Hearts At Stake - By Alyxandra Harvey Page 0,52

footprints in the loam. I stood up, brushing my hands on my dress. Kieran pulled a compass from his pocket, turned it this way and that way.

“There,” he said, nodding toward and across a valley of ferns and elder bushes. “Your house is that way. Northwest.”

“Thanks.” I glanced around awkwardly, glanced back. “I guess this is it, then?”

He frowned. “What are you talking about? I’m not leaving you here alone.”

I swallowed, tried to smile. “You have your own stuff to deal with.”

“Solange, your eyes are changing color.”

“So? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Let me put it this way.” He moved so fast, I was impressed despite myself. He shoved my shoulder. I stumbled, hit a nearby oak tree, then tumbled into the mud. My shoulder pulsed painfully.

“Ouch! What the hell was that for?”

“Just proving my point,” he told me grimly. “You think I don’t see how tired you are? How you’re getting weaker?”

I frowned, rubbing my arm. “You pushed me.”

“I barely touched you,” he pointed out. “And you fell over. I guarantee the rogue Helios-Ra unit will be a lot rougher. Not to mention Lady Natasha’s bounty hunters.”

I hated that he was right.

“I’m taking you home.” He looked stubbornly mutinous. I’d seen that particular expression on every single one of my brothers’ faces at one time or another. And there was no gracious way for me to turn him down. No logical, intelligent way, either. He had weapons. I didn’t. If someone came at me in the woods, the only thing I could do was yawn them to sleep. And this was the girl Lady Natasha, queen of the vampires, was afraid of.

“Are you coming?” Kieran asked impatiently but with half a smile, as if he knew what I was thinking.

“Okay, but if vamps attack, I want you to run away.”

“Sure, right after I pirouette in a pink tutu.” He stopped, waited for me to catch up. “Come on, already.”

The woods were peaceful and quiet, under the chatter of insects and hidden rabbits and porcupines. Frogs sang from some nearby pond, obscured by the green lace of summer leaves. It might have been romantic if I wasn’t convinced someone was waiting around the bend to kill us. He slanted me a glance out of the corner of his eye. And another.

“What?” I asked, without turning my head.

“You’re squinting. Do your eyes hurt?”

“A little.” I hadn’t realized how tightly the muscles around my eyes were scrunched until he mentioned it. My eyes did feel more sensitive, as if the sunlight, even faded the way it was, was hurling needles at my face. I used to love sitting out in the sun with Lucy. It made me a little sad to think we wouldn’t be able to do that anymore. Kieran handed me a pair of sunglasses. His fingers brushed mine. He really was kind of sweet for an agent of the cult dedicated to wiping out me and my entire family.

“Are you going to grow fangs too?”

I nearly stopped in my tracks. His hand was still holding mine.

“I guess so.” I ran my tongue over my teeth.

“Is your boyfriend worried?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.” My smile was ironic. “Kind of hard to bring dates home to meet my parents—and my brothers.”

“Good point.” His palm pressed against mine. “Watch your step.”

We crawled over the exposed roots of a tree that must have fallen in the last storm. It wasn’t covered in moss yet or those weird ruffled mushrooms. We climbed down into the valley, as the sun set lower and lower behind the horizon, leaving us in thick, cool shadows. The ground under our feet was soft. There was a wide groove, as if something had slid down to the valley floor.

A scrap of lace trailed from a broken branch in the tangled undergrowth.

My heart stuttered. I felt my hands go clammy before I could even form a coherent sentence. I knew that kind of lace.

“No,” I gasped, plucking it like it was a tattered black rose. “No.”

I tore down the hillside, slipping in the dirt, skinning my shins and my palms. Pebbles flung up at my passing and pinged me in the legs. Branches scratched my bare arms.

“Solange!” Kieran called, hurrying to catch up. “Wait. Where are you going?”

I slipped and slid the last few feet.

“Be careful!” he hollered behind me.

I barely felt any pain, I was so entirely focused on following the body-wide scrape in the rotted leaves and pine needles.

“Oh my God,” I said, spotting a ruffle