Reborn Yesterday - Tessa Bailey Page 0,85
tell you once you’d slept a while more.” A line flexed in his cheek. “I’m going to approach the High Order. About you. About us.”
Her blood chilled. “No. Why?”
Silence ticked by. “How long have you been having the dreams, Ginny?”
It came back to her then. Clinging to Jonas’s back while he sliced through the water and telling him about the man under the tree. Him. “Since I met you.”
“Met me.” His laughter was flat. “You’ve known me a lot longer than you think.” There was so much weight in his eyes as he studied her, she could only exist in their line of fire. “Or maybe not. We didn’t speak the first time. Not really.”
“What are you talking about, prince?” Tucker asked slowly.
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Elias added.
His voice scratched when he spoke. “My mate. She vanished without a trace and I could never find her again. I saw her the first time outside a school dance. She was only eighteen—and human. I stayed away. I tried to stay away, just watching over her, until the night at the fair.”
Ginny’s heart rapped against her eardrums. She could taste the roasted nuts in the air, smell the spun sugar, hear the tinkling notes of the rides. Most of all, she could sense Jonas beneath the tree. The atmospheric click of being right where she was supposed to be, with him, the hand of fate sweeping her closer.
“I swear she knew me,” Jonas rasped now. “I swear…you knew me.”
“I did. I’d been waiting.”
Emotion swarmed his face. “I didn’t have two mates. I simply found you again.” His voice shook as he caressed her cheek. “Where did you go?”
Icy wind from the past cooled her skin. “Off a cliff,” she whispered, numbly.
Heavy moments passed while they stared at one another.
Slowly, Jonas rose from the bed, fists pressed to his temples. He walked in one direction, switched and stopped, doubling over and letting out a deafening roar. Ginny rushed to cover her ears with both hands, ducking toward the comforter as sparks flew from every light source and outlet in the hotel room, singeing the carpet with little hisses.
“Is it my sire who does this?” He pulled at his hair. “Would my sire try and take you from me twice?”
“Of course he would,” muttered Elias. “He’s a ruthless bastard,”
“I don’t understand,” Ginny said, transferring a look between the men.
Jonas paused, staring into space. “He’s the common denominator. When I found you the first time, I was freshly Silenced. No one else knew about me. I’d assumed no responsibilities yet under his command, so no one would have struck out at me to spite him. And it’s the same pattern. Putting you in danger with just enough room to fail on your own.” He raked a hand down his face. “A cliff. A bridge. My God, he’s behind this, isn’t he?”
“He’s sure as shit powerful enough,” Tucker said.
Ginny blinked. “He wants me dead so you won’t break the rules and have a relationship with a human?”
“He controls everyone around him, like puppets on strings. Finding my mate would bring my devotion elsewhere.” Jonas cursed. “But why come after you again now when I’ve made it clear I’ll have nothing to do with him, anyway? And how did he find you the second time before we’d even met?”
“You can’t just march in there and demand answers to your questions,” she said, her voice thick. “Right? It’s too dangerous.”
Please don’t go.
As if she’d spoken out loud, his eyes plead for her understanding. “He wants the oath of fealty I refused to give to him. Giving this oath would mean I could never challenge his seat, something only I can do. I’m going to offer the oath now in exchange for leniency. And above all, your safety.”
Ginny reached for her closing throat. “What if he says no?”
“I can’t live forever in fear of you being taken from me. If he seeks to get me back in line by hurting you, I can’t ignore the problem. I have to face this head on. Please understand.”
“He could put you to death for breaking the rules,” she said brokenly, standing and pulling him close by the front of his shirt. “Don’t. Please don’t.”
“Ginny…” he said miserably against her forehead.
A realization occurred and she clung to it like a life preserver. “How are you going to survive? If you go, you have to take me with you.”
“Never.” Never was a firmer word spoken. His glittering eyes accompanied it in a