Binding Ties The Sentinel Wars - Shannon K. Butcher Page 0,60

me with the secret location of one of your safe houses?”

His shoulders seemed to droop in frustration. “You still don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what?”

“There are no secrets between us anymore. You saw my last one. Soon you’ll let me see all of yours, too.”

She didn’t scoff, but nearly pulled a muscle restraining herself.

“I’m serious,” he said.

“I know that you want us to share a brain, but I’ve told you it’s not going to happen.”

“Too late, kitten. It already has.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, dread rising like a flash flood.

He turned onto another gravel road. Moonlight spilled over his face, showing her just how grim his expression had become. “You were in my head a minute ago.”

“So?”

“It works both ways. While you were in my mind, I read your thoughts.”

Uh-oh. He couldn’t know. She kept all her secrets carefully locked away behind doors so hidden, even she had trouble finding them.

But she’d been drawn to the thing he’d tried to hide from her. Maybe when she wasn’t looking, he’d been drawn to the same thing in her mind. She hoped that she would have known that he was poking around, but maybe she wouldn’t. Maybe she was too new at this conjoined brain garbage to even sense his intent.

He could know. All of it. Everything.

Fear trickled through her like ice water. Her muscles stiffened against it, making it hard to breathe.

One of her hands strayed to the door handle while the other got ready to unbuckle her seat belt so she could make a quick getaway.

“What thoughts did you read?” she asked, trying to sound nonchalant. Instead, there was a slight waver in her voice she was certain he’d heard.

He didn’t look her way. He stared straight ahead, his big hands tight on the steering wheel. “I know what you’re hiding.”

“I’m not hiding anything,” she lied.

“Yes, you are, and it’s time we deal with it,” he said as he turned down yet another deserted country road—the kind where no one would ever find her body. “What it do you mean?”

He glanced her way, his face drawn tight with intense emotion she couldn’t decipher. “You killed one of my men, didn’t you?”

Chapter 20

Joseph felt Lyka’s panic an instant too late to predict her actions.

She sprang from the moving truck and tucked into an acrobatic roll as she hit the ground. He skidded to a sloppy stop on the gravel road and slammed the truck in park.

By the time he was out of the truck and headed in her direction, she was already on her feet, running into a nearby tree line.

Joseph couldn’t leave her alone out here, unprotected. She was weak from her efforts to heal him. He’d sensed her fatigue clouding the minute connection between them. She was practically weaponless, with only those short daggers and a puny knife to hold demons at bay. And even if all of that hadn’t been true, he would have been forced to pursue her because of his vow to protect her.

If she’d already become comfortable in her power, she could have pulled strength from him to speed her flight. But she wasn’t comfortable yet. She probably didn’t even realize that she could use him in that way.

He’d never been more grateful for ignorance in his life.

Joseph pulled specks of energy into himself, gathering them from the chilly night air. He was unable to access the huge reservoir of magic he housed, but he could make instant use of what was available to him in the environment. As he drew power into him, some of it overflowed his need and became a part of him. It wasn’t fun or easy to add onto the bulging stores of energy inside him, but it was effective.

His pace quickened until he was easily gaining on her. Branches batted at his face as he passed, but she seemed to have no such trouble. She dodged and ducked, weaving through the forest with such ease, he wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that she’d planted every tree and rock herself.

He finally caught up to her on the far side of a creek. She’d leapt across it, and the slick leaves littering the ground slid beneath her foot. Her arms whirled as she scrambled to find a handhold to keep her upright, but there was nothing low enough for her to grab.

She started to fall. Joseph caught her up and swept her to the top of the steep bank. She spun around, striking out at him with her