“She will be.” Rhys toyed with her hair, wrapping a fat curl around his finger, unwinding it and then starting all over again. “But we knew, when she was hurt, that the rebels have gotten bold enough, or desperate enough, that they are willing to risk innocent people. That’s why Nik suddenly went medieval on you and basically decided to lock you away in a tower. He wouldn’t risk you being hurt.”
“Man, I bet I’ve got them worried sick. Damn it, I didn’t want to scare them to death. I just wanted…”
“A life?” Rhys asked gently.
“Yeah.”
Stroking his thumb across her lower lip, he said quietly, “There is nothing wrong in that, Holly. It’s past time your father realized that you’re no longer a child. But the timing of this…frankly, it sucks.”
“Tell me about it,” she muttered, her belly knotting. Shoving against his shoulders, she eased away from him to sit on the edge of the bed. “The threats against my father—did they follow through or just make idle threats?”
“They tried twice to follow through. The first time, he handled it. After I learned about it, I assigned him a guard of his own.”
Holly glanced over her shoulder at him, disbelieving. “You gave Da a bodyguard?”
“Two,” Rhys said, shrugging. “They dealt with the second attack. He wasn’t happy about it but he understands the gravity of the situation.”
“How magnanimous,” she muttered, shoving off the bed. Cool air danced in through the open window and though the kiss of air felt wonderful on her heated flesh, she had no desire to parade around naked in front of the window. She grabbed a sheet from the bed, winding it around her as she stalked across the room. “He understands? Did it ever occur to anybody that perhaps I would have understood, just a little, if somebody explained to me how serious things were? All I was told was that the renegades were getting a little more active. That’s been the case for as long as I’ve been alive. Nobody explained that this was different.”
“I should have,” Rhys said softly.
She shot him a narrow look. “I’m pissed off right now. Let me be pissed off. Hell, you weren’t the one putting me in a virtual prison.”
Lying back on his elbow, surrounded by pale ivory sheets, Rhys shrugged. “Perhaps it was your father’s orders that placed you within that prison but I knew how much you hated it. Your father can’t see it but I can. I knew the reasons why but I never bothered to explain. And I should have.”
Holly glared at him. “It’s hard to maintain a good mad when you lie there and act so understanding.” Not to mention looking so damn bitable. Wearing nothing but that long, dark gold hair and a faint grin, as if he knew just how he affected her, as if he knew that she wanted to go over there, lie down beside him and sink her teeth into the hard, muscled curve of his shoulders…his biceps…that hard, sexy mouth.
Turning on her heel, she moved to stand at the window. “Were their threats made against my mom? Bryan?”
“No. And none directly against you but it was a possibility.” His voice hardened and he added, “Actually, it still is a possibility. We’ve caught most of them but there is one in particular who still eludes us. Until he’s caught, you’re not safe here, Holly. Even though he’s made no threat against the family of the Claus, he must be getting desperate. And desperate men do incomprehensible things, precious.”
“Are men watching my mother? My brother?”
He fell silent. It was a heavy, ugly sort of silence—the crushing sort that threatened to smother her. Slowly, she turned and looked at him and the look in his eyes sent fear sliding through her veins. “My mother, Rhys?”
“She left the Reach, Holly. Shortly after you did.” In a smooth, graceful move, he rolled into a sitting position, leaning forward to brace his elbows on his knees so he could study the floor. Through the veil of his hair, he shot her a glance. “She left your father because he demanded that I find you and force you back to the Reach. Whether you wanted to return or not.”
She gave him a bitter smile. “Don’t tell me that Mom was surprised about that. She knows how Da is.”
“Yes. And she also knows you, better than you think, precious,” Rhys said gently. “He’s destroying you. You think none of us see how depressed you’ve become? I’ve seen it, your mother has, your brother. Only your father is blind to it. Leaving the way you did was the end of it as far as Chelly was concerned. He won’t listen to her, and there, nobody will dare to contradict him, not when it comes to you. I imagine it leaves her feeling rather useless.”
