Chaos (Lanie Bross) - Lanie Bross Page 0,81

point in trying to convince him.

“Just promise me you’ll be careful,” she said, her throat tight with emotion.

“I’ll be fine,” Luc said. “I promise.”

She threw her arms around Luc’s neck and fought back the tears. She couldn’t help but feel it was the last time she would ever see her brother. Fear choked off any more words.

“I’ll be back before you know it.” Luc disentangled himself from Jas and turned to Ford. “You better not screw up,” was all he said.

“I won’t,” Ford said, with the ghost of a smile.

Luc nodded. He gave Jas another quick squeeze, then pulled something out of his pocket. “Almost forgot …,” he said, holding the ring in his open palm. It was her ring. Jasmine took it from his palm and slipped it on her finger. It glinted in the light. She wanted to say something else but couldn’t make her throat work. There was a boulder-sized weight in her chest.

“You have to trust him,” Ford said softly, as soon as Luc was gone, as if he could read all Jasmine’s fears on her face.

“I do,” Jasmine said. “I’m just …”

“Scared,” Ford finished for her. “I know.”

Tears burned the back of her eyes, and she could only nod.

“We should go back to the Fort,” Ford said, putting a hand on her back. “We’ll be safer there.”

“No,” Jas said firmly. She wasn’t going to hide. She’d done too much hiding—too much running. “This is my house. I’m staying here.”

“Stubborn girl.” Ford smiled. He kissed her forehead. “But brave, too. I admire that.”

“Hardly,” she said. She didn’t feel brave. She felt tired and worn down and angry and anxious.

“You are,” he insisted. “You’re amazing.” He slid his arms around her waist. Then his lips were on hers and he kissed her. Jasmine melted into his arms and kissed him back. She wound her hands around the back of his neck. They stood there for what felt like years, drowning in each other.

Ford was the first to pull away. He was breathing hard, his eyes closed. When he opened them, Jasmine forgot how to inhale. There was so much emotion shining from them, it took her breath away.

“You make me forget everything except right now, Jas,” he said. His voice sounded raw and rough. “If anything happens … I want you to have this.” Ford took his necklace off—on the thick chain was a heavy key. He gently slipped it over her head. “If your brother fails—if I screw up—if the Unseen Ones find me, they’ll imprison me again.”

Emotion lodged in her throat, cutting off her ability to speak. She didn’t even want to know why he’d been there before, because it didn’t matter. She trusted him and he trusted her.

Ford took her by the shoulders and kissed her again. There was no hesitation, only pure emotion when they came together. Tightness coiled in her stomach, almost painful, but it felt so good.

Nothing had ever felt more right in her life.

Ford slowed his kisses and trailed a slow path to her ear, as if he, too, were reluctant to stop.

“If they put me back in Kinesthesia, you and only you will hold the key to my freedom. Only you.” He brushed his lips over hers again, softly. “I trust you with my life, Jasmine. Just like you’re trusting me with yours.”

Jasmine tucked the odd-shaped key under her shirt and wove her fingers through his.

Her stomach was heavy with dread. For the first time, she understood: If Luc succeeded in altering time, in turning back the clock, Ford would return to his prison in Kinesthesia. Even as her brother saved the girl he loved, Jasmine would lose Ford.

He wouldn’t even know her.

They would never meet.

She had to believe that after everything was settled, she and Ford would be together again.

Ford slid his hand down her arm and tangled his fingers with hers.

She buried her face in his neck and inhaled deeply. “I promise that no matter where you are, I’ll find you,” she said.

The current sucked at Luc’s clothes as he fought his way to the far end of the lagoon. The water was choppy, as if it were resisting him. He kept going, dumbly determined—beyond fear now, beyond exhaustion, beyond thought.

He had lied to Ford: he didn’t know how to control the movement of the tunnels any more than he had days ago. He didn’t know yet which wire was the one that would set everything right. Tess had said that he was putting everyone at risk.