She lifted her eyebrows at him. “I didn’t say no yet. What’s got you cranked?”
A humorless laugh escaped his lips. “You.” He shook his head and looked at her as if she missed the whole point. “The only reason you’re considering my proposal is to save your two Belador watchdogs.Yoursafety and life are important, too.”
She could kill a demon in three moves, but she had no skill for handling a man who said things that gently squeezed her heart. She’d only known Storm a few days, but in that short time he’d come through for her more than once. Enough that she owed him some form of trust, but she’d learned at an early age the dangers of trusting too easily. Her abused heart might want to open the gates for him, but her mind protected that fickle organ behind a fortress of suspicion.
Rather than address his last comment, she said, “Let’s say I agree to do this. How does your majik work?”
“Can’t share that.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
He didn’t answer, which was an answer in itself. Storm had his own trust issues, with that woman behind his father’s death most likely at the center. Evalle doubted he’d share any more about that than he’d tell her how his majik worked.
Still, without getting all the facts she couldn’t allow him to turn her into some kind of spirit transponder. “If you do manage to find me and we both escape alive, what exactly will I have to do to help you find this woman?”
“Like I said, I’ll tell you more after the Tribunal meeting.”
“You want me to agree to something without knowing all the details?”
He crossed his arms. “Tick tock. What’s your choice?”
She didn’t have one and he knew it.
Rolling her shoulders back to vanish any look of a caught animal, she finally gave in. “I’ll take your deal, but I have the option of changing my mindbeforeyou do anything to free me if I lose my fight with the Tribunal.”
He struck a thoughtful pose, then nodded. “I’ll go with that.”
Eyeing her watch quickly—forty-six minutes, still okay—she glanced around once more, then gave him an impatient lift of her chin.Please tell me I’m not goingto shift and kill him.“Let’s get twitching or chanting or whatever you do.”
“I need you close for this to work.”
“How close?” Call her jumpy, but this whole majik thing had destroyed any comfort zone.
He sighed at some silent thought. “Close enough to put my hands on your shoulders. I’m not going to hurt you.”
She knew he wouldn’t harm her just like he knew that if he did, she’d make him pay dearly. Standing inside Storm’s personal space didn’t bother her, not really.
Not if she didn’t look at his mouth and think about how she could still feel his lips from when he’d kissed her yesterday.
“You’re running out of time, Evalle.”
Handing over control of her body—an Alterant body—to anyone with powers or majik had to be a bad idea on so many levels. She’d been forced to do this recently with a Sterling witch named Adrianna and hadn’t like that one bit.
But Storm wasn’t Adrianna.
She stepped up to him. “Let’s do it.”
His hands settled on her shoulders with a firm but gentle grip. “Shut your eyes.”
“Why can’t I watch?” Her pulse strummed wildly enough without the thought of doing this completely blind.
What if she had a reaction? What if . . .
“You’ve got twenty minutes before you have to leave for Woodruff Park if you don’t want to run, and I need eight of those to work my majik. The faster we get this done, the sooner you get moving. What’s it going to be?”
“Sure you can do this without turning me into a toad?” she grumbled.
His eyes twinkled with a smile. “If I do, I’ll kiss you and turn you into a princess.”
