Page 67

Kaden pulled me over to an old piece of fencing before we got to them and hoisted me up onto the rail.

“What are you doing?” I said, grabbing his shoulders for balance.

“Why do you look like you haven’t slept?” He held my hips as he stood in between my legs.

“It’s hard to sleep with everything going on,” I said, looking over at the other people, who were definitely watching us. It was easier than meeting his gaze.

“Really? You’ve been sleeping like the dead lately.”

“That’s definitely not true.” Although I hadn’t woken up from nightmares for a while—well, until he’d left this last time. But that was only because I knew where he was going. What was coming. Not because of him.

His lips grazed a spot right below my ear. “Sometimes you sleep so soundly I wonder what I could do to you before you even awaken.”

My breathing grew ragged. It was beginning to seem like he was trying to seduce me, but that was plain ridiculous. He could’ve already slept with me and hadn’t. Did he think someone was going to overhear what he said?

Another person walked past, smiling in our direction as he headed toward the other people. We were behaving exactly as they expected, as they wanted us to.

His head dipped to where the crease of my neck met my shoulder as he wrapped his hands around my back, supporting me, putting on a show.

I stiffened. “We should join them. I don’t want them to have to wait on us.”

He stared into my eyes, but I couldn’t hold his gaze. It didn’t stop him from staring at me for another few seconds.

He finally lifted me off the railing. Whatever he was thinking, I wasn’t going to pay it any mind. It wasn’t as if I hurt his feelings because I wasn’t in the mood to fake a relationship right now.

He lifted me down as more people joined us, pairing off in twos. I headed toward Tiber, and Luisca walked toward Kaden.

“No, I want to try something different today,” Kaden said. “While I was waiting for Connor to come back, I remembered something I’d heard a long time ago.” He turned toward the group. “Anyone here who has a mate who’s been acquiring power, team up together.”

Slowly the group paired off in teams.

“Take each other’s hands, and the stronger of the two, let the power build—let your partner feel the way you’re letting it increase. Then let them try to take the reins. We should spread out while we do this.”

It took another minute or so for people to spread out.

Kaden held out his hands to me.

It didn’t take more than a second or so for it to build. I couldn’t actually see the power, but the feeling of it was strong.

“I’m going to back off. I want you to try to take over.”

His control was diminishing, forcing me to fill the void.

I felt the strength of it moving around and tried to slip my will upon it. A surge of power took over.

It began to build stronger than I’d expected, and my control was rattled along with my nerves.

“Hang on,” Kaden said, trying to take control back.

“I can’t.” I felt like I was racing downhill without brakes.

“Let it go before it gets stronger,” he said, gripping my hands tightly.

There was a loud cracking sound. Everyone in the field seemed to turn at once to see the large tree fall so close that Kaden and I had to duck to not get whipped by the end of its branches.

I gasped. “Oh no…”

“It’s fine. You’ll get control of it eventually. You actually did really well.”