“I flew out the next day with every intention of showing up as this knight in shining armor and rescuing you. I’d tell you I loved you, sweep you off your feet, and all would be well with the world.” He shook his head. “I didn’t know about the sirens. I didn’t think it through enough to realize that you came out here to get away from me. And I felt so dumb when the first thing I did on the island was cause you trouble. I’m sorry.”

  Shasta pressed her lips together to keep from shouting. Men. All this because the men in her life couldn’t leave well enough alone. “What gave Dad the right? What gave you the right? Why is it that only Mom believed I could do this?”

  Cord started to say something, but Shasta cut him off. “I mean, I do understand Dad. Misguided as it was, I don’t think he really thought you’d come out here. Besides, he’s very old-fashioned and has always been overprotective. He wanted to make you sweat. He wanted to make you worry. I get it. He didn’t like you because you hurt his little girl. But he trained me. Doesn’t he trust that he taught me well?”

  Cord looked like he wanted to say something, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.

  “And you? You weren’t invited by me, or my mother, or told to come here by my father. So why? Make me understand, because right now I don’t.” She wished they were somewhere she was comfortable yelling instead of whispering her anger.

  “I felt like I had to.” There was force behind the words, even though they weren’t loud. “I felt like I had to be here for you.”

  “What? Your maybe sort of Calling?” Shasta rolled her eyes. “Please. Spare me. I want honesty, not mythical mumbo jumbo.”

  His shoulders sagged. “Calling, love, guilt—one of them. Hell, maybe it was all of them.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Thought I’d show up and—”

  Shasta leaned forward. “And what? Save me?” she hissed. “I don’t need you to save me. I’ve done quite well at saving myself.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  A great swell of anger filled her. He was sorry. Undoubtedly, her father would be sorry. Her mom would probably be sorry too. But sorry didn’t equate to trust. Sorry didn’t equate to properly offered aid. Sorry didn’t fix anything. “I don’t want your apology.”

  When Cord looked at her, it was with eyes filled with regret. “What do you want from me?”

  Shasta looked past him, out the window where planes were rolling across the asphalt. It was a good question. Unfortunately, she didn’t have an equally good answer. When she’d begged her mom to send her somewhere away, all she’d wanted was space. It seemed like with time and distance between them, she would find answers. Maybe distance was still the answer. Or maybe it was all much simpler than either of them had been making it.

  She focused on Cord once more, his hunched shoulders and unhappy expression. “Before we left, I pulled Agatha aside. I asked her if true love really did make someone immune to siren song. She said there were a great many types of love, and while some could render a person immune, she didn’t know if they were true love. She said she didn’t have a way of defining true romantic love. It was much too complicated, much too diverse to be summed up in such a simple fashion.”

  Shasta forced herself to keep looking at him. “That didn’t tell me if we were truly in love, or how sirens managed to enchant both of us once, and neither of us at other times. Agatha told me that she doubted Ligia had been truly trying to enchant you. She added that they had the ability to focus their song on specific targets. Then she looked at me and shook her head. ‘That wasn’t the answer you wanted. I would say what makes someone immune to our song isn’t love but obsession. And I have yet to see those be the same.’”

  “So,” Cord said hesitantly, “that didn’t answer if what we feel for one another is love.”

  Shasta closed her eyes and shook her head. “What Agatha told me was that I already knew exactly how I felt. I’ve known for years. I love you. The past few weeks have been the unhappiest of my life. I don’t know if you love me the same way I love you. I don’t know if we can be more than dear friends. But I can’t continue being around you if things are going to be like this. You told me in the Dragon Lands that you needed time. Today that time is up. I need us to be clear on what we are to each other, and what we are not.”

  The words hung in the air for long seconds. For a time, Cord looked at her, and she in turn studied him. Then he looked away. Shasta held herself still, willing herself not to show emotions. This was an airport. She would not cry. She would not yell. She was stronger than that. Even so, she hoped that this time instead of breaking her heart he would cherish it.

  Cord held out his hand. “I love you. I may be a boneheaded elven man who can’t always tell what he wants and makes far too many mistakes, but I can’t imagine my life without you. I won’t promise forever, but if you’ll have me, I’d like a chance to try for now.”

  Shasta carefully picked her words. “What do you mean by ‘for now’?”

  “We try to be us. We give the relationship a chance. We see if we actually want to be more than work partners. We give it a shot. All of it. Work partners, romantic partners, everything we fought so hard against.” He scooted his hand an inch closer to her.

  “And if I say no?” It all sounded a little too good, a little too perfect.

  Cord swallowed. “Then we get different partners. We go our separate ways, take time to build lives that don’t focus on one another. Then, in six months or year, we see if the friendship is still there.”

