Page 81 of A Winding Wave of Magic
I licked my lips as if trying to taste the energy again, remember that flash, the brief surge ofsomething. Then I got up and paced around the couch and into the kitchen for want of something to do other than stare at him.
My fingers brushed over the counter, and there it was again.
A current, fine and subtle. Cold as ice and sharp like a razor, cutting into my soul—into my grandmother’s soul—like a blade. And draining her dry.
The shadow.
It was also completely familiar.
My head jerked toward Jonathan, who was now peering out the French doors toward the ocean. “Whoareyou?”
Jonathan stopped his mumbling. He rubbed his fingers over the cedar trim but didn’t look up. “What do you mean?”
“You—your energy. It’s the same, the same as the shadowed man. Penny’s killer.”
For a second or two, he was a statue, not even moving to breathe. Then he looked up, and those green eyes pinned me into place as he started toward me, so very slowly. Or maybe he was walking toward the exit. “No, Cass, you’re confused. I’m sorry, I truly didn’t mean for you to get the wrong idea. I should be go?—”
He edged around the sofa, and I followed him toward the door on the other side of the counter, matching him step for step. Before he made it to the foyer, I lunged out for his hand.
But he jumped out of reach, back toward the kitchen.
“Just give it,” I ordered. “I’m not going to dig around or try to kiss you again. I want to show you.”
Jonathan’s eyes narrowed as we started to circle the couch. “Show me what?”
I just stretched my fingers over the top, fighting not to recoil at the low growl in his voice. There was another current of fear thrumming through me—mine this time. It wasn’t a conscious fear, at least not until I had made the kind of connection I did between Jonathan and Gran’s killer. No, it was instinctual, the kind that comes in the presence of a predator.
Was I Jonathan’s prey? Was Gran his prey?
I shuddered. Jonathan acknowledged the subtle movement with an equally minor tilt of his head. Slowly, he extended his hand across the couch to me. I tried not to imagine his fingers as claws.
“All right,” he said. “Show me. If you can.”
I touched my fingertips to his. Instead of allowing his thoughts and feelings to flow through me, this time I willed mine into his body and ignored the pulses of his system launching into fight or flight mode. If I was going to figure this out, I needed him to understand.
I opened up my memory of Gran’s asphyxiation and likened it to his energy.
It was easier than at the restaurant. The first time, it was a struggle, trying to let someone in that way. But now it was as if a door had already been opened, and all I had to do was walk through it. Yes, he was able to learn some of my secrets—whatever he thought they were. But right now, maybe I could sneak a look at his impressions and get to the bottom of this before he could lie again.
But as soon as the brief memory emerged, he withdrew his hand. Though not before I confirmed what I had originally thought—something in his energy and the memory’s energy matched.
“Thanks,” he said stiffly. “I see what you mean.”
I glared at him. “You’re not just an innocent, sometimes attorney, sometimes physicist in all of this. You’ve got about five seconds to come clean, or you’renotgoing to like what I’ll do to you.”
Jonathan’s face had turned several shades whiter after seeing the connection with the shadow. His voice, however, was suddenly full of menace, soft and low. “Is that a threat, Cassandra?”
The sound of my full name in that tone sent a chill down my spine. I willed my voice not to shake but failed miserably. “It’s a promise.”
His shoulders slumped. All signs of menace evaporated. “About bloody time.”
I frowned. “Come again?”
“Penny wondered if there was enough fight in you for this. I’m glad to see there is.” He sighed. “It’s not what you think. You can still trust me.”
I grabbed the back of the couch, and for a split second, a memory of Gran looking at me from the same position when I lied to her about sneaking off the surf floated into my mind. I released my hold. “Just tell me the truth. That kind of energy match is the kind connected through kin. Are you related to that—that monster?”
Jonathan rubbed a hand over his face and up into his hair, making it stick up on one side. “I can’t say for sure because the memory is rather opaque. You didn’t See his face or hear his voice clearly. But…it’s likely that’s…I mean, I suspect that…”
