I pull her even closer, feeling an explosion of heat rush between us as I whisper, "I think it means we were meant to be together."
"If you two start making out I will fling you out of the wind bubble," Gus warns.
I can"t help laughing.
"Later," I whisper to Audra, loving when I feel her shiver.
I still can"t believe she"s here. Back in my arms after all these weeks.
"Aren"t we supposed to be coming up with a strategy?" Gus asks, and I totally hate him for being right.
We need something better than his grab-and-stab plan, since that didn"t exactly go well in Death Valley. Not that Audra"s attacktheaLiving Stormaall-by-herself plan was much better.
"Why were you there?" I ask, realizing she never explained. "Did you know Raiden was going to be there today?"
"No. Aston told me I should go to Death Valley-but I doubt he knew Raiden was going to be there."
"Aston?" I want to snuff out the sudden wave of jealousy-but that totally sounds like one of those preppy British guys that girls are always fawning all over.
It doesn"t make me feel any better when Gus asks,"Wait-Aston as in . . . Aston?"
Audra nods.
They both don"t say anything else for so long that my mind has time to turn Aston into the sylph James Bond. Then Audra tells me he"s a crazy ex-Gale who held her hostage in a cave up north, and by the end of her story I"m biting my inner cheek so hard I taste blood.
"Did he . . . ?" I can"t even say it.
She reaches out and strokes my face. "He didn"t hurt me. I think he was mainly just . . . lonely."
I don"t like the way she says that word-like she almost feels sorry for the guy who tied her up and threatened to kill her. Ex-Gale or not, that"s an automatic qualification for the You Are Dead to Me list I"ve started making.
"You really don"t think he knew Raiden was going there?" Gus asks.
"No, I think that was a fluke. I do believe the Easterlies who coaxed me there knew that Raiden was on his way. But I think Aston sent me because he wanted me to see the Maelstrom."
This time Gus shivers. "I"ve heard of those."
Audra stares into the darkness. "It was much more evil than you"ve heard."
Evil.
The word gives me a strange flutter in my stomach.
I still haven"t decided how I feel about Arella being trapped in a Maelstrom. But it doesn"t feel like a good sign that Raiden uses them, or that Audra sounds so freaked out.
I wonder how she"ll react when I tell her about her mom-not that I have any idea how to do that. I"ll have to find the right time to bring it up.
Not tonight. We have enough going on-and even if we"re safe, I can think of lots of better ways to spend our first night back together.
We whiz past the glowing hotel of a ma.s.sive Indian casino, which means we"re finally getting close. Audra slows the winds when the weird Cabazon dinosaurs blur by. Then she changes course, steering us into the mountains and setting us down on one of the lower peaks.
I hold my breath as we all listen for signs of a storm.
The sky is clear. The winds calm.
"All the drafts coming from the northeast say nothing about an attack," Audra says, closing her eyes. "And I feel no unrest in the valley."
"Me either," Gus agrees.
We all push our senses as far as they can go, but everything is quiet.
A little too quiet.
"Where are the Gales?" Audra whispers.
"They went to find my father." Gus"s voice hitches on the word, and he has to clear his throat before he continues. "The Stormers made a false trail, and I guess the Gales haven"t figured it out yet. I"ll use the emergency call to get them back and bring them up to speed."
"Do you want us to stay with-"
"No," Gus cuts me off. "I really need some s.p.a.ce."
I nod.
Audra nods too. Then she wraps her arms around me, sending tingling waves of heat through my aching shoulders as I tangle us in Westerlies and fly us back to my house.
All the windows are dark as we touch down on the gra.s.s, so my family must still be on the move like I thought. I know I should call them and tell them to come home, but they"re probably safer out there. Plus, Audra and I could use some time alone. We have a lot to figure out.
"So . . ." I say after I"ve tested the air to double-check that we"re safe. "Now what?"
"I don"t know."
She stares at her feet and tucks her hair behind her ear.
It"s bizarre to see her look so shy. Even more bizarre to think that she"s here, standing outside my house, holding my hand.
We"re not broken up.
In fact, I"m pretty sure we"ve never been more together.
All that"s left to figure out is "Your place or mine?"
Her nervous laugh rings through the night.
I pull her closer, wrapping her arms around my neck, and I suck in a breath as the heat of her body sparks against me. I sorta forgot I was shirtless-but I"m very aware of it now.
Very aware of how tiny her tank top is too.
I clear my throat. "Seems like a pretty simple decision to me. On the one hand, your place has scratchy palm leaves. And bugs. And dead things."
"Dead things?"
"Gavin"s been busy. He"s pretty p.i.s.sed at you, by the way. He may tear out some of your hair when he sees you."
"I wouldn"t blame him." She leans her head against my chest, triggering a new wave of sparks that makes it very hard to breathe.
"So then . . . my place?" I whisper. "No psycho bird. Everything we need to get cleaned up. Then a nice soft bed . . ."
