Page 72 of Hart's Redemption

“Because if you don’t, I’ll be arrested and thrown into my own cell. I doubt it will be one they'll let us share.”

I took the flimsy page, and it flared to life at my touch, sending colored spots of light dancing across my vision. “Why would they arrest you?” I asked a touch too loudly, then horror squeezed the air from my lungs. “What did you do?”

“I did what I had to in order to see you again,” Elijah hissed. “I still don’t understand why we can’t tell anyone we’re—”

I clapped a hand over his mouth. “Do not be deceived by my isolation.”

He gave me an indignant glare and gently removed my hand. “Have it your way. You and I both know if it were known, it would afford you privileges.”

“I’ve spent my whole life with privileges. Trust me,everythingcomes with a cost.”

A less than subtle cough came from the entrance.

Elijah huffed and took the page back in order to lay it on his smooth chest. “Hurry up and sign, my time is up.”

“What? Already?”

“Josh, sign. Don’t worry about the dates or the seals, Lombardi is taking care of it.”

I squinted at the overly bright page, trusting it even less now, and tried to discern what in the seven hells was contained in the excessively small script. “How the hell am I supposed to sign something when I don’t knowwhatit is, let alonewherethe damn line is?”

He grabbed my wrist in a light but firm hold and guided it to what could have been the proverbial dotted line. “Do you trust me?”

“Of course I trust you.”

His face softened at my words. “Then sign.”

In a leap of faith, the likes of which I only ever seemed to take when Elijah was involved, I swirled a formal signature while staring deeply into his eyes. “There.”

Lombardi’s silhouette reappeared at the entrance. “Excellent. Now, if you’ll excuse us. We must be going. I have paperwork to collect for your imminent trial.”

Elijah passed him the signed page without a word, still endeavoring to keep it concealed, and Lombardi tucked it out of sight.

I stepped forward to follow them out and only just remembered not to cross the invisible line separating me from the rest of the world. I jolted to a halt, my heart already aching with our imminent separation. The fleeting contact hadn’t been nearly enough.

Suddenly, Elijah spun on his heel and rushed back to me. He grabbed my face with both hands, then snared me with a fierce kiss that curled my toes with longing. I wrapped my fingers around his wrists as if I could somehow keep him here. “I’ll seeyou again soon.” Elijah’s promise washed over me as Lombardi pulled him back and the wall began sliding shut.

I didn’t look at whoever was operating the controls; I only had eyes for Elijah. The fear in his eyes scared me more than I could ever admit to myself. The glass kissed the wall with a soft hiss of air, and all additional scents and sounds vanished, even the bond’s fierce glow diminished.

“No!” My hand smacked into the glass as I was forced to watch Elijah walk away down a dim corridor without me, the shadows reaching out to obscure his retreating form with each step he took. “Elijah!” I pounded on the barrier in vain. He couldn’t hear me, couldn’t even see me as the wall once again became opaque and indiscernible, as the cage it was to the outside world.

Elijah

Back at the hotel, there was nothing to do but fret. Theodore Lombardi had vanished practically the moment we’d been magicked out of that oppressive hallway to pursue, as he put it, “an endless mountain of paperwork”. As long as he was able to get the document backdated and filed, I didn’t care if I didn’t see him again until the trial, the date of which he’d conveniently neglected to mention. But there was absolutely no way I was calling him to demand an answer. The more time I spent in the unusual man’s company, the more he scared the bark right out of me. Of course, learning he was some type of dragon only made me more anxious in his company.

I heaved a frustrated sigh into the empty room and raked fingers buzzing with nervous energy through my hair. Josh had destroyed my usual bun like he always did, and I hadn’t bothered to tie it back again. Thinking of Josh sent a pang oflonging through me. I’d been almost completely overwhelmed when the bond had suddenly flared to life again at seeing him. When the wall had slid shut and the bond faded to a glimmer of what it had been only moments before, it had almost destroyed me.

I’d looked back, hoping to catch one last glimpse to reassure myself it wasn’t all some fanciful concoction of a desperate mind, but the wall had returned to metal and stone, then the darkness came. I shivered despite myself, still unsettled about the way the night had seemed to swallow us whole. Rational logic reminded me that no witch held anything like that in their repertoire, but the alternative was just as unfathomable.

A glance towards the overlarge bed had me tempted once again to slide beneath the sheets where I’d squirreled away the shirt I’d worn earlier. Traces of Josh’s sweet, earthy scent still clung to the fabric, and I longed to be enveloped by the comfort once more. I shook my head to dispel the temptation. Restless energy ran amok in my body. I’d find no sleep, only nightmares. Finally, I gave it up and dialed out.

“I’ll have you know, the smell of that portal is still burning my moonforsaken nose.” Even though he was complaining, the sound of Eric’s voice was a welcome relief.

“Maybe one of these days you’ll learn to keep your nose to yourself.”

He snorted and ignored the taunt. “So, did you get to see him?”

Just like that, I was back in the sparse cell, holding Josh’s face while he stared at me in surprise. “See him, touch him. Hell, I even managed to kiss him.” The kiss had been hot and needy, desperate to rekindle a connection strained by time and distance. It had been far too short, but there simply hadn’t been time for anything else.