to become who and what you are, and people don’t change on a dime even if they might want to.” She yanked her hands out of his. “Your taxi is here. Just go, will you?”
Fucking hell. He lunged forward and kissed her with all the wild hunger raging inside. It rocked her back in her chair. When he pulled back, he said through gritted teeth, “See a doctor, milaya. Let me know how you’re doing.”
Looking devastated, she nodded and whispered telepathically,
If she had stabbed him in the heart, she couldn’t have dealt a more effective wound. Blindly raging, he grabbed his carry-on and stalked away.
This baby and I deserve someone who will always put us first.
They did. Goddamn it, they did.
And he could not walk away from his coven, not after the decades they had put into their mission. He could not simply walk away from what he had started.
As he waited to board his flight, he texted his coven. We have got to do whatever it takes to finish this.
Chapter Sixteen
The next day, Molly left New Orleans. She still had another night booked in the vacation rental, but Josiah… Alexei… had put his stamp on everything. He was everywhere she looked. She couldn’t rest on the bed without his reclining body to curl against.
And her Power finally unfurled, fueling a sense of restlessness. It was time to start the search again for her teacher. When she started to drive, another sign leaped out, this one in the shape of a key pointing west.
Over the next three days as she drove toward Los Angeles, she began to sense when the moon rose. It was waxing toward the full moon. Each evening the glowing, ivory orb grew larger, like a vast night-skinned goddess slowly opening one eye to contemplate the world spread below.
When the full moon came, she felt so sensitized to the pale light pouring like cream over the shadowed landscape she couldn’t sleep. Leaving her motel room, she walked outside while Power leaped and coursed underneath her skin, reaching for the moon. The next morning, disturbed and exhausted, she left for another hypnotically long drive.
She almost picked up the phone to call Josiah but managed to stop before she followed through with it. They had left things too raw at the end, but even so, he had spoken from a place of realistic, severe self-discipline.
If there was the possibility that she might be in danger, so was the baby, and like he said, careful investigations take time. When there were any relevant updates, he would get in touch. Besides, hearing nothing from him meant there was nothing to say.
That evening her phone lit up with a text. All thoughts of self-restraint went out the window as she lunged for it.
People may not change on a dime, but they do change when they are ready.
She sat on the bed, elbows on her knees as she stared at the phone she held in a death grip. Don’t answer. You’re not behaving rationally.
Her phone lit up again. Molly.
This time she could feel him waiting. He might be in Atlanta while she was in SoCal, but he felt close enough to touch. Carefully, she typed out a message and read through it. I meant what I said. If you ever chose a different path than the one you’re on right now, you would be so welcome to be a part of this baby’s life.
So welcome to be a part of mine. She didn’t add that.
She read through the text again. Did it sound sane enough? Like she was a lot more balanced than she really was? Oh, for Christ’s sake, stop second-guessing yourself.
She hit Send.
She and he were linked by an invisible wire. It drew taut, vibrating tension.
I meant what I said too. This isn’t goodbye. Be patient.
Be patient for what? So much dangled unresolved between them.
All he had ever said was that he would come find her. And that he wanted to support the mother of his child. He had enough decency that he didn’t want to be a deadbeat dad—and she had opened that door when she had told him about the pregnancy.
He didn’t know she had fallen in love with him, and she didn’t need to go flapping her damn mouth about it.
She typed out another text, read through it. Sent it. I saw a doctor today in a clinic in LA. I told her I was on vacation and just discovered I was pregnant. She took a