“So, you’ve got your charm.” She tried to inject a note of cheerfulness into her voice and came out sounding half deranged.

“Yes.”

“When do you head back to the jungle?” Her grip tightened on the bow. Now that he was going back, she realized how much she’d started to care for him. More than care for him. Real, scary, horrible feelings that scrabbled around inside her chest like a wild animal. How could he possibly feel the same? It was insane.

“What?” Cam turned to look at Ana. He hadn’t even considered leaving, he realized. Technically, he’d done what he’d come for—gotten his charm renewed. So he should be heading back soon. “I’m not leaving. I told you I’d help you.”

Her overly bright eyes—tears, he just now noticed—widened. A fist closed around his heart and squeezed. He cared for her, too much and not enough.

“You thought I’d leave you?” That pissed him the hell off, actually.

“Well, I—”

“Let’s get something straight, Ana. Shit’s complicated between us. That’s true enough. But I said I’d help you get out of Otherworld. I owe you and I fucking care for you. We’re going to figure this out together.”

A shuddery breath escaped her lips, and her fist relaxed infinitesimally on her bow. He dropped his head back on the seat and stared at the ceiling. Shit, he was in deep.

“We don’t know where the hell this bloke is, so I’m going to call Fiona,” he said.

“You think she’ll be able to find him again?”

“Don’t know unless we try. And she’s got a stake in finding him too. If I offer to retrieve the bow and arrows for her, it might grease the wheels. It’s our only resource right now.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“We’ve got a little while until Fiona calls back with something,” Cam said to Ana when she walked out of the bathroom wrapped in the hotel robe.

The clouds had finally parted and sunlight streamed through the window to glint off her blond hair. They’d checked back into the hotel because it was the safest place to be while they sorted out their next move.

“You reached her?” Ana asked.

“Yeah. Took a while to convince her to share any info she finds, but she really wants that bow. I promised to try to retrieve it. She’s going to call in a favor with the witches, which I’ll have to pay, but they should be able to locate him. We’ll wait here until then.”

“Okay.” Ana grabbed her clothes from where she’d set them on the chair, upsetting her quiver of arrows in the process. It tumbled to the floor and several arrows slid out. A flash of blue caught his eye, and he swooped down to pick up the quiver.

He reached in to withdraw an old arrow that he hadn’t seen in millennia. He stared at it for a second, an odd feeling welling in his chest. Ana was watching him when he looked up. “You kept it?”

She nodded.

“Why?”

She looked away, tightening the robe around her throat, then shrugged.

“Why’d you save this for two thousand years?” He found that the answer had suddenly become very important to him.

Her eyes met his, exasperated. “What was I going to do? Shoot a god’s arrow? The god of war?”

He gently grabbed the front of her robe and drew her to him. Her wide eyes met his as he said, “You’re that god now.”

She shook her head, suddenly looking smaller than she ever had. “I wasn’t, Cam. I wanted to prove myself as a warrior, but not like that. You were the war god—I am a placeholder.”

Placeholder. Because he’d run.

“You did a good job,” he said, trying to imbue his words with enough truth that she’d believe him.

She smiled. “I know. I’m good at whatever I put my mind to. I just wasn’t meant to be a goddess. I’m not cut out for that life.”

He heaved a sigh, shook his head. “Neither was I.”

Tags: Linsey Hall The Mythean Arcana Paranormal
Source: readsnovelonline.net