It didn’t work. I gave him a stony glare. “How far down are we?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“The heck it doesn’t! How far down did you freaking take me?”
Air. My lungs constricted tighter. I needed more air.
“Then make some,” he said, flicking a dismissive hand.
I glared at him. “I was right. I can’t trust you at all. The first chance you get, you have to show me how much more powerful you are than me. How you can control me.”
He shifted uneasily. “That is hardly what I am doing.”
How had I thought he was attractive? His middle name should be Control and his last name Freak.
He folded his arms across his massive chest. “Are you quite done?”
A flicker of light behind him caught my attention. At second glance, the room was rather spacious. Actually, I could barely see the far wall. My mind had created a hell that wasn’t really there. I nodded. “Rant over.”
“Good. We need to get to work.”
Three hours later, my skin glistened with sweat and my hair might as well have been dunked in a river. Oh that sounded good. Who knew mental exertion could drain you faster than running at full speed for hours?
Jett motioned me forward. “Again.”
My spot against the cool wall was just too good to give up at the moment. He blasted my mind with images, haunting and violent.
“Stop it!” I yelled, crouching into a ball.
“Would you rather I dig around in the compartments of your mind?” He smirked. “This seems like a good one.”
Brody’s blue eyes shimmered into view. Gah. Now he had gone too far. “Get the heck out of my head, Jett!”
His dark smirk mocked me. “Make me!”
I was so sick of hearing that. He had no right to access my thoughts or memories or embarrassing fantasies that might just have included him a time or two.
He had the nerve to smile at me. Broad and wolfish. His low tone tripped me up. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
Huh?
“You’ve just about gotten it.”
“Wait. I have?”
“Telling you would give me a hold on your mind. You have to discover this for yourself.”
Okay, so what had I been thinking before he distracted me? I glanced at his smug face, and that’s all it took. This Neanderthal needed to stay out of my head. He didn’t belong there. None of these people did. What gave them the right anyway?
The reality of the answer hit me like an anvil to the head.
I had.
I had let them in just by considering it.
Jett’s expression shifted. His skin darkened, his eyes narrowing on me as if they were a sniper’s scope. He smiled then and this time, it lit his dark eyes. “Well done, Rayla.”
My jaw fell. “Are you saying—”
“That is correct. I can no longer access your thoughts.”
Holy crow. I did it.
Well, he told me I had, but how could I be sure?
Staring at him did me no good, so I changed tactics. I glanced at my shoes and thought “Boy, I wish Jett would come over here and kiss me.” He didn’t flinch so I went further. With as much seduction as I owned, I glanced up at him then licked my lips.
He frowned at me. It was obvious he wasn’t responding to my thoughts anymore, but what if he was just trying to trick me? “Are you sure you can’t read my thoughts?”
“Don’t do that,” he whispered. “Doubt is the key to unlocking your mind. You have to have faith for this to work.”
Faith? Wow. I seemed to remember Luke telling me the same thing when he tried to show me how to manipulate water. Taylor said something about it too.
Jett touched my arm. “Are you ready to leave now?”
I snorted. Did he actually have to ask?
Oh yeah, I guess he did. I gave him a sharp nod and a smile.
I’d finally done it. Now all I had to do was keep it this way.
I slipped into my room after a night full of revelations, wondering how I could have been so wrong about Jett. Not only did he have a softer side, he had single handedly gotten a group of brownies laughing at a not so funny joke.
Turned out, Jett has an infectious laugh. It startled me the first time I heard his real one. The sound could fill a room with one note. From my experience elsewhere, fae do not pay attention to brownies. At first I thought he was trying to give me a show, but one of the brownies told me this was a weekly thing.
Even if, in the end, I didn’t want Jett as a bondmate, I sure as heck wanted him as a friend. From what I had already witnessed, he was loyal and kind. Thoughtful beyond belief, too.
