AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tomorrow and forever.
Though the thoughts are like linked circuits inside, they make me squirm and ache. Even the knowledge of Maximus’s approach isn’t enough of a balm. It gets a little better during the two seconds that Maximus takes to pull back and kick his front door shut. But right after, he’s back to doubling his grip on me.
I return the pressure in full. I can’t get close enough to him…
“Little demon,” he breathes into my hair. “Are you okay?”
Softly, I nod. My replying words aren’t so tender. “Why did you go? And not even tell me?”
“I’m sorry.” He tucks his head and presses his lips to mine with fervent intent. “I’m so, so sorry. But you were with Circe and Hecate. And I developed deeper…concerns about them.”
“Concerns?” The challenge comes from Jaden, who chomps on a couple of cashews before rising again. “You’re with family, man. Cut the niceties. They weren’tconcerns. They were suspicions.”
Maximus may not share the same signal boost that punch up our abilities, but the purity of his intuition is as powerful to watch. He’s already peering into my brother like he’s a rare manuscript.
“You overheard them too?” he queries. “What’d they say?”
Jaden shakes his head. “It was some of the others. But there was enough verbal waltzing around the Hecate maypole that I walked away with some real…suspicions.”
“And then he came and found me,” I say. “And made me realize how callow it was for me to initially shrug off your worries…”
“Hey. Not all the way off.” Maximus gently busses my forehead. “You just had a loyal pull to Hecate, and rightfully so. If you didn’t, I’d have been equally uneasy.”
“Uneasy? Or as totally bulldozed as you are now?” Kell cants her head and taps her nose. “Sorry. Can’t be helped. The smell’s pouring off you like twelve guys on a construction site.”
Maximus hauls in heavy air. He shores up his own stance to the point of releasing me from his side. Not all the way. One of his hands scoops around mine with purposeful strength. “You’re probably right. But I’m definitely not sorry.”
“Maximus?” I question as we head into the living room. I don’t release him from my stare even as we lower onto the couch. “I tracked your phone when you wouldn’t pick up my calls. We know you went to Alameda. To the research library.”
“I figured,” he says, securing my hand tighter. “I tracked you back and was relieved as hell to see you on approach to downtown. But that also means that we likely don’t have much time.”
I sit up straighter. Nail him with a frown. “Time? For what?”
“Did you leave Iremia without Hecate’s clearance?”
“Ermmm…” I readjust my position, more as a lame excuse to process his answer-that-isn’t. Not by one syllable. “To the best of my knowledge, yes. I mean, without Circe to run a cover story or Arden to do—well, whatever he magically does—”
“Not this time.”
“Huh?”
I’m unsure if I’m reacting to his interruption or the action that comes with it. No way did I expect, in this moment at least, to watch him sheepishly glance away from me.
“Afraid I might’ve claimed the Prieto VIP ticket,” he mutters, looking to Kell and Jaden as they drop into the leather easy chairs to either side of us. “He got me to Alameda in record time, which resulted in some strange and optimal timing.”
Jaden wraps his hands around the edges of his chair. “Now I’m almost afraid to ask.”
Secretly, I second the disclosure. What am I supposed to think as Maximus uses the moment to wrap his other hand around both of mine?
“Arden helped Jesse and me with an informational deep dive about Hecate. None of us found anything that would logically link her to all these backroom talks about preparing for war—until we had a pair of visitors in the library.”
Now I’m the one tightening my grip. I’m not comfortable with the nervousness that climbs through his own composure. It leads me to an awful conclusion. One I can’t ignore any more than the creature who first inspired these feelings in both of us—just three nights ago.
“Megaera,” I blurt. “It was her, wasn’t it?”
He gives me a small smile. “Youaremy perceptive little demon.”
I push out heavy air through my nose. “It was McCarthy, wasn’t it? You said visitors, plural. So she was tagging along with the university’s president.”
