Hidden Hope (Hidden Saga Book 3) (3 page)

But I didn’t trust her. Sure, she’d helped save me and Nox, but she hadn’t done it for my sake. She and Nox had been close childhood friends.

At least I knew she was on
his
side. She’d announced to everyone that he, not her father Davis, was the true heir to the Dark throne and had stayed with Nox in L.A. to ensure he was believed as he owned up to his real identity and claimed his rightful place of rulership. She was still there, in fact. No matter how much she seemed to despise me, I appreciated her for helping him.

“You ready, girl?” Grandma asked as I joined her near the front of the room.

I nodded and stepped toward the center of the factory floor, the machinery and huge tanks forming a backdrop for this mini-ceremony. One of the workers turned off the conveyer belts to lessen the noise.

“Hi everybody.” The crowd’s chatter hushed as I continued. “I’d like to thank you all for being here today. It’s very exciting for me to celebrate this grand opening. I never thought something like this could happen for someone like me, and I certainly could never have done it without a lot of help.”

Glancing from face to smiling face, I caught the eyes of Mom, Grandma, Emmy, and Shay. Daddy stood near the back wall, far from Mom and raised his arms above his head so I could see his dual thumbs up signs. I had to blink back tears and clear my throat before I could go on.

“The most special part of today is sharing it with all the people I love.”

And here I had to stop and swallow back more tears. Not
everyone
I loved was in this room. And life was not complete without him.

Our heated conversation from the plane kept running through my head as I waited for Lad at the natural pool. I
really
needed to make different arrangements for the saol water deliveries. This wasn’t working for me.

Sure, Lad was the only one in Altum who interacted with humans, who spoke our audible language. But I wasn’t the only one who could meet with him. I would ask Grandma to do it from now on. That would work. Or maybe we could work out a drop-off sort of arrangement. Yep, that would be even better. Then I wouldn’t be tempted to ask Grandma anything about what he’d said, how he’d acted.

One thing was for sure—seeing him face-to-face was too hard. And this place... it was too full of memories.

Behind me there was a rustling of leaves. I spun around in time to see Lad’s feet hit the ground with a soft thud. He straightened, giving me a shy smile. And the breath left my lungs.

Would I ever get past it? The stomach-melting, heart-in-my-throat feeling that happened every time he dropped into my life? It was ridiculous. He wasn’t mine anymore. He had someone else. And so did I— someone beautiful and talented and addictively sexy.

My mind knew that, but my pulse hadn’t been informed. My body’s instantaneous reaction to Lad hadn’t changed. I told myself it was the shock of seeing him do something so... inhuman. How
could
I feel normal around him? He wasn’t normal. Normal guys didn’t jump out of huge trees and land without a scratch.

“Hi,” I wheezed.

“Hi.” His deep, smooth voice penetrated me, never failing to mess up my nerves no matter how much I tried to prepare myself. His clear green eyes roamed over my face. “How is the factory coming along?”

I shifted nervously. “Good. Great. We had a grand opening party today, and we’ve already sent out our first shipment.” I wanted to just grab the saol water and go, but I forced myself to be polite. “How are things in Altum?”

“All is well. The people have accepted me as their king. Things are peaceful there now.”

“You must be doing a good job.”

He chuckled. “Either that or the leadership glamour my father always claimed I had has finally surfaced.”

I nodded. “Good. I’m glad it’s going well.”

The stilted conversation made me sad. It was so different from the talks we used to have, filled with humor and fun… and love
.

“Did he come for the party?” Lad asked in a tight voice.

He.
Nox.
My heart squeezed hard at the thought of him, and I had to take a deep breath before responding. “No. He couldn’t make it. He’s busy.”

Lad’s response was quick, his face perking with interest. “You haven’t seen him lately?”

“Not since leaving L.A. He says it’s too dangerous right now. And he’s running a kingdom—you know how it is.”

“Yes.” Lad’s tone was grim. He knew how it was. His duty to his people in the wake of his father’s murder had been the death of our relationship—the reason he’d sent me away and let me go to Los Angeles on a rescue mission alone, according to his claims. And then of course there’d been the beautiful Elven fiancée.

