Guardian by Heather Burch Read Free Book Online Page A

different from everyone else.
    And what made them the same.
    Nikki wasn’t sure if her stomach was completely settled or if this new sensation was masking its upset. Raven was the only one she’d met who mirrored her own tortured soul. Two misfits, two outcasts, one common quality: misery.
    He leaned closer. Too close, but that was part of Raven as well. “I’ve been worried about you.”
    She barely heard the words he whispered against her hair. Nikki closed her eyes and slid a few inches away. Why couldn’t he leave her alone? Why couldn’t he stop looking at her with those eyes that read through her cover stories and peered straight into her soul? He saw the confusion, the deception. Saw that she was a contradiction of life.
    Within moments his hand was on her back, warming a spot in the center. And why can’t he maintain his infuriatingly moody personality when I need him to? Instead, he changed, chameleon style, to exactly what she needed—and exactly what she didn’t want.
    The hand gently slid up and down her back.
    Nikki strained against it, but the last time he’d reached out to her like that—after she’d slayed the hell hound that killed her dog, Bo—flooded her mind. She’d left Mace heartbroken at the football field hours before, essentially telling him she’d chosen Raven.
    She hadn’t. The choice had been meant to protect them both: Mace’s soul was on the line and she couldn’t bear to be the cause of its ruin. She and Mace had tried unsuccessfully to break things off before, but every scenario ended in … well, like the incident in the galley. So she’d done the only reasonable—albeit deceitful—thing she could. She led him to believe she loved someone else.
    It wasn’t completely a lie. She really did love Raven, but it was different. At the time, she believed Raven was safe. He’d spent plenty of time helping earth girls fall for him, and he knew how to walk away unscathed. She wouldn’t be the cause of his destruction. She’d just be another girl to add to his list. And yet.
    He’d held her gently, comforting her after she killed the hell hound. He’d stroked her hair and her back while she cried. His voice had closed out all the pain, and she remembered the sensation as his soft words feathered against her cheek and ear.
    And she remembered the realization he was praying. For her.
    That revelation had rocked her. Had he prayed like that before? Did he do it often?
    The sails grabbed the wind, and the rustle knocked her back into the present. She straightened her spine and faced Raven. “I need time. I’m still trying to deal with what happened to my parents. Please don’t ask me to sort out my feelings for you and Mace on top of that.”
    The long strands of his dark blond hair flew around his forehead and slammed against his cheeks. A hint of a smile appeared, but only for a second. His eyes trailed her face, moving methodically over her features. “I can give you time.” An entire conversation silently passed between them.
    “Will you?” she said, finally.
    “As much as you want. No matter how long you take, the outcome will be the same. You and I were destined to be together, Nikki. Eventually, you’ll realize that like I have and stop running.”
    Running. She’d like to run. But girls on boats had little room to run, and humans who fell in love with Halflings had few choices. None of which led to a happy ending.
    Time, she could use. And maybe a solution would present itself before she destroyed her guardian angel.
    Both of them.

    Will worked with Nikki on her martial arts skills for the remainder of the morning. She was getting her sea legs, and Ocean had instructed her to watch the horizon whenever possible to lessen the queasiness. It seemed to be working, but the coastal sun was warmer than she was used to, and by noon she’d worked up a sweat. General sailing labor was going on around her. They worked the boat in shifts: girls in the galley, boys on the