Chapter 39
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
Elijah
D evanna shifted back into her cougar form and leapt to the rafters. She looked like a tawny panther, left legs dangling over the edge of a beam. I looked out the window, watching as Kainda and Bronwen disappeared around the side of the building. Something was up with her, and I’d bet dollars to donuts her mother knew exactly what. The look she’d had on her face when she saw Kainda had been telling.
Frustrated that Kainda hadn’t wanted to talk about anything other than the battled, I’d needed to escape outside to the illusion of freedom. Then instead of finding an inner calm, she’d come outside and interrupted me with orders. My temper had snapped, and I’d lashed out, just like she’d done so often since we’d met. But then things turned again, just touching her blocked out everything else for both of us. Nothing good could ever last forever and fate proved a fickle mistress, and everything changed again.
I’d seen and felt the white glow of her magic for only a moment before she noticed. Shock had written itself all over her face when she’d seen her wrist in my grasp, with her hand alight with silvery white energy. I’m sure I’d had a similar expression when her hands flamed as she pushed me away. Her gasp at that moment still rang loud in my ears, a phantom sound in reality only barely audible.
Today had been long and exhausting, I couldn’t stay on my feet any longer, so I retreated to my sleeping bag in the corner. Watching for Bronwen and Kainda to come back inside. What felt like an hour later but couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes, Kainda walked through the door without her mother. She immediately went to check in with her team. They stopped their discussion when she sat down in their semicircle, legs crossing beneath her. Her back to me, and she didn’t look up when her mother walked in a few minutes later. Bronwen gave me a soft smile before finding her own bedroll.
At some point I dozed off because the next thing I knew Kainda snuggled in next to me. The sleeping bag barely big enough for the both of us meant our bodies pressed together from her head at my shoulder to our feet, and Kainda kept pretending she didn’t know I’d woken up.
She said we didn’t have a relationship and that she didn’t want one, but her actions didn’t match her words. Her actions said everything I needed to hear. Fear of what would happen on the battlefield consumed her, and she didn’t want to hope. Hope could be incredibly fleeting, so I couldn’t blame Kainda for refusing to give it credence.
The feelings and chemistry between us had come on fast and out of the blue. It all stemmed from the high emotional and physical stakes we faced. The close contact magic with its psychic connection had only strengthened it. I could still pick up bits and pieces of what she thought or felt, especially if it pertained to me. The sex, infused with her magic even after the initial spell had long since faded, like a heady drug that I craved with every breath.
“We’re going to make it out of this, Kainda. We have to because I’m not ready to lose you. Not by a long shot.” I whispered the words against her hair when I felt her breathing mellow into a sleeping rhythm.
Don’t make promises you can’t keep, E.
Hearing her voice in my head filled me with warmth, even if she continued to argue with me. I pulled her in close to me, making sure she was as wrapped up in me as I could get her with our clothes still on. If we made it out of this alive, we might just kill each other— with weapons or with sex was anyone’s guess— but our time together wouldn’t end with the demise of Uttu, it had only just begun.
I could still feel the phantom strokes of her magic on my skin. Everything in me still reeled from our encounter earlier. She still held something back from me, and I was determined to figure out what had scared her.
Thinking back again because I still couldn’t put it behind me. I analyzed her physical manifestation of her magical spike. The look on her face when she’d turned and seen that silver glow coming from her skin had etched itself in my mind. Her eyes widened slightly, almost happy, then flared into shock. Before I could truly register that reaction, her expression blanked, and she’d stared off into space as I called her name. Nothing seemed to jog her out of the trance.
Next thing I knew, she had her hand fisted in my hair, kissing me. I’d put money on the fact she thought it’d distract me from pushing for more information. It was getting damned annoying that her go-to instinct was to hide from me or distract me. Kainda would continue to keep trying to hide things from me and build a wall between us if I didn’t push back.
Unfortunately, now wasn’t the time to push her. After this was all over. I felt like that had become my new catchphrase. Once this was over. Ha! This might end with one or both of us dead, though I hoped for a better outcome.