AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Worry twinged in my heart. “You’re going to tell Orson, aren’t you?” I demanded.
Etta sighed and twiddled her fingers nervously.
“You must have known that I have to,” she whispered nervously. “Why else would you come to me?”
I stood, shaking her hands off me.
“It’s not Elijah you should be worrying about,” I growled. “Look in your own family. There are things going on here, happening right under your nose, that you’re ignoring.”
Beneath that hideous mud mask, Etta’s face turned to stone.
“Abby, I like you. I always have. Orson and I took you in when Elijah abandoned you.”
“He didn’t abandon me!” I fired back, but my protests were futile.
She had made up her mind about me, about Elijah. I shouldn’t have come to her.
“Honey, stop looking at me like I’m the enemy,” Etta begged me, but I had to go. “Let me think about what to do.”
Without responding, I headed toward the door, my heart hammering in my throat.
I needed to tell Elijah that the gig was up. Orson was coming for him, and it was all my fault.
Chapter29
Elijah
After Abby left, I was plagued by this unsettling feeling I couldn’t quite shake. It was different from the one that had been with me from the minute I’d received that postcard in Seven Rock. There was static in the air that night, and it was hard to place where it came from.
I called Ash, my fingers still clumsy on the cellular telephone.
“What’s wrong?” the demon asked, answering immediately. I chuckled dryly.
“You think I’m only calling you because something’s wrong?” I teased. “Can’t a man just call and ensure his friend got home all right?”
Ash’s voice softened a notch.
“I’m home now,” he replied. He paused a moment before asking, “Have you made any moves yet?”
I inhaled, steeling my irritation. Between him and Abby, it was difficult not to feel constantly attacked.
“Not yet,” I replied evenly. “But Abby’s given me a deadline. I’m trying to work it out.”
Ash snickered. “Smart girl.”
I hadn’t called for that. “Are we good?”
“What?” Ash laughed. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you left here pissed off. Are we all right?”
I heard him draw in a deep breath.
“Of course we’re good, Elijah. Hearing you were alive was about the best news I could have received. But I have a life in MacShire. I couldn’t stay there with you while you decided what to do aboutyourlife.”
Abby’s been saying the same thing. My indecision is putting everyone at risk.
“But you’re an immortal, Elijah, an Original shifter. You built Pario City and thrived for two hundred years without your memory in some place on the edges of the world. I can’t chide you for doing what you think is best for you.”
