“I’m sorry…” Kira breathed in deeply. Since calming down apparently wasn’t going to happen, she changed the subject. “Did Aethan say anything about Tomas?”
Echo raked back her overlong bangs. “No. Still no sign of him or the demons abducting the kids. They must be lying low for now. They probably know the Guardians got wind of them.”
“But they’ll come out soon enough like the cunning snakes they are.” Helplessness tore at Kira. She couldn’t even go out there and deal with this. And her stupid abilities didn’t help much. Maybe she’d just change all their hair color to green and shock them into a stupor. That would show them.
“Hey, I’ve been meaning to tell you, I’ve resigned from the bar. Got two weeks left.”
“Really?” Her friend’s eyes widened with shock. “Why?”
“Because I have no plans to become part of the furniture. I need something different, something fulfilling—who’s the rainbow?” The words burst free.
Echo’s brow creased. “What rainbow?”
Kira swallowed, then cleared her throat, lowering her gaze in pretend nonchalance. “I heard the warriors talk about her. Just wondered.”
“I don’t know, but I can find out.”
“No. Forget it.” Týr had obviously decided that she wasn’t worth the effort. “Gran’s back. I have to go.” And lick her wounds in private. But the name corroded a hole in her mind.
“Ugh,” Echo groaned, rubbing her left palm on her jeans.
Kira dropped her cell and grasped her friend’s hand. She gently traced the red, raised imprint of the angelic rune Echo had recently inherited from her powerful ancestor, Zarias, who’d been the leader of the Watchers. They were angels who had all broken a sacred law and were annihilated after they fell for human females.
“It still hurts?” she asked.
“No, not exactly.” Echo frowned. “It just feels a little odd when I touch it…a prickle of sorts. I guess I’ll get used to it soon enough.”
“At least I know wherever your work takes you, this rune will bring you back home again.”
Echo smiled, but her expression remained serious. “Ki, you know whatever you decide, I’ll be here for you. Týr’s a great guy.”
But not even her friend, the all-powerful Healer of Veils, could promise her that he wouldn’t leave once he met his destined.
Feeling as if the walls were closing in on her, Kira jumped up, nearly toppling her friend over. “Sorry, sorry—” She grabbed Echo then snatched her cell from the couch. “I know, but this is all so damn screwed up. I have to go.” Practically dashing for the door, she called over her shoulder, “Hedori will be waiting, and I have to get to work, also. Talk later.”
As she ran up the narrow side stairs to collect her backpack, her cell beeped with a message. At the name there, she sighed. Riley.
Did you come to a decision?
She hadn’t given it much thought with everything else that had occurred. Maybe she should go visit her so-called father and tell that shirker to his face what she thought of him. Frowning at her cell, she ran up the few stairs and crashed into someone coming down.
“Sorry—” The rest of her apology died in her throat as she met Týr’s cool stare. Her heart clipped painfully against her ribs, wishing she didn’t have to smell his tormenting scent again. It made the hurt all the harder to bear, the realization that he could never be hers.
Togged out in sweats, sneakers and a t-shirt, he was probably on his way down for the basketball game. He looked so good. It hurt too damn much. “Excuse me.”
“This is what you always do, isn’t it?” The ice in his voice startled her. “Three dates, then you run.”
He knew about her dating rules? Embarrassment scorched her face. But anger and betrayal followed fast on its heels, the tingles in her hands increasing like a crackling livewire. She fisted her fingers. “You’re a fine one to talk.”
His eyes narrowed dangerously. Whatever he would have said got cut off at the sound of thudding footsteps. Aethan appeared at the bottom stair. “Yo, Týr, a quick word.”
Kira spun away and marched to her bedroom. She shut the door and thumped her brow against the wood. Christ! What was she doing? Lashing out at him wasn’t helping.She’dchosen to walk away.
The ache inside her expanded at the mess this was turning out to be.
You won’t give me a chance to prove we just might have something which could last a lifetime?His words from yesterday reverberated in her head. She longed to be with him. He calmed, soothed, and protected her. More, he filled those lonely, empty parts in her heart. He made her feel like no one else ever had. Yes, she was mortal, and she had a few decades on this Earth…
Her mind reeling, Kira yanked on her jacket, grabbed her backpack from the armchair, and sprinted downstairs to find the enormous front door open, the winter air icing up the foyer. Her brow furrowing, she hurried out onto the portico and came to a stumbling halt.
