Court the Fire (Son of Rain #3) Read online

  She sat up with a laugh. “True love?”

  I sat up as well. My palm scrubbed at my neck as I tried to explain it without frightening her off. It had taken me a long time to understand it—could I really expect her to come to terms with it within minutes? “At least that’s the best English approximation.”

  “Is that agape?” she asked.

  I was surprised she’d picked up on the connection so quickly. “Something like that.”

  “Like what, soul mates?” Her brow furrowed and she turned away from me. “Are you trying to say this was all fate or something?”

  The prophecy of the fae, passed down to Shakespeare, also leapt to my mind at the mention of fate.

  It has to be coincidence, that’s all.

  “It’s not really like that.” I tried to find words that Zarita had used, but because I’d been in such a dark place when she’d uttered them, I couldn’t easily recall the exact way she’d made it all make sense for me. I worried that I was explaining it wrong and wished I had her on hand to help. “At first I thought it might be too, but I read more about the concept, and that’s not what it’s about. It’s about finding the other part of yourself, the one who understands you. Or the part of you that holds the sunbird at least. Apparently, the sunbird mates for life.”

  “But what happens when she sleeps?”

  “I don’t know.” It was something I hadn’t considered too much since learning the truth. I didn’t want to consider it too much. The thought was too depressing.

  What if everything we feel just disappears?

  It was what I’d thought I wanted when I’d first left for Europe, but now I could only imagine one thing that would be worse: if the passion we felt still burned in me but returned to slumber in her. If that happened, I would be forced to endure the agony of watching her walk away again. I tried not to frown as I sought to reassure her the best I could without offering outright lies. “All I know is that I love you and you’re the one that I want to be with. Since the very first time I met you, I’ve felt a connection to you. I’ve barely been able to get you off my mind since.”

  To my surprise, Evie seemed to come to terms with the concept relatively quickly. After the initial disbelief, she was soon declaring her love for me once more and lamenting that she hadn’t found the note on her father’s grave sooner. We stayed like that, together in the warehouse where we’d first declared our love, for a little while longer, wordlessly agreeing to delay our departure until after night had fallen just to be on the safe side.

  CHAPTER TWO

  WHILE WE prepared to leave, Evie looked around the room. “It’s strange how much has happened since we were here last, isn’t it?”

  I laughed without humor as the years and wasted opportunities flew through my mind. “You’re telling me.”

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Anything.”

  “Why this building?”

  “Because it was the one place you’d recognize with the least words.”

  “No, I mean back then. This place is boarded up on all sides, and the sliding door at the front is the only way in or out. There’s no other escape route.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Because it’s boarded up on all sides and the sliding door at the front is the only way in or out. That means it’s defensible.”

  She linked her hand with mine and rested her head on my shoulder as we walked. “You definitely do things differently to how Dad used to.”

  My smile fell away as I realized she was lost in the past. I hadn’t really considered the fact that being back in Charlotte had to be a reminder of her father and everything that she’d lost that day so many years ago. I’d been so focused on trying to arrange a reunion that I’d just said the first place I could think of. Somewhere that anyone else who might stumble across the call wouldn’t be able to easily identify from my cryptic clue but that Evie would understand.

  It made me pull her tighter against my body to offer her what support I could with my touch.

  “I meant what I said earlier. I’ll show you my way of doing things if you like.” I wanted to—desperately. The thought of her being caught after losing her ability to defend herself was nothing short of a nightmare for me.

  “I’d like that. I couldn’t imagine a better teacher. I have picked up a few tricks since Detroit though.”

  “Like stealing cars?” I couldn’t help myself. I had to give her a little dig over the fact that she’d so brazenly stolen mine. “What ended up happening to that car, by the way? It was one of my favorites.”

  I’d never bothered to ask Eth if they’d ever found it. Had barely given the car itself a second thought at all. What had been scorched into my memory instead was the look on her face as she drove off.

  She squirmed in my arms. “I may have burned it.”

  “You burned it? Ouch, that’s harsh.” I pushed her away jokingly.

  Pulling me close again, she laughed. “I had to! For all I knew, it was lo-jacked.”

  “Of course it was lo-jacked. All the cars are.”

  “See, it was a smart choice.”

  I smiled. “Of course it was the smart choice. Even if things were said and misunderstandings happened, I always trusted you to look after yourself. It was the only reason I was able to make it to Europe at all.” It was partly a lie, but I couldn’t tell her the truth—that my European trip had been an attempt to break away from her supposed influence. Now that I’d returned to her, it was hard to recall just how deep my doubt in her—in us—had run. In fact, it seemed almost foolish in hindsight. “I knew you would keep yourself safe.”

  “I’ve had to do some terrible things to stay that way.”

  The security video of her entering the hospital room with the nurse who’d been found with a sliced throat entered my mind, and for a second, I wondered whether my faith in Evie’s innocence was misplaced.

  “Like?” I asked, a little too desperately as I wondered what she might admit to. “What’s the worst thing you’ve done?”

