“No!” I whirled to Elex. “No! You promised!”
Contrition was written on his face. “I have to go.”
“Elex!”
He put his hands on my shoulders. “Kimber, please. Please. What we’re working on could save all of S’Kir from the tremors. This is vitally important, and I simply have to go.”
Using his own magic, he whisked a shirt to him and pulled it on as he shoved his feet in shoes.
“Elex, you can’t go. If that machine you’re working on can predict tremors, you have to stay. You have to.”
“I don’t know that it’s the right alarm,” he answered. “I don’t know what’s going on with it.” He started to walk out of the apartment.
“Elex, no! No, come back!” I grabbed his arm. “The alarm can wait! The professor is there, the other students will be there.”
“But this is my project, Kimber.” His hand covered mine.
I jerked away from him. “No, Elex. Learn to delegate.”
“I have to go. S’Kir needs this warning system.”
He walked away.
I crumbled into a heap in the doorway.
He walked away.
The two men started running halfway down the hall and disappeared into the stairs a moment later.
He.
Walked.
Away.
Because S’Kir needed his infernal machine.
S’Kir didn’t need his machine.
It needed me with power so I could stop the tremors until the proper time.
It needed me, to guide the mountain down, so people didn’t die.
It needed me, to keep the gate clear and accessible.
I wept.
Crumbled into a heap in the door of my apartment, covered by nothing but a thin robe, I cried and couldn’t move from the spot.
I had no idea how long I sat there, crying. I didn’t understand why Elex couldn’t give up control of his project for half an hour.
Not that we could have gone right back to where we were in the bedroom—because talk about a mood killer—but with just a little while to calm down, we would have.
Still, he left. I didn’t think I had to explain to him that magic needed power and power needed sex. He had been through the defensive classes. He’d had this explained to him, even if I was a naïve idiot.
A tremor began deep in the ground.
I raised my head and watched the walls start to tremble.
