Page 77 of Shai

He’d changed a lot over the past few months. When I’d first met him,

he’d been a toy to shape, a fascinating one that I had no intention of sharing, but a toy nevertheless. It had always remained a possibility that I would tire of that toy. “What are you reading?”

Elijah’s gaze jerked to mine, his glazed expression saying he’d forgotten

my presence. Not pretending, then. He flipped the book over so I could see the cover. “It’s a concise history of Russia.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Sounds fascinating. Where did you get it from?”

“I found it in your mother’s room. She had a lot of history books. Most

of them about Egypt, but there were a few about other countries too. I guess that was where her obsession with you being a reincarnated Egyptian God came from.”

“You didn’t believe her?”

Elijah’s stare said he was considering his answer carefully, his brow

furrowing slightly. “Do you?”

Two could play at answering a question with a question. “Am I a

powerful man?”

“Of course.”

“Do I decide on the fate of all men?”

There was a slightly longer hesitation this time before Elijah answered. “All men, is a bit…”

“A bit what?”

Elijah’s gaze dropped to his lap to study the cover of the book as if his life depended on memorizing every aspect of it.

I helped him out. “Do I control your fate?”

His gaze lifted to mine, a question in his blue eyes. “I don’t know.”

I gestured at the window to indicate the outside world. “Could you leave if you wanted to?”

Elijah turned his head to stare out of the window. “I could, but you’d find me and you’d bring me back.” He shook his head. “But that’s beside the point, because I don’t want to leave.”

“No?”

The bright blue gaze held mine. “No.”

“What if I told you to leave?”

He swallowed, his throat moving convulsively. “You wouldn’t do that.”

“Wouldn’t I?” I let the question hang between us, the air weighted with cloying tension, Elijah not seeming to know what to do with his hands.

There was a slight tremor in his voice when he spoke. “I don’t know.”

I rephrased the question. “If I told you to leave today, what would you do?”

He turned his face away so that I could no longer see his expression. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know a lot.”