At dinner, he made sure I got the first serving of everything. Afterwards, he led me into a lounge where he left me on a couch while he sat at the front of the room telling stories to the group. I had to admit—they were good, even now the last one haunted me. It was about a girl that got lost in the woods and was found by an owl that transformed into a man. The man wanted to make the girl his queen. When she refused, he turned her into a mouse then ate her. It was way scarier when he told it, but wow, this man had more sides to him than the Pentagon.
A soft knock interrupted my thoughts. I ambled over to the door—too beat to worry about a robe. The silk of my nightgown wasn’t see-through anyway.
Jett leaned against the doorframe, his intense eyes finding mine within seconds. My heart stuttered just enough to make me completely aware of him. “I—I wanted to check on you, to make sure you didn’t need anything before I retire for the evening.”
I yawned, bringing my fingers up to cover my gaping mouth. “I’m okay.”
He nodded yet lingered in the hall as if waiting for me to ask him in. Wasn’t the best or worst idea in my mind. I pulled the door open further.
“Would you like to come in for a while? I don’t have anything to offer you to drink, but I guess we could talk…” I followed his gaze down the length of my body.
Heat shot through me so fast I nearly hyperventilated. I inched the door to cover myself. Who opened a door dressed like I was anyway? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
I hadn’t noticed just how clingy my nightgown was or the chill in the air. Those two things did not a good combination make when a girl was trying to not attract a man. My face flushed, and I couldn’t meet his eyes.
“Maybe tomorrow night?” he said softly. He didn’t even laugh at me.
I nodded and shut the door. Man I was such an idiot. Jett had no desire to be my friend. That had been clear in his dark eyes just now. What was I doing? I must thrive on torture because I was getting pretty good at inflicting it on myself. How was I ever going to decide who to bond with when I kept adding men to the mix? I’d told Taylor I wasn’t going to bond with anyone, but I knew these people wouldn’t let me out of it that easily. Besides, the unmasked truth really was that I was still trying to get out of making a decision.
The next morning came too soon, especially since I waited up half the night for Mom to come to my room. As tempting as it was to go check on her at three in the morning, I didn’t want to cause her any trouble. Theran was too unpredictable. She’d assured me he wasn’t abusive, yet something nagged at me about their relationship.
I didn’t have anything better to do, so I had lain in my huge bed, letting the stars above keep company with my thoughts. Reflecting on my encounters with the lords hadn’t helped calm my mind as I had hoped it would.
They all had redeeming qualities. Each one of them could get me to laugh, make me sweat with horrible need, or just talk my ear off. I realized I was waiting for some sign to tell me who was best for me.
How was that any different than letting the council pick my bondmate? So instead of just getting angry with myself for being dumb, I made a list for every lord with a likes and a dislikes column. To my dismay, they stacked up pretty evenly. To my utter surprise, Jett led in the likes category.
Now that I had seen him around actual pe
ople, I had to admit he wasn’t that bad. If I chose him, he’d be in my face for a small eternity, but that might be nice if we could get along.
Speaking of getting along, Heath led the dislikes category because all we ever did was fight. Could I spend so much time with someone I purposely tried to make angry for the fun of it? Yet we had some wicked chemistry.
My heart sped up even thinking about him. I’d been doing that a little too much lately. I needed to stop. Every night since I left Lombarda he had starred in my dreams, and every morning, I had awoken with an ache in my soul. As far as I knew, Heath was nothing more than a scoundrel who didn’t really care about anyone or anything. At least I kept telling myself he was because if I was wrong about that, well, I didn’t want to go there.
Zach was next in line for the dislikes because I even though I’d spent more time with him that the other lords initially I didn’t know a dang thing about him. Still, he had gone through literal torture to keep me safe. That had to count for something, and it showed just how much he cared about me.
Luke was the same, but his unstable emotions scared me a bit even now. I just didn’t know if he was ready for bonding after going through what he did. The same thing applied to Zach, but he seemed to have gotten over the trauma. Luke, not so much.
And Taylor, well, he’d already closed that door as far as I was concerned.
