by Nicole Hall
Keely linked their fingers together and kissed his knuckles. “You should definitely thank her, but even if she hadn’t told me, I’d still be right here.”
Her breathing evened out, and Seth felt her mind go soft. He silently pleaded with her to keep talking, to explain that she’d chosen him despite his many flaws. That she loved him. He wanted her love, even if he couldn’t keep it. Seth stroked her palm with his thumb, and admitted the truth.
He loved her. The knowledge settled deep inside him as if it had always been there. Maybe it had.
Keely represented everything in his life he wanted to keep safe, and he’d chosen to risk his relationship with her—risk her—to play amateur detective with a centuries-old case. Yes, he’d suffered after his parents’ deaths, but he’d never thought that obsessing over it would continue to punish him.
Seth considered waking her up and confessing everything, begging her to stay with him through the ordeal with the elders tomorrow. Better yet, finding Tamra and taking Keely home himself. His agreement wouldn’t follow them through the doorway. He’d be giving up everything he’d worked for since before the banishment, but he’d get the girl.
Probably.
She liked his body, and her loyalty knew no bounds, but she’d never mentioned love. Mate bonds didn’t dictate emotions, and knowing he planned to send her away, he’d tried to maintain a certain distance between them. He could search the bond, but it might not reveal what he wanted to know. What if the answer wasn’t what he hoped it would be?
Even if she accepted him, he’d be living in Terra in disgrace. If he sent her home alone tomorrow, she’d be safe, and he could get the elders to reverse his banishment. He’d have an entire world to offer her, and he wouldn’t have to give up on finding the truth about his parents.
If she wanted him, loved him. He could have both.
He pressed her hand over his heart. “Do you love me?”
His whispered words moved her hair. Instead of answering, Keely twitched and mumbled about evil grapes. Seth smiled, amused despite himself. Life with her would never be boring.
After an hour of fighting with himself, Seth carefully eased out from under Keely, dressed, and stepped out into the night. He left the door open so she could see him if she woke, but he didn’t think she would.
The persistent weakness from earlier came and went with varying degrees of pain, and Seth desperately needed a fresh perspective about his choices.
After a moment, he sensed another presence inside the tree line. Seth kept his voice quiet to not wake Keely. “Might as well come out.”
Tamra emerged from the shadows to join him in the moonlight on the porch. “Where’s your mate?”
Seth nodded toward the open door. “Asleep on the couch.”
Tamra sniffed. “Seems like you tired her out, why aren’t you in there joining her?”
He crossed his arms. “A better question is why were you skulking around Keris’ house tonight?”
“Not skulking, walking. I couldn’t sleep.”
“There are any number of partners willing to help with that tonight.”
“I wasn’t in the mood for the festivities.” Tamra leaned against the doorframe opposite him, spinning a ring around and around her finger.
Seth positioned himself so he could see both women at once. “Fair enough. I wanted to talk to you anyway. I know you’re coming and going through the doorway.”
She stilled for a moment, then smiled and rolled her eyes. “It’s part of my duties. I’m supposed to check the areas around the doorways to make sure they’re maintained and safe for us.”
“That means you have the authority to open and close them without consulting the elders.” Without warning, a throbbing pain doubled him over, as if he’d been punched in the stomach. Seth clutched his abdomen and had to breathe shallowly for a second. He glanced at Keely, who flinched and huddled further under the blanket. The sharp ache eased, and as he watched, Keely relaxed back into sleep.
Seth took a shambling step into the room, but he stopped himself. The timing could have been a coincidence—she’d had some nightmares before—and waking her up now wouldn’t help anything. He gripped the doorframe and hauled himself back to the porch with a grimace.
Tamra poked him in the arm. “That was intense to watch.” She poked his bicep again. “Hmm, solid muscle. No wonder Lexi was so enamored.”
Seth glared at her. “Lexi was not enamored with me. Your sister lost her damn mind and nearly got me and Aiden killed.”
Tamra shrugged. “That’s not the way I heard it.”
He turned his back on Keely to try to calm the need to check on her. Coincidence or not, Seth wasn’t willing to bet on her life. The elders had given him until tomorrow afternoon, he’d take what time with her he could get. Then he’d make sure she was safe. “I don’t want to talk about Lexi. I need you to take Keely through the portal tomorrow and make sure she stays in Terra.”
Tamra raised a brow. “Coming from anyone else, that would be an unusual request.”
“What do you mean?”
“No one wants to be separated from their mate, especially so soon after the ritual, but you’ve always done things a little differently. What makes you think she’ll want to leave?”
Seth shook his head ruefully. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard the sentiment. “She will.”
“Okay, I’ll come get her tomorrow. I have to admit, your persuasive skills are unmatched, but whatever is going on between you two could blow up in your face.”
Seth rubbed his tired eyes. “I don’t have a lot of good options.”
Tamra pushed away from the door and started toward the street, speaking over her shoulder. “My advice? Try thinking of someone else for once. One day, your actions are going to hurt the people you love.”
“Noted.”
