“What the hell are you talking about?” Donovan yells right back at him. “Why are you even here? How did you find us?”
“It’s my job to find you!”
“Oh,that’syour job?” The power bubbling inside me crests. I can’t back it down. I can’t turn it off. And right now, I don’t want to. “Because in case you forgot, I can see the future. This time, I saw a little more of it. And you want to guess who held the knife in my vision this time,Coop? You wanna guess who’s to blame foreverything,because he doesn’t have the spine to stand up for his own brother?”
Cooper’s eyes narrow, the blue gone so dark, it’s almost black. “Shut up about what you don’t understand, why don’t you?” He curls his lip, flashing his teeth at me, looking almostferal. “You’ve never had a family, Rune Whitlock. So you don’t know the first goddamn thing about standing up for your kin. All you know is how to burn your life and everyone else’s to the ground.”
For a moment I’m frozen, unable to believe what just left his mouth. Then the power roars through me, obliterating my ability to do anything but seek revenge.
“You absolute bastard,” I snarl at him.
And then I lunge for his throat.
Chapter
Forty-Five
Donovan grabsme before I can reach Cooper. He wraps his arms around me from behind and pulls me back, his muscles flexing as I twist and fight to get away from him.
“What iswrongwith the two of you?” he growls. “Cooper, I’m going to ask you one more time. What the fuck are you doing here?”
“What am Idoinghere?” Above the collar of his shirt, Cooper’s pulse throbs. “I’m here tohelpyou, you stupid asshole. Not that you’ll ever believe me.”
Despite everything, I have to stifle a laugh. Apparently Cooper and I have something in common. Except in this case, I don’t believe him, either.
“Your definition of help is extraordinarily fucked up,” I snap at him.
Cooper glares right back at me. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. And this…this…” He points beyond me, at the blue light bubbling up between the cracks. “You’ve done something that can’t be undone, Rune. Now we’re all going to pay.”
The words send a shiver through me. Earlier, I’d heard his voice echoing in my head:Like calls to like. What is done can’t be undone.I thought I’d imagined it, along with the sensation that he’d calmed me when I was sliding into a premonition, but now…
“Did you…were you…” I’m not sure how to articulate what I want to know. It’s one thing for him to help me head off a premonition when we’re in person, when I have the ability to back off or say no. But for him to invade my privacy, to get inside my mind and talk to me without my consent…it’s a terrible violation.
“Projecting inside your head? Unfortunately.” He sneers at me, baring his teeth again. “Not that it did any good. You’re the most stubborn person I’ve ever met. Might as well try to stop the tide…if you know what I mean.”
Oh my God. How much does he know? How much has he seen? And, given the revelation in my latest premonition, how does he plan to use it against me? “How dare you!” I say, making a renewed attempt to put an end to him. But Donovan holds me fast.
“I have no idea what the two of you are talking about,” he says, “but I would really like to get the fuck out of here. Maybe we could continue this discussion elsewhere. Or—” He lets go of me, then spins me to face him. “Maybe you just want to discuss things with Cooper. Maybe I’m not the one you want to be talking with at all.”
You’ve got to be kidding me. “Seriously?” My voice rises to a squeak. “You still think I might be into him, Donovan? That this is—what, some kind of elaborate prank? Sure, that’s it. I arranged for your brother to show up in town. Then I conspired with Ethan to have you and me work together, and I funded this shitshow of a corporate retreat. Next, I applied my design skills to create an escape room scenario that almost killed us both,because that sounded like fun.I broke the earth all by myself and made blue crap spill out of it, because I’mjust that powerful.And for the capper, I decided it would be an awesome idea for Officer Asshat here to show up and rescue me, because it was a great way for him to see me with my shirt off and humiliate you at the same time. Two birds with one stone, am I right?”
By the time I’m finished, my voice is so high that probably only dogs can hear it, my throat hurts from screaming, and Donovan’s regarding me like I’m a feral beast that might sink my teeth into him at any moment. Gingerly, he removes his hands from my shoulders.
“Well, when you put it that way…” he says.
“I don’t want anything to do with him!” I stamp my foot. “And neither should you.” Bending to scoop up the tattered remains of my shirt, I slide it back on. It doesn’t cover much of me, but it’s better than nothing.
“I already didn’t want anything to do with him.” Donovan looks over my shoulder at Cooper, who’s still lingering in the doorway, arms folded across his broad chest. “But none of this explains why he’s here, why he’s so determined to keep us apart, or what the hell that”—he points at the sapphire-lit crevices—“is.”
Together, the three of us stare at the bubbling blue light. I want to roll around in it. To luxuriate in it. To?—
Hold on just one freaking moment. “You told me you were drawn to power,” I say to Cooper. “And that’s what those are, aren’t they? Pure power.”
“Those areley lines,” Cooper says, confirming my suspicion. “Like I fucking warned you.”
“Jesus H. Christ on a goddamn bicycle.” Donovan’s gaze is ping-ponging between the two of us, like we’ve both lost our minds. “Ley lines? Power? What are the two of you babblingabout? Is this another one of Rosa’s damn riddles? Because I swear?—”
Cooper heaves a massive sigh. He runs a hand through his hair again, then squares his shoulders. “You’re a null, Donovan. We shouldn’t even be talking about this in front of you.”
