Free Smoke and Fire: Part 3 by Donna Grant

we’ll have no choice, leaving us only one option—showing ourselves to the world,” Con stated.
    Kinsey swallowed before she nodded. “How long do you think the Kings will remain on Dreagan unable to shift or fly? I see Ryder looking out the window to the sky all the time. Same with Thorn and Dmitri. They don’t even know they do it. There is a longing within them, a yearning they’re having to control.”
    “They’ve no’ had to control that yearning in a very long time.” Con blew out a breath. “Aye, Kinsey, I’ve seen what you’ve seen. Your worry is one of my own.”
    A slight frown lined Ryder’s brow. “We’re all doing fine. We’ve been in this situation before. We’ll get through this one.”
    “This isna like before,” Con said. “And I know none of you are fine. The episode this morning proved that.”
    Episode? Kinsey saw the look pass between Con and Ryder. Something had happened involving Ryder. She wanted—no, she needed —to know what it was.
    “This isna the time for this conversation,” Ryder said, his voice pitching low in warning to Con.
    If Kinsey waited, chances are Ryder wouldn’t tell her what had happened. Now, with Con, she might have an ally. “Since you and Con know what occurred, it’s me who you don’t want to find out.”
    “Kins,” Ryder began before he blew out a breath. “It’s nothing.”
    “Then tell me,” she pleaded. She wasn’t sure how she knew that it was important. Maybe it was the way Con spoke about it or how Ryder wanted to quickly discard any mention of it.
    It might have been three years since she and Ryder were together, but she realized he was still very much the same man she remembered. Whenever he didn’t want to talk about something, he pretended it didn’t matter.
    “You used to do this,” she said. “Whenever I’d ask about your family or your past, you would pretend that it was no big deal and change the subject. Remember the times I caught you staring at the night sky? I’d ask what was wrong. You would tell me you were just fine. But you weren’t. Just as you aren’t now.”
    Ryder briefly closed his eyes. “All of us go to the mountain to shift from time to time. We need to feel our true forms.”
    “Do you go every morning?”
    He shook his head.
    But this morning, after a night in her bed when she said she wasn’t sure if she could forgive him? Did she send him to the mountain? Did her words cut him that deep?
    She could barely draw in a breath at the thought. Kinsey didn’t want to hurt him. One night in his arms and everything changed.
    No, that wasn’t true. She’d always been in love with him. Her anger had carried her through the last three years, but as soon as she saw him, she was his once more. She just hadn’t been able to admit it.
    Until now.
    “Things aren’t all right, Ryder,” she said and walked to him. She put her hand on his chest, over his heart. “You and the other Kings have been in control for a long time, but Ulrik has changed the game. It’s okay to admit it.”
    Ryder’s gold, green, and blue eyes held hers. “Nay, it’s no’ all right to admit.”
    “You can’t tackle a problem properly without at first admitting there is a problem.”
    “We all know who the problem is. Ulrik. The Dark,” Ryder stated angrily.
    “And your problem? What’s bothering you?”
    He made a face. “I doona have a problem.”
    “We all have problems. You’re a Dragon King. You can admit your problem.”
    Ryder started to turn away, then stopped. “You! You, Kinsey Burns, are my problem. Because I can no’ have you.”

Chapter Thirty-three
    Kinsey had feared she was what bothered Ryder, but to hear it from his lips. And the way he said it—as if admitting it was the last thing he wanted to do.
    The longing in his voice nearly broke her. She stared into his hazel eyes and melted. With thirteen simple words, he blasted his way through the walls around her heart.
    And it scared her as nothing else