He pulled two sacks from his shoulders. The clanking metallic sound from within told me they were filled with the Elven-made flasks that held saol water. He held them out to me.

“You’ll be needing this.” 

“Thanks.” I took the bags from his hands, sensing the instant contraction of my biceps. Fae metal was surprisingly light, but even with that, the bags kept getting heavier as our tea production increased.

“Here, I’ll carry them to the edge of your yard.” Lad took the bags back. “You’ll need more soon, I suppose?”

Here was my opportunity to put an end to this torture. I fell into step beside him, our feet scuffing quietly on the well-worn path through the woods toward Grandma Neena’s house. “Yes, actually. A lot more. In fact… I think we’re going to have to find another delivery method—”

“Why?” He stopped and faced me, his brows lowered over intense green eyes, his tone surprisingly harsh.

“Because... it’s just not practical for you to keep bringing it to me like this. Especially with the quantities we’ll need now that we’re ready to produce the tea at full-capacity.” I turned and resumed walking.

Lad followed. “I don’t mind. And I can carry more. It isn’t heavy.”

“For
you
.”

Lad shifted the bags to his other hand, the muscles barely flexing. “Then I’ll bring it into town for you—to the factory.”

“No. You have too many other responsibilities. And how would you transport it that far anyway?”

The Light Elves underground kingdom was deep in the woods on Grandma Neena’s land, miles from town. No way could Lad carry larger quantities of saol water walking or moving through the trees as he usually did to get around. Not without drawing a lot of attention.

He’d had some limited contact with the human world throughout his life, going back and forth to the library. And of course, he’d ventured
way
out of his comfort zone when he’d gone to L.A. with Vancia to warn me about Davis. But it wasn’t the way of his people. Unlike the Dark Elves, the Light Elves preferred to remain completely apart from the human world.

“I’ll manage,” he insisted. “And I like getting away from Altum from time to time.”

We emerged from the woods into the back yard of Grandma’s log house. “Well, I know you have your duties there, and besides, I think I have a better solution. Follow me.”

Crossing the yard to the carport, I stopped in front of a long, brown chunk of metal parked beneath it. A 1970’s model Cadillac Coupe DeVille. “Ta da.”

“He left it here,” Lad said.

“Yes. With all the upscale cars parked outside his mansion in Malibu, Nox isn’t missing this one.”

Was he missing
me
? It had been hard for us to talk since I’d returned to Mississippi with Lad and Emmy. As the new Dark King, Nox’s life was filled with responsibility. And danger. He was convinced now that Davis was behind his parents’ deaths, but without proof, he had to pretend to appreciate Davis’s “mentoring” in his new role. It was very possible many of the Dark Elves still wanted Davis as their king and were fully on-board with his plan for world domination.

While he was trying to determine who was on what side, Nox thought it was wise to keep our relationship under wraps. He was right, of course. In the Dark Elven view, humans were suitable for fan pods, but not for actual relationships.

So our phone calls were sporadic, and his promises of coming back for a visit soon were starting to seem more like a fantasy and less like reality. Compared to all the upscale
girls
out there in Hollywood, I felt a bit like this dumpy old left-behind car. I knew it was silly. On the occasions we
did
talk, Nox was sweet, his voice filled with unmistakable longing. He told me he hated to be apart from me. Told me he loved me.

“You miss him,” Lad said, noticing my hand as it absentmindedly caressed the old car’s hood.  

“Yes. Terribly,” I answered honestly. Swallowing hard, I said the polite, expected thing. “You must miss Vancia as well.”

Lad’s fiancée—Nox’s childhood friend and Davis Hart’s adoptive daughter—had stayed in L.A. with Nox, presumably to help establish his right to rule the Dark Court. They had grown up together in Hollywood, the seat of Dark Elven power. Lad and I were both outsiders in that world.

The difference was, he could be assured his partner was coming back. They were betrothed.

“Yes, of course. But she’ll be back tomorrow.” Lad’s eyes took on that look that indicated there was much more to be said. I didn’t want to hear it.

