Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
“This is Eleri,” Adam said. “Bayani Bautista, geologist and professor. And that’s Harper Jay”—a nod at the falcon—“our head accountant, without whom our finances would be in shambles.”
“We heard you helped Jacques,” Bayani said with a warm smile, while his mate made a low, almost cooing sound. “Thank you and welcome to our home. If you’d like a geological tour, hit me up.” A grin. “I’ve bored everyone else already.”
The couple left soon afterward, with the falcon flying out the exit and her mate walking into the Canyon with their son, the two having agreed to meet up at their plateau home. “Do you have a lot of human clanmates?”
“About fifteen percent of our population. No Psy clanmates, though.” Human eyes ringed by falcon yellow locked on hers. “Not yet.”
Eleri’s past receded in a rush, the future a blank.
Here, this moment in time when everything was possible, was her forever. Except…Adam was brushing his fingertip over her cheekbone and all she could feel was a dull sense of need that wasn’t even a ghost of her breathless wonder from that day outside the courtroom.
Inside her was a scream locked in black fog, silenced by her own mind.
Chapter 27
Reagan Marke: DOA. Self-inflicted bullet wound to the left temple.
—Note on medical file (31 July 2078)
Eleri didn’t give up the day, even knowing that what she experienced today would be a pale shadow of what could’ve been. She finished breakfast with Adam, then walked with him as he took her hand and told her he wanted to show her a place called the Green Grotto.
“It’s not as stunning as the red one further out,” he said after they’d exited the Canyon through a narrow opening that soon led to a downward-sloping path. “But because of that, it’s not as popular, and more private.”
“Do you remember the first time you came to this grotto?” she asked, wanting more memories to add to her hoard, more pieces of him to secrete away inside her.
His expression altered, lips no longer curved up and skin tight over his cheekbones. “With my parents when I was too young to understand time. It was one of my favorite splashing places.”
Eleri’s blood froze; this was the one area where she could not tread, could never seek to go.
Adam saw Eleri’s expression go motionless and shook his head. “It was never your fault.” Squeezing her hand, he tugged her close enough that he could cup one side of her face.
“My anger at you for what happened in the courtroom was irrational,” he reiterated. “The rage of a tempestuous and heartbroken youth.” So young and hurt that he’d taken it out on the one person he was meant to protect. “We’d barely spoken, had no commitment to each other, but I expected you to be loyal.”
“We did have a commitment,” Eleri said flatly. “From the instant we met. I didn’t know what to call it, but I knew it existed. You were mine and I was yours, and I knew that.”
His entire heart swelled, twisted. “So did I,” he said. “And I still left you—to be hurt over and over, to be fucking reconditioned. I will live with that reality every single minute of my life.”
She stared up at him. “Adam, no, there was no way you could’ve got me out. If you’d tried, the Council would’ve annihilated your entire clan just to send a message.” WindHaven was far smaller and less powerful than DarkRiver, and Eleri had no Councilor mother.
It didn’t matter if Nikita Duncan had or hadn’t protected Sascha; the optics of going after such a high-profile cardinal just wouldn’t have looked good. Js, on the other hand…Js were disposable—and ironically valuable enough for the Council to want them in its iron fist.
“I didn’t even fucking try, my wild bird with eyes like the rain and the desert all at once.” He pressed his fingers to her lips. “Don’t waste your breath on telling me otherwise.”
Agitation below the glacial ice. “You’re wrong,” she said, unflinching. “Just like Reagan was wrong. His actions went against all the vows we take as Js. But he was as close as I ever had to a father—and Adam? I need to talk about him.”
Adam struggled with his rising rage against the man…which was now intermingled with endless gratitude. Because the same man who had attempted to steal justice from his parents had also saved Adam’s mate. “Okay,” he said, the word jagged in his throat.
“I found out that if Reagan didn’t do what he did that day,” Eleri told him, “he would’ve been dead by the end of the day…and I couldn’t hate him for choosing to survive.” Again, a single, betraying tear that escaped the vicious mauling of her mind. “I needed him.”
The two emotions inside Adam collided in a turbulent storm. “I don’t think I can ever forgive him…but I can accept what he was to you and that he was a good man who made a terrible choice.”