Tamra waved over her head and disappeared into the trees. Seth stared into the darkness for a long while after his sense of her faded. He reached for the certainty he’d held close for so long. If he could only get the banishment lifted, he could find out what had happened to his parents. In its place, he found doubt. The elders believed he kept the artifact hidden near him using his magic, but the necklace should prove them wrong.
Preventing magical manipulation would be helpful if Atraxa wore it. She’d at least know he wasn’t the one hiding the artifact, but he had another plan. The necklace had a lesser known ability to compel truth-telling. Activating that particular feature came with considerably more instructions than ‘put it on,’ but he believed he could make it work.
The thought of giving Atraxa, or any of the elders, that kind of power made him extremely uncomfortable, but in a hundred years, he hadn’t come up with a better plan. Even the boon of the necklace didn’t guarantee they’d lift his banishment though.
A bird called in the trees, and Seth turned away from the night, closing the door behind him. Keely had spread out on the couch, as he’d known she would, so he took a seat on the floor next to her. He’d told her she wouldn’t wake up alone.
His parents, the basis for the Hades and Persephone myth, had believed that love conquered all. No matter the obstacle, if two people worked together, they could overcome it. He snorted quietly. They’d clearly met an obstacle their love couldn’t conquer, and he’d followed right in their footsteps.
Keely wouldn’t leave on her own, and if he tried to ask her outright, she’d laugh in his face and stand by his side. Seth let his head fall back next to her and took a deep breath. Her scent was filled with that fierce loyalty. His penchant for illusions and walls would come in handy tomorrow. He’d never tried to fool someone as intertwined as they were, but to protect Keely, he’d do anything.
KEELY
Keely woke up to see Seth draped across the couch in front of her. She must have kicked him off at some point in the night, but he’d stayed as close as he could. His head rested on his bent arm, inches from her face.
Even contort
ed into a one-man game of Twister, he looked relaxed. He couldn’t have gotten a lot of sleep last night. She brushed an errant lock of hair away from his face and felt her breath catch.
He could have gone into the bedroom where an entire bed waited for him, or stretched out on the floor. Instead, he’d positioned himself right next to her. Selfish, her dimpled ass. Keely couldn’t believe he had such a low opinion of himself. She had feelings about his clan and their influence on him. Outwardly, he didn’t lack for confidence, but along the way, they’d convinced him that he was unworthy of love. She’d seen it before, with her sister-in-law, Charlotte. People could be cruel, whether they used to be gods or not.
She snorted, then covered her mouth in horror when she got a whiff of her breath. Her eyes widened as she carefully leaned away from Seth and sat up. The mystery snacks from the party last night had returned for their revenge.
Naked, sticky, and with a bad taste in her mouth, Keely opted to let Seth sleep in favor of some dedicated bathroom time. She’d had a low-level fear that a society of shapeshifters wouldn’t need showers. Couldn’t they just magic themselves clean? Thank goodness Keris at least preferred the more mundane method of pressurized water.
Keely gathered her travel shower stuff and cranked the lever in the utilitarian bathroom connected to their room. After the opulence in their apartment, the simple shower stall seemed almost rustic, but at least it had hot water. Bonus, her shorts from yesterday were inside out in the sink. Steam filled the room, and Keely sighed as she stepped under the spray.
She made quick work of getting clean, then stood with her eyes closed and the water pounding on her back. The mate bond assured her Seth still slept in the living room, so she had a little bit of time to try to come to terms with the violent course-shift her life had taken.
Seth was looking for his parents. His dead parents, according to him. Keely had known he’d planned to stay in Aecantha, but she’d started to hope that validation would be enough for him. The elders would clear him, and he’d be so enamored with her that he’d follow her back to Manhattan. He’d declare his undying love, teach her how to use her awesome new magic abilities, and they’d live happily ever after. She noticed that ‘get a job at a respectable publishing house’ hadn’t made it onto her list.
The fantasy tempted her, but that was the version of Seth he’d expected her to want last night. She didn’t want perfect Seth. She wanted feisty Seth who challenged her and didn’t listen and fought to find the truth about things that mattered to him. She wanted to matter to him.
The bond implied she did, but the abundance of information it provided didn’t come with an interpreter. For example, would he be happy to see her or just happy she’d done something about her dragon breath? To her surprise, they still needed to communicate like a normal couple. Or at least a couple with magic and telepathic abilities.
Keely finished getting dressed and rounded the corner into the living room rubbing at a weird twinge in her chest. Had she pulled something last night? She definitely needed to stretch first if they were going to go for vertical sex positions. The crystal necklace bounced against the back of her hand as she stopped short.
Seth stood with his back to her, fully dressed and stretching. She hadn’t processed it earlier, but he’d been dressed then too. Oddly nervous for the first time since she’d met him, Keely hesitated. As much as she wanted to talk about feelings and the future, they still had the meeting with the elders to get through.
“Have you heard from Keris?”
Seth turned, but kept his distance with a frown. “Not yet. Do you still have the golden necklace?”
Keely chewed her bottom lip at his distant tone. “Yeah, let me grab it.”
She’d shoved the necklace in her shorts yesterday when Keris had told her to take it off but keep it close. The rest of her clothes were still missing, but she’d moved her shorts from the bathroom to her bag.
