Page 54 of Cast in Shadow
The ache in my core coiled a little tighter, and I forced myself to look at anything that wasn’t him.
A few seconds ticked by before he leaned against the Jeep beside me. “What about Navali?”
Thank the gods.
If he’d made a move to touch me, or to comfort me, I would have been helpless to stop him. As helpless as I would have been if he’d shoved me against the Jeep and pinned me there with a searing kiss.
And nowthatimage was playing in my head like a movie. Fabulous.
Emerson cleared his throat. “I’m trying to behave myself over here, but you’re not making it easy.”
Sonofabitch.I slammed my mental door shut.
How much of that did he pick up on? From the way he was watching me, with so much hunger it sent a wave of goosebumps galloping across my cooling flesh, he’d felt all of it.
His expression sharpened, eyes narrowed. “You’ve put a lot of work into keeping me out.”
I had to. It was the only way to survive.
“About Navali,” I said, deliberately shifting the conversation. “I think I know what she’s planning.”
He didn’t respond right away, but instead of pushing the issue of my mental barriers, he lifted one dark brow and motioned for me to go on.
“If I’m right, we might want to consider working together to take her down.” Even just saying it out loud felt like a horrible idea, especially after what Phineas had done to my people.
“Hmm.” He brought his hand up, running his knuckles along his strong jaw. “Is that because you want an excuse to work closely with me or because you need something I can provide?”
The ego on this guy. But it wasn’t like he was entirely off the mark.
“Honestly? I’m not sure. Maybe a little of both.”
“A weak truth and a hedge. You can do better than that.” His tone took on a demanding edge, but I heard the undercurrent. He genuinely wanted to know.
“Not if I want to keep my sanity,” I confessed.
Disappointment lingered in his heavy exhale, but he didn’t press. He just folded his arms over his chest and said, “Walk me through what you’re thinking about the witch.”
“We have footage of an attack at a campsite from yesterday.”I had to pause and think for a minute. Had it really only been one day since that whole nightmare? With everything that had gone down in between, it felt like a week had passed. “It was her,” I went on. “That much was clear on the video, but she’s playing with a hell of a lot more power than before.”
I turned and opened the driver’s door, fishing my tablet from between the seat and the center console. It only took a few seconds to enter my passcode and find the copy of the video clip I’d sent to myself this morning for just this occasion.
“Watch.” I hit play on the video and handed him the device.
“What am I looking for?”
“You’ll see.”
“Are those all bodies?” He asked the question clinically, like the sight of them didn’t affect him at all. Probably because it didn’t.
As hard as it was to admit that some part of my heart still belonged to Emerson, it was even harder to see him for what he really was sometimes. When I looked at him, I still saw a ruggedly attractive man with a dark brow, a square jaw, eyes that could see into the very depths of me, and lips that were six kinds of sinful. All that handsomeness rested on top of strong shoulders that tapered down into a leanly muscled waist. And damn, he had the ass and legs of a dedicated mountain biker.
The problem was, Emerson wasn’t a man. He was a demon, and his view of human life was worlds different from mine.
He watched the rest of the video with that same emotionally detached interest. Handing my tablet back, he nodded. “She’s found some powerful dark magic, which officially makes this Brethren territory.”
“She’s also a witch. Which makes her my problem,” I said firmly.
“Then we split the job. You take care of her, and I’ll take care of stripping her magic.”
