January in Atlantis - Alyssa Day (red white royal blue .txt) 📗

She tried to imagine what it would be like to actually see a dragon cave someday. And then laughed at herself for what her long-gone ordinary, normal life had become. Demons and dragons and Atlantean warriors.

Oh, my.

“Okay, okay. You’ve made your point. But I’m so terribly sorry to hear that about your friend and his people.”

“Thank you. He had a younger sister,” Flynn added, and then he had to clear his throat.

Eva’s heart sank at the verb tense. He had a younger sister. She knew what was coming, but she also knew he needed to talk about it, so she stayed silent and tried to send all her sympathy to him through the touch of their hands.

“Her name was Kyla. She was a little scamp.”

They walked past a row of rabbits lined up along the side of the path, watching Eva, but Flynn only spared them a brief glance through hooded eyes.

“She loved her big brother. And she had a huge heart, so she loved her big brother’s friend. Me. She followed us around everywhere. I never had a sister of my own, so it was nice. Nice to be part of the family in a way. I hung out there for maybe a year.”

She could read the pain in the way his jaw was clenched, in the tight way he held his shoulders. In the tightness of his grip on her hand as she waited for him to continue.

He fell silent again, so after a moment, Eva ventured a question. “How old was she?”

“Exactly the right question,” Flynn said, so harshly that the rabbits, who’d been silently hopping along behind them, scattered in all directions. “She was thirteen when I met her. She was fourteen when she died.”

Eva didn’t even realize she was crying until a tear dripped off the end of her nose. She brushed it away and pulled on Flynn’s hand to get him to stop. Then she did what she’d been longing to do for a while, but she did it from compassion, not from desire.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his chest. He stood stiffly, still as a statue, not returning her hug. But not pulling away from her either.

“Oh, Flynn. I’m so sorry for Kyla and for her family and for you.”

He took a deep breath and then stepped away from her and folded his arms across his chest, probably so she couldn’t hug him again. She tried not to let him see how much that hurt her.

“You don’t understand. I told her she would be okay. She was terrified of the transition because three of her best friends died. Only two of the little group she ran with survived it. I told her she would be okay.”

He buried his face in his hands and his big body started to shake. “I told her she would be okay, and she died in agony.”

She pushed his hands out of her way and hugged him again, so tightly that he couldn’t get free of her. He needed human contact just then, whether he thought he did or not. His heart beat wildly beneath her cheek, and he took deep, shuddering breaths. Suddenly, almost convulsively, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her even closer, bending down to rest his forehead on the top of her head.

“I told her she’d be okay,” he said brokenly. “And the last thing she said—while she could still speak at all—was ‘Flynn, you lied to me.’”

Eva’s heart was breaking. For the man in her arms, whose guilt and pain and loss were destroying him, for the family who’d lost their daughter—their sister. And for little Kyla, who’d cried out in pain and terror and despair.

“It wasn’t your fault.” She whispered the words against the warm, bare skin where his collar opened, breathing in his scent. Trying to absorb his pain. “You must know that it wasn’t your fault. Of course you had to tell her that she would be okay. There’s nothing else to say in that situation. It’s a horrible, horrible thing—it’s hell itself. But there was nothing else you could’ve done but be there for her, and it sounds like you were.”

He nodded, swallowing convulsively.

“You were there for her in the best way you could be. It’s so awful, so unbelievably awful, that she died, but it’s not your fault. You need to forgive yourself, Flynn.”

Flynn put his hands on the sides of her face and tilted it up so he could look into her eyes. “How do you do that? How do you know exactly what to say? Is it part of your ‘soothing the savage beast’ gift?” His voice was rough and husky, the voice of a man who’d been screaming or sobbing, even though he’d done neither.

The voice of a man who needed comfort.

Eva pulled his head down until their lips met. She initiated the kiss, but Flynn instantly took charge. He captured the back of her head in one big hand, and then he tilted her head and took her mouth like a conqueror. Like a seducer. Like a pirate, ravishing her in his treasure cave…

She moaned, trying to climb his body, needing to get closer. She’d never been kissed like this, like the man kissing her would die if he couldn't. She tangled her tongue with his and kissed him and kissed him until she had to stop, gasping for air, hanging on to his shoulders so she didn’t fall down.

His treasure cave… Why was that poking at the edge of her consciousness so much? Suddenly she knew.

She knew.

“Flynn. They’re holding the girls in the old copper mine.”

He got it immediately. “The copper in the mine would conceal any magic being done from somebody like Griffin who was trying to detect it.”

She nodded. “Of course. Why didn’t we think of this? Black-magic witches use copper in their summoning circles. It can keep demons in—”

“So it can keep nosy law enforcement out,” Flynn finished.

“You need to call your friend or teammate or whatever he is and get federal law enforcement in and set the takedown. Now.”

Flynn was quiet for a few moments with his eyes closed. When he opened them, he looked at Eva and shook his head. “Jake is with Zach, who says we’re brilliant and he’ll call it in, but it will still be no-go on the federal takedown. They’re afraid the Dark Angels will kill all the girls in the event of a raid because the demons will still want the magical power from the sacrifices. Our best chance to save them is still to get in there another way.”

Eva’s heart sank. “Using me.”

Flynn nodded, his shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry. I can’t think of any other way. But if you don’t want to do it, you should go. Now. I’ll die before I let anything happen to you, but that’s not a one hundred percent guarantee of your safety. As I’ve told you, I don’t have a good record of protecting people.”

“I’ll do it,” she said in a very small voice, trying to be brave.

He slashed a hand through the air. “No. It’s not fair of us to ask you to risk your life for this. We’ll figure something out.”

Eva started running for the car, shouting back at him over her shoulder. “But if not me, then who? Who will stand for those girls? I know you will, and your floating magic friend, and whoever else is on your side, but if you can’t get in there without setting some kind of alarm, the girls still wind up dead. I can’t do it. I can’t leave. I could never live with myself if I bought my own safety at the cost of their lives.”

She wasn’t the Eva from before, who’d cowered in the face of Snake’s threats and Noel’s bullying. This was the Eva she’d been before all that. Willing to stand up for what was right. And Flynn had said he’d die to protect her, so she was pretty sure he was the exact same kind of person deep down, underneath all that guilt and sadness he was carrying around.

They sped through the dark night, and when they reached her place, she was glad to see that Mrs. M had already left for California. One more innocent out of harm’s way.

“I’ll be on your roof again to watch over you—” Flynn began when they reached her door, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“Flynn. No. Come inside and stay with me. I don’t want to be alone, sitting around waiting for Snake to call.” Even as she said it, she realized she really did think of Scott as Snake now. The Scott she’d fallen for could never have put her through the past few years of pursuit and torture. The black magic had twisted him into something unrecognizable, and it was time she acknowledged it.

This time Flynn took the lead checking out the apartment. When he was sure it was safe, he beckoned her to come in.

“I’ll be just a minute. I want to stand out here on the porch in the fresh air for a few minutes and call my grandfather.” She suddenly was finding it hard to breathe, let alone get the words out, but she managed.

“I’ll give you some privacy,” he said quietly. Flynn, so big and tough and muscular, so hard and deadly, gently touched her cheek and then quietly closed the door between them.

The tears started falling the moment she dialed the phone.

“Eva?”

“Gramps. It’s so good to hear your voice,” she managed, trying her best to sound cheerful.

“Are you okay? You sound funny,” he said, concern clear in his dear voice.

“I am okay, Gramps. I met a man from Atlantis. Well, two men from Atlantis, but one is actually