  “I see.” Shasta looked down at his hand. A great part of her wanted to say no, especially after the way he had shown up at the island. However, the rest of her wanted to emphatically agree. It was what she wanted, had wanted for a very long time. But was it really that simple?

  Perhaps the better question was, could she live with saying no? Could she give up a chance at what she had wanted for so long and not regret it?

  “Passengers waiting for flight two four eight zero to Atlanta, your flight is now boarding out of gate C1.”

  Shasta looked down at her boarding pass. And then up at the sign that proclaimed C23. “Narzel blast it.”

  “Dammit,” Cord muttered.

  “I know, and it’s at the other end of the concourse.” Shasta grabbed her bag.

  “No, we’re already past boarding time.”

  “Dammit.” She headed toward the new gate at a brisk walk. Cord kept pace with her, only dropping back when it made it easier to wind through the crowd. As much as she wanted to run and make sure they got to the gate, there were simply too many people.

  By the time they got to C1, the gate agent was calling for all remaining passengers to line up. They didn’t waste any time in joining the line. Luckily, it moved quickly, and it wasn’t long before they were shuffling onto the plane and stuffing their bags under the seats in front of them. While she was buckling her seat belt, the flight attendants were doing their last checks. At least she had a few more minutes before she had to give Cord an answer.

  For his part, he was very pointedly not looking at her. He focused on the flight attendant during the safety briefing and even pulled out the brochure to look at it.

  Unfortunately, everything scooted along very quickly. Right after the safety briefing, the engines revved, and the plane took off. She wasn’t going to be able to delay this much longer. The seat belt sign dimmed, and the captain’s voice filled the cabin, cheerfully informing them of the outlook for the flight and that they could move around the cabin. Unfortunately, moving around the cabin wasn’t going to stop Cord from inquiring as to her answer.

  He leaned over and whispered, “It can wait until we’re alone.”

  Shasta sighed. Maybe he could wait, but she wanted this settled. She reached over, gently taking his hand in hers. “I love you. I don’t know if that’s enough, and I don’t know if I love you the right way. But I do love you. I want to try, but I have conditions.”

  Cord pressed his lips together and nodded.

  “We keep it simple, we keep it low-key. No promises of forever. We simply try. And for now, we try to make the relationship work and continue to be partners on the job. How does that sound?”

  He smiled and laid his other hand on top of hers. “It sounds like the woman I love giving me a chance I may not deserve.”

  Shasta grinned. “You think I’m going to be difficult? You’re going to have to explain to my mom and dad why you flew across the country when the company hadn’t asked you to interfere with another employee’s case.”

  He thumped his head against the seat. “I should’ve stayed on the island.”

  “Maybe,” she said smugly.

  He lifted an eyebrow. “I don’t know what you’re sounding so pleased about. Wait until they find out about the volcano elemental.”

  Shasta swore. “Maybe we could make Sirenum sound a little less…” She searched for the next word, but there wasn’t any one thing that would make the elemental sound less dangerous than it had been.

  “Angry, fiery, spewing of lava? Do you really think leaving one of those out will make them feel better?” Cord teased.

  Shasta glared at him. “You’re not off to a very good start being my boyfriend for all of two minutes.”

  “Oh no, I’m going to be an excellent boyfriend. I’ve already messed up enough. Besides,” he said lightly, “if you can tell me what one thing we should leave out in regards to the elemental, I will agree.”

  Shasta bit her lip. “Two. Give me two things.”

  “No.” Cord suppressed a smile. “I’m in enough trouble as it is.”

  “Please?” Shasta looked up at him. She really didn’t want to hear a lecture on knowing when to run away from a fight.

  “No.” He turned away.

  Shasta had to admit he was right. They owed her parents a full report, but she couldn’t resist. “Please?”

  “No.” He grinned.

  “Please?” With that they fell into an old rhythm and under it Shasta could feel the start of something new and wonderful.

  Coming Soon

  The Earth Born Cycle Book 3 will be out in 2018.

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  About the Author

  N.E. Conneely lives in northern Georgia with her husband, her dog, and a mountain of books. They sweat through the summer and freeze through the winter, and life as they know it comes to an end when so much as a single snowflake falls out of the sky.

  For fun, N.E. plays with her dog, reads, knits, crochets, paints, and does tie-dyeing and origami. She makes a great pizza and is currently negotiating with her husband about sea monkeys and growing a vegetable garden.

  Please visit neconneely.com to find information on her current projects.

  www.neconneely.com

  author@neconneely.com

 

 

  N. E. Conneely, Fire Forged

 

 

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