“Did you come here often?” Kyden asked.
Nexi snuck a peek at him. He approached her with a sweet smile, and she returned it. For the first time since the night of the attack, which had consumed her with the need for revenge, she was reminded of something that had been all hers, before this mess. “I came to this tree every chance I had.”
Sitting down next to her, Kyden ran a finger over a leaf. “How did you find it?”
The question wasn’t odd—the tree always stood a little out of place in this thick forest, the clearing even more odd. As if a patch of the forest had been demolished exactly for her willow to exist, with the creek planted behind to nourish it. “My family’s house is that way.” She pointed to the west. “I always played in the woods as a kid. One day, I stumbled upon this place.” She twirled her fingers in the leaves. “After that, I never stayed away for long.”
He hesitated, his eyes searching hers. “Why?”
“The beauty alone would bring me here, but it’s really more than that.” She fought to put her feelings into words, a bit surprised he held such a curiosity about her reasoning. Had he brought her here to get to know her better? “There’s always been something so special about this tree.” She shrugged, feeling a bit silly saying these thoughts aloud. “I don’t really know how to explain it.”
Lifting his chin, he stared at the branches above him. “You feel a deep connection to this tree?”
“Extremely deep.”
“You are half witch, and a willow is a sacred tree.” He looked to her. “Your connection might lie there.”
She glanced at the leaf around her finger, pondering. Did the tree draw her in because of its magical elements? Who knew, and who cared. Her willow was the only piece of her past that remained, and being here now comforted her.
Inhaling deeply, and with her free hand, she ran her fingers across the grass beneath her, relishing in the lush scent of her willow. While she could’ve allowed silence to take over and simply enjoy her time at the meadow, one thing Kyden had said brought up a point she’d been curious about. “Why am I a half-breed?”
One sleek eyebrow arched. “Say again?”
After awakening in the Otherworld, it took her at least a week to realize that no one she had met was a mixed supernatural. Even when she left the Otherworld, she hadn’t seen anyone else like her. Tonight at the vampire club, she was convinced she would’ve seen another mixed supernatural, but she hadn’t. “Why haven’t I seen anyone else like me, how I’m a mixed supernatural?”
“Has Drake not told you any of this?” At the shake of her head, his jaw clenched, making her wonder if she wanted to know the answer. Then he finally said, “Simple—there aren’t any.”
She blinked, processed, and blinked again. “There aren’t any in the Otherworld? Or none at all, anywhere?”
“Only you.”
He sounded way too casual, considering she wanted to shake him in a demand that he hurry up and tell her how that was possible. Luckily, she didn’t have to resort to those measures, since he added, “An offspring from intermixed supernaturals will be one or the other, never both.” He smiled softly. “Of course, that was the theory until you.”
“Why did it happen with me?”
He watched her intently for a moment, then he shrugged. “Zia looked into it when you were born—discussed your mixed heritage with witches and others—but everyone thought it was a fluke. Since it’s never happened again, that theory remains.”
A fluke?
She considered how she felt about such a label or being different, and after a minute, she settled on, What did it matter anyway? She was a mixed supernatural, or maybe she would be once her witch abilities came in. At this point, even if everyone knew from their super-senses that she was part guardian, part witch, no one knew if she’d be an Earth Witch like Haven or Spirit Witch like her birth mother, or maybe even an Air or Fire Witch. And who knew when her witch abilities would show themselves, so why dwell on something she couldn’t change.
A long but comfortable silence settled between them, until Kyden inhaled and asked, “Have you always lived in Carson City?”
Glancing away from the leaves dangling in front of her, she looked to him, and he didn’t watch the surroundings, he watched her. She couldn’t restrain her smile, since now it became glaringly obvious he had brought her here not only because she’d like it, but because he wanted to get her alone.
It surprised her that it didn’t seem like a bad thing. “Yep, born and raised in Carson City.”
“Will you miss living here?”
She snorted. “Nope, can’t say I will.”
The moonbeams drifted along the side of his defined cheekbone and she scanned over the side of his face, finally resting on his sculpted lips as he said, “Don’t you have any close friends who will miss you?”
“Not really, it’s been…” Was she going to share this with him? Apparently, she was since before she could stop herself she added, “Drake told me the police put a search out for me, declaring me a missing person who’d been likely abducted, after they found my parents. I’m sure some of my friends will be sad. But I’ve never been very close to anyone—more like friends out of convenience—so I’ll probably be forgotten quickly.”
He examined her again, then blew out a breath sounding rich with tension. “I can’t imagine what it’d be like not to live in the Otherworld, to be without your magic and not know your purpose.” He leaned against his hands. “Must feel good to be where you belong.”
She didn’t stop herself from admiring his wide shoulders, his square pecs, or the deep ridges of his six-pack. Heat whipped like wildfire through her veins and she shifted against the grass, trying to get away from the burn low in her body.
She had noticed Kyden’s attributes the minute she’d awoken in the Otherworld, but in the past weeks, all he’d done was lecture her. His domineering personality killed the sexy. Her adoptive mother, Gloria, didn’t raise her to put up with that crap. And the bossy side of him made the package not as appealing. Now with this gentle side of him exposed…why couldn’t guardians wear turtlenecks?
When she managed to drag her attention to his eyes, it was like a cold bucket of water had been thrown in her face. He had taken notice of her admiring him, and he gave her a wicked smile that shouldn’t belong to any man, considering it made her think incredibly naughty thoughts.
She bit her lip—hard.
He chuckled.
More than ready to get things to a proper place, she shifted the conversation off her. “Did you grow up in the Otherworld? What are your parents like? Do you have any sisters or brothers?”
He arched an eyebrow. “Which one of those do you want me to answer first?”
“Any of them.” She scooted backward, getting a bit of breathing room, until she rested against the trunk of her willow. “Lately all anyone wants to know about is me. It’s nice to get the attention put on someone else for a while.”
He frowned, clearly at the distance between them. “Yes, I grew up in the Otherworld with my father. No, I have no brothers or sisters.”
She took notice that he hadn’t mentioned a mother and she suspected that could only mean it involved unhappy memories. With enough of that in her past, she didn’t dig deeper. “Does your father live in the Otherworld?”
“He does.”
At his silence, she added, “Are you going to tell me about him?”
“What do you want to know?”
She shrugged, running her hands along the soft grass. “I don’t know. Just about him. Is he nice to you? Does he work for the Guard? Do you have a good relationship with him?”
“Yes to all the above—he’s Talon.”
Her mouth dropped open and she hesitated, waiting for him to continue. When he simply stared at her with thoroughly amused eyes, she gasped, “Talon, as in the Master of Guardians, Talon?”
“That’d be him.”
Now thinking it over, she wondered how had she not seen it. The resemblance between the two guardians was uncanny, especially in their green eyes. Perhaps it made sense now why Kyden was the Elite Guardian. Apparently, he came from a talented family, considering his father was the top guardian in existence.
Glancing at the leaves above, she grabbed one and twirled it in her finger. “Do you like being a guardian?”
“I’m not sure it’s something I can like or dislike. It’s my life. It’s who I am.” He paused and when she looked at him, he continued, “If you’re asking, do I ever regret what I do or want to leave the Guard? The answer would be no.”
She wondered if she could ever see it way and be proud of her guardian heritage. At the moment she wanted to avenge her parents, nothing more than that. Being a guardian gave her the power—and soon, she’d have the skill—to make that happen. “Maybe one day I’ll look it like that, too.”