No matter what, I would decide before we went to rescue my family. Even if I didn’t tell anyone who I picked, I had to do it for my sanity. As it was, I could now say, I liked all of them. I had to discount love because of the compulsion they had all used on me. I just needed to pay attention to the little things, because I was pretty sure the lords were equal where the big things were concerned.
A bit later I lifted my weary body up off the bed, wiping Heath’s image from my mind. This was getting more than a little ridiculous. He was stalking my dreams which had to my way of dealing with how he had spurned me at the bonding ceremony. I didn’t want to think about him anymore, besides, the too bright room made sleeping impossible. I figured it should be late enough to try to find Mom.
After a quick shower, I made my way to the dining hall. Halfway there that same strange awareness hit me. I turned, looking up and down the corridor, but nothing was there. My eyes said I was completely alone, yet my body told me I wasn’t. Without any other encouragement I stepped up my pace. I would have sworn I heard a low hiss just then, but I didn’t wait around to see if I was right.
The minute I made it to the lower level, my trepidation eased. Paranoid. I was just being paranoid again.
I inched into the room, and heavenly aroma’s beckoned me. Everywhere I looked people I didn’t know stared back. I pulled my hair forward as if it could shield me from their scrutiny.
Jett’s deep voice startled me. “Did you sleep well?”
Commanding my muscles to relax, I glanced at him. “I’m beginning to think Stalker 101 was your favorite subject in school, sneaking up on unsuspecting victims like you do.”
He laughed. “Victim?” His voice lowered to a playful pitch. “Oh, Rayla. You don’t know the meaning of the word.”
All lightness between us vanished. I whirled on him. “The next time someone takes you against your will to use you as a human incubator, come talk to me, until then, you can take your—”
Without a moment’s hesitation, he took me into his arms. His words fell out in a fevered rush. “Forgive me. I’m not very good at joking. You seem to like humor. I just want you to know me before you leave.”
Well, this was awkward. I eased away from him until his hands dropped to his sides. “It’s okay. I’m still pretty sensitive about what happened.”
“Understandably so.” He followed me soundlessly until we reached the end of the buffet table. “You failed to answer my question. Did you sleep well?”
I studied the carpet. “Not so much.”
His upper arm brushed my shoulder, sending a zing through me. “I’m sorry to hear that. With the way you worked in training yesterday, I worried I would have to come for you this morning.” After I sat down, he settled into the chair beside me. Deliciously warm fingers nudged my chin around. He sucked in a shallow breath as his eyes studied mine. “Training will be difficult today.”
I stifled my groan. All I wanted to do at the moment consisted of filling my tummy and finding Mom. “Do you know where my mom is?”
The hardness around his mouth softened. “I’m afraid I have bad news. She and Theran were delayed. She may not make it back before you leave.”
My heart sank to my toes. “Where’d they go?”
“Lombarda.”
Figured. “What are they doing there?”
“They had a council meeting.”
“Council? But I thought the king and queen...” It took me a minute, but he’d just said my mom was queen of Eldrea.
“You are correct.”
I paled. Seriously? My mom was the queen. What the heck? Shouldn’t someone have mentioned that before now? I just wasn’t quite sure how to process this information. Besides, Jett had given me an answer before I even asked the question. I gave him a stare. “Are you reading my mind again?”
His chuckle caught me off guard. “I’m afraid not. Your face, however, is a pretty clear window at times.”
Great. Now I had to worry about my facial expressions. Poker had never been my game of choice. Heck, I’d never even played a full game. I was more of a bingo gal.
His hand whispered over mine. “Not to worry. I’ll help you with that too.”
I shook my head, still not believing how wrong I had been about Jett. “Taylor wasn’t so generous.”
A secretive light lay in his gaze. “Ah, I would expect not. He prefers the upper hand.”
