Chapter 856

He blinks once, I think shocked.

"I'm serious,” I say, squeezing his hand, holding his gaze. "I've had time to think in here - time is the only thing I have - and when I get home? You're the only mate I want. I don't want Gabriel – and I don't want Luca, okay? I just want you. Me and you and that's it forever."

Jackson swallows hard and I can see hope filling him.

I turn my head to the side, a little surprised by his silence. "Isn't that what you want too?"

Slowly he nods. "But...I don't want to hold you to it, Ari. If that's not the destiny your grandmother wrote for you."

"Yeah well," I sigh, frustrated. "Granny and I need to have a chat. But what she said was that she wanted me to have my mate's marks - not that she wanted me to live in some kind of bizarre foursome. And that's why I don't want to run right now, Jacks - because..." I bite my lip. "I think I need to explore the magical connection between me and Gabriel. I think that my grandmother gave this link not because she thinks he's some great match for me - but because his magic can lend something to mine."

Jackson sighs and looks away. "It would be easier if he were ugly."

I laugh a little, squeezing his hand. "Nobody's as pretty as you."

Jackson raises his head and an eyebrow along with it. "I'm not sure I'm precisely pretty."

"You're very pretty."noveldrama

“Luca's pretty,” Jackson murmurs, looking away and – I suspect – hiding a blush. "I'm...good looking."

"You're super hot, Jacks" I say, wrinkling my nose at him. "And rugged. And very sexy."

Jackson tries to hide his smile and blushes a lovely raspberry red, making me laugh.

"Did you know Faiza just refers to you singularly as 'the hot one?""

"Stop, no she doesn't."

"She does!" I say, laughing. “Just like all the tabloids. I mean come on, Jacks, you're gorgeous." I grin at my mate and tug on his hand again. "So, Gabriel's lesser attractiveness aside, what are your other hesitations?"

"Well, I'm not thrilled about you still not having my mark," he says, sighing and scowling at me a bit, which just makes him...a thousand times hotter. I bite my lip, looking him up and down, tempted to throw my national duty to the wind and júst let him take me out of here. And immediately to bed.

"Oh, I'll get that mark soon enough," I sigh, knowing that I have to be good. For the sake of the nation.

"Do you want me to just...give you the mark now? Through the stupid bars?"

I wrinkle my nose and shake my head, even as my wolf leaps to her feet and turns

in frantic circles, yipping her approval of the idea. "You'd change my scent and then the ruse would be up."

"But you'd have my magic," he points out, tilting his head. "Which means you could blow the whole place up. And then there would be no need for a ruse."

I grin at him. “There are people I like in there. Benny and Pippa and Elias."

"Fine, fine," he says, leaning back on one hand as he keeps the other firmly in mine. "Then on to the true thing that's worrying me. You could die, Ariel, he says, holding my gaze quite seriously. "If this Gabriel is as unpredictable and power-hungry and violent as you say he is? He could kill you, and then...the world would lose its flame. Its entire reason for being."

My heart clenches a little at the centrality to which Jackson holds me, the idea that he thinks the universe would come to a grinding halt without me. And while I think that's ridiculous - obviously, I can't be that important - I see the true meaning beneath his words.

That he loves me, desperately. And he wants me to live a long full life at his side.

"I'm going to make it, Jacks," I whisper. "One...one more day, and then we'll go. Okay?"

Slowly, he shakes his head, hating it. Hating that he's going to give me this bargain that we both know he will, because I've asked it. "All of my

instincts are telling me to take you now. To just throw you over my shoulder like I did in that Examination and carry you home,

Ariel."

ou

I smile softly at him. "And you can do that...tomorrow."

He groans, pulling his hand from mine for the first time in hours and burying his face against his palm. "You're torture."

"And you're an angel," I whisper, meaning it, beaming at him.

"All right, tiny demon," he says, dropping his hand and pretending to glare at me. "What's your big plan?"

I bite my lip and straighten up, pressing myself against the bars. "Okay, yes, help me out with this." And then I begin, and my mate and I stay up until dawn fine- tuning a plan to end this war and get us all out alive.