die if you didn’t follow though? Because that was pretty stupid.”
“Yeah, it was, but I wasn’t planning on breaking the bargain. At least, not after she made me promise with my life.” My brows furrow. “But apparently I can’t die.”
“According to Faerie boy, we’re a packaged deal. If one goes, the other goes, too.” Her gaze drops to my mouth, and then she mashes her lips together.
I can feel the desire flowing off her, and God, I can feel it in myself, too.
Unable to stop myself, I lean in. Just one kiss, I tell myself. That’s it.
Our lips brush. Sparks burst. I damn near lose it. Then something crashes against the front door so hard the entire house rocks, and I’m on my feet in a matter of seconds, pulling Gemma with me.
“We need to go,” I say. “Too many people know you’re here.”
“What about Laylen?” she asks in a panic. “And Aislin and Aleesa?”
“We’ll find them, but we need to get you out of here first.” I pull her toward the back door, but she digs her heels into the floor, refusing to budge.
Back in the day, she used to be a lot weaker, but now that she’s a Keeper, she’s a hell of a lot stronger. And I’d be fucking lying if I denied it kind of turns me on.
“We need to find them now,” she demands, holding my gaze steadily. “Before they harm someone. You know as well as I do that neither of them can handle the guilt of hurting someone.” Sadness consumes her face. “Laylen’s already going to have a hard time forgiving himself for what he did to me.”
“Good,” I say as my anger simmers. “He should.”
“Alex, he didn’t know what he was doing. He couldn’t help himself. I saw it in his eyes.”
“I get it. Trust me, I feel the same way every time I look at you.” The words slip out of my mouth, but I don’t even try taking them back. “But I also can’t control my anger when it comes to someone hurting you. Laylen hurt you, and yeah, I’m pretty fucking pissed off about it.”
She points a finger at me. “You won’t hurt him. Promise me you won’t.”
“I’ll try.” It’s the best I can do. “Now, come on.”
She still doesn’t budge. “We need to find them, Alex. Seriously. We can’t wait.”
“I know we do, but it’s going to take some time. And I don’t even know what the hell we’re going to do when we find them. Right now, the only person who can remove the mark is Aislin, and if she’s one of them, I don’t think she’s going to be very willing to perform the spell on herself.”
“We’ll figure something out,” she says determinedly. “And we need to stay here until we do. My mom and Nicholas are going to be looking for me here.”
“Gemma,” I say, struggling to be patient. “They’ll have to find us. We can’t stay here, not after that witch now knows where we are. For all we know, she could be tracking my father down right now and making a bargain with him. Besides, he could already know where we are if he’s got Aislin or Laylen on his side.”
She reluctantly surrenders. “But we have to find a way to save them before they end up doing something they’ll regret.”
They probably already have, but I don’t share that with her, not wanting to worry her even more. She already looks completely tired and fragile, completely breakable.
After a little bit of deliberating, we head outside into the fires and the moonlight.
“Is this far enough away for you?” I ask as we approach the end of the frost bitten driveway.
“I think so.” She closes her eyes. “Where should I take us?”
“Somewhere safe.” I wrap one arm around her waist and pull her close to me.
She cracks an eyelid to look at me. “You don’t want to say where?”
I shake my head. “No, I’m going to let you decide.” Since I seem to be an idiot when it comes to making good decisions. If I wasn’t, then I wouldn’t be standing here, holding her in such a forbidden way.
Nervously nodding, she leans into me while snow flurries fall around us, and then she takes us away.
GEMMA
I don’t know what the hell went wrong. Maybe seeing Alex threw me off my game, or maybe it’s what he said about going someplace safe. Whatever it was, somehow I end up thinking of my dad living in his