid on my dominance that always loomed close to the surface in her presence.

Instead of retreating, she took a half step closer too.

What did that mean? Was there hope of… Of what? What exactly was I hoping for? To be knotted to an inter-hemispherical terrorist who was at the top of the planet’s most wanted list?

She was trouble, right from the start. But I found myself wishing to be chest deep in whatever mischief she stirred up.

Alarms clanged in the back of my mind: danger, danger, danger. Every action had the risk of danger. I only had to decide if this was a risk that I was willing to take.

Before I could decide one way or the other, she held up my pack of gum. “You forgot this in the truck. Cinnamon is my favorite.”

I had a moment of hope that she would pull her mask down to pop a piece in her mouth. The itch of curiosity of what lay under that strip of cloth was growing unbearable.

Her eyes did that mischievous glittering thing again. She held up a stick wrapped in silver foil and stepped closer until her warmth mingled with mine. Shivers raced across my skin.

Eyes locked with mine, she hooked her finger into the pocket of my jeans and slid the stick into it. If she was trying to tease me, she was doing a very good job of it. My body reacted in a way that made me believe that all the blasted trouble she promised would be worth it.

The rest of the pack she ferreted away into her belt. She rolled up onto her toes, her eyes laughing. “Tell me, Whiskers, what hope does a fledgling like you have in catching me again?”

The tide ebbed, leaking the color from the world. I swore the golden-brown color of her eyes held after my connection with the magic vanished. Maybe it did linger with her, just long enough for her to leap away, assume her beasts form, and blast into the sky with a push of her wings. She cartwheeled above me before flying southward. A laugh whispered in the breeze she left behind.

I watched her until she disappeared against the horizon, knowing that what I had done—releasing her—could lead to my execution. Yet, I didn’t feel an ounce of remorse for it.

Trouble? She was that in spades.

Insane? Absolutely.

Was she worth the risk of knotting myself to her though? That I wasn’t positive about.

But I was inclined to find out.

The End