Fremont scratched under his bandanna. “Now, hold on.
We didn’t agree to anything yet.”
“You don’t want to go back there,” Soldier said.
“You don’t want to go back there,” Soldier said.
“There are other communities,” Max said unexpectedly.
“Other schools.”
Iestyn felt a quick clutch in the pit of his stomach. But it was the option he’d wanted for her, wasn’t it? Freedom and a future away from the stifling wal s of Rockhaven. He looked at Lara. “Is that true?”
She nodded slowly, her eyes dark with doubt. “I’ve heard of them. Amherst in England, Amarna in Egypt. But . . .”
“You’d be safe there,” he persisted. “Right? With other nephilim.”
“If they’l take her in,” Soldier said.
“If anybody wil take her,” Fremont said. “Travel’s risky.”
Lara regarded him with disdain. “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t go with you to the end of the parking lot, let alone out of the country.”
The knot in Iestyn’s gut loosened. Like it made a difference whether she was three hundred or three thousand miles from here. Either way, he’d never see her again. “It wil have to be Rockhaven, then.”
“I don’t like it,” Soldier said. “It could be a trap. A trick, to get us to the school.”
“Don’t be paranoid,” Lara said.
Exasperation clawed Iestyn. He was trying to protect her, damn it. Trying to do the right thing. Why couldn’t she shut up and go along?
But he knew. She’d told him last night.
1 9 4
V i r g i n i a K a n t r a
He made an effort to soften his voice. “You’l be safe with them. Safer than with me.”
Her brows lifted. “Wil I?”
Wouldn’t she?
What did he know about them, after al ? They were flyers, drifters, outlaws. He had too much in common with them to trust them. They didn’t care about her the way he did. He was wil ing to fight for her. To die for her, if need be.
But not to stay.
Sooner or later, Lara would go back to her old life, and he would get on with his.
If she’d just go, leave now, it would save both of them time and heartache.
“Safer than on your own,” he amended.
Something flashed behind her eyes before they cooled.
“You’re not responsible for my safety. Or my choices.”
“I’m not waiting around with my thumb up my ass while you two make up your minds,” Fremont said.
Lara shot him another of those cool gray looks. “So, leave.
We’re not stopping you.”
He wagged a meaty finger at her. “Now, little girl, you can’t come with us if you won’t be nice.”
Her face turned sheet white. “I’m not your little girl,”
she said through her teeth. “And I’m sick of being nice.”
She looked at Iestyn, her chin lifted in chal enge. But it was her mouth that got him, soft and vulnerable. “Whatever I want, you said. What if I want to stay with you?”
His blood pounded. The question rippled through him like His blood pounded. The question rippled through him like the echo of a dream, resurrecting memories and images of last night. Lara, sliding into bed beside him. Lara, holding him close as he dreamed. Lara, rocking above him in the dark, her hair like glory and her eyes like stars.
F o r g o t t e n s e a 195
He met those eyes, and he was lost.
Maybe he’d been lost from the moment she’d found him.
Pretty Lara Rho with her composed face and snug skirt, striding down the sun-bleached dock and into his life.
He didn’t need her.
