“My parents were fated,” he murmured, and my eyes widened.
“What are you implying?” Heat rolled over my face and neck. Sebastian was so very male and absolutely breathtaking. My body caught on to his words before my brain could talk sense to it. Perfectly useless. Not that it would help.
Completely ignoring me, he hastened his steps. “Let’s go, Izzie.”
He towered over me. I stared at his chest and tilted my head up. Words escaped me with this guy. “You can stay at my place until I know you’re safe.” He lifted his sneaky hands.
“Wait.” The little critters were moments from reaching out to me before he stopped midway. “No touching.”
“No touching?” Confusion or maybe shock ebbed in his voice.
I nodded and my gaze wandered over his hands, his chest, and settled on his face. I swallowed hard as I moved my twitchy fingers behind me. It was the only way to keep from touching him. “You heard me.” I paused. “I’ll go with you if you promise to give me back my portal chip. You can’t expect me to go with a stranger I just met. I mean, did you not just see what I’m dealing with?”
I was stunned when he pulled it from his pocket and handed it over.
“It’s tedious to have to chase you down just to talk to you. That’s the only reason I took it from you because you kept wanting to use it to get away from me.”
I closed my mouth for a moment and opened it to say something when he gave me a devilish smile.
“Fear not, Izzie. Wherever you go, I’ll be able to find you. Not that it won’t be tiresome, but all I have to do is picture you in my head, and I’ll know exactly where you are.” He winked.
I blushed. Again.
How was that possible? Whatallcould Reapers do?
And why did everything come back to being tiresome with this guy?
“Now, about the no touching…”
“It’s final.”
He huffed. “The only way I can fade with you is to touch you.”
“Fade?”
“I don’t need a portal chip,” he answered quickly. His eyes still searching and waiting for me to give him the okay about what he was most worried about—touching.
“You don’t have to touch my skin. You can grab my shoulder.” I patted my shoulder still covered in the plain white t-shirt I wore.
He looked like a puppy that had been denied a treat. He finally nodded and placed his hand around my waist instead of my shoulder. I momentarily stiffened and waited to see what he planned to do. As his hand reached for mine, I glared.
“Sebastian,” I warned.
He gave me a sheepish grin. “Yes, Izzie?”
Squinting at him, I waited to see if he knew I wouldn’t fall for his tricks. Sebastian nodded before slipping us into a dark tunnel, racing through streams of various dark colors. I left the last bit of things I owned beside the road and let a stranger from the Underworld take me elsewhere.
Then realization hit. I didn’t want to go back to the Underworld. Where was my brain?
A light chased out the darkness, and then we were standing in a place that couldn’t have been the Underworld. There was just no way. It was too beautiful, too bright and colorful.Literally.The trees weren’t green, they were multi-colored. There were pinks and oranges, purples and blues. It looked like a realistically breathtaking version of some cartoon in the human world. It made me think of the fairy tale books I’d lose myself in as a kid to escape the harsh training of the Wen family.
For a brief moment, I lost the image of my fairy tales and was sucked into a bitter memory. The day I realized what all my training was for. It had never been about family tradition. It wasabout making me stronger for what came next. They gave me away to a monster. They already had three more daughters before me. Giving me away was no problem. They didn’t love me. They were strict and cruel and oh so harsh.
Perfect preparation for Julius.
And now they were gone.
Turned to ashes.
