Page 37 of Tamhas

“We’ll have to take that chance,” I decided.

“What?” He turned to me, eyes wide. “What are you saying? You’re willing to take a chance like this?”

“Yes. I won’t let you make this sort of sacrifice for me. It’s too dangerous, and you’d be turning your back on your entire clan.” I glanced at Ainsley and Klaus with an apologetic smile. “He didn’t give me a chance to argue with him.”

“He wouldn’t, would he?” Ainsley asked.

“Keira. You can’t mean this. Please.” Tamhas touched my face. “Please. Don’t ask me to sit back and accept what Alan wants to do to you.”

“There’s no guarantee that he will,” I reminded him. “I can promise you I have nothing to do with any covens or priestesses. My mother might have, or her great-great-great-great grandmother or somebody, but not me. Do you believe me?”

“Of course.”

“Well, then. I won’t let you separate yourself from your clan on my account. Don’t argue me on this.”

He shook his head, closing his eyes as he did. “I cannot handle this. I simply can’t.”

“I couldn’t bear knowing I was the reason you broke off with the clan. One of us has to be the strong one. I guess it’ll have to be you.”

Klaus stepped up. “I’ll take the key to the cells, please.”

“Don’t do this, Klaus,” Tamhas murmured.

“It’s for the best. This way, none of the others can even accuse you of trying to break her out. It isn’t that I don’t trust you. It’s that there are so many others who like to whisper and question and fear.”

Ainsley stepped up next to him. “That’s what it’s all about. Fear. Not mistrust. They’re just afraid. Like all of us, really.” She looked at me. “Did he tell you what happened? The reason he was away for so long?”

“I didn’t,” Tamhas replied in a tight voice.

“I’m sure he will,” she continued, still looking at me. “And I think you’ll understand.”

“In the meantime,” Klaus said, extending an arm in the direction of the tunnel. “We really should get back before the alarm sounds. Things will only get worse from there.”

“I won’t leave her in there. In a cell, all alone. She’s not a prisoner, not a far as I’m concerned.”

“What do you intend to do?” Klaus sighed. He was beyond exasperation by then. I wondered how he ended up with the scars down the side of his face. He obviously wasn’t human—a human man wouldn’t stand up to a dragon the way Klaus had, and he was much bigger than any human male I’d ever known.

“I’ll be in there with her.”

“Come on,” Ainsley muttered, folding her arms and looking away. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I won’t leave her alone in there. If she has to stay with us and she has to stay in the cell—”

“I won’t leave you in a cell,” Alan said as he walked toward us from inside the cave.

I froze. Damn, damn, we waited too long. I was as good as done for. He’d kill me for trying to escape, and he might even kill Tamhas.

“I’ll do what I feel is right,” Tamhas muttered. He didn’t miss a beat, like seeing Alan standing there didn’t bother him one bit. Like he had expected us to be followed.

I felt more and more like I was in an episode of The Twilight Zone every fricking minute.

“It wouldn’t be right for you to live in a cell, like some sort of prisoner.” He stood in front of us with his arms folded. They were so thick. They could squeeze the life out of a person without hardly trying. The men I trained with would’ve killed for half his strength.

He could make a mint if he made training videos. Nobody needed to know he didn’t come across his build naturally.

“I won’t leave her in there like she’s a prisoner. Some sort of criminal. She didn’t come here with any ill will toward us. She didn’t know what she was getting into at all.”

Alan sighed. “I wish I knew that was the truth. But the fact is, regardless, I can’t have her running around the place freely. She found us. She’s a danger to us, no matter the reason why she’s here. Besides, if she could find us, anyone can.”

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