Winterblaze by Callihan Kristen

Author:Callihan, Kristen [Callihan, Kristen]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction / Romance - Paranormal, Fiction / Fantasy - Urban Life, Fiction / Romance - Historical
ISBN: 9781455520800
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2013-02-25T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-one

Poppy did not know what it was about the man that upset Winston so, but she was going to find out. She turned to Win, and his glazed eyes locked onto hers, wild and confused, as if he could not focus. “Darling,” she said, “come with me to retrieve my shawl? I find myself chilled.” It was hot as Hades.

With a little flicker of her power, an icy draft swirled through the room, causing more than one woman to shiver.

She did not wait for Win to answer but rather tugged him out of the room, down the hall, and onto the terrace where he could get some much needed air. He was shaking, his breath coming out in raw pants. The dark thing had him. She’d seen it before in others. Strong men and women who had faced death and terror and come away with a bit of it still clinging to their minds. Sometimes it never left them, that ugly residue of death. It would catch them unawares and torment them. And each and every one of them believed they were weak because of it. Poppy rather thought the opposite. That they were the brave ones who had been chased by death and escaped to forge onward.

She did not stop until they were beneath the arbor, now dark with shadows and thick with the scent of roses in the warm, moonlit night. Win sat with a thud upon the stone bench, and she followed him down, placing a hand on his fevered brow. Her touch grew chilled, cooling him. “Win,” she whispered, looking into his unseeing eyes, “come back to me.”

He struggled for breath and she pulled him close, stroking his ravaged cheek. “Win, who was that man?”

His hands clutched her upper arms hard. “My brother.”

Her heart stilled. Win’s family had always been rather a closed subject. Which Poppy hadn’t fought, as she was likely to work herself into an indignant state when she thought of their treatment of him, of how they had abandoned him without a backward glance, solely because he had chosen to become a detective. She cringed now. All of that had been a lie. A bloody trick.

She thought of the man they’d just encountered. He was younger than Mrs. Noble but perhaps a bit older than them. He didn’t look anything like Winston but had raven hair and coal black eyes. His features were more Gallic than Anglo-Saxon. “He looked right at you. How could he not recognize you?”

Win’s head jerked up. “Why should he? He’s been led to think his brother is dead. It’s Isley’s bloody bargain at play, after all.” His features twisted. “Never mind that I hardly look as I did before.”

Her stomach dipped. “But to not have even experienced a glimmer of recognition? To not even feel… something?”

Win laughed, a dark, unhinged sound. “You of all people ought to understand with whom we are dealing. He altered our lives, Poppy. He can twist things until up is down. How

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