Page 36 of Poison Sun

“Damien doesn’t know.”

“You didn’t tell him.”

“I couldn’t,” I say, and the truth pours out of me in an instant. “Remember, he won’t let me help fight the shadow souls. I have no choice but to go back to the Fairmont each night. What do you think he’ll do if he finds out my magic is weakening? Lock me in there around the clock until he figures out how to fix it?”

I wouldn’t put it past him.

Maybe it’s one of the reasons I’m avoiding telling him.

“We certainly couldn’t have that.” Lucas says. “Could we?”

“No.” I keep my gaze fixed on his. “We couldn’t.”

“You’ll come with me,” he decides in a heartbeat. “You’ll join my clan, and I’ll protect you from Damien’s clutches.”

Lucas isn’t thinking clearly. The lustberry is distorting his emotions—making him desperate to keep me close.

If he was thinking clearly, he wouldn’t want me anywhere near him at night. Not when the shadow souls can find me so easily and put his entire clan at risk.

Luckily, he’s obviously not thinking clearly.

“Are you sure?” My voice is soft, and I pray this is truly working. That the lustberry is affecting Lucas so much that he’s willing to risk everything.

“I’m sure,” he says.

I give him a few seconds, waiting to see if he’ll take it back.

He doesn’t.

“Thank you, Lucas,” I finally say. “This means a lot to me.”

“I protect my own,” he says. “And you, Amber, are now one of my own. Always.”

I’ll never be one of your own, I think, but I keep my thoughts to myself and off my face. One single flinch, and the game could be lost.

“Take me back now,” I say—no, more like beg. “Before any of them can find me. Please.”

“Let’s go.” He pulls me up from the bench, hurrying as he leads me out of the park.

He doesn’t ask for my phone, or search for any tracking devices I might have hidden on me.

He believes my story that much.

We had backup plans, but Lucas’s desperation for love—and grief over the woman who reminds him of me—is making this ridiculously easy.

As we move out of the park, I reach for the duskberry bond, since Damien’s stationed in a building close enough that I can reach him. And while I can’t communicate words through the bond, I can share feelings.

Relief. Success. Urgency.

His emotions come to me immediately.

Urgency as well. Unsurprisingly, concern. And a determination so strong that it nearly knocks me off my feet.

“All okay?” Lucas asks me.

“Just nerves,” I answer honestly. “I’ll feel a lot better when we’re back.”

“As you should.”

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