Page 57 of Into Darkness (Night Prowler 6)
His words came back to haunt her. She wondered, looking at his stiffening posture, if they haunted him, too.
She wondered, for the hundredth time, what had happened to him to make him so . . . him.
He went on as if she hadn’t spoken. “I think we’ll have to leave the copter as soon as we cross the Channel and continue on foot; security will have been significantly stepped up. Patrols will be tighter, including air patrols. Beckett’s intel suggests that anywhere east of Antwerp and south of Amsterdam will be rough going.”
“But that’s exactly where you’re headed!” protested Demetrius, drawing a line with his finger from the English Channel to New Vienna.
His voice grim, Magnus said, “Correct.”
“There’s another way you could get in. One that doesn’t require a helicopter.”
This from Honor, who sat beside Lu with her trademark pissed-off expression. They’d had an epic argument about the pros and cons of her staying to guard the colony versus joining Magnus and Lu on their hunt as she’d wanted to, and eventually—after a small earthquake that dislodged quite a few of the older, larger stalactites from the cave roof—she’d relented.
Barely.
Now she glanced Lu’s way, with a small, knowing smile on her lips.
“No,” said Magnus, with enough volume that it echoed off the walls.
“Forget it,” said Lu simultaneously. The thought of flying over Europe as a dragon with Magnus straddling her back held all kinds of weird connotations.
Honor shrugged, then began inspecting her fingernails with interest. Coward.
Call me that one more time, thought Lu, reddening, and the next time we see Beckett, I’ll roast off all your clothes.
Honor inhaled a sharp breath, and glared at her.
Lu glared back. Yes. I figured out how to do it. Don’t test me.
You are such a bitch!
Call the kettle black much, pot?
Stop it!
This new, unexpected voice brought Lu up short. She looked at Magnus, who looked back at her with steel in his eyes, the first time he’d made eye contact with her since their kiss. Beside her, Honor glanced back and forth between the two of them with narrowed eyes.
What? Honor asked suspiciously, and that’s when Lu realized her sister couldn’t hear Magnus. His voice was for her, and her alone, which made her strangely satisfied. And more than a little confused.
Nothing. Lu lowered her gaze to the tabletop, gnawing the inside of her cheek.
“Jack, can you set us up with some of your people? We’ll need at least five nights’ lodging, maybe six, on our way into the city.” Magnus continued aloud, his voice controlled, his attention back on the map, as if nothing at all had happened. Lu might have wondered at his control if two of the words he’d just spoken hadn’t jumped up and seized her around the neck.
Five. Nights.
The tabletop became incredibly fascinating. She examined every minute scratch and chip and flow of the grain, willing herself not to linger on those words, or on their meaning, or on the myriad possibilities that lay therein. Beneath the convenient cover of her hair, her ears grew hot.
“You got it,” replied Jack. “And for the way out? I assume you’ll want different places?”
Magnus paused before he spoke, so long that Lu glanced up at him. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” he said darkly. His gaze flicked to hers. Finding her staring back at him, he turned his head away, but not before she saw the strange resignation in his eyes. Something about it made her skin crawl.
Carefully, she raised one mental wall, and lowered another, unsure if this exercise would work.
What is it, Magnus?
His lips thinned. Beside her, Honor showed no sign she’d heard Lu’s question, so Lu kept her face carefully neutral, her gaze in the middle distance, focused on nothing.
I really wish you wouldn’t do that, came Magnus’s curt response, his face still turned away.
