With a shake of her head she said, “I’m glad you did. What we had is over.”
“Are you sure? Because it didn’t look that way to me. In fact, it looked quite the opposite.”
Kinsey followed Ryder with her eyes as he joined Con ahead of her. “It is. He made sure of it when he left.”
“Perhaps he left for a reason.”
“He already explained his side,” she said. “It still doesn’t make up for the three years he let pass. At any time he could’ve returned or called. Hell, even a text would’ve been nice.”
Henry looked at her with a sad smile. “Did you ever stop to think that perhaps Ryder assumed you’d moved on and wanted to give you a nice life?”
“No. With how easily he finds and tracks people, he knows I didn’t have anyone serious in my life.”
“Right,” Henry said, searching for something else to say.
Kinsey stopped and touched his arm. “I know about Rhi.”
“Don’t,” he stated in a voice laced with anger. “I don’t want to hear you tell me to walk away like the others have.”
“I won’t. I know how it feels to love someone I can’t have.”
Henry’s face relaxed as he blew out a breath. “I think you could have Ryder. If you wanted him.”
“That look you wear? The one that says you’re on the brink of shattering, the one that tries to hide the agony within you? I know it all too well. I’ve lived it for years. Time doesn’t heal all wounds. It serves only to keep the wound festering. A constant reminder of what we’ll never have. It doesn’t allow us to move on or forget.
“It teases us with the hope that we might get past such suffering, but in an ironic twist of fate, we’re reminded by inconsequential, mundane things that the pain is as much a part of us as the organs that keep us alive.”
Kinsey turned her head to look at Ryder. His short blond hair was ruffled in the wind as snow flurries hung seemingly in midair. He stood as unaffected by the weather as he did the passage of time.
She huddled deeper into the coat. “Ryder and I are worlds apart, and it’s never been more clear than at this moment. That bitterness that takes up more and more space where our hearts used to be is going to smother everything else. I’m living proof of that.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Austin, Texas
Rhi cruised the hills of Austin. The sun was shining bright and the temperature was only in the mid-forties. She adjusted her sunglasses before she glanced at the seat beside her.
Her watcher was there. It made her smile when she teleported to the storage unit where she kept the Lamborghini parked.
She almost asked if he wanted to go for a ride with her, then decided against it at the last minute. If he wasn’t going to respond to her, then she wouldn’t talk to him.
It wasn’t until after she got into the sports car and started it up, the engine rumbling deeply, that she felt his presence beside her. How else was he supposed to keep up with her unless he rode beside her?
Rhi bit back a laugh when she tried to imagine what he would do if someone else had been with her. Would her watcher cling to the top of the car? Or run alongside her?
Driving was one of the few human experiences that she truly enjoyed—besides shopping and getting her nails done. Though she could teleport anywhere she wanted, as well as use the Fae doorways to go to other realms, there was something calming about driving around.
But her awesome car definitely had something to do with it.
She pressed the accelerator, revving the engine as she zoomed through the traffic, weaving in and out of the cars. The Lamborghini responded lightning quick. It was the epitome of a sports car, and she truly loved being behind the wheel of such a machine.
Rhi laughed out loud when she zoomed around a bright red Ferrari. The man in his late fifties watched her as she hauled ass past him.
“Tell me that wasn’t fun, sweet cheeks?” she asked her watcher. Then she rolled her eyes as she recalled she wasn’t supposed to talk to him.
But she could almost feel his smile. Whoever he was, he was having fun.
“Doesn’t it get old not talking? I know it does for me,” Rhi said. “I told myself I wasn’t going to talk to you, because I hate that I get silence in return.”
She looked his way, trying to imagine his face. He would have black hair for sure, but was there silver in it? She didn’t get the vibe that he was a Dark Fae. So no silver, but was his hair long or short?
Long. Definitely long.
“And more silence,” she stated grumpily. “One day I’m going to discover who you are and why you’ve been following me. For your sake, I really hope it isn’t on Usaeil’s orders.”
The Queen of the Light wasn’t thrilled about Rhi walking out on her duties as Queen’s Guard, but it was something Rhi had had to do.
“Usaeil has forgotten what it means to lead our people. And with the rumors of the arrival of the Reapers, she’s needed more than ever.”