Phantom Game (GhostWalkers 18)

Camellia knew he couldn’t deny it. She shared his mind most of the time. It was virtually impossible for him to hide his motivation from her.

Jonas sighed. “You’re killing me, Camellia. The advance scouts are out in front of the troops. We have to allow them to get past us. If we don’t, the leaders are going to be even more alert than they already are. They lost all of their forward enhanced scouts sent to kidnap Lily and Daniel. That means we’ll have enemies in front of us and behind us.”

She stepped closer to him, seeing his very real fear for her in his eyes. Feeling it in his mind. All he could hear in that moment was his mother’s screams. He ran and ran to get to her, just as he had in his nightmares, over and over throughout the years, and he never managed to make it in time.

He framed her face with his hands. “I can’t lose you, Camellia. I can’t.” His voice was raw with emotion. He didn’t seem to mind that Kyle and Jeff heard him or could see the stark love that was so plain carved deep into his expression.

Camellia’s heart clenched hard in her chest. He was putting his emotions out there for her to see. For his friends to see. She was always so closed off. Always so afraid of getting hurt again and yet Jonas, who had suffered every bit as much as she had, was so willing to put himself out there again.

She brushed his lips with her fingertips, trying to find the right words to make him understand. “We’re so much stronger when we’re together, Jonas. You aren’t thinking straight. If you stash me somewhere you think is safe, all you’re going to do is second-guess yourself. You know you will. You’re going to think you should have kept me right with you.”

She could see that wasn’t enough to convince him. In her mind she chose an image of vines twisting together for strength. The roots of trees connecting underground and forming a strong system nearly impossible to defeat. Baby, she whispered softly, for him alone. We need to be together. The two of us. Just the way we were when we healed Kaden and Marigold.

Jonas pushed his forehead against hers with a soft groan of defeat. His hands slipped to her arms, fingers tightening there. “What am I going to do with you, Camellia?”

Keep believing in us for both of us. She couldn’t say it out loud the way she wanted to. Not with Kyle and Jeff right there. Maybe not ever. She raised her gaze to his, wanting him to see what was in her heart. She did love him already. She couldn’t admit it to him. She barely could admit it to herself. She hadn’t even shared it with Red, although she was certain Red knew.

I can do that, he whispered back in her mind.

“Are you two finished with your argument?” Jeff asked. “Because it was really lame as arguments go. Jonas, you disappoint me. You’re supposed to be all badass alpha. She bats her eyelashes a couple of times, and you just fall at her feet. What kind of example are you?”

Kyle nodded solemnly. “Ordinarily, I pay Jeff no mind. He’s basically a lunatic. In this case, I have to agree with him, Jonas. Even if you were ultimately going to give in, you should have held out a little longer.”

Branches of the Middlemist Red Camellia shivered and rustled all around them. One branch behind Jeff reared back and then rushed forward as if a heavy wind pushed it straight at the back of his head, where the blossoms slapped him. Kyle was treated to the same smack from the bright pink flowers. Petals sailed through the air, flying all around them.

“What the hell,” Jeff said, slapping at the branch. It was too fast, snapping back into place and waving in the breeze as innocently as ever. He regarded the towering shrub with suspicion. “What exactly was that, Camellia? Did you put some kind of spell on that plant? Some hex? Illusions don’t smack you in the back of the head.”

“Don’t be such a baby, Jeff,” she replied, giving a little sniff of pure disdain. “I’m sure the wind gusted a little. Didn’t you feel it? How could I have possibly caused the branches to move like that? I was—er—occupied with other much more important things.”

“Like what?” Jeff demanded.

“Looking into Jonas’s beautiful eyes. Don’t you think he has the most beautiful eyes in the entire world?” She poured dreamy into her tone. It was really difficult not to laugh when Jeff and Kyle exchanged a disgusted look.

“Pull your head out of your . . .” Jeff started, then stopped abruptly when Jonas made a single growly sound. “Out of the clouds,” Jeff corrected. “Are you even monitoring when those scouts are getting close? We have to alert our brothers in the field.”