Page 98 of Rise of the Melody
It had been him all along. Looking in my window. Gods, had he seen me naked? I didn’t think so, but the thought wasn’t doing anything to cool my face or slow my heartbeat.
“Have you always been able to shift? I mean, which one of your parents did you get that from?”
“No,” he said, turning over my makeup palate in his hands. “And neither.”
“Then how?—”
“There you go again.”
I bit my bottom lip, trying not to be irritated by his very irritating secrecy. “Thanks for your help with the kelpie,” I told him. “Both times.”
He didn’t acknowledge my gratitude, only asking, “How is the Cù?”
“Dr. Patel said he’s going to be fine.”
“’Course he is.” He finally stopped moving around and looked at me. “You entranced Teague.”
Nausea rolled up my torso and I had to lean against the window seat. “I didn’t know he was there.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
He was right, of course. Teague was shook-up. The mayor was pissed. My friends and their parents looked terrified. It didn’t matter that I’d been doing exactly what I was told to do. Teague had been a victim of friendly fire, but still a victim in their eyes.
“I thought about disappearing,” I admitted. “But I can’t leave my aunt. What do you think your dad will do to me? Turn me in?”
The only good thing about being banished was that I could try to find my parents in H’trae. That’s if the Synod didn’t decide to kill me instead. I rubbed my face.
“I don’t know my da anymore, so I couldn’t venture a guess. But I still need you, so I won’t let anything happen to you.”
I bristled. “What are you planning to do?”
He shrugged noncommittally and I glared at his handsome face. Annoyance raked over me. So much had happened tonight. My emotions were all over the place and adrenaline still spiked my bloodstream. I stepped closer to Zar. Close enough to be in his personal bubble of space, making his whole frame stiffen. I looked up into his face.
“How are you going to use me?”
His light eyes slightly widened, and his nostrils gave the tiniest of flares. Being so close to him felt dangerous. He was a live wire looking for an outlet for his electricity. One tiny touch….
I raised a hand. Slowly. He didn’t move, but his body went even more rigid as his eyes bore into mine. My hand cupped the air around his face, a mere inch from his skin.
“Don’t,” he whispered.
But I wanted to. So badly. I had more questions about Zar than answers, yet there was something about him. Something between us.
As if reading my thoughts, he whispered, “You can’t always have what you want.”
My heart hammered as the next words came out. “What if, maybe, you want it too?”
His eyes heated until it felt like an inferno had stoked a circle around us.
“You presume too much,” he ground out.
Did I? I understood that Zar wasn’t like most boys I knew. But I got the sense that he felt something for me. The way he studied me. The way he was always around. Near. Was it only because I was a tool for him?
If this was all in my mind, I wanted to know, because I’d never gone after someone if I wasn’t sure they felt the same.
“Then deny it, Zar.” My body thrummed with the need to touch his face, to press my body to his. To show him touch could be safe and wonderful. But I wouldn’t touch him without his permission.
His eyes were feral in that moment. Wide and wild, darting around my face as if seeking signs of danger, or possible safety. Gods, he looked so…torn. What had this boy been through? I’d never met anyone as tortured as Zar MacCray.