  She cast her eyes downward and rubbed absently at the scar on her wrist. “I’ve stolen from people. Money, cars, credit ratings.” She turned her eyes down. “I’ve used my abilities to get people to do what I needed.”

  Fighting a smile, I asked, “That’s the worst?”

  “Do you think there is something worse?”

  I couldn’t help the relieved laughter that rose in my throat. I should have trusted myself, and her. I’d known that there was no way she could have murdered that nurse. It was still an unsolved mystery, but I was happy with unsolved if it meant that my Evie wasn’t a cold-blooded killer. “No, and if it’s kept you alive, I don’t think you should be too ashamed of stealing.”

  She rolled her eyes and stepped ahead of me to open the roller door. “You sound like my father.”

  The sound of the door creaking open masked her statement, and it was easy to pretend I didn’t hear it. I wasn’t sure how to respond, or whether she even wanted me to.

  The air outside was still and quiet. The lights from the airport were a steady glow behind the warehouse, but the street in front of us was still mostly dark. Untouched and hopefully still unnoticed, the car I’d procured from the long-term parking lot sat at one end of the street. Assuming I wouldn’t need it again, I’d locked it and tossed away the key when I’d left it. Now that I did need transport again, I’d have to get it going in other ways. The thought gave me an idea—I wanted to see Evie in action.

  “Why don’t you show me your newfound skills?” I pointed to the car. Because I’d snuck into the office and stolen the key, I’d been able to take it in a matter of seconds. But as the keys were currently swimming in the nearby storm drain, it would be a good test for Evie to show me what she’d taught herself.

  She gave me the most wicked grin—one that made me want to drag her back into the warehouse for a few more rounds of fun before we moved on—and then nodded.

  “I bet we can be under
way in less than two minutes,” she said.

  “Two minutes?” I couldn’t help teasing her. “That long?”

  She elbowed me in the ribs playfully as a giggle escaped her lips.

  “Let’s do this then,” I said.

  Within seconds, she’d found a switchblade in her bag and stalked up to the car with practiced caution. Truthfully, there was more to my teasing than what I was letting on. I wanted to know what she knew, wanted to see what I had to work with when we started her survival training. When she split the rubber on the window and jimmied the lock in less than thirty seconds, I was pretty damn impressed—and more than a little turned on. She unlocked the passenger door, and by the time I was settled in my seat, the car engine was humming.

  “Not bad,” I admitted.

  She snorted a laugh, as if she saw through me and understood just how impressed I was even though I underplayed it. She probably had. “I’d like to see you do better.”

  I wasn’t sure I could do much better, but I wasn’t going to admit that just yet. Or ever. “Next time,” I said with a wink instead.

  Once we were on the road, I was amazed that my life had come full circle, and I was running away with Evie again. Only this time, I wasn’t going to let it end—Eth and Dad could go fuck themselves if they tried to get in the way.

  After a number of hours driving, where I could do little more than stare in amazement at Evie and try to will away my unhelpful desires to make her pull over so we could get reacquainted again . . . and again, we had passed out of townships and into forested areas.

  The hills rose and fell, and I recognized we were nearing the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Within a few more miles, we’d be out of North Carolina, into Tennessee, and then onto the rest of our lives.

  When a gas station came up in front of us, I convinced Evie it was probably time to stop. The chances for a gas stop could grow less frequent, and the last thing we wanted was for us to breakdown in the middle of nowhere without a plan. I watched Evie closely as she pulled the car over. Her knuckles grew tight around the steering wheel, and the corners of her eyes pinched in a way that indicated her stress.

  Despite the obvious concern she had, I found my lips tipping up into a smile. Regardless of the time that we’d been forced to spend apart, I still knew those little things about her. I doubted there was anyone alive who knew her little tells as well as I did.

  In order to ease her stress, I told her to stay in the car while I filled up.

  Instead of paying attention to the pump, I watched her through the passenger window and relished the small, unguarded view. Her body shook and her skin paled. She looked so vulnerable, and it took me a moment to realize that the scent of gasoline must have been torture for her. I cursed the memory of my sister. My heart constricted, and my resolution strengthened to do everything in my power to not only keep her safe but also to teach her how to keep herself safe.

  I can’t believe she thought I was hunting her.

  Panic followed closely behind the thought as it flittered across my mind. If it wasn’t me, who could have been hunting her? In the warehouse, I’d said it could have been Eth, and while I thought that it was possible, the more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed. He’d always been a company man, more of a soldier than I could ever be. If the hierarchy said jump, he’d ask how high. He’d never done any of that out of a sense of duty to the Rain though. No, there was something much more powerful that drove him: family.

  It was his weakness and the key to all of his motivations.

  It was the reason I’d trusted he wouldn’t hunt Evie while I was in Europe. Even though he hated her, he would keep his promise to me. After all, he would have understood the fracture in our relationship would become irreparable if he harmed her. After what had happened in Detroit, and the words that were tossed around by both sides, he had to know that he’d never hear from me again if she’d died at his hand.

