Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (68 page)

“This was
my
favorite chair,”
Tau says
weak
ly, going to a chair near the fireplace and touching it lightly with his fingertips.
“I can still smell home on it—i
t’s soft.”

“Uh
huh,” I say
absently
, passing near him to the mantle.
“It’s from a time when things were never hard.”

Reaching the fireplace,
I lift
the
co
ld, s
mooth lid of the box and I’m not
surprised to see that the letter-o
pener that had been inside it i
s now missing. It was my weapon; the one I had used to fend off
Brennus when he had kidnapped me
at the library. It’s
the
one relic tha
t means
s
omething to him. He had given
me his;
he would take mine.

“Tau,” Cole says
from o
ne of the levels above. I close the lid of the box and follow
Tau beneath the balconies to the three
upper
levels. Looking up
to
ward
the rounded ceiling
, I see
Cole leaning casually against the
balcony two stories above
us
.
Cole calls
out, “I found
home
movies of Evie, you have to take a look.”

Tau glances
at me in
silent
quest
ion and I shrug
. Smiling, he
flies
into the air and
beco
m
e
s
almost a blur as he passe
s
by
the
second floor
library tier to the
third floor media room
. I follow
a bit slower because
I haven’t got near
ly
as much power in my wings
as he
does
.

“Oh, hey,” Cole says when he sees
me, tipping his chin up at me like he would when we
sat next to each other in class.
His black hair falls over his brow before he sweeps
it away from his hazel eyes.

“Hey,”
I acknowledge
him with a chin nod, too.

The theatre screen
,
mounted on the wall
,
shows
images of sev
en-year-old girls in pink
jerseys and
pink
knee
so
cks over shin guards. They a
re passing a black and white
soccer
ball t
o each other as the
y
wi
nd down a
viridescent
field
lined with white chalk.

“Evie’
s about to go in,” Cole narrates with his eyes affixed
to the screen and the remote in his hand.

T
au, standing next to me, stills
. The
n, the far
away
crowd noises a
re blotted
out by
m
y U
ncle Jim’s voice
,
cheering, “Let’s g
o
,
Evie!”
while the picture bounces and struggles
to focus.

Tightness squeezes
my throat at the sound. I want
to wrap myself in
the resonance
of his voice
in one second and hide
from it in the next. Thro
ugh tear-clouded eyes, I glance
at Tau, who
smiles
broadly
,
while
still
watc
hing as the seven-year-old me ru
n
s
after th
e ball and kicks
it, causing
red pigtails to bounce and sway.

Tau inches
forwa
rd, slowly sitting on the brown
leather couch i
n fascination. “The Pink Pixie
s,” he murmurs
my team’s name.
Goose
bumps ri
se on my forearms.

“She’
s about to score,” Cole informs
Tau with anticipation, while sitting next to him.

They both a
re riveted to the screen as the little girl that I used to be sprin
ts
by the yellow-jersey defender to boot the ball at the goal.

“YAH!” they both
cheer, standing and applauding
as if
it just happened a second ago and not
twelve years in the past.

The camera zooms
in to watch me run back toward the center of the field.
In
the background, parents crowd the sidelines. Cole raises
the remote, making the film play in slow motion.

“There’s Xavier,” he says
with a grin,
pointing to the screen.

Xavier, unmistakable and unchanged,
stands
grinning on the sideline, c
lapping loudly and then w
his
tlin
g like a besotted parent. He had
o
nly been feet from me.
I cover
my
gaping
mouth with my hand
, while Tau and Co
le continue to watch the game. I turn
, unable to deal with the reality slapping me in the fac
e. Finding the stairs, I climb them to the floor above—
my room.

Stumbli
ng from the stairwell, I stop
when a
gruff,
deep voice growls
, “I
told you I wanted to be alone.”

Xavier, stretched
out on my teenage
bed with his
feet dangling over the edge, has
his
forearm slung over hi
s eyes. His beautiful
lips
a
re
twisted in a frown.

