Dolmarehn - Book Two of the Otherworld Trilogy Read Online Free

torso.  A chill settled on my skin for some reason, as if leaving Cade’s embrace also took away all my warmth.
    “Logan had his birthday party at the beach, and when we went to the tide pools I noticed a woman in the water with a seal skin draped over her shoulders.  She caught me staring, then pulled the skin tighter and transformed back into a seal.”
    Cade seemed to have stopped listening to me.  He grew still and his face turned stony.  “Logan?”
    I blinked up at him, my mind blank.  His height still astounded me.  He stood a good eight or nine inches taller than me, and I was the tallest girl in my high school.
    “Who is Logan?”
    Uh . . . ?  Had I never told him about my brothers?  “My little brother.”
    Could I have been imagining things, or did that information cause him to relax substantially?  Had he been worried?  Jealous?  A tingle of joy pulsed through me, but I squashed the stupid sensation and told myself I was being delusional again.
    I cleared my throat.  “So, how have things been in the Otherworld?”
    I know it was a lame thing to say, but moving the conversation, even in the small talk direction, was better than silence.
    Cade arched a brow and cast me a sidelong glance.  Okay, was he trying to make me blush?  Or was I just that pathetic?
    He shrugged and glanced away.  Thank goodness.  “I’ve managed to keep most of the faelah from trickling through the dolmarehn I’m responsible for, but if you’re wondering if I’ve redeemed myself for breaking my geis, I’m afraid I have to disappoint you.”
    Oh.   I hadn’t been wondering, at least not until he brought it up.
    “I’m sorry Cade,” I confessed quietly, stepping even further away from him.
    I couldn’t imagine what being punished for saving someone’s life felt like.  Because of his actions on the day I almost got mauled to death in the Otherworld, he ended up breaking his geis, his taboo.  Violating a geis came with a heavy price.  True, I didn’t know what his particular punishment was, but such a thing couldn’t be pleasant.
    Cade moved closer, following me.  He spoke low, and curse it, his voice made me go weak in the knees again.
    “Don’t be sorry Meghan.  I would make the same choice again in a heartbeat.”
    Oh, how I wanted those words to mean he liked me back.  Perhaps they did, and perhaps he was about to say so, but unfortunately Fergus’s bark interrupted any further conversation.
    Cade tensed, and then forced himself to relax once more.  “I’ve got to go Meghan.”
    I just managed to exercise a bit of restraint before wrapping myself around him again.
    “When will you be back?”  I wanted to know.
    He smiled.  “As soon as possible.  In the meantime, keep up your archery practice and be sure to check the oak tree every once in a while.”
    I grinned back, despite my forlorn state of mind.  I watched as he disappeared down the trail leading to the dolmarehn, the same dolmarehn that had thrown me into the Otherworld a scant few months ago.  The memory of the ordeal made me sh udd er, but I focused on watching Cade for as long as I could.  He was leaving, yet he promised to come back, and he had insinuated he would be dropping off messages in the oak tree.  Love letters?  I grinned in self-chastisement.  Silly Meghan!  When are you going to stop daydreaming about him ?  Unfortunately, my common sense told me the truth: never .
     
    -Three-
    Surprise
     
    I spent the rest of the weekend in a fog of housekeeping and studying.  I’d put off tidying my room for weeks and I had grown tired of wading through stray laundry to get to my bed.  Besides, cleaning was the one activity I could actually accomplish while my mind was still caught up in the memory of seeing Cade.
    By Sunday morning, however, I told myself to snap out of my weird funk and get some homework done.  Moping around the house like some forlorn ghost would do me no good, and letting my grades suffer might