Love (The Allure Chronicles Book 4) Read Free Page A

know that?” Daisy asked.
    “They knew the second you ran back to Owen. Why else would you have? The transformation should have happened by now.” Taylor answered for Wyatt. “But you already knew that. Don’t waste time asking questions you already know the answers to.”
    “But the transformation didn’t happen.” I concentrated on the most important part of the statement. “And it won’t.”
    “And the fact she is able to resist is extraordinary.”
    “Maybe it’s the essence I got.” Daisy turned to Taylor. “Could you feel at all when you had it?”
    She shook her head. “Not emotions.”
    “Then how or why did you give the essence up?” Daisy made complete eye contact with Taylor.
    “Give it up?” Taylor’s eyes widened. “Is that what you think happened?”
    “I don’t know what happened. But you are alive. That has to mean something.”
    “It was stolen from me.” Taylor’s eyes darkened.
    “Not by me.” Daisy put a hand to her chest.
    “I am well aware. Before you got it you were human. You were predisposed to accept the essence, but that doesn’t mean you would have been strong enough to take it from me.”
    “Predisposed.” Daisy sighed. “Lucky me.”
    What did that even mean? Predisposed. I wanted to know, but I tried to keep my questions to myself. I had plenty, but this was Daisy’s chance to get answers to the many questions she’d been mulling over for months—or really years. Her life had changed long before she met the Allures. Getting the paste had changed everything.
    “Yes. If you hadn’t been predisposed, it would have been impossible for you to accept.” Taylor twirled her hair around her finger.
    “I know that.” Daisy let out a long breathe. “Violet told me that, but I thought maybe you were implying more.”
    “It would be nice wouldn’t it?” Taylor walked toward Daisy. “To have an easy answer to everything.”
    “Easy answer?” Daisy cocked her head to the side. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
    “I’d take any answers right now.” Levi remained in front of the door. “For starters, who are you, Taylor?”
    “You haven’t figured it out?”
    “I’ve pieced together that Daisy’s Allure essence traces back to you, but that doesn’t mean I really know who you are.”
    “A king that admits to what he doesn’t know.” Taylor nodded. “Interesting.”
    “None of us know who you really are.” And her true identity was important. Her past held answers to Daisy’s, and therefore my, future. I had met one person who knew her. “Although my uncle seemed to know a lot about you.”
    “Your uncle?” Taylor’s face darkened. “Oh, you mean Jim?”
    “Yes, I finally made his acquaintance.”
    “You finally met your uncle. That would be odd in many circumstances.” She moistened her lips. “Very odd.”
    “But not this one.” This situation was crazy. Impossibly crazy. Meeting a secret uncle was nothing compared to everything else we were dealing with.
    “No. It is far from the oddest thing going on right now.” Taylor dropped her arms to her sides. “But how was he?”
    “Jim?” I ran my hand down Daisy’s back. I needed to touch her. To remind myself that she was at my side. And to let her know I was there for her. I would never let her slip away again.
    “Yes. Who else?” Taylor asked.
    “He was fine. Crazy, but fine.” Wyatt answered before I could.
    “You’ve seen him?” Taylor seemed genuinely surprised by this.
    “Yes.” Wyatt walked over to the far wall of the windowless room. “It’s how I tracked down Owen. The Dryads knew where to find them.”
    “Jim is friends with Dryads now?” Taylor raised an eyebrow. “That’s a new one.”
    “He left The Society. He was limited in his social circles.” I felt for my uncle. Despite his eccentricities, I liked the man. I trusted him enough to leave Hailey with him.
    “Why did he leave The Society?” Taylor took a seat at the far corner of a love seat.
    I wasn’t