Page 58 of Lunar Diamonds
“It’s okay,” he whispered, his voice a balm to my fear. “Hold onto me.”
I did as he asked, my cold hand connecting with his warmth. Sparks nipped my skin as he closed his fingers around me, yanking me forward.
Within a flash of a second, I stood in the kitchen. The kitchen with no steel and cold water, gasping for air, my senses scrambled.
Dry. Warm. Standing under working lights.
“What…what…” Speech failed me, my chest on fire.
“It’s okay,” Riley soothed. “You’re safe.”
His face served as a port in a storm. I locked onto it, catching my breath, realigning my equilibrium.
“I used my power,” he said, still holding my hand.
As I came back online, my heart rate returning to normal, I noticed Zara and her minions on the floor. Shivering and unconscious.
I drew in some pacifying breaths. Chaos still sounded around the mansion. This was no time to sit on our behinds. But I thanked Riley anyway.
“You’re welcome,” he answered sweetly. “But we can’t stay here. I need to get upstairs.”
I rubbed my neck. He trusted me to go with him?
“This way.”
He took me through a door into a narrow corridor with exposed lightbulbs and gray stone walls.
Riley closed the door behind us. Seconds later, footsteps hurried past, a woman calling Zara’s name.
“I need a moment,” he said, slightly breathless. “I can’t believe I just did that.” There were twinkles in his eyes. Gleeful ones. “I actually created an illusion.”
I listened, the sound of his voice as pleasant as warm cocoa with all the trimmings.
“I couldn’t let those shadow witches touch you. I just couldn’t.” He chewed on his bottom lip, his nerves practically radiating from him as heat waves. “I know I should be angry at you, but I feel like that’s already in the past. You know?”
“I’m sorry,” I replied weakly, unnerved by the possibilities of his power, and stunned by his lack of fury.
He should probably hate me more, not be this adorable as he spoke.
“You brought me to this mansion to keep me safe,” he said. “Not to hurt me.”
“And to bargain,” I countered. This wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. My goals were still awaiting discussion.
He kept chewing his lip, his eyes hypnotic. Beads of sweat glistened on his forehead, everything about him whispering to my desire.
“The illusion,” he said. “It just happened. I started thinking about water and steel and… Let’s not talk about this.”
He looked ready to throw up. “Alright.”
“There’s a grimoire upstairs,” he said. “I have to get to it. Wait. I need Isaac.”
I followed him along the corridor until he stopped beside a sleeping Aaron.
“He’s not here.”
Pounding sounded from above, followed by the roar of a man.
He looked up. “What if he’s hurt?”