I pulled my gaze away from his and reached for the bags he’d deposited on the car’s hood. “So, I should get this stuff over to the factory. From now on you can just leave the saol water here in the carport. Or you can put it in the trunk if you’d like. I don’t lock the car. That way we don’t even have to—”

His fingers hooked around my wrist, pulling me back to face him. “Ryann, stop. We need to talk.”

I tugged my arm away, pulling toward the house, suddenly desperate to escape his presence. “No we don’t. It’s cool. Really—this is just about convenience—it makes more sense to have you drop it off instead of our meeting.”

“Not about the saol water. Would you please stop running away and look at me?”

I stopped and forced myself to meet his eyes.

“There’s something else we need to talk about... this involves you and me and Vancia.”

I started toward the house again. “No. We
really
don’t need to talk about that.”

“
She
wants to talk to you.”

The bizarre statement stopped my retreat. “What?”

“I’d like for us all to meet and talk. Since she and I... reunited and declared our intentions to marry after all, her father has removed her banishment and welcomed her back. She’s discovered some things about the Dark Elves’ plans... well, you need to hear it from her.”

I blinked and focused on breathing slowly, trying to picture this
meeting
. What—would we grab a corner booth at The Skillet? Order some bacon and home fries and chat it up together third-wheel style? I had already proved what a failure I was against the Dark Elves’ plans. Besides, I was trying to manage things so I’d see Lad
less
often, not more.

“I don’t think so. I’m not sure what she thinks I could do about all this.”

“Nox was right when he said you were more capable than I knew. And with your relationship to Davis—”

“We
have
no relationship. And this is an Elven thing. I’m only human. And Nox was wrong. You saw what happened in L.A. I wasn’t exactly an action movie hero out there.”

“I’m not asking you to be one. The gifts you do have are powerful—they could be very important—to all of us.”

I shook my head. “I don’t even know what I’m doing with them. And after finding out Davis is my... I’ve promised myself I’m not using any of my supposed ‘powers’ ever again.” The last thing I wanted was to be like the Dark Elves who took advantage of unsuspecting humans.

Lad looked at me with sympathy. “You’re not like him, Ryann. I know it was shocking news, but you need to learn to accept yourself.”

“Thank you, Gandhi,” I snapped.

Lad sighed. “Just come to Altum tomorrow and listen to what Vancia has to say. That’s all I’m asking. I would think you’d want to know what he’s up to—for your mother’s sake at the very least since she’s still involved with him.”

He had a point. “Well, I’m going to meet him tonight. Mom and I are having dinner with him, so I’ll just find out for myself, I guess.”

“No.” Lad’s face tightened into a wince and he clenched his fists in a hard pulse. “I wish I’d known about this earlier. You must not see him in person, Ryann. Vancia says—”  

“How do you know you can trust her?” I snapped. I was just about sick of his bossiness, and I was beyond sick of hearing the name Vancia every five seconds. “She’s a Dark Elf. Did you ever think she might have been on her father’s side the whole time? Maybe she’s tricking you and using you as part of their plan.”

“No.” He shook his head. “You know we can’t lie mind-to-mind. She’s told me how she really feels about Davis. She truly wants to stop him. And she’s a wonderful person.”

“Well then, let
wonderful
Vancia stop him. There’s nothing I can do. I’m only human. I couldn’t even stop that house manager from shooting Nox. If Vancia hadn’t intervened when she did, he’d be dead. You, too. She’s the one with all the power.”
She’s the one with your heart.
“Besides, Nox wants me to stay out of it. He made me promise.”

Lad’s intense expression smoothed out, becoming an impassive mask. “I understand.” There was a long pause as competing expressions warred across his face. Finally he spoke again. “He’s not right for you, Ryann.”

My insides burst into a flaming fury furnace. I was surprised a wildfire didn’t start around us from the sparks shooting out of my ears. “Oh really. And who is, Lad? Who
is
?”

At first he didn’t respond. Then finally, his eyes dropped to the scarred surface of the carport floor as his hands clenched tightly at his sides. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, me too. You are a total control freak, you know that? Do you
ever
just let go and lose control?”

His response was devastatingly quiet. “Only with you.”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to control my shaking hands. “Leave the delivery here at the car next time, okay?” Then I turned and walked into the house without looking back.