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Kelly came back on Saturday.
He looked tired.
He said, “Don’t worry about it,” when I asked him.
I was desperate for a friendly face. The confrontation with Rico the day before had left me shaken. I didn’t know what was happening. My dreams were vivid, bright colors and wolves and trees, but they were all mixed together. It was disorienting.
I said, “Why?”
“Why what?” he asked, blanket in his lap. He set his book on the floor beside him.
“Why are you keeping me here?”
“You belong here.”
He sounded so sure of himself. “What’s stopping them from coming for me?”
Them. He didn’t need me to clarify. “Wards.”
“Wards can be manipulated.”
“They can,” he said slowly. “But not these. At least we don’t think so. It isn’t just Gordo’s magic. There are… others involved.”
“Others,” I repeated.
“Witches.”
“Who?”
He shook his head. “I can’t answer that. At least not now.”
“Because you don’t trust me.”
“Do you trust me?”
I didn’t answer.
I didn’t need his scent to know that that hurt him. He covered it up quickly. “My father taught me that generals of old used to meet in the battlefield before the fighting started to parlay. War is… expensive. Casualties come at great cost.”
“And you all think it’s going to come to that.”
“It might. Or it might not. We’re on one side of the country. They’re on the other.”
“Am I your prisoner?”
“Yes,” he said bluntly. “You are. And it has nothing to do with whether or not we can trust you. It’s because we want to keep you safe. Livingstone has a hold over you. He can trigger you.”
“Would you hear me, dear?” I whispered.
Kelly nodded. “How did that make you feel? When he said that?”
“Like nothing hurt. Calm. Happy. Like I was floating.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Is this why you come down here? So you can ask me questions and report back to your Alphas? Did they send you down here to dig for information?”
He shrugged. “Yes. But that’s not all it is. I want to see you as much as I can. I want to touch you. I want to lay my head in your lap and have your hand in my hair. I want you to smile
at me like you know me. Like I’m the only thing you see.”
“Don’t,” I said hoarsely. “Just… don’t.”
