Free Lissa Kasey - Dominion 3 - Conviction by Lissa Kasey Page B

Protecting my family was more important. With Sei sleeping so soundly, nothing felt more necessary than separating Kelly and Sei.
    Finally, I shut the door and headed back to my room, feeling the anger in me like I hadn’t for a long time. The storm outside raged as bad as it had last night. Wind howling like a banshee and cold saturating everything. Magic penetrated the air, filling it with malice and pain. Why hadn’t I felt it before?
    Where was Kelly? I hated this deep suspicion. I wanted to trust him, wanted him to be family. He just kept pushing me away. Why couldn’t he just talk to me? If someone was making him do this, I could help. Somehow we’d get him free. The idea that he may be hiding it from me out of fear or something as equally stupid just pissed me off. If anything happened to Sei because of all this, he’d really get to see the bear I was.
Kelly
     
I OPENED the door to my shared room and moved to crawl back into bed. Jamie sat up and stared at me.
    “What?”
“Where did you go?”
“To the kitchen to get a snack.”
“It’s after 3 a.m.”
    I could tell time, but I tried to keep my snarky comments to myself. “And there’s praline fudge ripple in the freezer. Ask Gabe if you don’t believe me. He’s monkeying with the CB in the kitchen.”
    “You sure you weren’t out tampering with generators or poisoning our food supply?” His tone felt colder than the storm blowing outside.
    “What the fuck?”
“Stay away from my brother.”
My heart skipped a beat. Here it was, his final moment
    of telling me he didn’t trust me. Could I handle it? “In case you’ve forgotten, he’s my roommate now. When we get out of this place, his bedroom is less than fifteen feet from mine.” I yanked the blankets away from Jamie, threw myself on the bed, and stuffed the covers around me like a shield.
    “That just burns you, doesn’t it? That he’s so close but not interested.”
“What the hell has gotten into you tonight?”
“It’s after three in the morning, and you’re sneaking around. We’re trapped in a hotel under more than ten feet of snow, and you have to ask what’s wrong with me?”
“I’d say cabin fever. But whatever. I’m going to sleep.” I put a pillow over my head and burrowed myself further into the blankets to try to ignore any more harsh words. Eventually he settled back into the bed again and seemed to sleep.
Time passed agonizingly slow. I thought of a million possibilities about how the storm had formed and how to get us out of here alive. Most of the escape plans hinged on finding that last sled undamaged.
We had filled both tanks from fuel cans when we got to the cabins to be sure they wouldn’t freeze overnight. In fact, we had two full gas cans that we could strap to one of the sleds if needed. Not safe, but a way to keep from running out. The one Gabe drove back with Sei would have been running low. He’d also parked it in the garage when he returned, so it had been easy prey for whoever was doing the sabotage.
If I got the sled left at the cabin and got to one of the ranger stations I could get help. Rescue helicopter or whatever. Maybe then everyone would stop looking at me like they were expecting me to be a villain too.
The more I thought about it, the more I needed to get to the sled at the cabin.
It was probably close to five in the morning before I got up, tired of trying to sleep, and dressed. I watched Jamie’s sleeping form for any sign that he was awake, but his deep, even breaths reassured me that he slept on. After snapping into my snowsuit, I checked the charge on my cell and made my way downstairs. If Gabe was still haunting the kitchen, it’d be a bust, since I’d need food.
When I found the kitchen empty, I felt like I hit the home run in overtime. I stuffed a bag full of non-perishables, strapped it on my back, and took a pair of snowshoes from the rack beside the door.
My cell had a reasonable GPS, even if the signal barely worked, and I