Free hellcat 05 - come hell or high water by Sharon Hannaford Page A

considered that something to be proud of twelve months ago.  She would’ve sworn to the Lord and Lady that speaking her mind was the only way to be honest with herself and those around her, but somewhere in the last few months it had dawned on her that throwing a hissy fit was just a way of draining some of the rage. It wasn’t truthful or honest, it was just a childish release of pain and anger. 
    The new-and-improved Gabi was a constant work in progress, however. So it took time to think through the fury, to talk herself into a better mental state.  When it all seemed overwhelming, she practiced her meditation skills.  Whether it was her newly discovered maturity or the breakthrough when she was being tortured by Mariska and Dantè, she’d found a meditative state much easier to reach lately.  When the tightness in her chest eased, the adrenalin ebbed and the buzzing in her brain quietened, she blew out one more deep breath and called down to him.
    “You can come up here now,” she said, not raising her voice despite the distance down to him.  The old oak was a fantastic climbing tree, and she was probably a good thirty feet off the ground.  Her back rested against the sturdy main trunk, and her legs stretched out before her on a branch as thick as her waist.  One of the squirrels that called the oak home was curled up asleep in the crook between her neck and shoulder.
    Instead of climbing the tree, Julius chose to levitate himself up to her.  She still found the sudden upsurge in his Magi abilities disconcerting, and levitation was the most unsettling of the lot.  He was a Fire-bender, one of the strongest that Athena had ever encountered, as well as an Air-Bender.  Air-benders were capable of amazing feats, including deflecting flying bullets, removing an element like oxygen from the air around someone or affecting the pattern of the weather. And levitation.
    “Show off,” she grumbled as he stepped gracefully onto a branch to the right of and slightly below hers.  The squirrel stirred, noticed the newcomer, and immediately scampered away, chittering noisily as it fled. 
    “Sorry,” he said.  “I warned you that Rocky was an exception to the rule, the rest of them hate me.”  Julius once told her he’d tried to befriend squirrels as a child, but had never even come close to success.  Gabi, of course, had an unfair advantage.
    “I want to know the real secret,” she said without further ado.  “The one you’re not telling me.  The one you’re trying to hide from everyone.”  She could sense the immediate slamming of his mental shields, but she wasn’t about to be deterred.  “You’ve been keeping something from me for weeks now.  It has something to do with the Princeps and me.  Tell me, be completely forthright, no more lying by omission, and I’ll agree to stay here.”  She knew that she had to dangle a huge carrot in front of him to make him open up, a threat wouldn’t work, he’d just find a way to negate it, but this promise was a difficult one for her to make.  If his secret involved danger to his own life, she would be hard put to keep her promise.  She was counting on the threat being to her life instead. 
    His jaw worked, the muscles tensing and untensing in the pale moonlight, his gaze avoiding hers.  His mind remained tightly shut down from hers.
    “I want your word that you’ll tell me everything,” she reiterated.  His word was everything to him, if he gave it to her, it was as good as written and signed in his blood.  He slowly folded himself down until he was sitting on his branch. She could see every line of his face.
    “Alright,” he finally said.  “But I’ll have your word that you will stay here and not fight me on this or find a way to follow me after I leave.”
    Gabi gritted her teeth and prayed that she wasn’t making a fatal error in judgement. “I swear I’ll stay in the City while you are concluding your current meeting with the