37
TANNER
When Sam’s wolfish tail disappears into the trees, I round on Kole. “What did you see?” I stare up into his face. I’m not short, but his six-foot five frame towers over my five-eleven physique. “Kole, what did you see?”
Kole’s eyes swim with darkness. He’s come down from the blood rush he got on the train, but something else simmers there. “I can’t tell you, Tanner.”
“Fuck that!” I hiss, pushing my chest against his. “She can’t lose him again, so if he’s about to go get himself killed, we have to stop him.”
Kole shakes his head. “We can’t.” As I clench my jaw and stride away from him, Kole catches my arm. “You know I can’t reveal—”
“You did for me. When you saw me. Trapped. Tortured.” I tug my arm back. “You told the others what you saw, and you came to rescue me. You pulled me out of hell, Kole.Youdid that.”
“Because the vision showed me that I had to.” He sighs, frustration creasing his features. We’ve never fought like this before, especially about visions and prophecies and how fucking complicated that shit gets. I know I’m being an asshole. “You’re scared for her,” Kole says, meeting my eyes. “I am, too.”
I press my lips together.
“But she’ll be okay. Sam has to go, and we have to stay, and that’s the way it has to be.” He nods at me, rising up to his full height and folding his arms in front of his chest.
Instead of softening and being friends again, I push past him and mutter, “I’m not telling her. You can tell her, but I’m not.”
* * *
While Kole climbs backinto bed with Nova, I pace the living room. At some point just before dawn, Luther appears. “You look like hell,” he says. “What’s going on?”
I’m about to tell him when the sound of Nova shouting makes us both look up toward the ceiling. A moment later, as Luther lurches toward the other side of the room, Nova thunders down the stairs. She trips at the bottom, falls to the floor, scrambles to her feet, then hurtles toward the door. She’s barely outside when she starts shouting Sam’s name.
“What the fuck?” Luther shoots me a quizzical stare before charging after her.
I linger for a moment. Pure, unadulterated panic swells in the room. Panic and fear. I push my fingers through my hair, trying to block out the sound of Nova starting to cry as she tells Luther what’s happened.
When Kole and Mack emerge from the bedroom, Kole’s expression is unreadable. Mack, however, looks like he’s ready to play peacekeeper. “Kole told me,” he says when he reaches me. “You okay?”
“I am. She’s not.” I gesture to the door.
Mack’s about to go out there when it swings back on its hinges and Luther strides in with Nova slung over his shoulder. If she wasn’t genuinely upset, it would be kind of a turn on because she’s pummeling his back and her ass is sticking up in the air.
He deposits her on the couch. “Nova, breathe.” He crouches in front of her and rubs her knees. “Breathe.”
Wiping her face, Nova searches for me. Her anger has softened and now all that radiates from her face is hurt. “Why didn’t you stop him?” she asks in a voice that makes my stomach curl.
“He’d made up his mind, Nova. He wanted to do it.” I leverage myself over the back of the couch and land heavily next to her. “He’ll be okay.” I meet her eyes. “He’ll be fine. All he’s going to do is cause a distraction, so we can try and bring down the barrier.”
“That’s all?” She looks past me, directing her question to Kole.
If he knows more than that, he doesn’t let it show in his face. He simply nods and says, “That’s all.”
“You’d tell me if there was more?” She stands, staring at him. We all stare at him.
“I’d tell you if there was more.” The lie rolls easily off Kole’s tongue. He can’t tell Nova the truth; if he told her some ancient laws prevent seers from revealing more than snippets of their visions, she simply wouldn’t understand. Heck, I gave him a hard enough time for it last night and I’ve grown up knowing this stuff.
He wouldn’t tell her if there was more unless the vision made it clear heshouldtell her. But exposing him now, in front of her, won’t do anything useful.
Right now, she needs us united, and we need to focus. Because we have less than twenty-four hours to stop what’s about to happen.
To stop the next domino falling.
To stop The Shadow King having Nova’s name on his lips.