Free Soul Kissed by Courtney Cole Page A

at all and not running in the opposite direction as fast as his muscular legs would take him.
    “So you don’t trust your mother?” he asked, curious. 
    “I trust her with my life,” I answered firmly.  “But I don’t trust the same people that she does.”
    “And who does she trust that you don’t?” Brennan inquired hesitantly.
    “Hades.”  I chanced a look at his face and found him to be as astonished as I figured he would be.
    “As in… the god of the Underworld?” he asked incredulously. 
    “The one and the same.”
    “So, everything that you’ve told me is real.  We’re part of mythology.  Only mythology isn’t myth at all.  It’s reality.”  Each word he said was carefully enunciated and slowly spoken.  I nodded silently.
    “And you personally know the god of the Underworld.  And I would assume that you know magic as well, since you are the daughter of a witch.”
    “A very powerful witch, yes.” I nodded again.  “And yes, I know some magic.”
    “Is there anything else that I should know?” he asked, his face betraying his nervousness.  I hesitated, then nodded.
    “There are all kinds of things that you should know.  But we don’t have time to get into everything right now.  The most important thing you should know is that my father is dangerous.  He wants to kill me.  And since he’s seen you with me and I’m certain that he recognized who you really are, you are in danger now, too.”
    Brennan nodded.  “I figured out that part for myself.”  He turned to me, his handsome face showing not fear, but concern. 
    “How long have you been running from him?”
    I felt my shoulders drop dejectedly.  I couldn’t help it.  “Long enough.”
    He opened his arms and pulled me into them, holding me close.  Breathing into my hair, he said, “You don’t have to be afraid anymore.  I’m here now.  And I’ll help you however I can.”
    I closed my eyes and was surprised to find hot tears welling behind my lids.  It had been so long since I had succumbed to weakness or vulnerability of any sort.  But so help me… letting him hold me felt so incredibly good right now.
    “You can’t help me,” I whispered.  “No one can.”
    “But I can try,” he said grittily.  “And I’m very determined.” I felt him smile into my hair and I couldn’t help but smile, too.  He had no idea what he had just gotten into, but there was no help for it now. 
    “We need to decide where to go,” I finally said, reluctantly pulling away from him. “He must have found my house so we can’t go back there.  Now that he’s seen you, he’s probably hunting down your house at this very moment.  We can’t go there, either.  Do you live with your father?”
    He shook his head.  “No.  I live in an apartment in town- near the college.”
    “Well, that’s something good at least.  We won’t have to worry about your dad.  And we won’t have to explain your upcoming absence.”
    “My absence?” he raised an eyebrow. 
    I swallowed.  “You’re going to have to stay away from your family for a bit.  You don’t want to lead Mormo to them.”
    He nodded.  “Good thinking.  Where should we go?”
    I studied his face for a second.  He was handsome, calm and perfectly willing to believe everything I had just told him as fact.  His hazel eyes returned my stare without flinching and I found that I could get lost in his eyes.  They were truly beautiful.  I shook those useless thoughts from my head.  Thinking like that wasn’t going to help us right now.
    “You know,” I pondered, looking around us once again.  “We could just stay right here for the time being.  It’s remote, there is no one here right now and there’s quite a few buildings we could stay in.”
    He looked at me like I was crazy.  “Here?  We won’t have beds, a kitchen… did I mention beds?”
    “Were you expecting a Four Seasons?” I snapped grumpily.  “I can conjure just about