Treasured Secrets (The Coveted Saga 1)

"You're just lucky I know how to-" She looked around the plane, trying to phrase the next part of her sentence. "-work a little magic."

She snickered at her little comment, though I didn't find it as humorous. Magic was ruining everything. So was I.

I leaned back in my seat, forcing a smile so she wouldn't see through me. Tallis stared out the window, his eyes focused the clouds. His hand was just inches away from mine. I wanted to reach over and grab it, but I couldn't deal with him pulling away from me.

It was hard enough fighting back the urge to tell him I loved him again. I kept reminding myself of how poorly that had worked out the first time. Instead, I decided to just talk to him.

He looked like he needed a friend, and I owed him that much. "I’m sorry you had to hurt your cousin. I know that must have been incredibly difficult for you."

He turned with his eyes narrowed, seeming angry at me. "I wasn't trying to hurt him. I was trying to kill him. It wasn't hard at all. It was easy to do. He was trying to kill you. I don't care who it is, I would never let anyone hurt you. He may be my blood, but he's not my family. None of them are."

When he said stuff like that, it confused me even worse. How could he feel that strongly toward me and not love me?

He was willing to kill his cousin without even the slightest doubt because he tried to hurt me. I didn't understand why he couldn't see.

I wasn't going to get into all of that though. I thought back to the bullet shattering against his chest, and I flinched.

"I know this is going to sound weird, but I swear when that bullet came at me, everything went into slow motion. It was like everything slowed to a near standstill until after the bullet shattered on your chest. I saw everything with such clarity. I even saw the tiny fragments explode into the air almost one by one. It was amazing, other than the part where you had to literally take a bullet for me."

I expected him to snicker a little at that last part, but I was met with crickets instead. His eyes got really wide, like I had said something wrong.

His voice showed his confusion. "What? You saw everything in slow motion?"

I squirmed uncomfortably now, perplexed by his reaction and his tone. I responded with uncertainty. "Yeah, it just seemed as though time was crawling. I couldn't move, but I could see everything barely moving, except for you."

Allaysia leaned over the seat with astonishment on her face, whispering, "You learned how to control it? How did it work?"

He shook his head and stared at me while whispering back, "It just worked that one time, when I needed it more than I ever have. I don't even know how I did it. It just happened. How did Aria-"

"Shhh," she interrupted gently. "We'll talk more when it's safe to talk. Everyone will want to be included, I'm sure."

"There won't be any reason for that. It's not like I even know how to control it. Like I said, it just happened."

He leaned back in his seat, relaxing slightly. Then he resumed staring out the window. I was completely bewildered and they just seemed indifferent to my concerns.

I was relieved when the plane landed, hoping I would get some answers to their cryptic conversation.

Tallis wasn't letting me out of his sight. He tossed Desmond and Ash his keys as he opened the passenger door of my car for me.

He stayed silent all the way to the house. Every time I brought up the slow motion thing, he would just say later.

I was so happy to see the house. "Finally! I can get some answers," I exclaimed as he helped me out of the car.

He smiled just slightly with the corner of his mouth and grabbed my hand. He had no idea what physical contact did to me. It burned me up, like a passionate fire that could never be extinguished. I couldn't understand why he claimed to not love me.

He had just flown to South America to save me. He had studied my sketches so much that he found my hideaway in an enormous rainforest. He tried to kill his own cousin to save me. He apparently used some new freaky slow motion power to jump in front of a bullet for me. He wouldn't even let me ride home without him. He had put my family's protective crest inside his pretty little car next to his in the very beginning. He planned on being with me all the time. He slept in my bed, rarely letting me out of his sight. I just hated he wouldn't admit it to himself or to me. It was killing me.

He went and got a couple bottles of water from the refrigerator. He handed me one as he sat on the couch beside me. Then everyone started piling in. Everyone put away their stuff and joined us in the living room area.

Ash sat beside me. "So, by the way, about the whole passport thing... I'd like you to know how embarrassing it was to be closer to thirty than twenty, and have to have a parent's permission to board a plane."

"What?" Then it dawned on me. "Oh, yeah, sorry. I'm surprised they let us use each other's ID. We don't look that much alike."

Ash smiled. "Well, I did look like you when I got there." She took a breath, and before my eyes, she transformed to look like me.

I gasped slightly, feeling as though I had stepped outside my body to stare at myself. It was uncanny actually.

"I didn't have time to make a new passport before we left," she added. "This was a quick and easy fix."