Warrior Rising - By Pamela Palmer Page 0,19

befriend and protect the humans. Often they were mistaken for angels."

Harrison shot her a disbelieving look. "Angels?"

Ilaria lifted an imperious brow. "We're not all the monsters you believe us to be."

He didn't answer, but his distrust hung thickly in the air.

They fell into a disquieting silence until Harrison pressed a button and music of a kind similar to what she'd heard through the headphones filled the small interior of the car. She felt as if her senses were under attack by an exciting, heady assault - the amazing sights that surrounded her, the sound of the pulse-pounding music, the rumble of the engine beneath her. And the scent of warm, intriguing male. She found herself smiling as excitement and pleasure set up a quick tattoo in her pulse. She'd always loved the new and the different, which was why she'd often visited the human realm. If not for Rith, she might stay here awhile. Perhaps a long while. But she had no time to visit, no time to explore this strange world. Not with so much at stake.

A short while later, Harrison pulled off the road and into a wide drive that curved before a tall building. As the car came to a stop, three people pushed through the front doors - two women and a man - and hurried toward them as if they'd been waiting.

Tarrys opened the car door. "Thank you, Harrison." She flew out the door, closed it with a push and rushed around the car and straight into the outstretched arms of the older of the two women. A human, Ilaria was certain, yet she greeted Tarrys as if she were a long-lost daughter.

The younger woman, an exceedingly tall female with bright orange hair, squeezed Tarrys's shoulder even as her curious gaze found Ilaria.

Harrison turned off the engine. "Wait here."

She gave him a disbelieving look. Where could she possibly go when he'd bound her hands and strapped her fast to the seat?

For one startling moment, a gleam of humor sparkled in his eyes as he met her disgruntled gaze, as if he'd read her thoughts. Then he turned away and opened his door.

"I'll be right back." He climbed out of the vehicle and joined the others, shaking hands with the older man. She couldn't hear the words shared by the small group, but over and over their gazes turned toward her with wary curiosity.

Ilaria turned away, tired of being an oddity. Tired of being the enemy. Soon enough, she'd return to Esria and receive a welcome fit for the new queen. A cautious welcome, perhaps, for none would want to antagonize Rith. But a quiet celebration was more than fine with her.

The new queen.

She caught her breath against the unexpected stab of grief. For so long she'd desired only to be free of the Forest of Nightmares and to return to the world she'd known, if not always loved. A world ruled by her mother, the queen. Only now, with her return imminent, was it beginning to sink in that the world she'd left no longer existed. Her mother was dead. And if she wasn't very, very careful, King Rith would see that she met the same fate.

* * *

Harrison drove in silence, Ilaria beside him, as he headed to Crystal City in the Northern Virginia suburbs, and home. He glanced at her as she looked out the window without seeming to see the sights that must be incredible to her. It was just after dark and the city was fully lit and at its most beautiful, yet her gaze appeared fixed on nothing.

All over again, he was struck by her beauty, her profile at once strong and delicate, those pale curls draping across her shoulders like a living shawl. Her anger at him had dissipated almost as quickly as it had risen. So different from Gwen. His ex-wife had possessed an uncanny ability to nurse a good anger until he thought she'd never let it go.

He grunted. In the end, Gwen hadn't let it go. She'd divorced him. The divorce had been his fault, he knew that. He'd never been, nor ever cared to be, the devoted, attentive husband she'd hoped for. Sometime between their wedding and Sam's birth, he'd realized whatever feelings he'd thought he had for her were gone. But he'd made a promise to stand by her and he'd intended to. And, of course, there was his son to consider and, later, his daughter.

The thought of Stephie clenched like a cold vise