  Dad seemed a more likely candidate, but I doubted that even he would have the energy or desire to track Evie for such a prolonged period when I was out of the picture. Sure, he’d want her dead, but not to the point where he’d neglect his other duties or do the dirty work himself.

  I was still puzzling over it when I went inside the gas station to grab some snacks for the road. I walked in to find the line-up much longer than I’d expected from the number of cars outside. A young mother in front of me was watching a small TV mounted up in the corner with rapt attention. I glanced up to see what held her interest and was greeted with a headline about twelve missing campers. The police were keeping tight-lipped, but the reporter was overseeing a debate between a range of experts regarding whether the blood discovered at the scene indicated that the disappearances were the work of a serial killer or a bear.

  My stomach twisted at the vision of the torn tents and destroyed campsites. It didn’t feel natural. My instincts screamed that there was more to the story than was going to air, that it wasn’t a serial killer or a bear, it was a Rain case.

  A police officer flashed up on the screen next, telling people not to panic, and I saw an all-too-familiar gold raindrop pin on his lapel, identifying him as one of the civilian Rain wannabes. It meant my gut feeling was most likely right; there was almost certainly a case nearby. Far too close for comfort.

  My palms grew clammy, and I looked around at the people in the small store, anxious to confirm that none of their faces were familiar. I needed to get Evie far away, and fast. The night felt thicker through the windows, as though it was a palpable presence pressing against the glass and keeping me separated from Evie.

  The instant I’d paid, I raced back to the car and told Evie of my suspicions. She agreed to get the hell away as quickly as we could.

  Although I was confident we could slip through the net around the disappearances relatively easily, mostly because the Rain wouldn’t be watching for a couple in a car, Evie seemed to grow more agitated with each mile. Instead of sticking to the main road through town, she took the car on a twisting route, turning regularly in a seemingly abstract pattern.

  I shifted in my seat to see whether there was some cause for her concern and saw a flash of white shoot past the rear window. I caught sight of a license plate number that set me on edge. The digits were ones reserved for Rain vehicles.

  “What was that car?” I asked Evie, hoping she’d caught a better view of it than I had.

  “I think it was a Dodge truck.” Panic sounded in her voice, and I wondered what sort of living hell she must have been through since Detroit. “And I thought it was following us.”

  I twisted to the other side, hoping to catch another glimpse of the license plate and confirm my fear. Even though I couldn’t see it any longer, I figured it didn’t matter. It was better to be safe than sorry, especially when it was Evie’s life on the line.

  Then, as I was shifting back into my seat, I saw that the truck had spun around and was closing in on us via a side-street. The license tag was in full view, and when I saw the small M surrounded by a crescent in the middle of the plate, it was clear it was definitely a Rain vehicle.

  “Go!” I shouted at Evie. “Now. Get us out of here.”

  I regretted my tone instantly as Evie clutched tightly to the wheel and the air around her heated. With my actions and words, I tried to calm her, but as she flung the car recklessly around roads that were becoming more twisted by the minute, my nerves frayed. If I’d been driving, I would have felt in control, but instead, I was barely able to stay in the seat.

  As the truck closed in on us again, I shouted to Evie to keep going.

  Although I couldn’t be certain the Rain operative following us hadn’t just stumbled across our car while we traveled through the search area, it seemed more likely that the person in the other vehicle had been following us since we’d stopped for fuel. Maybe even sooner. I couldn’t believe my own stupidity. I’d left the country and just assumed that Evie would be safe because I was gone. I was an idiot
. When I voiced my regrets to Evie, she thought it meant that I hadn’t believed her when she’d said she was being hunted.

  That wasn’t the reason for my doubt, or for my current stress.

  It was just hard to accept how impossibly close I might have been to losing her forever—how close I still could be. Instead of helping her, I’d been gallivanting around on the other side of the world with my head up my own ass.

  “They’ve been just one step behind for a long time,” she said. “If it’s Ethan, he’s definitely taken some time to learn my patterns and hideouts.”

  “Probably,” I said. Although I still couldn’t entirely believe Eth was behind it, certain aspects of the hunt did fit his M.O. “That’s what they do. It’s almost like a game to some of them. My brother especially.” And Lou, I added mentally even though it caused a rush of sorrow over her death to race through me.

  “What did I do to deserve it?”

  My heart ached at the sorrow in her voice.

  “Nothing.” I tried to calm her with a gentle hand on her shoulder, but also used the touch to remind myself that she was still alive—and that it was now my responsibility to keep her that way. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault any more than it is mine.”

  I didn’t want to argue with her, but she was wrong. So many things I’d done over the years had put her in danger. Again and again, I’d made stupid choices that had thrust her back into the spotlight.

  If I’d just left her alone after she left me in high school, her father would still be alive, and she’d be so far off the Rain’s radar they would’ve barely acknowledged her existence.

  Instead, I’d had to charge back to her side, again and again, raising her notoriety each time. I turned in my seat so I could assess the damage and see what could be done about the truck on our tail. It wasn’t long before I understood there was only one option.

  I had to eliminate the threat.