Part 4 (1/2)

It wasn't enough, but I reached for it anyway, kissing him back with the same ferocity, until the only fire I felt was the one that burned for Blake. My hands were in his hair, pulling him closer. He groaned into my mouth. I closed my eyes against the bright silver light that grew around us.

The kiss ended as suddenly as it began, leaving my mouth cold and bruised. Before I could adjust my eyes against the light, there was another blinding flash. I could feel the emptiness where Blake had stood. He was gone.

Black smoke billowed out of the broken window, creating a screen that kept me hidden. It burned my nostrils and throat. I clamped my sweater over my mouth.

I turned toward the street and ran.

EIGHT.

The sun breaks through the clouds, sending rays of sunlight through the cracks in the blinds of the pub's main dining hall. The light casts the morning in a golden glow that's much too bright for my dark mood. A half cup of milk does nothing to temper the too-strong coffee, but I sip it anyway. I'm beginning to understand this country's fascination with tea. At least the coffee's better than the runny eggs and the chunk of igneous rock they try to pa.s.s off as a biscuit.

I slept little, spending half the night trying to work out how Austin could be back and what it might mean, and the other half planning my escape to nowhere in particular. All that matters is that I won't be anywhere near here when Blake arrives.

A shadow falls across my coffee. Austin stands over me, looking far better than when I left him on the beach, his hair combed into some semblance of style despite the unruly strands that fall into his eyes. He wears a pair of dark jeans and a form fitting cream sweater that appears calculated to show off the perfect proportions of lean muscle along his chest and shoulders. He grabs a chair from an adjacent table and pulls it to my table, straddling it backwards and placing his elbows on the back rest.

He glances at the suitcase on the floor beside me. ”You don't have to leave on my account.” His accent is softer than I remember, still more English than Irish.

”I'm pretty sure I do.” His brown eyes meet mine, specks of gold reflecting the morning sunlight. ”Why did you come here? To my home?”

I stare down at my coffee. I don't owe Austin an explanation.

”So that's it then. You're not going to talk to me?” Austin leans forward and lowers his voice. ”I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't this.”

The bandia in me is there in an instant, all fire and vengeance. ”I'll find a way to hurt you.” I want to do more than hurt him. I want to destroy him. It's a fight to keep the fire from leaping to the surface and flambeing my breakfast.

He sighs. ”You think you haven't?”

”Not nearly enough or you would still be locked in up in the underworld where you belong.”

He doesn't respond except to gesture at the mess on my plate. ”You going to eat that?”

”I've lost my appet.i.te.” I push the plate toward him.

He pulls a fork from the setting next to me and digs in, shoveling the slop of eggs into his mouth in a way that is anything but G.o.dly.

”That's attractive.”

”Is it?” He winks at me but doesn't lift his head from the plate. He doesn't try to talk to me again until he's cleaned the last bit of egg with a large hunk of biscuit. ”You can't get a breakfast like that in the underworld. No chickens.”

Curiosity gets the best of me. ”What do you eat?”

His lip quirks. ”Forbidden fruit.”

I don't know why I bother. I reach for my suitcase. ”It's been fun, but I have a train to catch.” A life to live that doesn't include a war between the G.o.ds and the Sons of Killian. And certainly doesn't include the G.o.d who forced me to kill Blake.

He stops me with his gaze, his brown eyes nearly black as they bore into mine. ”Your destiny is here.”

”It's not.” The hint of gold in Austin's eyes glows with an otherworldly light. The cloudiness in my head is the first sign that he's trying to get inside my head. I close my eyes and turn my back on him. ”Stay the h.e.l.l out of my head.”

”I'm not your enemy, Brianna.”

”Sorry, but it's not your call. I'll pick my own sides, thanks.”

He reaches for my wrist as I step away. ”Don't go.”

I jerk my arm from his grasp and spin to face him. A crease forms between his eyebrows, breaking up the sculpted lines of his face. The tiny flaw is magnified on him. He looks almost broken.

I want to hurt him. I want him dead. I should not want to reach out and touch that little imperfection, to smooth it away. I grab my roller bag and walk out of the dingy pub before I do something stupid.

Cath is about as far from a thriving metropolis as you can get, so it's not like there are little yellow cabs cruising up and down the street searching for wayward bandia in need of a lift. A sign across the street proclaims ”taxi,” in big black letters, and I dutifully stand by it, staring at my watch. Austin walks out of the pub a few minutes later. He stays on his side of the street, but I feel his eyes on me.

I turn to face the other direction.

After ten minutes, there's still no sign of anything resembling a taxi. The only traffic consist a tiny beige car, only slightly bigger than the Barbie Jeep I had when I was five. I glance at the clock on my phone and then back across the street.

Austin waves from across the street. ”Do you need a lift?” He walks toward me even though I'm shaking my head. ”I could drop you at the station.”

”I don't accept rides from strangers.”

”Then you're in luck. I'm hardly a stranger.”

”Just strange. And evil. I'll pa.s.s.”

”You think I'm evil?”

I meet his gaze, raising my eyebrows. After everything he's done, what am I supposed to think?

He opens his mouth and closes it again, before it falls open on its own. ”For G.o.d's sake, Brianna, I'm a lot of things, but I'm not evil.”

”Tell it to someone who is too blinded by your inhuman good looks to recognize the snake who thinks it's okay to kill to get what he wants.”

”To protect what I care about.”

All Austin cares about is his stupid war. ”Murder by any other name ... ”

He places his hand on the ”taxi” sign and moves closer to me, invading my personal s.p.a.ce. ”Are you so different? If I recall correctly, you were perfectly willing to try to kill me to save your b.l.o.o.d.y boyfriend.”

”That was different.”

”Was it?”

His words sting. Austin would've killed Blake if I hadn't lobbed a fire ball at him. Then Austin disappeared at the last second and I ended up killing Blake instead of saving him. I would've killed to save Blake, something Austin had counted on, and used against me. But Blake is alive now. I saved him. I cross my arms in front of me. ”I brought him back.”

”What are you talking about?” Austin's eyes narrow. The crease is back, deeper and angrier than before.

”Blake. I brought him back. With the reversal spell you used to save my horse.”

Austin's hand curls into a tight fist before he catches himself and straightens his fingers. He looks past me, out at the harbor beyond the buildings dotting the street. ”Then you've no choice but to run.”

Since when does Austin not want me to fight the Sons? It's the only thing he's ever wanted from me.