The Curse (Belador #3)(17)

Evalle clammed up, staring at him for a long time before she asked, “How did she know which human?”

Any attempt at maneuvering around her questions would only guarantee a worse reaction once she knew everything. “While I lay dying, I went to her in spirit form and told her I needed help and who she could trust not to kill me while I was vulnerable.”

Disappointment in Evalle’s eyes sank his heart.

Storm hurried to reassure her. “I sent her to you first, but she told me later that your spirit had been blocked from her.”

Her face relaxed at that news. “No, you’re right. I must have been in the VIPER holding cell under the mountain where no one could reach me. Who did help you?”

He debated on his answer, sure that the edge of anxiety wafting off Evalle now would only turn into roaring anger. “I want you to understand—”

“Just spit it out, Storm,” she said, not a lick of patience in her words.

“Adrianna.”

Realization hit Evalle first, followed close behind by fury. “You told your guardian to fetch that Sterling witch?”

He waited for the second part to hit Evalle, whose brilliant mind would process it right about now …

“And you spent three weeks with Adrianna? Alone?”





SIX




Evalle curled the fingers on one hand, seething.

The whole time she’d been sick with worry over Storm, he’d been with that Sterling witch.

Adrianna. A witch who practiced dark arts, oozed sexuality with every move, and had a voice like an erotic kitten.

She’d spent weeks with Storm. Alone.

And hadn’t said a word to Evalle.

That … witch!

Tall and foreboding, Storm stood quiet as a night sentinel watching Evalle, and obviously waiting on the tempest to roll in. But he didn’t run from it.

She refused to let him know how much it hurt to find out the whole time she’d been trying to convince herself he wasn’t dead that Adrianna had been nursing him back to health.

Nursing all parts of his body.

“Evalle.”

She answered him with a glare.

“Why are you angry?”

“I’m not.”

Storm raised one eyebrow. That’s right. She’d just tried to lie to a walking lie detector. She couldn’t help it. Her heart burst with crazy relief that he was safe and still alive, but hearing about Adrianna felt like having a baseball bat slammed into her chest. And her heart. It blindsided her.

She’d never been in a relationship before—wasn’t even sure she was in one now. What determined if you were in a relationship or not? She didn’t know and was floundering trying to decide if she had any right to be hurt.

Maybe this wasn’t that kind of relationship.

Not if Storm trusted Adrianna as much as he trusted her, because in the past he’d called Adrianna only a friend.

Storm sighed, a deep, husky sound. “There is nothing going on between me and Adrianna.”

“Really? But she’s on the short go-to list for your spirit emergency line?”

“She was the only person I could trust, other than you, who would not tell VIPER about me. I’m not ready for anyone to know I’m alive until I find out if Sen knew I was the jaguar he tried to kill.”

Evalle considered not sharing her thoughts, but that smacked of pouting. “I’m pretty sure he knew it was you.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because …” She struggled to hold her emotions in tight, but Storm needed to know the truth. “Sen held me in limbo long enough for me to see you bleeding and that you weren’t breathing before he teleported me to the Tribunal meeting that night.”

Storm covered his eyes with his hand. “So you thought for sure that I’d died?”

“Yes … at first. But I refused to believe it.”

He dropped his hand, eyes full of warmth after her admission. “I’m sorry he put you through that. I had no way to reach you until today or I would have.”

“What about the Barbie Witch? Adrianna could have called or you could have used her phone.”

His laugh sounded cynical. “She made it very clear that she agreed to help my guardian spirit, but she was not getting involved when it came to me, you and VIPER. She has her own issues and didn’t go into them. She had no phone, but now I think that’s probably a good thing. It would have been risky to call you since someone could have been listening in.”

“Why would someone do that?”

“Why would someone send you a bogus e-mail from me?”

He had a point. And who had sent that e-mail?

She needed time to process everything, including the part about Adrianna. On the one hand, Evalle didn’t care what it had taken to keep Storm alive and offered another silent thanks that he stood here before her. But on the other hand, she suffered bitter disappointment over another woman caring for him. Call it foolish, petty, whatever, that didn’t change the hurt tunneling through her chest right now.

Storm tilted his head a tiny bit, studying her. “We’re not discussing the e-mail anymore, are we?”

Don’t make me talk about Adrianna again, please. That only made Evalle feel insecure, which pissed her off. Besides, she had to get to the Iron Casket so she didn’t miss Tristan. Lifting her arm to make a show of checking the time, she said, “I won’t say anything about you being alive until you tell me I can, Storm, but I have to go now to make a meeting on time.”