Frost Line Read online

  Veton sulked, but chaos never stayed defeated for long. Within minutes he mused aloud that if the One could take his card away, then one day He might return it … in a thousand years, or two, or five… . Time meant nothing on Aeonia.

  Lenna walked toward Caine, a gentle smile on her face. Esma nodded to her, grinned, and then moved into the crowd of Major Arcana to line up some work. She wouldn’t be working for Veton again, that was a given, but she had first crack among all the other Hunters at making contact. Lenna suspected that in short order Esma would be a very wealthy Hunter.

  “What do you think?” Lenna asked, rubbing her cheek against his arm. “And how are you feeling?”

  “I feel fine, and I think you’re amazing.”

  He’d expected that while they were among her peers she would keep her distance from him; she wouldn’t want the others to know that she had been intimate with a Hunter. He was wrong. She put her arms around him, went up on tiptoe, and kissed him before saying—loudly enough for those nearby to hear, in case they misunderstood—“I missed being close to you.”

  He had missed it, too.

  She tilted her head and gave him a brilliant smile. “I love you, Caine,” she continued in a softer tone. “Discovering love was the most important aspect of my adventure. That night, that wonderful night when you showed me the world … I fell in love with you. I don’t want to lose that.”

  A few of the others glanced their way; eyebrows were raised, and not just the Emperor’s. Some smiled. Others were shocked. But they all moved on to more important things very quickly, because what Strength did was her business and they really didn’t want to make her angry. Once upon a time, so long ago their memories were somewhat foggy, she had lost her temper and no one wanted to see that again.

  Caine wrapped his arms around Lenna and lifted her so they were face-to-face. “I love you, I do, but I don’t know how we will make this work. I’m a Hunter. You’re Strength.”

  “Which means we’re among the most powerful beings in the universe. That won’t change. You will continue to be what you are, as will I. Together we will find a way to make it work if we want this badly enough. I do. I want it very much.” She kissed him again. “Don’t be a wienie,” she said, her eyes twinkling her relish at using the Seven term.

  He wanted it, too, more than he’d ever wanted anything. He overlooked the wienie remark, and joined in the kissing.

  She took her mouth from his and smiled again. “I want to see everything, and I want to see it with you. Not this world, not Seven, not your world, but … all of them. There’s so much to do and to see. I didn’t understand that until I met you.”

  “You have turned the universe upside down, love,” he said.

  “Perhaps it was time.” She held on to him, standing close, always close. She never wanted to be far from him again.

  Perhaps it was. “What do you want?” he asked. He would do everything in his power to give her whatever that might be.

  She did not hesitate in delivering her answer. “Show me the universe, Hunter. Help me to make our lives the adventure it was meant to be.”

  “Starting now,” he said, and they were off.

  Epilogue

  25 Seven-years later

  Elijah had always been interested in magic. As a teenager, he’d performed elaborate illusions for school talent shows, which he usually won. He’d tried college, he really had, but even though he’d wanted to make his grandparents proud, he’d dropped out after two years and had gone on the road. There had been more ratty clubs along the way than he could count. At some point—he’d been in Tampa, Florida, at the time—he’d decided Elijah Tilley wasn’t snazzy enough and he’d taken a stage name:

  Elijah Frost.

  He didn’t know where the Frost had come from, but it had popped into his head and had seemed right. It had been a good decision. Shortly after that name change, he’d been booked into a bigger club, and then again, and then he’d found an agent who’d booked him into a small auditorium.

  The rest was history. His history.

  What Elijah knew, what no one else in his circle knew, was that not everything he did on stage was illusion.

  Magic was real.

  Now here he was, in Vegas. Elijah Frost, Master Illusionist. He played to a packed house every night.

  Tonight, they were here again.

  He had first seen the blond woman and the dark-haired man at a baseball game when he’d been ten years old. For some reason they had drawn his attention. They looked familiar but he couldn’t place them. He wasn’t alarmed by their familiarity, because deep down he accepted that there was more to life than most people dreamed, and he hadn’t approached them or mentioned them to his grandparents.

  That night he’d dreamed of them, and he’d awakened almost certain they were the superheroes he had talked about so much after his mother had been killed. He didn’t remember much from that time, and he remembered nothing at all from the days he’d been missing, but his grandparents had told him how worried they’d been when he’d kept talking about the Hunter and the Angel who had saved him. Apparently he’d talked a lot about “poofing.”

  He’d been working on that trick for years, with no success.

  He’d seen the couple several times since that baseball game: at his high school graduation, and in a seedy dive of a club in New Orleans. When he’d had that car wreck, a few years back, they had shown up and kept him company until rescuers arrived. If they’d talked he didn’t remember, but deep down he felt that they had. There had been a couple of times when he’d thought he saw them out of the corner of his eye, and had turned around to see … nothing.

  They never changed. They never aged and he never saw one without the other.

  He had seen them in this venue before, last year, opening night. And here they were again, on another opening night. Everything felt right in the universe, the way Elijah had always known it could feel.

  They were seated in the very center of the audience, not so close that he could see them well, once the houselights went down, but not so far away that they were lost in the crowd.

  Elijah was halfway through the show when he added in a new and unplanned trick. He thrust his hand out, and willed a bright light to shine there. It was one of the tricks that was not an illusion at all. The light came from inside him, from a place that had been born in the days after his mother’s murder. The magical light blinded him for a few moments, and when he could see well again he looked into the audience.

  His visitors, his superheroes, were gone.

  He continued on with the show, unconcerned.

  They’d be back.

  About the Authors

  LINDA HOWARD is the award-winning author of numerous New York Times bestsellers, including Shadow Woman, Prey, Up Close and Dangerous, Cover of Night, Killing Time, To Die For, Kiss Me While I Sleep, Cry No More, and Dying to Please. She lives in Gadsden, Alabama, with her husband and two golden retrievers.

  LINDA JONES is the acclaimed USA Today bestselling author of more than seventy novels, including Untouchable, 22 Nights, and Bride by Command. She lives in Huntsville, Alabama.

  Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

  By Linda Howard and Linda Jones

  Blood Born

  Running Wild

  Frost Line

  By Linda Howard

  Shadow Woman

  Prey

  Veil of Night

  Ice

  Burn

  Death Angel

  Up Close and Dangerous

  Cover of Night

  Drop Dead Gorgeous

  Killing Time

  To Die For

  Kiss Me While I Sleep

  Cry No More

  Dying to Please

  Open Season

  A Game of Chance

  Mr. Perfect

  All the Queen’s Men

  Kill and Tell

  Now You See Her

  Son of the Mo