I hadn’t wanted Dylan to fight. It wasn’t his battle, though he was determined to stand with us when the time came. As strong and brave as he was, he was mostly human.
Or he had been, until I had fed on him.
Now, I wasn’t so sure.
I heard the familiar sound of Dylan’s SUV on the road. Then the wheels on the gravel. And then he was there, tall and gorgeous and looking like the all-American football hero that he was.
I nodded to him as he came up the porch stairs.
“Hey.”
“Hey yourself.” He slid his hands into his pockets. “Anything interesting going on?”
I laughed, a deep, full belly laugh. I knew full well that Dylan had a front-row seat to everything going on with me. To a lesser extent, I saw glimpses of his inner life as well. I frowned, realizing something.
“Are you blocking me?”
He looked sheepish, a faint tint of pink on his cheeks. My jaw dropped and I stared at him.
“You are blocking me! How?”
He shrugged.
“Kah taught me.”
“So you don’t… feel me all the time?”
“No, I do. I’m only blocking one way.”
“Seriously? You have that kind of control?”
He nodded, looking at the floor. He was embarrassed, I realized. He didn’t want me to know how he was feeling.
“Can she teach me, or is it a Fairy thing?”
“I don’t know. I can ask her. Anyway, aren’t you part-Angel or whatever?”
“Yeah. My mom was one of your ancestors.”
“Oh. Weird.”
“Well, not her, exactly, but one of her kind.”
“Okay. Well, anyway, I can ask her if she can teach you.”
I exhaled deeply, ignoring how awkward this was getting.
“Please. Maxim won’t shut up. He has a comment for everything.”
He nodded mildly, clearly glad for the change in subject.
“I can hear him, but it’s faint.”
“Lucky you,” I muttered and opened the front door. “Come on in.”
“Okay, so all I have to do is tell you if I can see you?”
Bernard nodded.
“Yes. We need to know if you are at all impacted by Caleb’s gift.”
Dylan looked at me.
“Can you see through it?”
“Not unless I use light, and not for very far. Are you ready? Don’t panic if it stays dark a while. It might take him a few minutes to figure out how to turn it off.”
“Got it.”
Dylan’s shoulders squared off. He was so earnest, so ready to help. A warmth that was not entirely gratitude filled my chest. I nodded at Caleb.
He stood by the couch with Bernard at his side. I was standing opposite them with my back to the fireplace. Dylan was about seven feet away, making the four of us almost a triangle.
We all stared at Caleb as he closed his eyes.
Darkness poured out of Caleb’s hands like he’d turned on two faucets.
“Whoa,” I murmured, impressed. The darkness filled the room swiftly. I caught a glance of Dylan staring at me as the blackness swallowed him up. I was in total darkness.
I exhaled, realizing I was tense.
That’s when I heard it.
Breathing.
Right by my ear.
“Sophie?”
I jumped in the air so hard I hit the ceiling. I crashed back down to the floor. Or I would have if Dylan hadn’t caught me. I immediately made enough light to glare at him.
“Nightfall, Dylan! How did you sneak up on me?”
“I can see you.”
My eyes got really wide.
“Caleb, Bernard, did you hear that?”
“Yes, but it’s muffled.”
“You must be able to muffle everything! That’s how I didn’t hear him move!” I slid out of Dylan’s arms and looked at him. “What does it look like? Anything?”
He shook his head.
“Nothing changed.”
“Nightfall! This is it!”
The room cleared of darkness. I watched in awe as it was sucked back into Caleb’s hands. It wasn’t just darkness, I realized. It was his darkness.
Don’t get too excited, Princess. The New Leaders have human pets too. You might be sending your faithful servant into a slaughter.
He’s not my servant.
Keep telling yourself that.
“Shut up, Maxim!” I shouted.
Everyone looked at me. I frowned at Dylan, hoping he hadn’t heard that.
“He’s being a jackass.”
“Yeah. I heard him.”
“Oh. Well, he’s wrong.”
Dylan rocked back on his heels and shrugged. I was getting nothing from him through the bond. I frowned. If Maxim was going to keep hurting his feelings…
“I’m fine.”
I looked away, feeling like I was getting caught with my hand in the cookie jar. Speaking of cookies.
“What on earth is going on with the three of you?” Caleb muttered in disgust.
“She’s hungry,” Dylan offered to the room. I nodded. I was hungry. And we could all use a distraction. I was mortified by this new lack of mental privacy, truth be told. It certainly wasn’t helping what was already an awkward situation.
Now it was mega-awkward. Mawkward.
“Come on.” Bernard waved to us. We followed him to the kitchen. Dylan had yet to eat one of Bernard’s masterpieces. I smiled at him shyly. He was in for a treat.
Caleb followed us in. He skirted the sunlight through the open dining room entry and plopped into one of the dining room chairs. Dylan raised an eyebrow at me.
“He’s the only one who doesn’t eat. He’s just jealous.”
Caleb made a scoffing sound that set me at ease. If he was grumpy, he didn’t hate me. He was himself. I hadn’t turned him into some sort of monster.
