Page 165 of Firestorm
“Landon,” I whispered, sitting up straight as I snatched the book off the table. “Where did you get this?!”
Landon smiled softly at my acknowledgment. “A friend of the family.”
Somehow, I felt like that wasn’t a real answer, though I didn’t care enough to call him on it.
“Thank you,” I murmured, my eyes already tracking across the pages, translating quicker in my mind since I’d been studying the language constantly.
“You’re welcome,” he said. “I’d have got you more, but…this one was hard enough.”
I nodded, my suspicions confirmed. Landon had definitely stolen this book from somewhere.
“Skye, I…I feel horrible.” Landon said softly. “Please speak to me. I can’t bear you ignoring me anymore. You don’t have to…do anything for me. I just want us to be friends again. Or at least, I want you to look at me again. I’m sorry I miscalculated. I’m sorry I asked a horrible thing of you.”
I rubbed my eyes before looking back up at him. “It’s alright, Landon. I’m not angry you asked me to do something horrible. It was just a lot to take in. I have a lot going on in my personal life at the moment, too, so…”
Landon tentatively pulled out a chair and slid in across from me. “I did need to talk to you about something, though.”
I almost groaned. I did not have time for this shit.
“Okay,” I sighed with resignation. Landon chewed his lip for a moment before he settled into his seat.
“I think something bad is going to happen.” Landon said.
“Okay,” I said slowly.
“No, I mean…there was this meeting and…it’s so hard to talk to you. Holy shit.” Landon dropped his face to his hands and rubbed his eyes while I held back a laugh.
“I’m sorry? I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.” I said.
“It’s not you,” Landon sighed. “I just get in my head. It’s so hard rectifying who you are with what you are.”
I bristled. “No, it’s not, Landon. I’m not…a God.”
Landon shook his head with a smirk. “I know you have to say that, but I know the truth. You don’t have to hide with me.”
I stared at him for a moment in utter disbelief before my eyes dropped back down to the journal, my place officially lost. I’d have to send this out to Zephyr as-is, which meant he’d be bitching about my handwriting.
“I heard some things at this gala my parents attended recently,” Landon said.
I took in a deep breath before closing the journal and focusing on him. “Okay.” I prompted.
“The Crusader…” Landon breathed out slowly. “He has this code name for someone. He’s been looking for this person for years, almost to the point of madness.”
My stomach began to churn.
“He calls them Phantom,” he said softly. “You ever heard of it?”
I shook my head and held my hands together in my lap to keep them from trembling.
Landon looked at me like he knew I was lying, but he continued. “He got close to them, once. His Sensor found the Phantom at a festival down in the Gulf Capitol.”
My legs began to shake, the familiar numbness spreading through me. I knew exactly where this story was going.
“He almost caught them,” he went on. “But they killed several of his men when cornered. Now he suspects they’re just like him. That they have the divine affinity.”
“It’s not divine,” I barely spoke in a whisper.
There was nothingdivineabout my affinity. Nothing divine about an affinity that acted without my own prompting to cause absolute devastation.
