Jonas liked that she was coming to accept his friends, the ones he considered family.
16
You up for this, Cami?” Kyle asked, nudging her. “I’m thinking you should use a blue fog, with purple undertones. Make it really eerie. Night’s beginning to set in. Can you add in flickering lights, like fireflies only bigger?”
“Fireflies?” Jeff gave a snort of derision. “You have no imagination, Kyle. Dragons, Camellia. Think really big, like dragons. Fire-breathing dragons. The dragons don’t have to be big, just the concept of them, coming out of the fog and raining fire on the bastards. I’d like that.” He smirked at Kyle and folded his arms across his beefy chest.
They were like two little boys trying to outdo one another. “You two. I’m only supposed to be spreading a fog across the mountain slowly, not trapping anyone in it. The scouts can get through the lines right now. We’re going after the leaders. That means we have to sneak into their lines. The fog bank will help with that.”
“Notwe,” Jonas said decisively. “You’re staying here, Camellia. You’re running everything from our command post right here.”
She made a face at him behind his back. “You certainly can sound bossy when you want to. You didn’t say anything about leaving me behind when we talked about our partnership.”
Jonas raised an eyebrow. “I’m certain I did.”
He sounded way too innocent, so much so that both Jeff and Kyle burst out laughing. Camellia didn’t smile; she just continued to look at him. She refused to be charmed by him. It didn’t matter how tough and strong he looked sitting on her porch in her garden. Or that, surrounded by Middlemist Red Camellias all in bloom, he managed to look more rugged than ever, which just made him more appealing. His bossy attitude certainly didn’t make him appealing.
Jonas shrugged. “Need you here, honey. This is the perfect command post.”
“Then you stay here, and I’ll go with Kyle and Jeff and find the leaders of these soldiers. Gray and Blue respond to me best. I can understand their peculiar language. I’m used to the way they communicate. The same with the wolves.”
She didn’t take her gaze from Jonas’s, not even when she heard Jeff give a little snort of pure derision. She was going to kick him hard in the shins the first chance she got. Whose side was he on, anyway?
“Beautiful place you have here, Camellia,” Kyle said.
She was beginning to understand he was the peacemaker. He was subtle about it, but he wanted them to get along. He also didn’t want her to go with them, not if he knew she’d be safer right there in the garden.
“Camellia, it doesn’t make sense for you to go.”
Jonas used his most gentle voice when she was certain he wanted to just order her to stay behind.
“I can understand that you would want me to set up a command post when we’re going to have to take on their army, Jonas, but notnow when you’re sneaking behind enemy lines and need my help to cover all of you. Hiding me away in the garden doesn’t make sense, and you know it. You’re just doing it to keep me safe.”
Camellia knew he couldn’t deny it. She shared his mind most of the time. It was virtually impossible for him to hide his motivation from her.
Jonas sighed. “You’re killing me, Camellia. The advance scouts are out in front of the troops. We have to allow them to get past us. If we don’t, the leaders are going to be even more alert than they already are. They lost all of their forward enhanced scouts sent to kidnap Lily and Daniel. That means we’ll have enemies in front of us and behind us.”
She stepped closer to him, seeing his very real fear for her in his eyes. Feeling it in his mind. All he could hear in that moment was his mother’s screams. He ran and ran to get to her, just as he had in his nightmares, over and over throughout the years, and he never managed to make it in time.
He framed her face with his hands. “I can’t lose you, Camellia. I can’t.” His voice was raw with emotion. He didn’t seem to mind that Kyle and Jeff heard him or could see the stark love that was so plain carved deep into his expression.
Camellia’s heart clenched hard in her chest. He was putting his emotions out there for her to see. For his friends to see. She was always so closed off. Always so afraid of getting hurt again and yet Jonas, who had suffered every bit as much as she had, was so willing to put himself out there again.
She brushed his lips with her fingertips, trying to find the right words to make him understand. “We’re so much stronger when we’re together, Jonas. You aren’t thinking straight. If you stash me somewhere you think is safe, all you’re going to do is second-guess yourself. You know you will. You’re going to think you should have kept me right with you.”
She could see that wasn’t enough to convince him. In her mind she chose an image of vines twisting together for strength. The roots of trees connecting underground and forming a strong system nearly impossible to defeat.Baby,she whispered softly, for him alone.We need to be together. The two of us. Just the way we were when we healed Kaden and Marigold.
Jonas pushed his forehead against hers with a soft groan of defeat. His hands slipped to her arms, fingers tightening there. “What am I going to do with you, Camellia?”
Keep believing in us for both of us.She couldn’t say it out loud the way she wanted to. Not with Kyle and Jeff right there. Maybe not ever. She raised her gaze to his, wanting him to see what was in her heart. She did love him already. She couldn’t admit it to him. She barely could admit it to herself. She hadn’t even shared it with Red, although she was certain Red knew.
I can do that,he whispered back in her mind.
“Are you two finished with your argument?” Jeff asked. “Because it was really lame as arguments go. Jonas, you disappoint me. You’re supposed to be all badass alpha. She bats her eyelashes a couple of times, and you just fall at her feet. What kind of example are you?”
Kyle nodded solemnly. “Ordinarily, I pay Jeff no mind. He’s basically a lunatic. In this case, I have to agree with him, Jonas. Even if you were ultimately going to give in, you should have held out a little longer.”
Branches of the Middlemist Red Camellia shivered and rustled all around them. One branch behind Jeff reared back and then rushed forward as if a heavy wind pushed it straight at the back of his head, where the blossoms slapped him. Kyle was treated to the same smack from the bright pink flowers. Petals sailed through the air, flying all around them.
