by Elle Cross
He held me ever closer, enveloping me in the comfort of his aura. That velvet night. I breathed him in and kissed the pulse at his throat, where I loved being kissed. Then I said, "Don't think that this means I'm going to move in with you."
"Wouldn't dream of it, darling. Besides, it'd take the fun out of persuading you to do so."
He argued his case until well into the morning.
Prince Arris had been released from containment after he calmed down long enough to explain to Corbin who he was and what he had been doing near Brian Sanderson. I was there to witness his short-lived, should-have-been-routine interview that escalated needlessly.
Around me, though, he was calm. And that was enough for Prince Arris to be convinced that I was the Omma that Lady Astara wanted me to be. Another role I get to figure out in future conversations if I could ever pin her down again.
Prince Arris had felt guilty that he had let Brian slip away into the night, that as a repayment of favors, he had uncovered the girl's identity. He truly grieved the loss of her life. "She had been of your tribe, Lady Vesper," he whispered to me, and I feared he would cry.
Corbin made a sound in her throat, a grudging respect for how he spoke of the dead.
“And what tribe would that be?” I whispered back to him, stroking some of the sadness away. I almost didn’t want to know, even though I needed to know.
“They have no name they call themselves, as they are set apart. A holy people.”
I shivered at the thought. Something about that phrase stirred something in my stomach. A holy people among the Remnant Gods? Interesting.
He continued, “The Adamantines refer to them as the Meraki, for their ability to put something of themselves in what they’re doing.”
That warmed my heart, fitting nicely in my soul. I poured myself into my art. Was that part of it?
“So your people would call me a Meraki. Lady Astara called me an Omma?”
He nodded. “Yes, a seeker, in their language.” He shrugged almost in apology. “When you don’t name yourself, you are subject to be named by others.”
And didn’t I know it? I never accepted the name that the orphanage gave me, didn’t even bother to remember it. I had named myself, created myself, and that was all that I needed to know.
Prince Arris vowed to be an ally to me before he joined Corso, who had waited to take him to see the Lord Master. Prince Arris was definitely not the same personality as the one I’d met. I was glad that I hadn’t judged him too harshly after that first conversation with him. I was grateful that I had been able to hold up my end of that favor exchange.
My consulting agency was now on hold until I had a better handle on my awakening power and what it was I actually did to my clients since I hadn't been affecting them like a true empath did. The inner landscape that I had kept frozen and cold insisted on thawing out despite my best efforts to reinforce the shields. I would let nature take its course and learn to follow my instincts.
None of my memories had surfaced yet, though it had only been a couple of days.
I managed to hook up with an old art dealer friend of mine and he wanted me to work with him at the museum. I told him I'd think about it, but I already knew I wanted to participate. The art would bring me joy and anything that brought me joy, Deimos approved of.
Speaking of Deimos, I wasn’t anywhere closer to budging on the let’s-move-in-together stuff. With all these changes, now more than ever I wanted to keep the familiar close to me. Especially since Jack was still in a kind of coma in a temple. I didn’t know why, but it would feel like a betrayal if I moved out now.
It made Deimos uneasy for me to be alone. Even now, he was wary of my welfare. As we got closer to Halloween, the veils would be even thinner. A lot more would be able to take advantage of the leaking magic. But one thing at a time.
Corbin, Megan, and I were finally able to schedule a brunch now that I wasn’t in a bolt hole that warped space and time. Deimos had given me a special watch to keep track of that whenever I went back there so I would never worry Corbin again.
For all the times that Corbin and Deimos clashed, I think they secretly liked each other. At least they liked each other enough to tolerate each other while they were in the same room for my sake.
Corbin was here, buzzing my apartment door. We would go to brunch together, and meet Megan at the restaurant since she was chronically late.
I caught her up on the latest bid to move in with Deimos.
She huffed, as she sipped on her pre-brunch coffee. "I dunno, V, I kinda thought you'd be all over a move-in. I hear his mansion's roomy. And close to a lot of your fave places. I mean, if I met you there, we could've practically walked to the tea house."
