Page 31 of 'Til All the Seas Run Dry

“What?” he asked, his hold on her strong and steady, his gaze anything but.

“You’re not leaving until you tell me where it is.”

“Where what is, Mar—Jory? I dinnae ken what you’re talking about.”

“My sealskin,” she said, her teeth bared. “You stole it and it’s mine and I want it back.”

“Your… sealskin?” he asked.

“Yes. My sealskin. I want it back.”

He got a look in his eye. A gleam that was sharp. Just for a moment before it disappeared. If she hadn’t been glaring at him, she would have missed it. But it sliced through the forlorn look he’d had all evening.

“Don’t even think of lying to me, Callum MacLeod. After all the lying you’ve done. You can’t?—”

“All the lying I have done. All the lyingIhave done? I never lied to you a day in our lives. But you? Och, you did a whole lot of lying, aye?Jory?”

Her name felt like a weapon in his mouth.

But he wasn’t wrong.

“So let’s trade honesty, aye?” Callum said, gripping her ass and pushing against her, even closer than they were before. He was angry now.Good.They could be angry together. “You tell me your tale, you tell me how many lies you told me. From the beginning. And I’ll tell you where it is.”

“You’re blackmailing me?”

“Nay. I’m offering an even exchange. I’ll give ye your sealskin. Though why the fuck you’re so concerned about it, I cannae guess.”

“Because it’s all I have!”

“All you have?All you have?I’m here after a thousand years of missing you,grieving you, making my life worthy of having had you in it. Lifetimes apart, Jory.Lifetimes.And a goddamn animal hide isall you have?”

“You left me,” she said, clinging to that bit of high ground with her fingertips.

“Aye. I left. Toavengeyou!” Callum barked.

Jory’s head was swimming again. He was too close, intoxicatingly close. Avenge her? Against whom? She had no enemies. She never had. The attack on the beach all those years ago had been an act of random, senseless violence. Against the both of them. Hadn’t it? Unless…

“What do you know about that night?” she asked.

He froze, his hard, cool body going even more rigid around her.

“I have secrets, Callum. But do not stand here and pretend that you don’t have any of your own.”

His throat worked, bobbing with a heavy swallow.

“You’re not going anywhere, Callum. Not until we have this out. Youoweme.”

He looked as if he would speak, as if he would answer for himself. She waited, the night around them cold and crisp and quiet. But in a flash, she found herself standing on her own two feet, leaning against the shed. Faster than she could blink, he had gently set her down and stepped away from her, standing ten or so feet away.

“I’m sorry, Jory,” he whispered.

And then, in a blur of movement, he was gone.

13

At precisely ten o’clock the next morning, Magda and Esther breezed through the door of Jory’s shop with Styrofoam cups of to-go coffee and tea, a bag of donuts, and a large bottle of honey. They were an excellent pair as Esther was always ten minutes late to everything and Magda always seemed to be ten minutes early; with their powers combined, they usually arrived exactly on time.

Not that it really mattered. They were packing up and shipping orders since more than half of the stock that Jory had brought back from New Mexico had sold in a frenzy that had surprised and bewildered Jory and Esther. It was Sunday and the store was closed, giving them the whole day to work undisturbed. Unfortunately, that also meant that Esther and Magda would have unlimited, unfettered access to Jory to ask her anything they wanted without any real chance of escape.