Page 24 of Cold Heir

“Find anything interesting?”

The heavily accented voice that rang into my ears as I sealed the closet activated something within me. It was that brokenfight or flightthingamajig I still hadn’t gotten fixed. The one thatshouldhave told me to run on several occasions, but instead told me to swing whatever I had in my hands with all my might, at the first target I laid eyes on.

Like now.

“Whoa! Hey!”

The candleholder was swiftly, and skillfully, snatched away as I was disarmed. My heart hammered against my ribs, and finally, the image before me caught up with the rest of my senses.

“Holy… Levi!” Gripping my chest, I staggered back a few steps.

Seeing how he startled me, and how I was practically sweating bullets while I panted, the smile he’d worn when sneaking up on me left him quickly.

“Sorry, Love. I didn’t mean—"

“I—I think he’s been here,” I blurted, knowing I wasn’t making much sense. “He must’ve snuck in while we were sleeping.”

“Who?”

Peering up into Levi’s eyes, I sighed. “Aaric.”

There was no missing the tension in his posture or expression now. The room was completely empty. I was certain because I checked, but I knew what I felt.

Unless … this was just paranoia getting the best of me. As much as I believed, with there being no trace of intrusion, the likelihood ofanyonehaving been here were slim to none.

Something my father taught me came to mind. He said it the night after I’d first come face-to-face with an Ianite, one I nearly lost my life to back then. He said that if I continued to let fear rule my thoughts, making me afraid of my own safe space, then it had done its job.

It won.

Levi brought me to him and held me tight. “It’s just us here,” he declared with certainty.

It was true. We were alone, but for some reason, despite having searched and seen for myself, the truth was so hard to accept.

Chapter Nine

Corina

Glenn had gone out of his way to prepare breakfast for me, including more vegetables from his garden, and a homemade dressing consisting of honey, vinegar, and a few spices. There were even a couple of boiled eggs on the side—something he purchased during his late-night run into town.

While he was out, he put in the call to Julian—a favor for Levi and me. If all went according to plan, they’d be here soon to retrieve us—taking the eight-hour drive into account, that is—and whatever prep went into the journey. It could be hours from now, could be minutes. There was no way to know.

Whatever the case, despite my apprehension, I just wanted to finally lay eyes on Julian. It was my hope that Levi was right, that his brother’s concern for me outweighed all else. While I believed I owed him an apology, I couldn’t quite wrap my head around that—mostly because I didn’t regret the effort I made to return to my team. However, I did want to make amends for breaking his trust, for whatever hurt and damage I caused. It was likely that, once I was gone and had left such a disaster in my wake, the blame fell on him.

And he deserved better.

My interaction with him before my departure had been strained, steeped in the belief that I had a choice to fight what I felt brewing between us. Only, now, I knew better. I’d been fighting the impossible, hence the reason I no longer struggled with the pull toward Levi. The simple fact was, these two mattered to me.

A lot.

My empty plate was taken to the sink where Glenn washed it immediately.

“You two never did get around to saying what hole you crawled out of last night.” The words left his mouth teasingly, but he had no clue what the past two and a half weeks had been like.

When he turned and took in our blank expressions, his became serious as well. The faucet turned off and he rejoined us at the table.

“Heck, I was just poking fun because the two of you showed up looking like ten miles of bad road. Are you in some sort of trouble?”

Levi glanced at me thoughtfully, and I remembered how he handled things the night before, not bothering Glenn with the details.

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