*****
I gazed into the creamy depths of the stone of power lying
heavy in my palm. I had the Air Eyid stone.
Ian, descendant of the Fire Eyid, had the Fire Eyid stone.
Slipping my necklace over my head, I jumped to my feet and
paced the length of my room. I’d thought Ian, with his sexy, dark hair, eyes
sharp as jade, and a Jersey Boy-jacked body, had been a hall god on Earth. He’d
duped me into thinking he liked me, and tried to dupe me into giving him my Air
Eyid stone. But his heart was as black as his hair, with a burnt-out, corpse of
a soul. I swallowed to lubricate my parched throat. And I, in my pathetic
innocence, had almost given him my Eyid stone.
Then he’d revealed his plan to me, a plan that would
eliminate the Water Eyid, turn Eyidora into desert, destroy humanity, and
devastate all seven globes in the planetary chain. He planned to become a new
god in this new Eyidora. And then he tried to kill me. Just because I didn’t
agree with him. Just because I refused to let him to destroy Eyidora. Just
because I refused to hook up with him.
Now we were working against each other, each trying to find
the other two missing Eyid stones before the other. A tremble worked up the
backs of my legs and skittered up my spine. I shuddered once, violently, and
then took a deep, calming breath. If Ian caught wind of where I was going… and
why… My swallow clicked in my throat.
He would hunt me down and kill me.
I straightened, dug my nails into my palm, and lifted my
chin.
I’d beat him once. In fact, I came close to killing him. I
could beat him again.
It was hard keeping secrets from him, though. The gods
weren’t the only ones who could ransack my head while I slept; other Eyid-emos
could connect with me through dreamstate as well. And Ian was a constant
nightmare, alternating between taunting me about trying to save the globe and
trying to persuade me to join him. The guy was numb-nuts crazy.
Still, part of me was glad he wasn’t dead. I’d been called a
lot of things — childish, selfish — but I wasn’t a killer, evil soul or not,
and I was relieved not to have the weight of murder pressing my chest.
But would the globes be better off if I had killed him?
I didn’t want to think about that. I closed my eyes, and the
still-childish part of me longed for my mom. There was one place I could go to
feel close to her. I bolted from my room and scurried down the hall. Head down,
focused on reaching the Portrait Hall – where I hoped I could sort out my
nightmares and insecurities – I rounded the corner and smacked into a very
firm, very warm obstruction.
An exotic, coconut scent invaded my head and warmed my
veins. My breath evaporated in a tiny gasp, a mental sigh popping like a bubble
inside my head. A tongue of electricity caressed my spine, and my stomach
muscles spasmed. I didn’t need to lift my gaze to know what I’d just run in to.
Tuggin.
I stepped back. We stared at each other in the cold hallway,
and that faint buzz of electricity I felt whenever I came into contact with
Tuggin skittered over my body. My conflicted feelings about him battled in my
chest, taking a couple of nicks at my heart. While my body initiated a
melt-down sequence when I gazed at his ice-blue eyes, longish, dirty-blond
hair, and over-all Greek Godiness, my brain registered several shortcomings in
the demeanor department. Emotionally he was a void – a zero, a big, fat nothing
– and snarkier than a hornet trapped in a used pee cup. Not to mention that he
disliked me. Immensely.
His black tunic brushed against muscled arms and wide chest,
which narrowed down to a pair of solid hips and long, strong, legs. I bit my lip,
trying to not think about what lay
beneath those clothes. I tried to douse the heat slipping through my gut, but
the flare of nostrils indicated Tuggin had already spied the taint of my
infatuation. I sucked my lips between my teeth. Damn, but he was serious
hall-god material.
Tuggin leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. His
gaze held the warmth of a glacier and the softness of boulder. I tried to meet
him glare for glare, the trickling warmth that had ignited my spine a moment
ago icing over.
As my Menta-protecter, Tuggin always knew what I was
feeling, and what I was thinking. Mentas were trained to fight, to influence
people’s thoughts, and to read emotions. Those powers made them pretty
well-suited to protecting Council members and Eyid-emos. That was, of course,
before the war had erupted generations ago, and those Council members and
Eyid-emos who weren’t killed went into hiding. At that point, the Mentas took
control of Eyidora.
Those powers also enabled Mentas to become very adept at
assassination.
And Tuggin was dammed good at his job; he’d saved my ass on
more than one occasion.
I lifted my chin. I was descendant of the Air Eyid, and I
had the same powers as Tuggin. And I was learning to use them. Uncle Sal had
been teaching me to block lunta intrusion so that no one could force me to do
anything against my will. Hiding my emotions, however, was impossible. My
emotions always seemed to erupt, no matter how hard I tried to empty my body of
feeling.
Tuggin’s gaze melted down my body like butter, then slid
back up, coming to rest on my necklace. Goose bumps collided against my skin. I
wrapped my arms over my chest, aware that my nightgown didn’t hide much, and
wished I’d at least grabbed a bathrobe. And why hadn’t I used the comb to brush
my tangled hair rather than pry the board from my wall?
“Going somewhere?” he asked.
I sighed in response to his lilting voice; an alien,
seductive voice that had the power to seduce a nun from her convent. Realizing
I was melting, I straightened my spine and lifted my chin. Again.
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