Edan half smiled. “So, it appears you’ve discovered our little secret.” He shrugged as if he didn’t care that anyone knew I was living in the realm.
“She’s a Scar, Edan,” Waleron reminded him.
I stiffened. “I can go wherever I want.”
Waleron hesitated, his eyes driving into mine like a dagger. “Yes. But not here.”
“She belongs to me now,” Edan stated.
Whoa. What the hell? I stepped from his embrace. “I belong to no one.” Edan should know better. Scars and Wraiths were possessive, but that didn’t mean I would be treated like I was owned by one.
Edan kept his eyes on Waleron as he responded, “You’re right.”
I laid my hand on Edan’s forearm. “Can you give us a minute?”
Edan hesitated, and I knew he was thinking of refusing the request by the look of disgust on his face. But, he gave a curt nod and then disappeared in the same fashion he’d appeared.
“You can’t stay here,” Waleron said as soon as Edan was gone.
“I—”
“No, damn it.”
I shifted uneasily as his gaze roamed over my body and then up to meet my eyes. I saw pain. His pain. It was there in the cool glint of his gaze, and I had to step back to keep from throwing myself into his arms. Arms that had refused to hold me, to believe in what we had.
“You’re a Tracker,” Waleron said. “You belong . . .” he hesitated, and then he made a gesture I’d never seen before. He ran his hand over his shaved head. He was frustrated. That steady, cold reserve had escaped him. “With us.”
He didn’t say with me. He didn’t say I belonged in his arms or in his bed, or by his side. It was with us, the Scars. He said the same old shit. I tilted my chin up. This was finished. I’d end this now for my sake, for my heart, for my sanity. “You’ve ripped my heart out for the last time, Tac.” He flinched. “You destroyed me. You took my love, and then threw it away like garbage. I deserve better.” I hesitated for a second to try and get my breathing under control. “I am taking my heart back.”
“Delara, I . . .” Waleron, for once in his life, stumbled on his words. “I can’t.” And then he said a word I’d never heard pass his lips. “Please, try to understand.”
One word wasn’t going to do it. “Jesus. Understand? It’s too late. I have nothing left. Unlike you, I believe in love.” I raised my voice. “Love, Waleron. Something you’ll never know. Or rather, want to know.”
“Delara . . .” He closed his eyes for several seconds. “I need to—”
“Need. You need. It’s always what you need. Leave me the hell alone.” I turned, and for once I felt free from the pain that kept me locked in Waleron’s web.
I walked away, and the hope that he’d call out to me had vanished. That part of my heart was gone. He was too late. I didn’t want him or his cold, calculating ways, his dark side that kept him from getting close to anyone. I was saying good-bye. Good-bye was forever.
But this time, he did call out. “Delara,” Waleron said, his voice cracking. “Damn it, stop.” His voice was unfamiliar—haunting.
But I kept walking. They were words. Nothing he said would ever make me go back to what I’d suffered. My trust in him had been blown into oblivion and dispersed across the Earth.
As I turned the corner out of his sight, I felt the wind drift across my body. His scent carried on the breeze to surround me. Shit. I knew he’d done it. Maybe hoping I’d stop. Hoping that the words he’d spoken years too late would make me hesitate. They wouldn’t.
I did stop when he materialized in front of me. I felt Edan in my mind, offering me his strength while still keeping his distance. The two men were complete opposites—fire and ice, and they sure as hell didn’t mix.
Waleron grabbed my hand. “I’ll try,” he said. His fingers curled around mine and I felt him attempt to draw me closer. I stood my ground.
“You’re saying that so I won’t be with Edan.” I jerked away from him.
A flash of panic swept across his face because I was right.
I laughed. “Besides, how can you try when you can’t even talk to anyone about what she did to you? What you suffered for years. Try? Try to what—love?” I snorted. “You don’t know how to love anymore.”
“Don’t do this.”
“Did you listen to me at all? I said you ripped out my heart. You don’t know what that feels like. You’re numb. You keep yourself numb with those bloody pills. You’re not willing to feel again or to stop hiding behind the drugs.” I crossed my arms. “All those times you said it, you were right. You can’t love because you don’t believe in it any longer. She destroyed that in you and I’m tired of trying to get it back for you.” I stepped back when he reached for me. “No.”
The hurt and pain I saw in his eyes vanished and Waleron’s familiar cold resolve came back like a steel shield over his face. “The Talde needs you.”
“And I’ll be there for them when they ask me.” I walked away, the ache still real even though I tried to deny it.
“YOU KNOW WHAT?” I fiddled with the channels on the radio after a three hour nap. “I don’t even know what music you like.” I glanced at him and he shrugged, eyes focused on the road. “No favorite bands? Come on. Fess up, Bale.”