bump.
“We’ve both wasted enough time here,” he said. “I’m taking you back.”
“No, you’re not,” Iestyn said.
Lara’s head jerked around to the door. “Iestyn.”
“Hey, babe.” He smiled, but his eyes were cold. “We missed you at the party. You should have stuck around.”
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Her eyes blurred. Her heart pounded. But a combination of pride and hurt and honesty held her back. Made her say,
“I wasn’t sure you wanted me.”
He winced. “I guess I deserve that. Stay. Let me make it up to you.”
“You don’t have to—”
“You’re too late,” Zayin interrupted. “She’s leaving.”
“Not with you, asshole.”
“You can’t stop her.” Zayin looked Iestyn up and down.
“And you definitely can’t stop me.”
Iestyn bared his teeth in a grin. “I’ve kil ed demons, church breath. Angels don’t scare me.”
Violence boiled up in the room, quick and hot as steam.
“Stop it, both of you.” Lara stepped between them, facing Zayin. “What I do and where I go is my choice.”
“Not after I get through with him,” Zayin promised darkly.
“But then you’d have to go through us,” a male voice announced from behind them.
Zayin’s black gaze switched over Lara’s shoulder. “Who the hel are you?”
Bewildered, she turned.
Morgan and Dylan stood shoulder to shoulder in the doorway backing Iestyn. They could hardly have appeared more different, she thought dazedly: Dylan, dark and lean, Morgan, broad and fair, Iestyn with his sun-streaked hair and hammered gold eyes. But at that moment, they were as close as brothers, united in her defense.
Her eyes sought Iestyn. He held her gaze, smiling crookedly. “I told you we missed you. I missed you. I came to get you back. Whatever it takes.”
A wave of relief, of reassurance and love, crashed over her.
She started to shake.
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Sometimes you didn’t need words and guarantees.
Sometimes one look said everything and one act, one gesture of faith, was enough.
“Don’t be a fool,” Zayin growled. “Do you have any idea what you’re giving up?”
She lifted her chin. “I think so. I can go with you and fol ow the Rule. Or I can stay with him and fol ow my heart.”
Zayin stared at her, his eyes black and blank and opaque as always. “Simon wil never understand. Wil never accept your decision.”
She felt a quiver of anxiety, a flutter of regret. But she held his gaze without hesitation or apology. “What wil you tel him?”
A corner of Zayin’s mouth turned up in a barely perceptible smile. “That I couldn’t find you, of course.” He bowed his sleek dark head, in acknowledgment of defeat. “I wish you joy of your decision.”
He stalked toward the door. Morgan and Dylan stepped aside to let him pass. As his footsteps faded down the hal , the tension leaked from the room.
Dylan cleared his throat. “We’l just see him as far as the ferry.”
The two wardens fol owed him down the stairs.
Lara shivered in reaction. “Wel .” She swal owed. “I’m glad that’s over.”
“Not over yet,” Iestyn said and then he was there, solid, warm, and real, wrapping his arms around her, driving away the cold.
She melted into him. Her heart began a slow pound in her chest. “There’s more?”
“There has to be. For me, at least.” He took her hands, holding them palm to palm between both of his as if he were praying. He kissed her fingers, his face serious.
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Nerves knotted her stomach. “You don’t have to say anything,” she said.
He shook his head. “I’m not obligated. I want to be with you.”
She smiled at him wryly. Tenderly. “Yesterday you said we barely know each other.”
“I know what I feel.” He held her closer, her head against his chest. “I know that without you, I’m lost.”
