Heart on Fire (The Kingmaker Chronicles Book 3) by Amanda Bouchet

Author:Amanda Bouchet [Bouchet, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2018-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

“I trust you!” I cry, stung. No, worse—hurt.

“Insofar as you’re capable,” Griffin answers stiffly.

My jaw drops. I want to say something, but nothing comes out. Is he right? He’s usually right.

“You’re wrong!” Damn it! I slap my hand over my mouth.

Both Olympians abruptly disappear, apparently leaving us alone to fight. The magic that gets sucked from the air, vanishing along with them, is staggering. I didn’t realize how much it weighed on me until it was gone.

“You want to know why your magic doesn’t work?” Griffin asks.

I lift my chin, knowing I’m not going to like whatever he’s about to say, and that it’ll hit me straight in the heart. “Why, then?”

His eyes flash with gray fire. He doesn’t even try to contain his emotions, and Griffin without his usual calm in place is a formidable sight.

“It doesn’t work because you don’t trust yourself. Because you think it’s going to backfire. Because you’re so sure you’re going to hurt someone you want to protect!”

“Oh, and that’s never happened!” The sudden spike of adrenaline in my blood sets my heart to pounding. “The fire in the woods? Flynn under the arena? I burned a hole through his leg with a lightning bolt!”

Griffin reaches out and grips my upper arms, squeezing just enough to keep me still. “I am not Eleni. Little Bean is not Eleni. None of us are Eleni!” he thunders. “And what your mother did to her wasn’t your fault!”

My already hammering heart goes into overdrive. My throat tightens, closing over. Suddenly, I’m burning up and freezing cold, and the whoosh of blood in my ears is deafening. Pounding. It’s all I can hear. Weight seems to press down on me, crushing me from the sides, squeezing me all over. I don’t know if I’m going to pass out or throw up, but everything blurs, and I can only see one thing: Little Bean is Eleni. She’ll just have black hair.

Black hair. Blood. Seventeen years old. A knife in her heart. Dead.

Panic beats through me in dark waves. There’s no air.

Griffin’s expression goes from fuming to anxious. “Cat?”

My chest squeezes painfully as I wrap my arms around my middle, caving in on myself and searching out Little Bean’s spark. She’s still there. And she’ll be here—until the day she’s not.

“I can’t protect her.” My pulse pounds too hard, too loud, too fast. My breath saws in and out. “I can’t protect her. She’ll die. She’ll die. She’ll die, and I can’t protect her.”

“You can,” Griffin says, holding me fast.

I clamp my eyes shut and shake my head.

“I’m sorry.” Griffin pulls me close. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

I shudder against him, leaning in, and his hand curves around the back of my head.

“Shhh. Nothing will happen to our baby. I swear it.”

“Don’t make…promises…you can’t…keep,” I gasp out against his chest.

“I swear it,” he repeats, gripping me firmly.

I shake my head again. For the first time ever, I don’t believe him, even though no lie burns through me. I

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