She leans back to look at me. "I don"t think that"s a good idea."
"Actually, I think it"s a very good idea. Pretty much the best idea I"ve ever had."
She smiles and steps up to her tiptoes, pecking me on the lips before she pulls away.
I grab her hands to stop her from leaving. "I promise, I"ll be a perfect gentleman."
She doesn"t look convinced.
I drop my eyes to our hands, twisting our fingers together. "I just . . . I feel like if I let you out of my sight, you might disappear again."
Sadness seeps into her features and she lifts my hand to her lips, kissing the center of my palm. "I"m not going anywhere."
"Then stay with me."
I can hardly believe it when she nods, and my legs get all weak and wobbly as I lead her toward the house.
I forgot to bring a key to the front door, so we head toward my bedroom, and I can"t help turning toward the date grove-where Feng will never wait for me again.
I swallow the lump in my throat as I try to open my window. It"s locked too.
Audra laughs and nudges me aside, sending a draft under the sill that clicks the lock and slides open the window in one go, like she"s done it a thousand times before. I smile when I realize she has.
But this time is different.
This time I"m not asleep, and she"s not sneaking around.
She climbs in first and I copy her steps, for once making it inside without sc.r.a.ping my skin on the thorns. And as soon as my feet hit the rug, I pull her against me, kissing her forehead, her cheeks, her- "I thought you were going to be the perfect gentleman," she whispers against my lips.
"Well, maybe not perfect."
I feel her mouth twist with a smile as she slides her hands up my neck and tangles her fingers in my hair. "I was hoping you"d say that."
She kisses me then, and the sparks are so hot, so bright, I swear they almost blind me-but when I open my eyes, I really am blind and it has nothing to do with the kiss.
The lamp by my bed is now switched on, and as I squint through the glaring light, I see a movement in the covers.
I have just enough time to think, Craaaaaaaaaaaaaap.
Then Solana tosses her hair and says, "I guess this is the real reason why you canceled our betrothal."
CHAPTER 28.AUDRA.
I.
don"t know what to feel as I watch Solana untangle her long, tanned legs from the covers of Vane"s bed.
She"s prettier than I remember. Soft curls and bright eyes and toned, graceful limbs.
And Vane only seems a little surprised to see her.
Mostly, he looks guilty.
I try to pull my hands away but he tightens his grip. "It"s not what it looks like."
"Really?" Solana snaps, before I can form a coherent reply.
"Because it looks like you"re bonded to another girl."
Vane turns around to face her. "Well, okay, I guess it is what it looks like to you-and I"m sorry you had to find out like this." He turns back to me. "But I promise, she"s only here because she offered to protect my parents while I was gone. And she wasn"t even supposed to be home," he adds, turning back to Solana. "You said you"d take them somewhere safe."
"I did. And then I heard on the winds that the Gales had turned back, so we did the same."
"That doesn"t explain why you"re in his bed," I say, wishing I didn"t sound as jealous as I feel. She has just as much right to be there as me-probably more, since she"s the one with the promise link on her wrist.
Still, an irrational rage makes me want to claw at her face when she crosses her arms and says, "Vane and I have been sleeping together."
"Just sleeping," Vane corrects-glaring at her before he turns back to me. "And only because I was desperate. I told you Raiden was giving me nightmares, right? Solana knows a trick that blocks them." I want to nod-want to make the pieces of his story fit together into a truth that washes away the sour lump in my throat. But I can"t stop staring at the dent in Vane"s pillow, imaging Solana lying in the dark, waiting for him to crawl into bed next to her.
Is that what he wanted?
"Hey," Vane says, turning my chin toward him and forcing me to look in his eyes. They"re wide and worried and focused only on me.
"I promise, I dreamed about you the entire time."
"You did?" Solana and I ask at the same time.
I"m mildly triumphant when he ignores her and tells me, "I dreamed about the day I tried to run away when I was seven. Do you remember that? It was snowing and I got lost in the woods and then I fell and couldn"t get up and I thought I was going to die out there all alone. But you found me, and you called your dad and he brought me home. And even though we weren"t friends, you stayed with me that night by the fire until I fell asleep. I asked you to stay and you stayed."
I hear Solana mumble the word "stay," but I can"t pull my eyes away from Vane.
I"d blocked out that moment with everything else about that time in my life. But I do remember finding him in the woods, trembling like a fallen fledgling and clinging to my hand like I was the only thing that mattered in the world. And I remember staring at him later that night, as the firelight danced across his skin, and thinking he had a nice face.
I was seven and I didn"t even know what that thought meant. But it was there.
Before Raiden"s Stormer broke our lives apart and the Gales made their grand plans for Vane.
"Vane-is that you?"
Vane grumbles something under his breath as his mom bursts into the room. "Thank G.o.d-I"ve been so worried. . . ."