Baffled, she stared at him. “So she just left? What will that solve?”
Rhys shrugged. “I don’t know for sure but I suspect she wants to make sure she has his attention. He’s blind when it comes to you.”
Snorting, Holly said bitterly, “Gee, ya think?” Worry niggled in her belly as she thought of her mother. If she’d left the Reach, then she was alone somewhere out in the mortal world. Under normal circumstances, Holly wouldn’t worry about her but these weren’t normal circumstances. “Is Mom safe, Rhys? She’s human. I know she can take care of herself but what if whoever wants to hurt Da decides to go after her? She’s vulnerable.”
“Bryan promised to keep her safe,” Rhys said. “But other than Bryan, no other elf knows where she is. Being mortal, she can’t be tracked as we can. And I imagine she’s ignoring your father when he tries to link with her. I would dare say she’s safer out in the mortal world than she would be in the Reach. As long as no elf is with her.”
“Well, hell. That’s great. If Da doesn’t find her, she’s safe but they split up over me. If he does find her, then my parents might be still separated because of me and Mom could be in danger.” Grimacing, she said, “Isn’t that just perfect?”
“Your father will not risk losing your mother, Holly. He’s loved her too long. They will work this out, sooner or later.” Rhys blew out a sigh and shoved up from the bed, pushing his hair back from his face.
He had a grim look in his eyes and an unhappy set to his features. Slowly, he crossed the room to stand before her. He reached out to take her hand but there was a look on his face—as if he didn’t expect her to let him.
Without even asking, she knew what was wrong. Squeezing his fingers, Holly forced a smile. “Rhys, it’s okay. I always knew he’d find me sooner or later and make me come back.”
His mouth twisted as though he had taken a taste of something vile. “Do you think that makes it any easier for me? Knowing that you expect me to act as your jailor? It shouldn’t be like this, Holly. You deserve better…damn it all!” He jerked her against him and Holly ended up with her sheet-wrapped body pressed to his nude one as he slid his arms around her waist and held her tightly. “You’ve got him terrified, precious and I worry that he’ll do something that can’t be undone.”
That needed no explanation, either. It was a knowledge that she had lived with since she had come into her magick. She knew there were ways to trap magick inside a person, rendering it useless. A magickal castration, so to speak. It hurt, realizing her father could do that to her but she’d lived with the knowledge of that possibility long enough that she wasn’t even shocked.
Soothingly, she stroked a hand up Rhys’ shoulder, committing the feel of his body to memory—silken skin over thick, ropy muscle, strong under her fingers. Need burned inside her—a need to touch him, to feel him again as a woman who was getting ready to face a long famine, she wanted to gorge on him, take as much of him as she could before she lost him.
And she would lose him. Her father would see to it.
“It’s always surprised me that he allowed me to train with you, Rhys. I kept expecting for him to show up in my rooms and tell me that some things must be done, for my own good, of course.” Sliding him a look, she saw it lurking in the back of his eyes. Sick, she buried her face against his chest. “He’s finally going to do it, isn’t he?”
Rhys fisted a hand in her hair. “I won’t allow it, Holly. It isn’t right.
”
It warmed her heart to hear that, though she knew there was nothing Rhys could do. Nikolai wasn’t exactly a sovereign ruler who could never be contradicted but only the Council could counter his rulings. And she didn’t see them arguing with the Claus when he declared that his daughter posed a danger and she must be controlled.
Controlled!
Anger brewed inside her but she shoved it down, shoved it to the back of her mind. She wasn’t going to let it ruin whatever time she had left with Rhys. Once she got back home, this would all come to an end.
Her father wouldn’t ever allow this, not without making their lives hell. He could send Rhys away on assignment down in the farthest reaches of some desert and keep him away indefinitely. Rhys deserved better than that and Holly wouldn’t see it happen to him.
Once they left here, it was over. Skimming her fingers down his cheek, she said, “There’s not much you can do, Rhys. If he’s made up his mind, nothing can stop him. It’s not as though the Council will listen to me. Everybody assumes I’m as incompetent as he thinks I am.”