The necklace was right where she’d left it, wadded up in a tangle of chain in the front pocket. Keely pulled it out and frowned at the heavy weight. It hadn’t seemed that heavy when she’d been wearing it, but Seth said it carried some ancient magic made by one of his super old ancestors. Honestly, she’d only been half listening when he explained it back in New York.
Seth hadn’t moved when she returned to the living room. He’d gone full broody, staring out the far window with his hands shoved in his pockets.
Keely cleared her throat and tried to shake off the trepidation that kept finding new spots to take root. “Here, safe and sound.”
He abandoned his vigil and held out his hand. Keely dropped the necklace in his palm. Up until this point, she’d managed to put aside the price he’d have to pay for this meeting. Potential price, she corrected herself. Seth would probably be fine. Maybe. The bond reflected her own nervousness back at her, but under that, she sensed something worse. Keely drew her brows together. What was he hiding this time?
She wavered for a second, then plunged ahead. “Seth, what’s going on?”
He slipped the necklace in his pocket without looking at it. “I need the necklace for the meeting with the elders.”
“I know. I meant what’s going on with this weirdness between us.”
Seth finally met her eyes, and she frowned at the lack of the warmth in his golden eyes. “It’s time for you to go home.”
Keely blinked at him, sure she’d heard him wrong. What had happened to the man who’d slept on the floor next to her? “Excuse me?”
“Go home, Keely. I’ll be meeting with the elders soon, so there’s nothing else for you to do. Your job is done.”
Seth tried to walk past her, but she grabbed his arm, hauling him to a stop. What the hell was wrong with him? She sensed pain from the bond, but at a distance, as if he’d put something between them. “It’s not about a job. I can feel you hurting. Let me help you.”
His face closed down as he shook her off. “I don’t need your help. I enjoyed our time together, but that time is over. You’ve fulfilled your end of the agreement and earned that apartment. I made sure all the paperwork was in your name before we left. Go enjoy it with someone else.”
Keely’s heart started to crack. She didn’t want someone else; she wanted him. Tears pricked her eyes, but she’d be damned if she’d let him see her cry. “This isn’t you.”
“Isn’t it? I warned you over and over again that I’m not made for long-term. That I’m selfish. That my end goal had nothing to do with you. I’m not going back to Terra. Whatever future you imagined isn’t going to happen.”
His words cut close to her thoughts in the shower, and she winced. Keely rubbed her chest again, and he followed the movement with his eyes. Her insides knotted up.
“But the mate bond—”
“Connects us by magic, nothing more. Go home.”
“It is more. I know you feel it too, and I’m not going home.” Keely’s voice cracked at the end, but she wouldn’t back down.
Seth stared at her a moment, searching her face, before leaning forward and speaking slowly. “I promise I don’t want you here.”
Keely felt the magic prickles from his words settle on her skin and stumbled back a step. He might as well have slapped her. She shook her head, but Seth’s cold expression didn’t change.
He turned and strode out the door without a backward glance, certain she’d do as he told her. Keely’s hands clenched into fists, and she wished she had something—or someone—to hit. Screw him and his precious plan. Tamra’s words came back to her. He’ll always look out for himself first…
Keely sank to the couch and dug her fingernails into her palms. She wanted to hate him for leading her on or taking advantage, but he hadn’t. Seth had been upfront every step of the way. Hot tears slid down her cheeks, and she swiped them away. Even last night, he’d been trying to convince her, but she hadn’t listened.
The supposedly powerful mate bond told Keely nothing. She could sense the general direction Seth m
oved, away from the village and her, but his emotions felt like a placid wall of indifference.
She hunched over and wrapped her arms around herself. After Michael, she’d sworn she wouldn’t let her impulsive side make the decisions. The system had worked. Yes, she’d been bored out of her mind and craving something different, but she’d been safe. Keely took a quivering breath and tried not to ugly cry.
How many times was she going to end up with a guy who didn’t want her before she learned her lesson?
SETH
Seth quickly hiked out of the village on the path to Pyrisma Falls. He couldn’t stay close to Keely and maintain his aloofness. The illusion ward he’d produced to convince her he didn’t care only worked one way. She couldn’t sense his turmoil, but every bit of hurt Keely felt sliced into him, compounded by the pain from his first promise to her. He deserved it.
Tamra would be there soon to take her home, and Keely would be ready to leave. After all, she had no reason to stay now. I know you feel it too. Hell, yes, he did, but the only way to protect her was to get her through the doorway and away from him.
The last time it had taken a solid twenty minutes of slow hiking to get to the falls, but Seth didn’t need to hike slowly. He needed to put distance between him and his mate as quickly as possible. As he crested the last hill and the falls came into view, a different wave of pain nearly knocked him to his knees.
Seth grunted and grimaced. His stomach tensed at the uncomfortable sensation of his magic sliding out of him. The torment eased, leaving Seth trembling and light-headed. Behind the illusion ward, he searched the mate bond. Keely suffered, but only from him. The elders’ price hadn’t touched her this time.
His head dropped in relief. He’d take any amount of pain if it meant sparing Keely.
“Being alone out here while weakened isn’t your best idea.”