Chapter Thirty-Four
Nicole
IT WAS NEAR MIDNIGHT WHEN KYAN RETURNED.
Night sprawled through the city and still drizzled with rain. The candles had pooled low, their flames fluttering drowsily. Nicole’s father had been camped out with her in Kyan’s study until about half an hour ago, his glasses perched low on his nose as he read passages she’d marked.
But Nicole was alone when Kyan shouldered into the study, looking serious and dangerous in all black. When his eyes homed in on her, she felt that connection as a rush of heat and a spike of relief.
He’d only been gone a few hours, but the sight of him soothed her tense shoulders.
She allowed her senses to open fully again, hearing Bells stir a sleep-inducing tea in her bedroom; Remi begin the soft strains of a harp song.
She knew her father and Dylan were on the roof talking, but they were outside the bounds of the soundproofed house, so she couldn’t hear them.
All was well.
She tried to relax further. ‘Hey.’
‘I thought you’d still be up,’ he said, rain glittering in his dark hair, a flicker of a smile on his lips.
She felt her own tug up in response. ‘How did it go? Anything?’
His chest expanded with a deep breath, the T-shirt protesting. ‘Yeah. The Druid’s Irish, I could feel it in the magic.’
‘How do you feel about that?’ she asked softly.
He looked around, as if uncertain. ‘I don’t know.’
Nicole’s heart ached at that lost look on his face.
She toed the chair on her left closer to him and Kyan sank into it. The wide arc of his shoulders drooped and his thighs spread, as if he’d kept up the stoic facade as long as possible.
Tentatively, she stroked his knee, finding thick muscle and the shape of the bone; heat, even through his jeans. He shivered, his fingers closing over hers – rough but startlingly warm, the touch lacing her with awareness.
His eyes locked on hers, simmering with so much emotion. Tiredness. A flicker of haunted green. And—
Yearning.
Nicole swallowed, squeezed softly. ‘Kyan … maybe you should come with us. I don’t want you to go back to the Wake now they’ve given you the mission to hunt me.’ That was an understatement. The idea was going to keep her up tonight. ‘You can come with us and we’ll hide together.’
The solemn knowledge in his eyes turned her skin clammy. ‘They’ll hunt us down, mo gh—’ He cut himself off, and she struggled to figure out what he’d been about to say.
Instead, she scooted closer, squeezing his hand. She soaked in the width of his knuckles, the veins trailing up to his forearms, the reassurance of his capable fingers.
‘I’ll fight them,’ she whispered. ‘We’ve been off their radar before. We can do it again.’
The worry in his eyes transformed into affection. He brought her hand up to his mouth and brushed his lips across her fingers. ‘I know. But I don’t want you or your family getting hurt.’
If that was the case, then she just needed to figure all of this out faster. It was all she could do. But it didn’t stop her wanting to pull out her hair.
She wanted to help, to keep him safe, to fix this.
Instead, she’d been playing with this damn mystery all night with no success.
‘Remi and I are going to try Manchester Gallery tomorrow. I’ll find something, okay?’
He smiled. ‘I have no doubt. Callum’s already asked Luca to be on stand-by for you in case the museum lead is promising. He can wipe any footage.’
‘All right, that’ll make things easier. I’ll find something.
Look.’ With her free hand she dragged a second-hand laptop closer.
‘I googled glass flowers, but the only ones I could find are in the US, and I don’t think the clue would take us so far away from the Muse if she’s the one that’s supposed to give us something in return. ’
‘I agree.’ His brow furrowed in thought, as he stroked the graphite on the crescent of her hand, the touch light and tickling.
Her head tilted. ‘Is that … my hair tie?’
His attention shot down to the band around his wrist. Before he could move, she ran her finger beneath it. Realising how tight it was, Nicole stroked the skin, soothing it.
Kyan shuddered, his jaw tight.
That slumbering warmth inside her began to spiral outwards.
‘You kept this?’ she whispered.
‘Maybe it was a little reckless. But it – it smelled like you. It reminded me of everything.’
Everything. Including that last night when he’d told her, ‘I’ll have to give you something else to remember.’
The memories had kept her intimate – and sometimes incessant – company in the months they’d been apart. She’d find herself staring off, lost in the ghost sensation of his kiss, or plagued with an almost feral desire that filled her mind with images so erotic she near scandalised herself.
She hadn’t just been awakened supernaturally in Estwood.
The feelings returned now in the slow, hot tide she’d tried so hard to keep at bay.
