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“Then let’s get on with it, sparky.”
With her hands still clenched in his shirt, the now-familiar sensation of the teleport jumbled her senses seconds later. Her vision cleared from within Isaiah’s protective embrace, and she saw the indigo and gold-tinged sky hinting toward oncoming dusk.
Around them were rows and rows of imposing homes, each easily worth millions. Scoffing, Rukia stepped back. “Which one is theCitizens’house?”
“That one.”
Isaiah jerked his chin toward the stately white mansion across the road from where he’d teleported them. Pristine green grass and manicured bushes trimmed the expansive real estate, the ivory white of the home’s exterior stark and immaculate.
Rukia didn’t step away from Isaiah, still coveting his closeness. Under cover of a large hedge, no one would have seen their supernatural arrival.
“I’m going to raise water from the earth. Erode the foundation beneath the home,” Rukia said, concentrating on pulling her element up from the deep. “To anyone other than the Citizens, it’ll look like a natural spring or burst pipe.”
Isaiah’s eyes were locked on the home, narrowing in focus. “No minds in the home.” He cocked his head, the expression oddly inhuman. “There is, however, a gas-burning stove. It’ll be easy to leave the gas on and blame a leak. No one will know the difference.”
He turned to pin her with a guarded stare. “There’s no going back after we do this, Rukia.”
“They should’ve thought about that when they killed Gideon.”
A solemn nod, and then his attention turned back to the home. Concentration imbued his features, a tick starting in his jaw. A pulse of power echoed in the air, a fleeting vibe of pressure against her before Isaiah’s attention turned back to Rukia.
“The gas is on and I’ve turned off the alarms. Now, we simply wait for it to accumulate.”
On the grounds of the home, water had sprung forth from the lush green grass. It’d begun to pool in the low-lying areas, and soon became a murky brown. Before long, Rukia would ensure it’d crack the foundation of the home, making it impossible to rebuild without a complete overhaul.
Rukia gazed across the deserted street to the home that sat empty across from them. A sense of justice flooded the empty spaces within her, drowning in the need to see the structure fully collapsed.
But their revenge wasn’t the reason why her soul was churning. The reason for that lay in the man who still held her hostage in his arms.
Seconds later, she saw a flare of brightness in one of the windows. The Raeth beside her pulsed with the subtle strength of his power, the heat of it an intangible pressure against her skin. When the fire caught quickly and began flaring to life behind the windows, she knew it was his doing.
And even as the smoke began to rise toward the darkening sky, Rukia continued to call her element from the water table below them.
“Does this do your soul well?”
Quiet, Isaiah’s voice was a beacon in the coming darkness. As Rukia watched the flames build, she realized that the retribution she’d expected to feel so potently had fallen flat. The absence had left a sinking feeling in her gut, a ball of pressure that’d suddenly deflated.
Shaking her head, she frowned. “I’d expected to feel something. Justice. Revenge. Accomplishment.” She scoffed ruefully before her eyes found his. “But the only thing I feel is a need to be close to you.”
The man stiffened against her, the soft blush of his breath whispering across her skin as he exhaled into the air between them, and his gaze darted away.
“We’re fated mates, aren’t we?”
When Isaiah didn’t immediately respond, her fingertips closed softly around his jaw as she forced him to look down at her. Her knuckles dug into her breastbone, her eyebrows knitting together with the strength of her emotion.
“I can feel you here, Isaiah. Being without you kills a part of me.”
A tortured look passed behind Isaiah’s eyes as he searched hers. “I’m too dangerous, Rukia. I could kill you with a single slip of my power.”
“And you think you just get to make all the decisions?” Rukia shot back, quirking her lips contemptuously. “You’re arrogant—and a total, unmitigated jerk. When are you going to learn that you’ll never be able to control me?”
She saw the reluctance in his eyes, but she continued undaunted. “Stop harboring guilt. When your gift took the life of those assassins, it wasprotectingyou. That doesn’t mean you’ll end up hurting me, Isaiah.”
“It wasn’t only assassins, Rukia.” Remorse reigned over his features as sirens sounded in the distance. “My abilities have harmed innocent people before.”
Rukia braced herself. “When?”
He took a shaky breath, shame and guilt creeping into his face. “When I was a child, I nearly killed the instructor who was training me. If my ability had been fully developed, it’d have killed him. It was how they knew I was destruction.”
