Harlequin Nocturne March 2016 Box Set Read online

  “Aholabi! Liar!” he shouted, brushing past Annie’s outstretched hand.

  His sister jumped up and swung to face him, freezing like a cornered deer ready to take flight.

  “It was you all along.” He lobbed his words like darts. “Na haksichi. Betrayer. Why?”

  Her eyes narrowed, and she gripped the flute tightly in her fist, holding it out with a defiant lift of her chin. “You would never understand.”

  “Tell me.” He stopped before her, hands fisted at his sides. If this were anyone but his sister, he’d pummel the truth out of the man.

  “I did it for Bo.” Her voice was like torn strips of paper shredded from her soul.

  “Bo?” Dread was a boulder weighting his feet to the earth, anchoring an urge to walk away from Tallulah’s confession. He’d lost his parents and discovered his sister was a traitor. Was it too much to ask that the memory of his best friend be preserved? “Bo has nothing to do with this,” he ground out.

  “He has everything to do with this.” She nodded at the flute. “This can bring him back to me.”

  “Where the hell did you get a crazy idea like that? You’ve no idea what you’ve done.”

  Annie stepped between them and cast worried glances around the woods. “Aren’t you worried Nalusa is here? Tallulah’s been playing it for at least a few minutes.”

  “Let him come. If he’s hiding behind a tree, it’s because he’s vulnerable.” Tombi raised his voice. “Come out, you coward. I’ll take you on right now.”

  Annie shook her head, eyes wide with fear. “Stop. This isn’t the time or place. Remember the legend? Wait for the full moon. Wait for the other hunters to be with you.”

  Tallulah laughed. A mad, eerie laugh fit for an insane asylum. “That old legend? This flute has no power against Nalusa.”

  “Give it to me,” Tombi said between clenched teeth.

  Tallulah snatched the flute to her chest, like a child protecting a toy. “No. It’s mine.”

  Not for long. Tombi stepped forward. Sister or not, he would get that flute. “I said, give it to me.”

  Annie’s slight head shake drew his attention. What was she about?

  She turned to Tallulah. “If you don’t believe the flute has power, why do you want to keep it?”

  Her voice was calm and soothing. A mother placating an unreasonable child. Tombi wanted to shake sense into his sister, but maybe Annie’s approach was best.

  “I didn’t say it was powerless.” Her eyes watered. “Although it’s done nothing for me yet.”

  Annie stepped a little closer to Tallulah. “What do you expect it to do?”

  Tallulah dropped her head. A wailing, ruined cry spewed from deep within her.

  He couldn’t help it, pity snuffed out the worst of his rage. Tombi had seen her like this only twice before, at their parents’ funeral and at Bo’s death side.

  “It’s supposed to...to...” She swallowed hard. “I thought that if I stole this from the museum and played it in the woods, Bo would find me.”

  She raised her head and gave Annie a hard look. “But he never came to me. Only to you. Why would he do that? I hate you!”

  Annie winced and took a step backward.

  “Stop it, Tallulah,” he ordered. His sympathy dried up at her treatment of Annie. “I can’t believe you let Nalusa’s shadows warp your mind this way. You betrayed us all for nothing.”

  “I knew you’d turn on me. You’ve never loved anyone in your life. You’re a heartless robot. All you care about is fighting.”

  Indignation left him speechless. Tallulah had betrayed them all, and he was the bad guy now?

  “That’s not true,” Annie said quietly.

  In his anger, he’d almost forgotten she was there.

  Annie gazed at him with a soft radiance lit within her brown eyes, like candle glow in the night. It warmed him inside. “Your brother is capable of great love,” she said, a soft smile trembling on her lips.

  “What do you know?” His sister’s voice cut like broken glass. “So what if Tombi sleeps with you? Nothing’s more important to him than his battles with the shadow world. You’re just a...a...diversion.”

  Tombi sucked in his breath at the stark cruelty of his twin. Annie didn’t deserve her vindictiveness.

  Tallulah faced him. “That’s what Courtney, your last girlfriend, told me.”

  “Is that so? And what is Hanan to you if nothing but a diversion?”

  Tallulah gasped.

  “You don’t think I know about your late-night visits in his tent? Don’t give me this crap about how much you loved Bo.”

  “Please, don’t, you two.” Annie looked back and forth between them, distress lines marring her face. “You’re family.”

  Tallulah sank to her knees, sobbing. This was the worst he’d ever seen her.

  “If you knew what it was like to love—really love somebody—you’d understand. Hanan helps me forget when the pain and loneliness are too much to bear. I would trade my soul to speak with Bo one last time.”

  “That’s exactly what you’ve done. Traded your soul. But the worst part is that you placed us all in jeopardy by keeping the flute for yourself. Every day, Nalusa and the shadows grow, and yet you selfishly said nothing about the flute. How long have you had it?”

  “A few weeks. It’s worthless.”

  So quickly, he could do nothing but watch, Tallulah stood and flung the flute into the air with all her strength. The wooden reed twirled and spun in the treetops, blending into the brown-and-green canopy of oaks and pine.

  And then it began its inevitable fall back to earth. The fragile, ancient instrument that was the only hope of containing Nalusa. His heart fell along with it. Surely it would crash and splinter on the ground upon impact.

  Kee-eeeee-ar. The hawk swooped down and gathered the flute in his beak.

  Relief washed over him in a wave—until the hawk ascended back to the treetops, taking the flute with him. Damnation. Tombi hastily pulled the knapsack from his shoulders and opened it, gathering his slingshot.

  “What are you doing?” Annie asked in alarm.

  “Getting the flute back.”

  He placed a rock in the sling and drew back the elastic band.

  “No!” Annie launched herself at him.

  Just as he released the band, she grabbed his arm and changed the trajectory of the rock. It harmlessly thudded against a tall pine, several feet from the perched hawk.

  Its loud screech thwacked the air, and Tombi could have sworn it mocked him. He shook off Annie’s arm to try again, but the hawk flapped its massive wings and flew off, taking Tombi’s last hope with him.

  “We’re doomed,” he said flatly.

  “We always have been,” Tallulah lashed out. “I don’t care, either. Not if I can’t be with Bo.”

  Annie hugged her chest, wide eyes on him. “I’m sorry. I...I couldn’t let you shoot the hawk. He’s my animal guide.”

  “I only meant to have the stone be a near miss. Enough to scare him into dropping the flute.” He wanted to reassure her, to lie and say everything would be okay. But the lie died on his lips. To have had a chance, to be so, so close, only to have it snatched away at the last second. It was all too much.

  Tombi turned to his sister. “You have no idea what you’ve done,” he said harshly. “Hunters have been injured and placed in jeopardy, all because of your treachery.”

  Her tears dried up. “I had nothing to do with that.”

  “Liar. I don’t believe anything you say. I’ll never trust you again.”

  His sister’s lower lip trembled. “I’m telling you the truth. I would never help Nalusa in an ambush. I was going to give you the flute eventually. I just wanted to contact Bo first.”

  “Al