Free Eternal Shadows by Kate Martin Page A

Americans.” He just smiled at me. “You make it sound so easy.”
    “We’ve done it before. Though never on this large a scale. We’ve worried that a country or nation would destroy itself before, but never the whole world.”
    “You’ve meddled in the affairs of humans before?”
    “Many times.”
    “World War I?”
    “No. Things were under control.”
    “World War II?”
    “Also under control.”
    Jeeze . “But not now?”
    “This war has gone on for twenty years. The Middle East is unrecognizable. Smaller countries have been swallowed up by larger, and the world powers are at each other’s throats. It was time to step in.”
    Sadly, it made sense.
    He pulled a coin from his pocket. “Take this from me.”
    I groaned. “More lessons?” When he flipped the coin into the air without a word, I took that as a yes. As if dealing with standing in the sun wasn’t enough. Using the elastic I had around my wrist, I threw my hair up into a ponytail. The breeze felt good on the back of my neck, and cooled the urgency of the thirst. That, and last time my hair had been down during one of these little sessions, I had ended up flat on my face. I wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice. “Fine. Let’s go. What is that thing anyway?” It didn’t look like a quarter.
    “An Irish sixpence. Are you going to take it from me, or not?”
    “Like I actually have a chance.”
    “You won’t know until you try.”
    I lunged before he finished speaking. Element of surprise and all that. My finger just brushed the silver of the coin when he pulled away the first time. I stumbled to a stop, twisting around to glare at him. He stood less than two feet away, walking the coin over the backs of his fingers. Cool. “How do you do that?”
    “Practice. Try again.”
    “I’d rather learn the coin trick.”
    “Get the coin and I’ll teach you.”
    Nothing like a little incentive. I didn’t lunge this time. Instead, I watched the coin flip back and forth, sliding effortlessly over his hand. I took one step, then two, putting myself toe to toe with him. The coin continued its little journey across the back of his hand. I felt Rhys’s gaze on my face and so I met it. For one brief moment I forgot about the coin. Then I struck.
    I was positive I had the coin pressed against my palm, but then I was flat on my back, sun glaring into my eyes and reflecting off the surface of the coin where Rhys held it just above my face. His other hand had my wrist pressed firmly into the ground and he was sitting on me.
    “If you took that back after I had it, that’s cheating.”
    “You touched it, but you never had it.”
    “Close doesn’t count, huh?”
    “Not in this life.”
    “You’re crushing me.” Forget the fact that I liked it. Just a little.
    “Hardly.” He stood anyway, and offered me a hand up—the hand without the coin.
    I brushed off and pulled a twig from my hair. “Don’t I get any credit at all?”
    “You’re doing much better. I have the coin with me at all times. First opening you see, take it.”
    “Seriously?”
    “Yes.” The coin disappeared into the pocket of his jeans. If I could get it out of there…
    Damned teenage hormones.
     
     
    Millie got back around dinnertime, not that any of us were eating. And she wasn’t alone. I sat with Rhys, Cade , and Madge in the parlor, calculating the possibilities of snagging the coin that was now in the back pocket of Rhys’s jeans. He moved it periodically, probably to make sure I was paying attention. Cade had joined us only minutes before and was carrying on one of those practically silent conversations with Rhys. Madge had been reading a fashion magazine, alternating scoffing with sounds of admiration. I made it a point not to draw her attention. When Millie knocked on the open door in an unnecessary gesture to announce her presence, her twin was the first to react. Madge took one look behind Millie and burst into laughter.
    “Him?” she choked out in