It wasn’t helped by the fact she was sitting in a room that was proof of his goodness: the gifted items he kept from creatures who’d been grateful to have been saved by him, or pieces of his past so he could be reminded why he did what he did.
And the reminder of everything he’d done for her after her transformation.
How he hadn’t raged against her when he learned the truth, but he saw her, heard her.
Was probably the only being that could understand her.
And now he was harbouring them in his townhouse and betraying the Wake.
Risking himself.
That thought cut through everything else and sent a little defensive part of her rearranging the blocks around her heart.
‘I’ve been thinking about a contingency plan,’ Kyan said, ‘to make sure the Wake don’t think I’m stalling on purpose, but it’s … unusual. We don’t have to do it if you’re not comfortable.’
‘Tell me.’
He paused, only for a searing moment. ‘I hunt you.’
Her stomach clutched with a complicated reaction. Confusion. Intrigue. Almost … excitement? ‘W-what?’
‘It would be fake. We’d stage a run-through somewhere I know the Wake have eyes or cameras, and you’d escape me. I could use it to buy us more time and claim your awareness of me made you harder to find again.’
She scanned all the honed, immortal bulk of him that, if they went with this plan, would get so much closer. But it meant she would also see another side to him in the process.
The tracker.
The hunter.
‘I think it could work,’ she said, swallowing around a newly dry mouth, her pulse skipping slightly. ‘We’ll have to let the others know so they’re not worried, but I think it’s a good idea. If you think it’ll be convincing?’
He nodded, his chest caving with a released breath. ‘All right. But you – you’re okay with it? I don’t want you to be scared.’
Her lips curved up. ‘I’ll be fine. Besides, it’s you. And, I—’ She didn’t even know what to add. These new parameters of their closeness were still unclear. How close was she allowed to get? How much more was she allowed to say? ‘—I trust you.’
If it was possible, his eyes both softened and darkened.
‘There’s something else I want to try,’ he said.
Kyan reached below the table, bringing his face closer to hers, and Nicole nearly jumped when his knuckles brushed the outside of her thigh. Heat lanced up her leg, but he wrapped his hand around the edge of the seat and tugged her closer.
‘I want to see if you can Influence me. Some powerful Empyreals can Influence others, and it might be a tool you could use, in case …’
In case something goes wrong.
Her chest tightened.
Her mother could Influence other Empyreals. With her own unusual combination of Seer and Empyreal abilities, perhaps she could, too.
‘Can you?’ Nicole asked.
‘I’ve managed it. But I haven’t tested it like your mother would have.
There are a few factors to it. The mental fortitude of the Empyreal you’re Influencing is important.
How susceptible they are, and how much they want to do what you’re telling them.
How much older another Empyreal is. But most often it doesn’t work on our kind at all, which is why your mother was such an exception. ’
Her mother was an exception at everything. How lonely that must have been, for so long. And when she finally found a home, she was—
Nicole swallowed.
‘Can Callum do it?’
Kyan chuckled. ‘Callum can get anyone to do anything, but he keeps that skill very secret. Sometimes I don’t know if it’s just natural charm, or Influence.’
A thoughtful sound stirred at the back of her throat. ‘How old is Callum?’
‘I have no idea. Older than me.’
‘Is there a special way to do it?’
Kyan shook his head. ‘Not that I know of.’
Suddenly she was nervous. ‘You want me to try right now?’
A slight smile pulled at his mouth, eyes glittering. ‘Sure.’
It was more than unlikely she could do it, but the tiny competitive side of her was stoked by the challenge. She looked around for something to say.
When her eyes locked back on his, they had taken on his invitation, and it sent a thrill through her blood that he seemed … affected by it.
Her throat warmed and she lowered her chin slightly. ‘Pick up that pencil.’
Her voice developed a smooth, almost seductive quality.
She watched with fascination as his eyes dilated. Her Empyreal perked up, as interested as she was by the effect her tone had on him. He liked it. The wall of his body, like a field of simmering heat and suppressed power, tensed. His breath halted in his strong throat.
He hadn’t heard her use her Influence before. It was the side of her that she’d often suppressed. The more confident side. The huntress who was more flirtatious, who was more powerful, who allowed herself to use the power that she’d been taught to tamp down.
It was followed by the freeing realisation that she could be this way with him. She could embrace it all.
But despite his reaction to her voice, he didn’t move.
Nicole didn’t realise she’d pursed her lips in disappointment until his turned up again.
So she leaned closer.
‘Pick it up,’ she tried again. Softly, intently.