AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Was this how the gods saw us? Small and inconsequential, the ugly machinery of an otherwise stunning world? Did they think of Earth like their own version of this adult playground, where everything was theirs to use, create, and destroy, whatever whim happened to be guiding them that day?
I pressed my fingertips against the cool glass, tracing the outline of one of the huge signs below. It was so easy to ignore the problems of everyone down there. If I couldn’t see their faces, then what did the trials and troubles of their lives matter?
But I felt lonely and isolated too, even with Cade standing next to me, knowing how badly I wanted to touch him and also how dangerous that could be for us both.
This sight was lovely, but it left me conflicted and a little cold.
I’m pretty sure his intention had been to dazzle me with a nice nighttime postcard glimpse of the city. I suspected he wanted me to react somehow, so I went with the first thing that came to my head. “It’s lovely. Don’t you find it distracting though?”
He shook his head. “No. I’m almost never here to see it.”
The wistful way he said it made me think of my view at home. It might as well have been a poster, for the amount of enjoyment I was able to get out of it. Yet on those few rare occasions I got to stand there long enough to drink in Rainier and the Space Needle, it felt like I was the heroine in a romantic comedy and this was my too-perfect-for-real-life apartment.
Sometimes, I actually felt very lucky.
I wondered if that was a sensation Cade had ever had in his entire life.
I also wondered if the reason he’d brought me here was because he wanted to pretend, however briefly, that he was a normal man and I was a normal woman, and this was something we could share together.
That was so simple it made my chest hurt.
I didn’t dare take his hand, even in the darkness, not trusting either myself or the plethora of cameras that were likely following his every move. Instead I took a half step closer and let my pinky finger graze the side of his.
He jerked slightly at my touch, as if a shock had woken him from a long slumber. I worried he might pull away, but he bumped my shoulder lightly with his.
“Thank you for showing me this,” I whispered.
“Sparky?”
I wondered how I could have ever hated hearing him call me that.
“Hmm?”
“I’m glad you’re here.”
That made two of us.
Chapter Seventeen
My sense of peace was not meant to last long.
I should have known.
Cade brought me back to my room, and before I even had a chance to unlock my door, I heard my phone ringing inside. That probably wasn’t a great sign.
Normally all my instructions from the temple came via text or through the iTithe app, so if someone was calling me, it wasn’t for a friendly chat. I doubted it would be Yvonne, because Sawyer had called her while we were checking into the hotel to give her the room number and a little extra peace of mind.
No, I had a good feeling whoever was on the other end of that call, I wasn’t going to be happy about it.
I pushed my way through the door and found the phone where I’d left it on my bed. Cade, who must have been curious about my sudden hurry, had followed me into the suite and was looking around the place like he’d never seen one of these rooms before.
Maybe he was just trying to
pretend he wasn’t listening.
“Hello?” I didn’t recognize the number.
“Tell me something, Rain Chaser, do you think twelve is enough?” The voice on the other end of the phone was distorted, crackling. It sounded like it was being augmented by a computer somehow, making it eerily deep and slow.
