right. Air came back with a vengeance and he felt like he was swallowing a giant, painful bubble of it. Still, there was no time to recover.
“Skye!” Shouting helped a bit. In. Out. In, again. “Skye! Please, God, help me!” In, again. Stop and breathe. No! Don’t stop!
“Young Jamison, you surprise me. Again.” Lucas stood next to him in a gap between rows, his displeasure visible from the light emanating from the ground beneath him. “Seems you and I have stood in this field together once before. Do you remember?”
Was that a threat in his voice, or just curiosity?
He didn’t care.
“What have you done with Skye?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
“You continually accuse us of losing people. It’s getting tiresome.” Lucas grabbed Jamison’s arm and hauled him to the left.
“Where is she?” Jamison softened his voice and clung to the big man’s white sleeve. “Please, Lucas. Help me. She can’t be gone. She can’t!”
“I’m not allowed to interfere.”
“Just point me in the right direction.”
Lucas tilted his head back and Jamison’s heart stopped mid-beat. No! Not up!
Then Lucas’s arm shot out, his finger pointing in the direction they’d been moving.
Not wasting time with thank-you’s, Jamison ran.
A woman in a white robe was hurrying away between rows. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her.
Not Skye.
The woman patted his hand. He released her and walked away.
“Jamie?”
Tingles popped and melted down his skin at the sound of her voice. He’d been so afraid he’d never hear it again.
Turning, he found her still-tangible form within reach, so he grabbed her and spun her in a circle, making a half-hearted crop circle of their own.
“You called me Jamie.”
“Yes.”
“You know what that means, right?”
“I know, but do you?”
“Yeah. It means you love me. Only people who love me call me Jamie—and get away with it.” He was grinning like an idiot.
“And you let me get away with it.”
“Yeah. You know what that means?”
“Yeah, but I’d like to hear it, I think.”
“I love you, Skye.”
“Are you sure you want to?”
“I don’t know. I guess it would be easier if I didn’t.” He stepped back, but didn’t let go of her arms.
“It would be easier.”
“But it’s not a possibility. When I heard them singing—”
“I know. I was facing the trees. I heard you holler. Then you came flying out of the darkness.” She started laughing. “They stopped singing, you scared them so.”
“Good.” He tried to convince himself she wasn’t laughing at him, but at her friends. “Did you fall or did you float to the ground?”
“Oh, no, I fell. Good thing I don’t break.”
He sobered.
“Is there anything we can do about that? Make you... breakable?”
***
It wasn’t easy getting Jamison to go home and go to bed. Skye vowed, promised and crossed her heart that she would be there in the morning. After that, he made Lucas promise the same before he finally walked away—backwards—waving, smiling, and tripping his way along the fence.
“And what will you tell him in the morning?” Lucas held open the front door for her.
“The truth. That there is no hope of happily-ever-after with one of the Final Host.” She entered and headed for the hallway.
“I’ve been instructed not to interfere, and yet I should remind you that your ultimate happiness was guaranteed in The Agreement. Why some change their minds, I cannot understand.”
She turned to face him. He was frowning at the floor.
“You know?”
Lucas lifted his frown and settled it on her.
“I know many things that you may not, cousin. What do you know?”
“I’ve been to see Lanny.”
Lucas raised his hand and backed away from her. “Say no more. I should never have said anything. I will not interfere.”
“You know the things she told me?”
“I cannot interfere.”
“But you know them?”
“I have heard things. I will not discuss them. I will live by The Agreement. I will not discuss it.”
And when those broad shoulders turned from her and headed into the kitchen to avoid what Lanny may or may not have said, the walls of innocence dropped away and she knew Jamison had been right from the beginning.
The Final Host, cowards all.
***
Jamison woke to his head purring loudly. It was his phone, vibrating through his cheek and into his teeth. He’d fallen asleep on the couch, needing to stay close to the door, in case of singing, he supposed. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Skye not to keep her word, but she’d almost abandoned him before.
If she tried to get away again, he didn’t know what he would do—run into the field and grab her legs?
He shook his head,