“Actually, that isn’t exactly the case, precious.” His eyes—that brilliant, vivid green—stared down into hers, full of an emotion that she didn’t quite recognize. It warmed her down to her toes, though and made all sorts of tingly sensations shoot through her belly.
“Not the case at all,” he whispered hoarsely and then he angled her head back and pressed his lips to hers. “I said that there were things I needed to tell you—explaining your father was only part of it. There is something else I wish to tell and something I wish to ask. When you give me your answer, I want you to answer from your heart, not because of your father, not because of anything but what is inside you.”
He pulled away, caught her hand and lifted it. As he kissed the back of it, her heart trembled. When he lifted it and pressed it to the muscled wall of his chest, her breath caught. It wheezed in and out of her lungs in painful hitches. Blood roared in her ears and when he spoke, it took a few minutes to understand what he had said.
“You’ve haunted my dreams these past four years, Holly,” he murmured. “I ache when I see your sadness and the few times I see you smile, all I want to do is keep that smile on your face. I want to spend the rest of our lives doing just that, making you smile. Join with me, Holly. I love you and I want us to spend the rest of our lives together.”
Oh shit. She was going to pass out. Blinking rapidly, she fought to see his face through the tears blinding her. “Rhys…” The word yes bubbled in her throat but she couldn’t say it. She couldn’t do that. Marry Rhys? It was the sort of thing that danced through her daydreams but it wasn’t something she’d ever seen happening.
It couldn’t happen.
“I know what you’re thinking, precious,” Rhys whispered. “You don’t have to say a word. I don’t want you thinking about this, I don’t want you worrying. I just want the answer that is in your heart,” he whispered, taking her face between his hands and lowering his lips to hers. “That is the only answer you need to give me.”
With a watery laugh, she said, “Rhys, this is insane. Hell, I’ve never been on a date in my life. The few times any man asked me, Da scared him away.”
A cocky grin curved his lips. “Boys, precious. He might scare boys away but he can’t scare me. Now stop thinking about him. Think about me. About us. And give me your answer.”
Chapter Seven
It wasn’t much of a change.
Just a soft thrum in the air, a faint hum that almost slid past his notice, it was so indistinct. But Lain was so attuned to the power surging through the air, when this came along, he felt it.
His blood started to hum and his perceptions sharpened. He couldn’t search—they’d feel that. Searching was an active process and if they sensed him, he’d never get close enough.
Lain could follow the power trail, though, and as long as he kept his own magick throttled down, they’d never notice him. He had managed to evade Rhys’ notice for so many years. For decades, he’d worked alongside the man, pretending to worry about the “rebellion” right along with the rest of the Council, sabotaging their attempts to locate the rebels and all along, he was smiling inside.
Lain was good as escaping notice. One of his talents was to make people see exactly what they expected to see. It was what had allowed him to operate as he had for so long. Now, he made himself rely on that ability as he drifted closer, letting his conscious self drift away from his physical body.
As he edged ever closer, following the current of magickal energy, he realized it truly was Rhys. Rhys. Next to Nikolai, Rhys was the biggest obstacle in his path. The man tracked magickal energy, one of the reasons Lain and his men had been forced to operate using such mundane methods. Mortal methods. Sabotage, spying—such secrecy it had all but driven Lain mad. Stealth had been necessary because of Rhys.
It cannot be this easy. The weeks he had spent lying low and searching and now he had unknowingly placed himself in Rhys’ path. Oh it was just too perfect.
Rid himself of Rhys and get his hands on the woman.
The woman. Who was she? There had been something oddly familiar about her but he couldn’t quite place her face. He’d seen her in the Reach, he knew he had, but he couldn’t quite remember who she was.
Abruptly, Lain forced his conscious self back into his physical body, returning with jarring speed. Opening his eyes, he stared around the room and waited for the dizziness to pass.