“Do you need help, ’Nardo?”
“I’ll cook you if you call me that again.”
I laughed and took Dylan’s hand.
“Come on, let’s sit.”
He didn’t say anything, just followed me into the dining room and took a seat. I noticed that the plants curled around him as well. They were subtly shifting away from Caleb, who gave them a dirty look.
“Well, that was educational.”
Caleb nodded.
“It’s an intriguing gift you gave me, Sophie.”
“I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you.”
“I know that.” He leaned back in his chair. He was tired from using his gift. I wasn’t reading that wrong. “It was perhaps inevitable.”
“Did I… do anything else?”
“I feel more tired during the day. I’m hoping that means I will be more energetic at night.”
Bernard made a rude noise. I smirked. I loved that my two guardians had finally admitted their feelings for each other. But now, thanks to me, they truly were opposites. I hoped I hadn’t created any new problems for them.
“Next time, we need Karen too.”
“Can we trust her?”
“I trust her. I don’t know if that means she will join the fight. I don’t know if she should.”
Dylan nodded, thankfully not offended by Caleb’s concerns.
“She’s going to be pissed when she finds out about my new powers,” Dylan said.
“What other powers?”
He pulled a face and I waited. I could feel his hesitation. Then he shrugged.
“Little things here and there.”
“Like what?”
He cleared his throat. “It doesn’t seem to… rain on me.”
“What?”
Even Bernard stopped cooking to come and stand in the cased opening between the kitchen and the small formal dining room.
“Explain, young man,” Caleb said in a low voice.
“I might be imagining it, but… I was running trails when that storm came through last week. I got caught in it but
…”
“But what?”
“I didn’t get wet.”
“Seriously?” I stared at him, dumbfounded. “That was torrential.”
He nodded. “Yeah. But I can take a shower and stuff. It’s just… I don’t know.”
“Maybe you absorbed my water gift as well.”
“Water gift?”
“I can control it. Move it around. Caleb also thinks it may be a scrying tool.”
“Scrying?”
“I see things sometimes. In the water.”
“Oh.”
Now it was Dylan’s turn to look dumbfounded. I was relieved that we were no longer talking about who was whose servant or why he was blocking his thoughts and feelings from me.
Caleb made a gesture. Without a word, Bernard turned and rustled around in the kitchen. He brought back two bowls of water.
“Watch and see if you can do it too, okay?”
Dylan nodded, thankfully looking more curious than freaked out. I was a freak, and now he was too. I just hoped he didn’t start to look at me like I was one.
I exhaled and focused my energy on the bowl of water before me. A thin line rose up from the still surface. I took my time, weaving it gracefully into a circle, then a ball, then a sphere with subtle patterns etched into the surface.
“Whoa.”
“Watch this.”
I exhaled on the sphere and it froze. I moved it horizontally until it was hovering in the air just front of Dylan.
“Can I?”
“Yes. It’s just ice.”
He reached out and touched it. I watched as he traced his finger over it. My mouth opened as the sphere started to transform. It formed points as it spun faster and faster. When Dylan lifted his hand away, it was a many-pointed star.
“It’s the Star of Morgana,” Caleb breathed with awe in his voice.
“What?”
Dylan’s focus broke and the star fell to the table where it shattered.
“You recognize the shape?” I asked.
“Yes.” Caleb nodded, still staring at Dylan. “Some believe Morgana was one of the sisters. The first Fae.”
“Fae being fallen Angels?”
“Yes. They were the Angels who chose not to live in the etherworld. They wanted a corporeal existence. When they came to Earth, they created new lines of Fae, or Fairies.”
“Was my mother…?”
“I can’t say for sure. I suspect she was a more recent arrival than your friend’s line. If he is a descendant of Morgana, even diluted over thousands of years, he is very powerful indeed.”
“Have you seen that shape before? Did you recreate it from something?”
Dylan slowly shook his head.
“No. I wasn’t thinking at all.”
“Try again. See if you can do something else.”
Dylan nodded and stared at the water bowl. It took a few minutes for him, but he got the water to rise up and make some rudimentary shapes. But it remained liquid despite his best efforts.
“Let me freeze it and see what you can do with that.”
He nodded, and I felt him pull back his intensity. I breathed on the small dancing spheres. Then I watched in awe as Dylan made three little Stars of Morgana.
“We must keep this secret. If I am right… this shape may have power against our kind.”
“The Star?”
“Yes.” He looked at Dylan. “Young man, can you do anything else?”
Dylan cleared his throat and held up his hand. Then he snapped his fingers.
A small ball of light appeared and then fizzled out.
We all exchanged glances.
“Wow. If you can learn to control that…”
“If you can form the Stars out of your light, you will have a potent weapon indeed.”
“I’ll try.”
“Make sure you do your practicing in secret. It’s too risky for any of your Fae relations. For us and for them.”
“I will.”
He looked at me and I gave him a small smile.
“I’ll walk you out.”
