Chasing Secrets - Jessica Sorensen Page 0,40

know.”

“It’s going to be okay,” I try to assure him. “We—I won’t let her hurt you.” Then I plaster on a cocky grin, pretending to be more confident than I really am. “I mean, word on the street is I’m pretty powerful.”

A shaky breath fumbles from his lips as his gaze drops to my hand that’s on his shoulder.

His fear briefly pours through me then he steps back from me, letting my hand fall from his shoulder. At first, hurt trickles through me that he doesn’t want me touching him. But then he steps forward, cups my face between my hands, and kisses me.

“I’m not going to let her take you away from me,” he murmurs, his lips brushing against mine.

For a slamming heartbeat of a moment, everything feels content. The feeling shatters, though, as he moves back.

“Maybe it’s not Penelope,” he mutters. “I mean, when she broke that contract... Her punishment... It should’ve lasted longer than this. Well, unless something is interfering with Asher’s power, which I guess could happen, but...”

“Maybe it’s not her then,” I suggest with hope.

“Maybe.” East seems doubtful, though. “I think whatever it is tracking us, we should probably get you back to the vehicle where I can protect you better.”

I roll my eyes. “I don’t need you to protect me. I’ve proved more than enough times that I’m perfectly capable of protecting myself.”

“She’s right,” Maxton chimes in. “She’s extremely powerful. She just needs to learn how to use that power.”

East cocks a brow at him. “So what? You want to teach her how to use those right now, in this tiny bedroom where anything can happen?”

I look at Maxton. “He has a point. Not that I want to go back to the vehicle and hide out. We have a plan and we need to go through with that. We just need to be careful about it—”

Clink. Clink. Clink.

Thump.

All of our gazes drift to the bathroom doorway.

“Um...” I say. “What was that?”

“I’m not sure,” East says then sticks his hand out in my direction. “Stay here. I’ll go see.”

He starts to move toward the door. When I follow, he pauses, question marks filling his now shadowy eyes.

“I thought I told you to stay here.” He blinks, probably trying to clear the shadows away, but to no avail.

I’m not afraid of him, though. I don’t ever think I could be afraid of East, the faerie version of him and the demon one.

I dramatically roll my eyes. “Don’t you know me well enough by now to know that I’m terrible at taking orders?”

The corners of his lips tug downward. “This could be dangerous.”

“Like I don’t know that already. And I’m very familiar with danger.” When he makes no effort to budge, I add. “Look, if we’re gonna make... this work, you’ve got to let me make my own decisions.” I get tripped up on the word this, since I’m not sure what this thing between East and me, Asher and me, me and Arrow, is.

And I expect East to argue, but strangely he doesn’t.

“Stay behind me,” he whispers then trades a look with Maxton from over the top of my head. “Max, stay behind her, okay?”

Max must nod since East slowly walks forward out of the bathroom. I follow and so does Maxton, staying so close to me I can feel his body heat seeping into me. Then I feel his hand touch the small of my back.

So weird.

But I’m too distracted by something else to react.

And by something else, I mean the shimmering, iridescent crystal ball on the floor.

“How did it get in here?” I ask as we make our way over to the bed and toward the crystal ball.

East shakes his head as he slows to a stop just short of it. “Magic probably since the door is still locked.” He pauses before bending down to pick it up.

“Wait,” I sputter. “Should you touch it when we don’t know what it is?”

“It’s a message crystal ball,” Maxton states from behind me, his palm still on my back.

I twist my head to look at him and find him already staring at me. “I thought crystal balls were just used by foreseers to look into the future.”

“Some are,” he explains. “But that one is for sending messages.”

“How do you know?” I wonder, rotating my body to face him.

His hand falls from my back. “Because of the color and the lack of diamonds and rubies in it.” He gives a short pause. “The color also gives us an