Page 6 of Bound By Fire and Magic
“That’s what it has to be. Both men go missing at the same time? Come on. You can’t ignore that, too.”
His upper lip lifted in a snarl. “I’m not ignoring anything. Yes, it’s too much of a coincidence to mean nothing. But if my father did something to your father, why would he disappear? If he killed your mother, as you believe, he didn’t run then. Why run now?” He crossed his arms over his chest, mirroring her defensive posture. “Maybe your father did something to mine.”
“You’re crazy! My father would never hurt anyone, even as much as he hated Stein.”
Except he’d had that determined glint in his eyes. Her fear was suicide, but no, he wouldn’t do that to her. Except she knew that sometimes people committed suicide in a misguided belief that their loved ones would be better off without them.
No, she would not believe that. She abhorred thinking he would do something to Stein, but the idea had planted itself, roots digging insidiously into her brain. It had scared her, that look of his, that sense of purpose.
“Sucks to doubt, doesn’t it?” Kirin asked, and she wanted to punch him.
Instead, she grabbed onto his subtext. “Does that mean you doubt your father’s innocence?”
His expression shuttered. “I didn’t say that.”
“But you did, in a way. Tell me, Kirin.”
He met her gaze, his eyes clear. “I don’t think he harmed your mother.”
“But he knew something, didn’t he, about her disappearance?”
“Sometimes I wonder if he helped her to run away. I know it’s awful to think a mother would cut ties to her daughter, but she did it with her clan. She turned away from them, turned away from her Dragon, to marry your father. Did she ever tell you why?”
“You have no right to suggest she’d abandon us without even a note. She was an obsessive note writer.” Elle tucked the journal cover tight against her chest. As much as she hated to admit it, she’d considered that possibility, too. Maybe denying her Dragon had finally overwhelmed her mother. She knew from Kirin that they were demanding, surly beasts at times. “I want you to leave,” she said quietly.
Rather than acknowledge her firm directive, he glanced around the space. “Huff’s been coming here, hasn’t he?”
“Good-bye, Kirin.”
The finality of that phrase seemed to catch his attention. He met her gaze for a moment and saw the resolve she tried hard to put in her eyes. With a nod, he grabbed up his shoes and socks and walked to the door. A slash of sunlight spilled in when he opened it. “You shouldn’t be here alone. There’s a presence here. Have you felt it?”
His words prickled up the back of her neck, and she rubbed it. “I felt something. I wondered if it was some kind of Elemental. Or maybe a demon.”
“Not the right kind of energy for either. I’ve never felt anything like this before. Whatever it is, it’s masking itself. I’m not leaving until you do.”
“Don’t. Don’t stand there and pretend you’re someone I can count on.” She scanned the dark warehouse. And, um, don’t leave without me.
She heard his exhale, turning to see the dark red glow in his eyes. “Ellie—Elle, I know I hurt you. You hurt me, too, when you broke things off because your father didn’t like what I am. But the past is over. All I care about is right now. Two men are missing. There’s a sinister presence here. You can hate me all you want, but I’m not going without you.”
She released a breath too, acknowledging the relief coursing through her. “I was leaving anyway.”
After they’d left the building, she turned the key in the front door’s lock, trying hard to keep her eyes on her task and not him. Her mouth tightened on words that wanted to come out. Okay, she’d say them, then be done with it.
She turned to him. “I don’t hate you. But I will never love you again. Or like you.” She pressed the key hard into her palm until the edges bit her skin.
His face tightened with pain. “I’d rather you hate me.”
She furrowed her eyebrows. “What?”
He moved closer. “I’d rather see that fire in your eyes when you look at me than nothing. And I do see that fire, Elle.” He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek, then let his hand drop. “I’m going to pull around front and wait for you to leave.”
She watched him wade through the grass to where he’d obviously parked his car. He walked with the grace of a man comfortable in his skin, even if that skin sometimes had scales. He didn’t glance back, even as he disappeared around the corner. Thank God, since he would have caught her watching.
Like an idiot.
A gust of wind puffed at her ear, feeling eerily like a breath. She spun, rubbing the chills from her neck. No weed or pine needle moved in a breeze. Yet she felt it again, more like…an inhalation. She jumped into her car and left.
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