It’s only in the early hours of the morning, as I get dressed while he remains asleep on the sex-rumpled sheets, that I realize Malachi hasn’t crossed my mind in days.
Cillian Lowry didn’t just obliterate my crush. He eclipsed it.
Who would’ve thought? Besides Fiona…
Gaea, how she’ll gloat once I confess she was right and I was wrong.
I stop on the threshold between the bedroom and the sitting area to gaze back at Cillian’s peaceful figure. At his muscled legstangled in the stone-gray sheets, and his mussed hair falling across his brow.
I’m not even gone, and I already miss his weight and scent. How is it possible to fall for someone so quickly?
As I enter the elevator, I turn my phone back on, wanting…no,needingto phone Calanthe and tell her everything. Before calling her though, I text Gael that I’m on my way home and will need a few minutes to pack. And then I stop by the front desk to order one of everything off the breakfast menu for Cillian, settle the bill, and order a taxi.
It’s only once I’m inside the cab that I notice twenty missed calls and six text messages from Calanthe. My heart flatlines. I call her back immediately, but the phone rings and rings.
When it goes to voicemail, I pound out a message followed by six question marks and double that in exclamation marks, and then I call Tarian.
“I’m in a meeting, Elle. Is this an emergency?” he asks.
“Is Callie okay? She called me a hundred times, but now she’s not picking up.”
“She’s at your house.”
“But she’s okay?”
“She’s fine.”
“Okay.”
Tarian’s promise should calm me, but it doesn’t, because I still don’t know the reason for her numerous phone calls.
As Tarian warned, Calanthe is in my kitchen, propped on a counter stool, chatting with Gael and Alexander.
She takes a sip of iced water from a tall glass, her hazel eyes assessing me. “Brought some muffins. Didn’t realize I’d be feeding half a football team, though.”
“Your phone,” I say, a little breathless. “I called you.”
“Called you too.” After a beat, she says, “I hear we’re heading to Texas.”
Have I just entered some alternate dimension? “We? You’re coming?”
“Of course, I’m coming. Do you know that I’ve never visited that state?”
I sense sightseeing isn’t her motive, and I’m proven right the moment we step into my bedroom.
“You’d better not have been planning to leave without telling me,” she hisses as she shuts my door.
“I would’ve told you.”Eventually… Just like I plan on telling Dorian…eventually. “Are you really coming with me? I mean, I appreciate it, but?—”
“I’m really coming.”
“Is Tarian also coming?”
“He’ll join us for dinner tonight.” She looks me up and down, lingering on my finger-combed hair. “Now tell me…where did you sleep last night?”
Chapter 42
Electra
