Page 120 of Sidhe
Still, he was relieved when he saw Shiarra step out of the library into the hallway, as if she’d been waiting for him. He hurried toward his aunt. He’d been so happy she’d been allowed to stay, and was even happier now, having someone he could talk to about this honestly.
But then he realized how strangely smug and pleased she looked, hip cocked with a delicate hand resting on it. Sasha opened his mouth to question this, how anyone could possibly be confident right now, when she forcefully took him by the arm and dragged him into the library.
“Come here, sexy, we need to talk.”
Sasha blinked dumbly at her. “Uhh…what?”
“Did Nathan, before this mess, spill the beans that Ula’s friend Danny was actually Puck in disguise?”
Sasha pulled his arm from his aunt as they neared the large sofa in the center of the room, and stepped away from her, mute with confusion.
Shiarra winked at him. “Great gal, your aunt. Probably a little pissed at me for the switch though.”
“Wait…what—?” Sasha backed away another step.
She followed him. “Nathan knew that I—meaning Danny, not Shiarra—was actually Puck. I knew he’d send me away, so I devised a plan to make him think he had.” She—he—Puckwiggled Shiarra’s fingers at him in a little wave. “Hi.”
Sasha gaped, filled with a wave of immense relief one moment only to have that brief good feeling crash away from him. It was too late. Puck’s power meant nothing compared to Malak. What could he possibly do to help?
“You talked to Jim, right?” Puck asked, still with Shiarra’s voice, and face, and…everything.
“I, uhh…yes, but what does that have—”
“Then do as he said.”
Sasha backed away another step. Was Puck in on this? Were they all fools? What Jim had told him…
Puck, perfectly executing Shiarra’s saunter, strode from the library with another playful wave, leaving Sasha to the dust and books. He lowered himself onto the sofa numbly, sitting silently for several minutes more, trying to come to terms with everything Jim had told him, with Puck. There was nothing else for him to do but what he’d been told, and the thought of that was worse than any of the nauseating feelings Nathan had stirred within him recently.
He went back to his room as mechanically as he had left it, showered, changed back into his clothes, then prepared to head downstairs to find Nathan. He stopped and changed course when he heard Nathan and Walter’s voices coming from the library.
It seemed Nathan had caught Walter looking up ways to protect against him in the time Sasha had been gone, but Nathan didn’t sound angry. He praised Walter for thinking understandably of protecting himself and others, but not of harming Nathan in any way.
Walter responded honestly. “I do not trust you, Nathan, but I would never want to hurt you.”
Sasha entered on those words, because they mirrored his own feelings only too well. He called to Nathan with a voice he knew sounded numb, but he didn’t know how else to make it sound. “Nathan…I’m ready now.”
He closed his eyes to steal himself, and when he opened them again, Nathan had turned to him and was already moving closer.
“I understand how Walter feels,” Sasha said. “I can’t even imagine what you’re capable of. None of us can. That scares me. I look at you and I’m…terrified.” He squeezed his eyes shut a moment more, feeling hot tears slip free down his cheeks. “But I don’t want to be. Nate…”
“Let me show you how it can be,” Nathan said as he reached him, not bothering to change his eyes from red on black to green this time. “Then you’ll understand. You won’t be afraid anymore. Like Jim. And it can be the three of us again.”
“Y-Yeah…show me, Nate,” Sasha said. It was the only way.
Smiling brilliantly, Nathan merely brushed Sasha’s hair at first, kissed him briefly, leaving Walter completely forgotten. Then those two fingers came up and pressed firm to Sasha’s forehead.
Nothing Sasha had told himself earlier could have prepared him for how it felt the moment those fingers made contact with his skin; the sheer rush of heat, power, pure energy, all carried on the wings of Nathan’s emotions that sang with victory.
It was just as Jim said it would be, so glorious, so thrilling that Sasha never wanted to feel any other way again. He could feel his eyes flickering, feel how his body was changing and growing, so powerful, so fitting to be at Nathan’s side. When Nathan pulled his hand away, Sasha knew, knew with every fiber in him that there was no going back now.
Chapter 43
Walter
BeforeWalterknewwhatwas happening, Nathan touched his fingers to Sasha’s forehead. The way Sasha changed after that was terrible to witness.
Blue eyes flickered back and forth to red, Sasha literally growing, becoming taller,largeras the incubus side of him was drawn out—horns, white skin, black wings and claws. But Walter knew Sasha wasn’t usually quite so large when he changed, or his horns that ominous, his claws that sharp, the extra bit of fangs on his lower teeth like the ones on the top. This was a different Sasha. The one Walter remembered from the cave; the one he’d saved Nathan from.
