The last thing I remember is going up to change my clothes. I must have lain down and fallen asleep, but it can’t have been long. I’m also not sure if was seven. Maybe it was six?
I rub the tips of three fingers into my brow like that might help me remember.
“Hey,” Roan captures my wrist and turns me physically away from the thing. “Don’t worry about that.” His free hand tucks beneath my chin and my focus is lifted to his face, his wild tangle of hair disheveled by my fingers. “Come back with us, Rina. The time we spent without you was the hardest I’ve ever had to endure and I don’t think I’m strong enough to do it again.”
I force a chuckle I feel no humor in, trying to ease the gut-wrenching pain in his eyes.
“What are you talking about? We’re only a few hours by plane.” I reach up and touch the hard knot flexing at his cheek. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
His answer is to grab my fingers and bring my palm to his lips. His sigh burns with a frustration that cuts at my heart. His dark eyes bear down into mine with a plea I’m restless to fix.
“I need you home with us, baby. I need you with me. I need to know you’ll be there when I wake up.” His free hand slips around my middle and I’m drawn into the solid weight of his chest. Pulled in for his brow to rest over mine. “Don’t make me live without you, Rina. I will follow you into hell if I have to.”
The absolute seriousness of his words anchors into my heart and drags it down into my stomach where it settles like a rock.
“What are you talking about?” I say again, desperate.
Scared.
Even as my arms bind around his shoulders like that might keep him from vanishing, I know it’s not enough.
He kisses me softly but with such aching need, I nearly cry.
“I’m sorry.” He lifts his head enough to bump my nose with his. “I told them not to let me go first.” The corner of his mouth tilts and it’s almost like his usual grin, without the light in his eyes. “I’m weak without you.”
He gives a faint chuckle that I can’t bring myself to return. Even when he pulls back and brightens his smile, I don’t feel its warmth. But I let him take my hands and lead me the rest of the way into the living room where Kellen and Lukan have dragged the armchairs next to the roaring fire snapping in the hearth.
A stack of Aunt Laura’s books sit at their feet and each have one in hand. Flipped open in their laps.
“No!” I gasp, rushing forward. “Don’t touch those.”
The words have barely left my tongue when Lukan fists several pages and tears them from the spine. The intricate swirl of ink is tossed into the inferno where they’re caught by fingers of flame and devoured.
Charred remains litter the stone grate. They dance in the air, tiny embers that shrivel and dissolve into the scorched log.
“Hey, sweetheart.” Lukan glances up as I edge a step closer. Not too close. “Sleep okay?”
I give a faint nod, but my attention is fixed on the ruined remains of Aunt Laura’s collection.
“What are you doing? Those were Aunt Laura’s. I cataloged them. Jenna will kill me—”
Roan slips up behind me and eases his arms across my center. I’m drawn back into his chest.
“They had to go, baby,” he murmurs into my ear. “They’re not safe.”
“But...”
Kellen chucks a scrunched fistful of pages in after Lukan, slaps his book shut and pushes to his feet.
Roan immediately releases me and steps aside as Kellen moves to tower before me.
“They’re evil,” he says quietly. “You know they are.”
I do know, but that doesn’t mean we can just come in and destroy things, and I tell him as much.
“Do you think Jenna would keep them or sell them?” he counters, cutting me off mid rant.
I blink. “I don’t...”