We were going to The Tea Party, a Wonderland-themed tea house just a block away from Deimos’s estate on the Upper West Side.
I just looked at her. "I need to have my own place. I don’t know, I can't describe it."
But we both got it.
While she marinated in coffee, I got Rajah settled and started closing things down to get ready to leave.
Corbin turned on the TV. "Hey, I didn't know hotshot was supposed to be on?"
"What?" I asked, rushing from my bedroom to see what she was talking about.
It was one of those morning talk shows, Connor and Maddie. They were both tanned with platinum blond hair and shiny white teeth. It made me wonder if there really was coffee in their cups, with the amount of coffee they drank.
Whereas the host and hostess were pressed together and freshly manufactured to be bright and bubbly for the cameras, Deimos’s presence was heavy and intense. Real.
And, he was incredibly charming and urbane, which surely won over everyone he had to deal with on set.
Maddie touched her hand to her chin. "So, we hear there may be a new special someone in your life. Any hints?"
He smiled that dashing playboy smile at her. I could almost hear the swooning from nearby women. "Now, now. I don't kiss and tell."
Connor interjected. "So there was kissing?"
Charming laughter all around. I was too shocked by this display as evidenced by my gaping mouth that Corbin had to tap shut.
"So, La Serenissima.”
I jumped at the name of my building.
“Tell us about this deal. Landmark building—" Connor ticked off the points on his finger.
"—absolutely beautiful building, Connor," Maddie nodded, her platinum helmet unmoved.
"—yes, no doubt. Huge history there. Sylphs. They are notorious for not ever giving up property. So what did you do?"
That smile. That boyish half grin that made anyone do whatever they wanted.
Corbin smirked as she watched. "Check out Maddie. Girl’s about ready to rip off his clothes."
"I'd like to see her try," I muttered.
Deimos cleared his throat. "We talked about it, and they saw that it was to our mutual best interests that La Serenissima be ceded to Janus Holdings."
"You must have paid a fortune."
"What I got in return is a price beyond measure." He looked at the screen.
I melted.
"Damn, V. This shit's for real."
I sat with a thump on my ottoman as Deimos wrapped up details. Evidently the sale had not been finalized yet, but would be soon in the coming months. All the residents needn’t worry. This change in ownership wouldn’t interrupt anything in their contracts, monthly rate, etc. This was literally a transfer of ownership.
Corbin laughed. Soft at first, but then it grew to a thigh thumping laughter, so hard that she forgot to breathe. “You know what this means, don’t you? With the ownership changing to Janus Holdings, that means that Deimos could walk in and out of here without a problem.”
Oh Lords Above, I hadn’t thought of that.
"Well, since Megan doesn't watch TV, she's gonna love that! I'll hit the bathroom and we can go to brunch."
I just nodded, transfixed at the show’s closing banter.
The show ended. I fired off a text to him.
I could feel him smiling that smile through my phone. I tsked, shaking my head as I grabbed my purse, and threw my phone in it.
"Corbin? Yo, you fall in or what?" I marched down the hall to see where she went.
My bathroom door was open, so she wasn't in there. Instead she was in my room. My secret room had been left open when I’d left abruptly to watch that broadcast. She pulled out a red vase filled with smoke.
She looked to me lingering in my own doorway. "What's this?"
To be continued…
Hi, I’m Elle Cross, and I live in NYC with my husband and the imaginary dog that we will one day adopt. I have a massive makeup collection and I’m grateful that, as a freelance makeup artist, I can justify buying even more.
When I’m not playing with color or characters, I can usually be found in the nearest diner or bubble tea shop trying to take the perfect picture of my drink while my husband rolls his eyes.
(Yes, we’re that couple. And, no, I don’t post my food pics on my Instagram feed.)
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THE REALMS OF THE REMNANT GODS
THE BRIGHTLING COURT SERIES
SO DARK THE NIGHT
SO BRIGHT THE DAWN (coming soon)
THE REMNANT GODS
GRIT
GRIT 2 (Coming Soon)
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–Elle Cross
Table of Contents
Book Description
Acknowledgements
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
About the Author
Books by Elle Cross
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