He gripped my arm and propelled me forward several steps. Caught by surprise, I almost fell, and it was only his grip that kept me upright. Once I
’d managed to catch my balance, I ripped my elbow out of his grasp and stopped.
“The last thing I need”—I stabbed him in the chest with a finger and tried to ignore the warmth that flared up toward my arm with each tiny touch—“is some fool acting like a damned he-man. You can’t just haul me around as you please. Be civil, or that ring is going to remain sea-bound for eternity.”
He crossed his arms, his eyes flat and dangerous. “That’s not a threat you should be making, sweetheart. Trust me on that.”
I growled low down in my throat and pushed past him. “Why couldn’t you have just accepted the situation and left me alone?”
He followed, a presence I could feel through every pore, in every fiber. In some ways, he felt like sunshine through rain—an inner warmth surrounded by threatening darkness.
“Because we had a deal.” His voice was even, not hinting at the fury vibrating the air. “And you’re going to live up to your side of it.”
I swung around and faced him. “All you need the ring for is to get some information out of your bastard of a father. I’m trying to get to mine before he dies. What makes you think I really give a damn about any stupid deal you might have made right now?”
“What makes you think that the information I need is any less urgent than you getting to your dad?”
“Because if it was, you would have told me.”
“Not when the fucking ring was already out of my reach and couldn’t be immediately retrieved.” He eyed me for a minute, the heat of his fury washing over me again despite the tight control he obviously had over his emotions. “Agreeing to the deal gave me the ring in a couple of days. And that was okay, because it helped me, and it helped you, as Egan had wished.”
I studied him for a moment, then said, “So what sort of information does your father hold that is so important?”
He sighed, and thrust a hand through his hair. “My sister has gone missing, and my mom feels sure that she’s in some sort of trouble.”
“Is this a kin intuition thing?”
“She’s human, remember, so the kin intuition doesn’t apply. She just occasionally gets these feelings about things, and they mostly come true.”
“Then why the hell didn’t you tell me all this in the first place?” My voice was sharper than I’d intended, but damn it, he deserved it. If his sister was in trouble, he should have told me. “Why do such a botched job of stealing it?”
“Because we’re conditioned not talk about the clique or clique business. Besides, I had no idea what had happened to my brother, who you were, and whether I could trust you. Running with the ring just seemed easier at the time.”
“You could have just explained the situation, Trae.”
His gaze searched mine. “Would you have believed me? Especially considering you had no idea until our meeting that Egan even had siblings?”
“Honestly? I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe not when we’d first met, because I didn’t know you any better than you knew me. But later, yeah, I would have. Either way, stealing it wasn’t the answer.”
“So I discovered.”
This, I thought sourly, was a complete and utter shambles. And why? Because neither of us had trusted the other enough to just come out and explain things. But at least this was one mess that was easily fixed.
I swung around on my heel and marched back to the sea. I couldn’t change the delay I’d caused—a delay that might very well endanger his sister—but I could do this. I could summon the ring from the sea and give it back to him.
“Destiny, the car is—”
“I don’t care about the car. I’m getting the ring.”
“It’s nearly dawn—” he said.
“Which is the best time for this sort of magic.” I swung around and faced him. “I have enough blood on my hands already, Trae. I don’t want your sister’s on them as well. When I get the ring, I want you to go. Get the information you need, and go find your sister.”
“But—”
“Promise me,” I cut in sharply, “that you’ll take the ring and go.”
He hesitated, then said, “Okay. I promise.”