Page 88 of Kai
You were never good at seduction.
“Duh.” I snorted aloud. I sucked at it.
A migraine throbbed behind my sore eyes. I’d stared at too many auras today, and now I was gonna pay for it. The headache intensified. My shoulders slumped and my knees buckled. I made it across the berth and collapsed belly down on the bed. I was tired, so tired of being me, of just… being.
Tears stung my eyes and spilled down my face. Tears! I blamed the migraine clamped around my skull. Clenching myteeth, I tried to hold the pain and the old grief inside. Cece Astor didn’t cry. Except for tonight. I couldn’t stop the stupid waterworks. I closed my eyes, sank my face into the pillow, and smothered my weeping.
A quiet rap came from the door. When I didn’t reply, it came again, this time more insistent. “Cece?” Kai’s voice drifted from the other side of the door. “Sweetheart, are you okay?”
No, but I wouldn’t admit that. “Go to sleep,” I called out. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine,” Kai said. “I didn’t include you in the meeting because I thought you were asleep.”
“Asleep, right.” He’d kept me hidden because I was wild, unpredictable, and a walking, talking asshole. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you in front of your friends.”
“You didn’t embarrass me. Javier has a big mouth, but I promise that his heart is even bigger. I can sum up the meeting for you if you’d like.”
“Maybe tomorrow,” I said.
“I’m sorry I hurt your feelings.”
“You didn’t.” Feelings were not a disease I wanted to own up to.
“How do I fix this?” Kai asked. “What can I do?”
“Go away. Leave me alone.” I added a belated, “Please?”
“If that’s what you need, then that’s what I’ll do. But I’m here for you. Anything you need. You hear me?”
“I hear you.” A sob got stuck in my throat. I didn’t know how to deal with an emotion as fragile as kindness.
“Try to get some rest,” he murmured, and then everything went quiet.
He was being nice, but nice hadn’t been what I had in mind earlier tonight. I imagined him stalking to his berth, wishing this mission would end soon. I was a proper mess. Squeezing my eyes shut, I took a few calming breaths.
The migraine ramped up. As weary as I was, sleep wasn’t my friend, had never even been a close acquaintance. My skin tightened around me, trapping me in my head, a location that meant trouble.
“Nope.” I rolled over and sat up. “You’renotfeeling sorry for yourself.”
Defying my headache, I got up, grabbed the case from the cabinet, and after returning to the bed, opened it. I sat cross-legged on the mattress and put on my glasses. I was about to take out my laptop when I noticed the square bulge poking through the liner. After unzipping the pocket, I slid out the photo box I’d taken with me on the day we escaped the lighthouse, shut the case, and put it aside.
I set the box before me. In the picture, my siblings stared at me with grins on their faces, the same smiles I’d stolen from them with my fucking plan, which ended up tearing apart those of us who survived. A trickle of tears returned to haunt me. It was going to be a long night.
“Forgive me,” I whispered, brushing my finger over Thena’s sweet smile, Missy’s toothy grin, and Affie’s defiant smirk. “I promise that if I get the chance, I’ll make it right.”
I paused my fingertip over Nix, tracing the striking lines of his face. He stood taller than the rest of us. He’d always been fit, strong, and handsome. Those sparkling blue eyes could move mountains. And his smile? It could lift my mood in a snap.
“Nix,” I murmured, caressing his face. “I miss you.”
He’d always been the only person on earth who understood me.
A weak, tentative aura trailed my fingertip. I gasped and snatched back my hand. The aura remained behind, singing a distant melody in my head, one I could barely hear, let alone recognize. Small, iridescent particles of light bubbled and coalesced around Nix’s form, flickering on and off like fireflies inthe night. Speckles of faint blacks and reds pixelated over a dim green glow. I swallowed with a croak.
It was happening again.
Even though the energy visions had been overly active tonight, I was still shocked. If auras emanated from all living things, I was, for sure, going nuts. The photo was a lifeless object, incapable of radiating energy. My brother was dead.
“Stop.” I blinked in quick succession. “You’re having a meltdown, not a brain bleed.”