“I’m sorry…
” I stutter
. “
I didn’t know you were in here
—
”

“Evie,” Xavier exhale
s
my name
,
while
slid
ing his arm back
from his face
to look at me.
Music spills
out
from headphones
as he pulls them
from his ears.
He turns it off
.

“I didn’t mean to bo
ther you. I’ll leave you alone,” I begi
n.

“No,” Xavier says
while gracefully rising from the bed.
His blond hair
, rumpled from lying against the pillow
,
gi
ve
s
him a s
exy, sultry
air as his t-shirt straightens and fa
ll
s
back
over
the bare
s
kin of his torso
. “Stay,” he says
in a silky voice.

I lean
against the wall just inside the door, unsure of what to do. “They’re playing
home-movies downstairs,” I say
nervously, hitching my thumb over my shoulder.

“I know,” he says
,
while
his hyper
-
masculine
body dra
w
s
nearer to me.
“Cole was unrelenting with them. T
hat’s why I retreated up here.”

“Me, too,” I admit
with a nervous
smile as I look
up at his face.

His shoulders round
toward
me as he says
in a secretive tone, “Someone stole your troll.”

“T
hey di
d?” I ask
, mir
roring his tone and glancing at
t
he shelf
near
my Nirvana
poster.

He nods
gravely, while saying, “The one with the purple hair. I
t
was
always
on the second shelf
in your room
. Y
ou can still see the outline of it
s feet
in
the
dust.”

“It was probably Eion,” I say as my eyes shift
back to his
. “He found it ironic because he said that trolls look nothing like it.”

“
That is
why I liked it,” Xavier remarks
with a
n
alluring
smirk. “I’ll hunt him down and kill him for you.”

I look away from him as I admit
, “He’s already dead. Russell killed him.”

“That will just make finding your troll more interesting,” he
replies
, undaunted.

“It doesn’t matter,” I say
a
bsently, while catching his
scent
and having it stir strange emotions in me
.

“It d
oes matter,” Xavier contradicts
me.

“Why,
it’s just a stupid toy?” I ask
.

“It was
your
stupid t
oy,” he
replies
slowly
, “and I won’t
allow anyone to take another thing from you without
severe
repercussions.”

For a moment, I fi
nd the hubris of that statement very appealing. Something in
my body language must be telling him that because his eyes beco
me heavy-lidded.

“I saw you—
j
ust now,” I blurt
out, “on
the film downstairs. It was you—
I was only seven and you were there…”

“
Did I
just become real to
you?” he asks
me
seriously
, while his hand
reaches
out to cup
my cheek. His shoulder
s
cave
in toward me as co
ncern touches
his features.

Biting my lip, I nod
, “
Really real—
you look…
you look
exactly the same.”
My heartbeat
pound
s
against the walls of my chest.

“You do know that we don’t age?
” he asks
me with his eye
brows coming together, while h
is thu
mb caresses
my skin
.

“Yeah, but seeing you there was like
, I don’t know,
like
seeing a ghost,” I breathe
,
and then I
think
to add
, “ and, yes, I’ve seen one of those before, too.”

“I believe they prefer t
o be called souls,” he corrects
me
with humor in his tone
.

“Whatever,” I reply because it’
s such a small point right now
.

Xavier’
s gaze lingers on my face and his smile gro
w
s
wider
. Seeing it, uninvited feelings of attraction e
dge
to the surface, causing a b
lush to creep to my cheeks.

“Yes, I
am
be
coming real to you,” Xavier says
to himself
while h
is f
inger
trace
s
the line of my jaw.

Brushing his hand
away, I suddenly ask
,
“Why…w
hy’d you come back?
You were free
of
all
this—
of me. You had a chance to be happy and you ruined it.”

Xavier lifts
his hand
to
thread
his fingers
through my hair at the back of my head. P
ulling me toward him, he lowers
his lips to mine, kissing me with unrestrained desire.
After a mo
mentary pause for shock, I push
against his chest to get him to stop kissing me.
I
feel the reluctance in him as h
e lift
s
his lips from mine. Still, hi
s face remains
inches from me
when he says
, “
I came back for you…
I love you.”