Free Amy's Advantage by Eve Jameson Page A

powers are locked in your blood and we need those to defeat the Sleht.”
    “Great. So far as the Royals are
concerned, Mystics have moved up from traitors to obligatory breeders.”
    He shook his head and muttered a
quiet curse before continuing. “No, that’s not what I meant. You’re the most
important part to the whole prophecy. Our world will fall to the Sleht if we
lose you. Yes, my ancestors screwed up. By the time we figured out that any
chance we had of keeping our world depended on protecting the ones we’d been
hunting, the powers were fractured and the Mystics were all in hiding. A lot of
them were already dead and the rest became really hard to find.”
    “Imagine that. Mystics with
trust issues. According to Ellen, the Royals haven’t come too far in being able
to be trusted since those Original Five.”
    Cirryc looked truly baffled by
her comment. “Yeah, I don’t get that. Do you have any idea how hard it
was to find you guys? Ever since your mom left with you and your sisters, we’ve
been looking for you. Your mom didn’t leave us much to go on. The whole city
was under attack and she took off through a random portal without telling
anyone she was leaving and no one knew which world she had jumped into. Then
she died before she could bring you back and all of you disappeared.”
    For the first time, Amy felt the
searing burn of anger Ellen had known for years. “She didn’t just die. She was murdered because someone did find us. Easily and quickly.”
    She’d been a baby and didn’t
remember anything about coming to this world, but not Ellen. The scars her
sister carried from that night weren’t all just physical. Though she’d actually
shared very few of the details, Ellen still held that memory, every moment of
the attack that had killed their mother.
    All levity in Cirryc’s manner
disappeared. A harsh, cold expression cut away the boyish features, and for the
first time she glimpsed the dangerous determination of a formidable man
underneath. “We know,” he said. “We just don’t know how or who. Yet.” He looked
over at Jordyn, who met his glance. “But we will.”
    Both men turned their eyes back
out toward the road, but their thoughts had turned inward, leaving the truck in
silence except for the radio and Chloe’s kicking against the bottom of her
seat. Above the finger she had hooked over her nose while sucking her thumb,
her green eyes were wide as her gaze darted back and forth between Jordyn and
Cirryc. When neither one made any further comment, she turned her head toward
her mother and with a loud smack, popped her thumb out of her mouth.
    “Snack!” she demanded.
    * * * * *
    She stood alone by the edge of
the frozen lake, her back toward him and her arms tightly wrapped around
herself for warmth. Looking smaller than normal in the midst of Colorado’s vast
winter white, her unnatural stillness in a place she’d sought out for solitude
underscored a concern that had been growing in him for weeks now. Though he
could make an approach in complete silence, Kayn had made no effort to muffle
his footsteps as they crunched in the heavy snow and so was surprised by the
severity of Shyrana’s startled reaction when he laid a hand on her shoulder.
    Spinning around to face him, her
dark-blue eyes remained unfocused for a moment, as if her gaze was still fixed
on a distant horizon and not the large, angry man in front of her. Her alarmed
shriek abruptly cut off when she recognized him, but her face, paler than
normal, remained tight as she breathed out in relief.
    A second before her defenses
slammed back into place, he saw the vulnerability and yearning she’d had for
him in the past. The moment flashed in time, but the sudden knowledge that
those emotions were still inside of her razed over him and turned his body and
soul inside out with the ache to hold her, comfort her, have her.
    He forgot his reason for
searching her out as his mind sped back to the last time she’d