Oracle's Moon (Elder Races #4)(94)

“Gracie,” he said between his teeth.

Gods, she loved it when he called her that, with his perfect blend of exasperation and tenderness. She put the knowledge of the vision behind her for the moment and opened her eyes wide at him. “I don’t recall when I said I would tell you every little thing that went on inside my head. I sure don’t remember you bargaining for it.”

He looked infuriated and unpredictable and actually a little evil, and there it was; she tumbled head over heels in love with him for the fourth time that day. She thought she would really love to spend whatever time she had in this life, tumbling head over heels every time she looked into his eyes and fell into forever. Always loving, always falling.

“I will get it out of you,” he growled, so very softly over the heads of the tired, sleeping babies.

“Wow, you really can’t stand a secret, can you? Are you going to spend Christmas with us? Teasing you about presents is going to be a blast.”

He let go of her, slapped his hands on the tree trunk on either side of her head and leaned over her. He looked fierce, like he might explode, except she could feel his emotions in truth. Sparring with each other had become a game they both loved to play. All of his real rage was directed elsewhere. “You are such an impudent and disrespectful human.”

“Indeed, that is what you are wont to call me.” She grinned at him. “See what I did there?”

One corner of his sexy mouth twitched. She stroked her presence along his, aligning with him softly.

His hands slipped on the tree trunk. He sank a fist into her hair and just held her, looking into her eyes with a steady promise. Her home might be in ruins, her life forever changed, and the sword might fall and cut them, but right in that moment, she had never felt so alive.

He let his fingers loosen and stroked down the back of her neck as he turned his head. Then she heard voices. Katherine, John, their kids and the Djinn escort had arrived to take Chloe and Max safely away to Houston. Khalil gathered Chloe off Grace’s lap. Using the cane, Grace levered herself to her feet.

Katherine had clearly been crying, and John, who had loved Petra and Niko too, was grieving and enraged all over again. They stared in grim, shocked silence at the ruined back of the house. When they collected the sleepy kids, they did so with a special tenderness. As John and Khalil carried the children to their minivan, Katherine squeezed Grace’s hand so hard it hurt. “John told his boss he had a family emergency, and it’s true. Don’t worry about the kids, all right?”

“I won’t.” Grace squeezed her hand in return.

The older woman’s eyes glittered. “Get their killers. Get all of them.”

“I promise you, we will.”

She walked around the house with Katherine and gave her a fierce hug good-bye. Then she stood beside Khalil and watched them drive away with the last of her family and with four Djinn as invisible guards.

That was when Khalil released his iron grip on his temper, and his rage whipped the air in a vicious whirlwind.

He turned to her, his face stern and deadly, and she knew what would happen if he sent his renegade angel’s voice ringing through the sky in a call to war. She had seen it in the vision as one of the possible futures. It would bring the sword down on them.

He had so very many connections. His call would be answered. Djinn would appear like meteorites that slammed into the ground to became tall, shining figures. Tens of Djinn, then scores, then hundreds. Their numbers would be dotted with a few rare figures that shone with a radiance that was especially piercing. She had recognized one of them.

Soren, the Elder tribunal Councillor for the Demonkind and a first-generation Djinn.

That would be the beginning of the end for her and Khalil. Soren would slash the fragile hair from which the sword hung. And the sword would fall and slice them apart. If they were to have a chance at any time together, Khalil couldn’t send out that call.

His Power compressed in readiness. She grabbed his arm. “No! You mustn’t. Khalil, please don’t.”

He looked down at her, his expression hard, as the wind howled around them. “Tell me one reason why I should not.”

She projected all the urgency and conviction she could into her voice, because she could tell his attention was already slipping away from her.

“Because if you do that, we may never see each other again after today.”

Twenty

He stared at her. If anything the howling wind worsened as his expression turned cold and remote. For a terrible moment she thought he had already slipped away emotionally and she really had lost him. She started howling inside a little bit, too.

Then he pivoted in a circle, spitting curses savagely. She watched him, her gut in a twist. He seemed to reach out and grasp his rampaging Power and haul it forcibly back under his control. She had to lean hard on the cane as her muscles shook.

She whispered to the quieting storm, “Thank you.”

He spun back to her. “That is what you saw,” he said. “Earlier.”

Her attention dropped from his incandescent eyes. He held himself so tightly, the clenched muscles in his biceps twitched. She tried to speak in a way that might be calming to an adult, not to a small child. It wasn’t something she was good at. “That’s one of the things I saw, yes.”

He inhaled, shuddered, and the maelstrom of energy pulled back into his body. “Okay,” he said as he strode over to her. “What do you think we should do?”