“But you don’t?” Hadn’t seemed that way before, then again, Mom told me she ordered Jett to do what he had. Considering she was his queen somehow made his actions easier to handle. It also explained the complications he had mentioned in Ignis. Stealing the heart of the queen probably wouldn’t go over very well.
“I prefer equal ground, Rayla. I’m not always able to approach from that level, but it is where I like to be.”
Me too. If we had met under normal circumstances, would he have tried to woo me instead of compel me? The thought was nice even if the reality had been much different. From what I had already seen from Jett, I was certain he was a charmer at heart. “I wish…” I stopped myself. Was this wise? Should I open up to him so freely?
His concerned eyes swept over me. “Tell me what you desire, and I will make it happen.”
I laughed, remembering the first thing he told me. I am Jett, your deepest desire. Anything you want I will give you. “You make some pretty strong promises, Jett.”
The corners of his mouth turned up. “Give me a wish; I will be your genie.”
I grinned. Stupid as it was, temptation to see just what Jett could do slithered around in my mind. “Okay, big talker, I want to see my family.”
He took in a sharp breath, his eyes alight with concern. “Are you sure you truly want such a thing?”
My pulse kicked up. Was I sure? Could I see them and not help them?
Relief thickened his voice. “Why don’t you think of something that doesn’t have the capability to turn into a disaster?”
I bit my lip then nodded. I had never cared about money. I just wanted to not have to think about it too much. “What are my options?”
“Anything, but know this: all wishes come with a consequence.”
“Ooh, going all Aladdin on me are you?”
He smirked. “You have no idea.”
I took that as a challenge. “Okay. Something without consequence. Shouldn’t be too hard.”
I got a sardonic raise of the eyebrows. Another dare.
Since we were talking about wishes here…
“Paris,” I said. “I want to see the Louvre.”
He pushed his chair back and pulled me up in one fl
awless motion. When he released me, he bowed low. “Your wish—”
I laughed. “I know that part already.”
The air grew as thick as the anticipation in my belly. Could this be real? When he took my hand, it sure felt like it.
Chapter Seven
Honking, whistling, chatter, and something not quite right in the air battled for my attention. The buzz won.
So many people. Everywhere. Crowding. Laughing. I didn’t mind that so much, but the constant hum hammered on my head. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath.
Jett leaned his big body against my back as his arms encircled me. His lips brushed my ear, making me shiver. “What is the matter, my lady?”
Had he mentioned something about consequences? I wasn’t about to relent. For an instant I considered how nice it would be right now if he could read my mind. I shook off the thought before it fully formed. “It’s nothing really. I’m just not used to this kind of crowd.”
The expanse of courtyard was barely half full, yet the people took up so much space I might as well have been sandwiched between Frick and Frack again. I tried to control my pounding heart, but I would have been more successful if I could have cleared the area.
Jett squeezed my elbow. “Do you wish to continue? We could come back, some oth—”
“No! Really, I’m fine. I just need a minute.” I let my eyes travel the length of this part of the building then on to the other wings. I could spend days just studying the statues carved into the edifice. When I had my fill, I faced him. “Okay. I’m ready to see more.”
No one turned to look at us when we cut in line to descend the escalator. Relief pulsated through me. All I had to do was imagine these people weren’t here. I let Jett be my eyes as I studied the paintings and sculptures. When he finally stopped, I nearly ran into him.
“Sorry,” I said, then all thought left me. There she was. The Mona Lisa.
Girl knew how to smirk. I hadn’t meant for my voice to come out whiny, but there it was. “It’s so small.”
Jett turned and grabbed my hand. Without a word he transported me beyond the barricade, past the sea of people. She was still covered by a wall of glass, but somehow I didn’t mind from this distance. Here was the painting that had inspired me to want to become a painter. Tears pushed against my eyes, blurring my view. I swiped them away. Time stopped altogether. Voices disappeared. It was just her and me connecting despite the distance and time between us. It was clear to me why da Vinci had chosen her. Mischief, mystery, and something unknown called out from the canvas.
Genesis Page 10
