Beauty's Beast(30)

“Something wrong?” she asked, resting a hand over his and then quickly drawing it back as if scalded. What emotion had she read—his panic?

Oh, yes. Something was very badly wrong. Because he was either going to tell her the truth and watch her laugh in his face, or he was going to hide his love for her so deep in his heart he would never have to face the inevitable rejection.

“Alon?” she asked. “Are you ill?”

“Halflings don’t get ill. You know that.” But he felt ill. His skin went clammy and his stomach seemed to be knotted around his pounding heart like a python after a capybara.

“But you’ve gone pale.”

“I’m always pale,” he said impatiently. “I was thinking of the battle. Anxious for the fighting to start.” He swung his gaze to hers and then let it bounce away again, unable to hold on.

“That isn’t it. Tell me.”

He wouldn’t. Not ever. There was nothing so pathetic or cliché as his love for her.

She wasn’t giving up. He knew her well enough to know when she dug in her heels.

“All right, then. I’m worried that you might be with child.”

Her hands instinctively went to her middle, and for reasons he could not even begin to fathom, she smiled.

“If you are, I’ll stay until your time comes. If not, I will go as soon as we have defeated Nagi.” As if they could. He used his thumb and index finger to rub his tired eyes.

“Go? Go where?” Confusion wrinkled her brow.

“I promised to protect you, Samantha, until this is done. That time draws near. With it comes the breaking of our ties.”

“But I thought... That is...” She stopped, clamping her mouth closed.

“You should be happy to be rid of me. We both know you only needed a protector. I’m willing to be that. The world needs Seers more than it needs one more Toe Tagger. When this is over you can stop pretending this is something more than what it is.”

She drew her hand back and her eyes went as cold as obsidian. “And what is it exactly?”

He stared her down, but she held on, tenacious as a bear after a beehive.

“This again! Alon, I did not sleep with you as a way to get you to join my dad.”

“No?”

“If you believe that, then you have a thicker skull than I do. When can we get off this plane?” She unclasped her belt and threw the two pieces in opposite directions. Then she stood, casting him a withering glare, and strode toward the back of the cabin.

When they touched down, she still hadn’t returned. Only when the outer hatch was opened did she appear to try to walk past him to the door.

He clasped her arm, bringing her about.

“You’re such an ass, Alon.”

“You’ll tell me if you’re carrying our children.”

She pushed him off with one hand. He allowed it.

“What will that matter if we all die in battle?”

Her words cut his heart like a razor blade. He couldn’t let her die. Somehow he had to keep Samantha alive.

He watched her walk away, trying to convince himself that this was best. This way, at least, he retained his dignity and his autonomy. This way he... Alon sighed. He’d rather face Nagi’s army single-handed than her scorn. And that was what surely awaited him if he had told her he loved her.





Chapter 15



Samantha arrived in Atlanta tired and rumpled from the two long flights and her unresolved feelings for Alon. A phone call to her mother had revealed where to find Blake. He had just finished with the Southeastern Council and had succeeded in bringing them to the alliance. That left just the Northeastern Council, and her mother assured her that she had convinced them. Blake’s visit there would be more formality than necessity. All the Council Chiefs wanted a look at their new War Chief.

Her mother did not mention having two Ghostling twins as bodyguards, so Samantha assumed that they had stayed out of sight as Alon had ordered. Samantha did not tell her mother about the ghost attacks but did say she was traveling with the eldest son of Bess and Cesar and was on her way to Blake to discuss battle plans.

Samantha felt strongly that the conversation she needed to have with Blake must be in person. What she was proposing would be unpopular at best.

They entered the lobby of the upscale Atlanta hotel in the heart of downtown, turning heads as they made their way to the elevator. It was Alon, she knew. He was striking with movie-star good looks that made both men and women double-take. Dressed today in a slate-gray suit, crisp white shirt and dove-gray tie, he looked like a runway model for designer men’s wear. Her excellent hearing brought their comments to her.

“Who is that?”

“Isn’t he an actor?”

“Look at that guy.”

She clicked across the marble lobby on low heels, her tight plum-colored suit dress making long strides impossible. One foolish human stepped toward Alon.

Samantha looped her arm possessively through his and threw the woman a threatening look. Alon allowed her to cling as she glared at her competition.

“Don’t worry, Samantha,” he murmured low in her ear. “I don’t go for humans.”

He placed a hand casually over the one she looped through his elbow. His cool fingers stroked her skin, and her heart fluttered.

His breath brushed her ear as he spoke again. “Though you are no more human than I.”

“That’s true.”

Hope fluttered within her for just a moment and then died as he glanced toward the female, who hesitated as they passed by.

He exhaled through his nose. “If they saw me for what I am they’d be screaming and running the other way.”

She squeezed his arm. “I haven’t.”

He turned his head and held her gaze, and she thought for a moment she saw tenderness in his eyes. But then they hardened to ice once more. “You should,” he said and fixed his gaze on the closed elevator doors.

The bell chimed, the doors swept open and they stepped into the empty car.

She felt a momentary relief at being alone, away from the humans and thus far undetected by ghosts. Then she remembered that Blake would be able to see her aura. What would he say when he saw what had happened?

She shuddered and gripped Alon tighter.

“Samantha?” His brows lifted and his expression spoke of concern.

“I’m all right. Just, well...our auras. Blake will see them.” Samantha released him and stepped away from Alon. He tracked her retreat with a steady gaze and the lifting of one elegant brow.

“Blake isn’t going to like what you have to say, and I doubt he’ll be happy to meet me. He’s War Chief. That must be his prime concern.”

“Your sister is already with him.”

Alon watched the numbers ascend with their car. “Her text said that he has stopped trying to send her away.”

“He’s seen her? I thought she was going to stay hidden.”

“Bart and Bella agreed to stay hidden. Aldara is less submissive. She often does as she pleases.”

And it pleased her to show herself to her brother. Samantha scowled.

The doors slid open and they headed toward the suite of rooms rented by the Southeastern Council for their new War Chief. Her stride felt awkward and stiff. Suddenly Samantha was unsure what she was doing here. Neither her dad nor brother had asked her to bring the Ghost Children to the alliance. Would he even want their help?

Was she doing the right thing?

Alon drew to an easy stop before the door marked Presidential Suite and folded his hands before him, standing with the reassuring calm of an undertaker at a wake. He waited, and when she did not lift her hand to knock he glanced down at her. If he was worried about meeting her big brother, he did not show any outward sign. Meanwhile her upper lip was sweating.

“I’m nervous,” she whispered.

“I know,” he said in a hushed voice that Blake still could here if he were listening. “I smell your fear.”

That was enough to put some starch in her spine. She lifted her chin. “I’m not afraid of my brother.”

“Uncertainty, then. Either you think the Ghost Children should fight or you do not.”

“It’s not that simple.”

Alon’s complexion darkened as clouds of discontent blew over his expression. “It is.”

Samantha’s chin sank to her chest. “You don’t understand. Every time I have tried to do something other than what my family wanted, it has ended badly. I’m not sure I can trust my judgment. Nagi found us because of me. We’ve had to leave places that were safe because of me.” She slipped a hand into his. “I believe this is right. That the alliance needs the Ghost Children to win, but I don’t want to have to defy them again.”

“Doing what you think is right is never easy.”