AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re going to have to tell your brothers what I did. They’re going to send me away. I’m surprised Nathaniel hasn’t done either of those things already.”
He reached over and took my hand, rubbing his thumb over my fingers. “I told them I knew who poisoned the cookies but that I wasn’t exposing the person because it was taken care of and had nothing to do with the peace talks. Eventually, they may find out. I may have to tell them, but I promise, Cal will not send you away. I will make sure of it.”
Relief washed over me, and I smiled. “Thank you. I want to help Nathaniel and everyone else bring peace.”
“I know you do.”
We gathered up our things and left the café. More people had come and were gawking, but at least they had been witness to my civility. Jeff held my hand again, and I found I enjoyed it. When we reached the jeep, he opened my door to allow me to slide into the vehicle just as he always did. When he closed me in, I couldn’t hide my smile of excitement. It wasn’t a date, but it had been nice all the same. Maybe I had a friend?
I snorted at myself. Yeah, a friend who had lips that could turn me into a puddle.
“Ready to head back and grab Nate?” Jeff asked as he pulled back onto the road.
My nose wrinkled. “Not really, but I suppose we should do the mature thing and go do our jobs.”
He let out a loud laugh and drove us out of town.
“You didn’t get to talking about what you wanted to earlier.” I’d turned my body to look at him. “Want to talk about it now?”
Jeff thought for a moment before nodding. “Probably should. Carmon took Nate with him so I could have this conversation with you. I just don’t know where to start.”
Hopefully he didn’t hear me gulp. “The beginning. Start at the beginning.”
“Lady Life’s speech before Nate started talking, that was for me.”
“You’re sure? It was a bit cryptic.”
He looked at me and said, “Yes. I’m sure.”
“Okay, what makes you sure?”
“When I heard Nate talk about Consorts and describe them, I knew she meant the first part for me. She let us go early so I could sort through things.”
“What things?” He was starting to make me nervous. First his brother had taken Nathaniel and now he needed to sort through things. With me around? Her speech had been before Nathaniel’s info dump. He’d talked about our lack of history, our aging, Consorts, and…
My brain stalled on that last idea. But there was no way! Yet, it was the one thing Jeff had mentioned he hadn’t known.
“You don’t think?” I couldn’t finish the question, my heart in my throat and dread sitting in the pit of my abdomen. Not dread over having him as a Consort, but that I’d nearly killed him.
His expression said everything, but he still opened his mouth to respond. “Y—"
A small explosion went off, and the jeep jerked. Jeff grabbed hold of the wheel to gain control. It didn’t work. We were swerving. Everything happened so fast. The side of the road and the trees were flying in our direction. Someone screamed.
“Hold on!”
Jeff’s warning came as the jeep could no longer right itself and we were flipping over. We rolled and rolled. The airbags went off, slamming into me. My stomach was nauseous. One of us was going to be hurt.
The jeep came to a halt against something hard. Pain shot through my right side, and I blacked out.
“Open your eyes, little one. That’s it. Good job.”
I was out of the car and the light of day was fading. Trees, branches bare of leaves, stood tall around me. Then there was the small smile on the face of a lethally beautiful Healing and Love Elemental.
“Hello, Noodles. It’s nice to have you back.”
My head wanted to explode, but already that pain was ebbing.
“I think I prefer how you talked to me before I woke up.”