Dylan followed me to the porch. I swallowed the lump in my throat. The feeling of awkwardness was back. Never mind that I knew I had no right to ask him to do any of this.
“You don’t have to do any of this. You don’t have to fight.”
He stared at me, his heart in his eyes. I couldn’t look away, no matter how badly it hurt.
“Sophie, you would have to kill me to keep me away.”
I felt tears welling up in my eyes. He would be part of the army if this continued. There was no way around it.
“It’s not your battle.”
“Yes, it is.”
I closed my eyes. I opened them and laughed ruefully.
“Get some rest. All this stuff” —I gestured at the air— “is really draining.”
“Okay.” He nodded and turned to go. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “Sophie?”
“Yes?”
He looked at me for a minute, then his mouth curved into the barest hint of a smile.
“Nothing.”
Chapter 6
Forgive, but never, ever forget.
“We need Maxim to return.”
“Absolutely not,” I snapped. I didn’t want to admit how much the idea of Maxim’s return scared me. I knew I shouldn’t forgive him, but I doubted I’d be able to ignore the feelings he woke inside me.
“Sophie, this is inevitable. He is part of us. You are bonded.”
I glared at Caleb. I was on the verge of using the whole princess thing and pulling rank. He stared at me, challenging me with his eyes as I paced in his office.
“No, Caleb!”
“We need him.”
“He can’t be trusted.”
“His intentions may be somewhat complicated, but he is on your side, Sophie.”
“How do you know that? He lied to me!”
“He omitted a part of his history.”
“A part of his history? What about the Vamps willing to die to put him on the throne?”
Caleb raised his hands.
“Maxim does not use his title, nor does he particularly want it. In all these centuries, he never once sought to unseat your father.”
“Great. So he’s too lazy to be king.”
“Imagine what powers he might have acquired through your exchange. He would risk his life to protect you, Sophie.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because” —Caleb held up a letter— “he’s been telling me.”
I stared at the envelope in his hand. Expensive looking, heavy. My eyes shifted to a stack on identical letters that Caleb pulled from a drawer.
“How many letters?”
“He’s been a consistent writer.”
I slammed my hands down on the desk.
“How many times have you gone behind my back?”
“None. I didn’t reply. But I wanted to. I planned to discuss it with you first.”
I stared at him, deciding. I knew Caleb wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. Maybe he knew how tumultuous my feelings were these past six months. Finally, I plopped into the chair opposite his.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you are sort of a raw nerve when it comes to him.”
I glared at him, daring him to say something about my ‘feelings.’ Thankfully, he didn’t.
“And because I was also conflicted. I know that Maxim has done his best to evade the crown or anything that smacks of responsibility for centuries. Being with you… that changed for him.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that he would gladly rule now. But only by your side.”
“By my side.”
“As your mate.”
I groaned.
“Are you trying to marry me off now? I’m a little young for that.”
“For Vamps, it’s different, as well you know. A mate bond cannot be forced or feigned. It’s a willing union between two Night
Dwellers. And it is unbreakable, even in death.”
“Well, I’m not ready to settle down or even think about who I might want to settle down with. Besides, if we survive, my father is the one who will be ruling once we reclaim the throne.”
“That is what we all hope, Sophie. But we both know that may not be possible.”
I shook my head. “Don’t say that.”
“Do you believe I want to even consider the possibility? That the man I served faithfully for centuries has gone mad? That he truly cannot be redeemed?”
I bit my lip and looked away.
“We must prepare ourselves, Your Highness. If I did not formulate a course of action, what service am I to you?”
I exhaled and closed my eyes. When he used my title, I knew he meant business. Then I opened them and nodded.
“But we will try. Give him time. If we can free him. When we do, his sanity might return.”
“Of course.”
“Maybe I should reach out to him again. Like I did in the bath.”
“It’s far too risky. What if someone senses your presence? Maxim’s mother herself might be forced to betray you to maintain her own safety.”
“Of course. I was being stupid.”
“Not stupid. My Sasha is never stupid. Only brave.”
I smiled at him, fighting back tears. For a moment, I nearly told him how grateful I was for his guidance. But I knew that would only embarrass him. Then I stood.
“Bring him back if you must. But he’s not staying in this house.”
“Roaming Vampires are not good for your cover, my dear.”
“Fine. He can take Bernard’s coffin now that he sleeps upstairs. But only as long as necessary.”
“I will ask him to come when you travel north.”
I stopped in the doorway, looking back at him.
“You aren’t coming?”
“I am. Bernard isn’t.”
“I see.”
“I feel that they would be distracted by our relationship. And they are… not the most pleasant Vampires you will ever meet.”
Understanding dawned. I looked at my guardian with fresh eyes. Grumpy and bossy as he might be, he looked after the ones he loved. I knew I was beyond lucky to be counted among them.
“You are protecting him from them.”
“There’s no need to put him through all that. Plus, he’s an astute judge of character. He’ll see right through Maxim if his intentions are not… honorable.”
Rogue Prince Page 4