Glancing around the hotel room that had served as a home for the past few weeks, he made sure there was nothing here he needed. Most of his more prized possessions had been claimed by the Council when they had found his strongholds. Not as well hidden as he’d hoped and he had lost much.
Lain would get it back though and there was nothing here that he couldn’t live without. It was time to act.
Time to take the girl.
He’d have to move quickly before anybody could use farsight to track them but Lain had been preparing for this moment for weeks. He knew exactly what he had to do and he was fully ready to do it.
Rhys was an unexpected complication but he wasn’t an unwelcome one. It would work perfectly. As a Council member and as Nikolai’s sworn successor, his death would be felt. Rhys’ sudden demise would disconcert the warriors in the Reach. It would take time for them to collect themselves and Lain would use that time to do what he must with the girl.
Her death would have to be a painful one. No help for that. Separating elves from their power was akin to ripping out internal organs but without the bloody mess. He’d take that power into himself and use the imbalance to disappear. When a magicked soul died suddenly and violently, it did strange things to the environment—harsh storms, strange weather and it eradicated all magical trails in the vicinity. Without a trail and without Rhys, the warriors would falter and fail.
Like throwing a rock into a still pond, everything was disrupted. Lain could retreat and start to develop a new plan. And he wouldn’t have to continue trying to hide amongst mortals. Their life forces might muddle his presence but taking another elf’s power into himself would alter his own energy signature.
He’d be gone, free and clear, and the few trackers left within the Reach wouldn’t have the skill needed to hunt him down.
Leaving the hotel room empty-handed, he took nothing with him, hardly even noticing the mortals gathered in the halls. He followed the power currents in the air, traveling through the sprawling, noisy city until he finally zeroed in on the source of energy.
It was a hotel. Located in the heart of the French Quarter. It was big, elegant as far as human standards, but so close to the mad rush of the city that Lain couldn’t stand it.
Yet right now the presence of mortals, the noise of the city, the stink of humanity didn’t even faze him. He passed through the doors, avoiding the doormen, bypassing the front desk as he sought out the stairwell.
The little cage of an elevator was to his left but he wasn’
t that anxious to find them. Putting himself inside that wretched box would only happen if he was dead. He found the stairs and started to climb up and up, bypassing each floor without pause.
They were at the top. Lain could feel them.
Feel their presence.
A smug smile curled his lips. Rhys thought he was being so careful, so cautious.
* * * * *
She stood there, looking so stricken that Rhys would have been humiliated and angry if he hadn’t seen the look in her eyes in the heartbeats right after he’d proposed. That incredible joy and for a minute, she’d almost started to smile.
Then reality had intruded. His logical, thoughtful Holly couldn’t help but let reality intrude, he suspected. It was her nature. Cupping a hand around her neck, he bent his head low and murmured in her ear, “You’re thinking, precious. I told you, don’t think this through. Just say what is in your heart. If there was nothing else in the picture, nothing but you and me, what would you wish for, Holly? Tell me what you want, not what you think is best.” Lifting his head, he gave her a taunting grin and added, “You and I both hate to have somebody else tell us what is best for us.”
Her lips curled in a faint smile but she shook her head. “It isn’t as easy as all that.”
Rhys shook his head. When she would have argued, he cradled her face in his hand and pressed his thumb to her lower lip. “Yes, Holly, it is. I asked you a question that only you can answer. You’re of an age to wed, should you choose and nobody can interfere with that.” Crooking a brow, he added, “Not even good ol’ St. Nik.”
Sweeping his thumb across her lip, he stared down into her beautiful, worried eyes. “Tell me what you want, Holly.”
Her lashes lowered over her eyes. A sliver of fear worked its way inside his heart. She was going to say she didn’t want to marry him. Clenching his jaw, Rhys braced himself. If he had to hear her honestly say she didn’t want to marry him, it was going to ruin something inside him. But he wouldn’t give up. Holly loved him. She’d said so. And more—he could see it in her eyes, in the way she smiled at him, the way she cuddled up against him after they made love.
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