Eternal Echoes, Emblem of Eternity Trilogy Book 2 by Angela Corbett Page A

“I agree, but we still need to watch for them. You can help too, Emil, since you’ve spent time with a lot of Daevos members and might recognize some of them if they show up.”
    “Yeah,” Emil said, “but that doesn’t help the shadow situation.”
    I’d been listening to Alex’s explanation and the plan for keeping me safe long enough to be sufficiently shaken at what I’d seen when I’d slid on the ice and hit the snow bank. I sat up, still holding my wrap tight around me like a security blanket. “I probably should have mentioned this before, but there was an…incident a few weeks ago.”
    Emil raised an eyebrow, waiting for the rest of the story as Alex folded his arms across his chest. A muscle at the corner of Alex’s eye started to twitch. “An incident?”
    I looked down, smoothing my dress. Abolishing wrinkles seemed very important at the moment. “I’m pretty sure I saw a shadow run from behind a tree.” I paused. “The tree that was behind the snow bank I’d just run into.”
    Alex’s face reddened and his fists clenched. “You saw a shadow figure three weeks ago and just barely decided to tell us about it?”
    I tried to shrug off the concern I was feeling. If I showed fear, Alex would pounce and convince Emil they needed to be even more protective of me…if that was even possible. I was already feeling smothered enough. “Nothing happened. And I can take care of myself, too. I don’t need to run to my knights in shining armor every time I have a problem.”
    Alex’s whole body tightened with stress. “That’s what I’m here for.”
    I folded my arms across my chest, glaring. “Yeah, and if you remember right, me trusting that someone else would take care of me is exactly what got me abducted by Caleb’s Clan in the first place,” I said. “I’m not doing that again. Why do you think I’ve been taking karate? It’s not because I like hanging out with people who still watch the Disney Channel.”
    Emil sat calmly, watching us with a keen eye. Alex shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. You can’t keep things like this from us. Emil and I should have been warned about the threat.”
    “So you could have caged me even more?” I asked, voice louder than before. “You two are already with me all the time, and probably ring-watching me during my sleep. I have no privacy and frankly, I’m sick of having overlords. I understand you’re trying to protect me, but you need to give me room to breathe.”
    Alex and Emil both stared at me. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared back.
    Alex exhaled a frustrated sigh. “I’m sorry, Evie. I’m not trying to cage you, I’m trying to protect you, so I get angry when I don’t have all the information.”
    “Gee, you think? Maybe now you know how it feels.”
    He took another deep breath. Released it, then, “Will you tell me the details about the shadow you saw?”
    Now it was out in the open, and I was already feeling guilty for not telling them earlier and possibly putting other Trackers at risk. My speech had made my point so I went ahead and told Alex and Emil everything that had happened after my car slid. When I was done, Alex went to the front picture window. He looked outside for several minutes. His arms were crossed high over his chest and even from the side, I could see he was lost in thought.
    A car drove down the street slowly, navigating the icy patches and casting pale shadows on the snow in the yard.
    Alex finally turned around. “We keep things mostly status quo for now.”
    “Mostly status quo?” I thinned my eyes. “What does that mean?”
    He took a long, deep breath. I could almost see his heart pumping the extra blood required to keep his brain working properly instead of going completely primitive on my butt. “Like you said, Evie. We’re with you most of the time. Now we’ll be with you all of the time. Aside from locking you in your room, there’s not much else we can do.” He looked to Emil.