Page 5 of Bound By Fire and Magic
Crescents’ eyes had unique properties, visible only to other Crescents. It made hiding emotions tricky. Speaking of…she turned away, taking a breath to strengthen her resolve. He was playing with her. He didn’t dream about her. Just like she never dreamed about him.
Finally, she met his gaze. “I dream that you go to the Guard and tell them your sister destroyed evidence connecting your father and my mom. And that you lied about not seeing it.”
The pain suffused her, her mother missing and then the revelation that she’d been seeing Kirin’s father on the sly. On top of that, Kirin’s betrayal. Her hand fisted, and the familiar heat flared in her palm. The orb was like a worry stone when it was this small, and mostly harmless.
He nodded, maybe resigned to her anger. “My father didn’t kill your mother.”
“You don’t know for sure, though, do you?”
“I’m very sure.” Kirin released a ragged breath. “What was I supposed to do? You don’t have siblings, so you can’t understand how it feels, how you stand by them no matter what.”
“I thought I did understand about having someone to stand by me.” She gave him a pointed look, hardening her heart against his stricken expression. “I was wrong.”
Elle wasn’t sure what role Stein had played in her mother’s disappearance, but the fact that they’d had a friendship struck her as inappropriate at best. Sordid in the mid-range, and dangerous at worst. Kirin hadn’t been happy about it, either. Still, he’d spent the same twenty-two hours a day she had searching for her mother.
Then she, Lyra, and Kirin had gone to their family’s bake shop to search there. In the tiny office, Lyra had found a note hidden beneath the blotter. Elle had recognized the custom pink and yellow notepaper. Before Elle could see more, Lyra crinkled it up and stuck it in the flame of the scented candle on the desk. Lyra always gave in to her Dragon’s impulsiveness, which had only been mildly annoying until that moment.
“It was a note my boyfriend left for me,” Lyra had claimed, a lie because she didn’t have a boyfriend. Besides, burning a love note was overkill.
Kirin said he hadn’t seen what was on the note, but Elle knew he’d seen something. His face had flushed, his jaw tensing as he looked at his sister in some unspoken question. She had silently pleaded for him not to give her away; at least that’s how it had appeared to Elle. Twin communication!
As the two had continued searching for clues, Elle stared at the bits of ash left on the edge of the candle. Fine, she’d use her ability to “see” it. Unfortunately, not enough of the note remained for that. She needed something tangible. She’d wanted to scream and throw things, but she clamped it all inside, shoving that, along with her trust, deep down inside.
In the end, nothing else surfaced to point the way to the truth. Both Stein and her father had lived under a shadow of suspicion, but without any evidence of foul play, the case went cold.
Elle supposed she wasn’t much different from Lyra in that she’d believed in her father’s innocence one-hundred percent. What would she have done in Lyra’s place, a pesky voice asked. Would she have offered up evidence that might have implicated him?
“I’m sorry about everything, Ellie.” Sincerity strained Kirin’s voice, bringing her back to the factory—and the shock of seeing him again.
“Elle. I’m not Ellie anymore. And ‘sorry’ doesn’t cut it. Your father probably killed my mother, your sister destroyed evidence, and you lied.” She felt the orb in her palm, like a hot marble. “Everything that mattered to me was suddenly gone.”
His gaze drifted to her hand where the glow flared out between her fingers. “Going to incinerate me, Elle?” Not that he looked the least bit worried. Damn him.
She held out her hand and let the blue orb float above her palm. “It’s tempting.” The arcs of energy inside flickered eagerly. “You took everything from me. My virginity. My heart. My trust.” Her emotions snowballed as the words shot out. “I lost all of that, my mother, and now my father too!” The orb grew as big as a basketball, and the arcs flared as her emotions and voice intensified.
She threw the orb. It hit the wall and exploded in a shower of sparks. She took several deep breaths, hating that he made her feel…so much. Still. That made her as angry at herself as she was at him.
He hadn’t moved, though the orb had passed close enough by that he must have felt the heat. He hadn’t even bothered to shift a fraction of an inch to avoid it, arrogant jerk. But he didn’t look arrogant; he looked concerned, his head tilted. “Your father’s gone?”
She replayed her words. Hell, she had said something about losing her father. “Leave, Kirin. Now.”
He walked closer instead. “Is he dead? No, Lyra would have told me if he’d died.”
Because he cared? Elle crossed her arms in front of her again, a physical shield. “He’s not dead. He’s missing.”
“Since when?”
“He hasn’t answered his phone in two days.”
Kirin ran his hand over his mouth.
“What?” she asked. “You know something, don’t you?”
He dropped his hand. “Stop spearing me with that accusatory look. My father’s also been missing for the same amount of time.”
Anger unfurled inside her. “Their disappearances have to be connected. Your father did something to mine. Now he’s in hiding?—”
He held up his hand. “Let’s not jump?—”
