“Why does he want her, then?” I ask.
“No idea,” she shrugs. “Leverage, probably. And he doesn’t need to harm her for that.”
I think of how he slapped her, my anger spiking. “Unless he wants to antagonize us,” I mutter. “But you’re right,” I acknowledge. “Hurting her would serve no purpose. She looked fine when I saw her. Aside from being dirty and exhausted – which would probably hurt Gran’s pride more than anything.”
“You saw Gran?” Rowan blinks at me.
“I…”Shit.I hadn’t meant to raise it. “I saw her in a vision last night. I think Lucien reached out and tried to scare me.”
“For God’s sake, Kara! Why didn’t you say anything?” Mia’s eyes flash in the moonlight.
“I… I didn’t think it would help in any way.” Not to mention that I’ve been more distracted by what happened after. “He was just trying to intimidate me. And I refuse to give him the satisfaction of thinking that it worked.”
Mia rubs her forehead, pushing a wave of hair from it. “Yeah.” She heaves a sigh. “You’re probably right. But the vision… I didn’t know you had the power of second sight.”
That gives me pause. “Um…” I gnaw on my lip. “I don’t?”
“Clearly, you do,” says Rowan.
“Maybe it’s something Lucien did.” I turn to her.
“Or something Marcus did?” Mia winks at me.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I mutter, turning to the railing and looking out across the ocean. “I wonder if we’ll see whales out here.”
“Ah. Deflecting much?” Rowan steps up beside me.
Mia takes up a spot on the other side. “You planning to keep this up forever?” she asks.
“Keep what up?” I keep my eyes on the horizon where the moon has lit a path over the water.
“Don’t act like we’re idiots. It’s impossible to miss the chemistry between you. Not to mention that we’ve literally walked in on the pair of you making out. More than once.”
Rowan giggles.
“Shut up! I’m a grown woman. I do not ‘make out.’”
“Do so,” says Rowan.
“Do not!” I snap back, then think better of it. “For Pete’s sake. Now you’ve got me bickering like a schoolgirl.”
Mia playfully smacks my shoulder. “Oh, come on, Kara, lighten up. The guy’s smoking hot.”
“Sure. If you go for tall, dark, and arrogant assholes.”
“There’s a certain appeal to that, I believe. Soren wasn’t always the charmer he is now.” She winks at me.
“Tell me about it. He had you locked in a cage for a year.”
“So we didn’t have a traditional start to our romance—”
I cough. “Ya think?”
“But it’s still our love story. And I’m stronger for it. For what we went through.” She shrugs as if it was no big deal when it was a huge deal. It’s a miracle either of them survived.
I shift uncomfortably. “About that…have either of you noticed anything different about your magic since…you know…”
“Since bonding with Darick?” Rowan asks. “You already know that’s changed. I’m…stronger.” She pulls a face. I know shedoesn’t like to talk about how she gathered enough power to incinerate her lover. “But yes, things are different in other ways. It’s like everything got amplified. Spells that used to backfire now just…work.”
