by K. F. Breene
“I would, yes. But maybe…” He looked down at himself. “If I could shower…”
“Oh, totally.” I held up my hand. “Sorry, yes, we can do it some other time once we’ve all recovered.”
He nodded, and one of his weird, crooked smiles worked up his face. He looked out the window. “It feels good…to be asked.”
“You’re a valuable member of the team. It’s a no-brainer.”
His smile broadened. “Still feels good. That you think I’m good enough to join your team. That you don’t look down on me for my oddities or my flaws.”
I huffed out a laugh. “That would be something, wouldn’t it? If I looked down on someone else for being odd and having flaws?” I raised my hand. “Hello? Pot calling the kettle black. Besides, everyone in this house is unpardonably odd and has more flaws than normal qualities. You fit in just fine.”
Still smiling, still looking away from me, he nodded slowly. “I do fit in here. And maybe that’s why she believed in me.”
“Who?”
His eyebrows went up. “Oh. You. Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts. Well…if that’s all?” He partially stood. “I don’t want to keep you from your alpha. I might go home and shower now after all. I suddenly feel invigorated.”
I laughed and stood, wobbling a little. He stepped forward to steady me, backing off when I gave a thumbs-up. “Welcome, in advance. To the team.”
“Thank you.”
I trudged up to my bedroom, not sure how much fun I’d be with Austin, since I could barely lug myself around. He’d have to do all the work, not that he’d mind.
Soft candlelight greeted me when I opened the door, flickering in the dimly lit room. Fresh roses in a vase sat on my little table by the window, which also held a bottle of wine and two glasses. Austin sat on the edge of my bed, bare-chested and godly, the top button on his jeans undone and his feet bare. His smile dwindled and his eyes took on a focused look to match the pulsing warmth radiating through the link.
Something about the way he was sitting there, dressed down and gorgeous, weakened my knees and made my heart swoon. This powerful, fearsome alpha had always let me see his softer side, the easygoing part of him with a little smile around his full lips. Both sides appealed to me—his power and strength, and his smiles and laughter. I’d been lucky to have him as a friend for all these months, and I was luckier still to have this new intimacy I couldn’t seem to get enough of. I hadn’t even totally given in to it yet, and it had still consumed part of my soul.
I’d need to figure all that out, eventually. Today, though, I just needed to chill. It had been a long day.
“Hey,” I said, closing the door after me.
“Hey.” He held out his arms, and I walked into them, dropping my hand to his shoulder, feeling the electricity zing between us.
He sat me down on his knee and ran his palm under my shirt and across my stomach.
“What do you think about a relaxing bath?” he asked. “You haven’t felt one of my massages.”
“Oh? Are they famous or something?”
“Probably not. I don’t give them often, but I’m pretty sure they help pass the time.”
I smiled and kissed his lips. “Sounds good.”
He waited for me to stand before joining me, grabbing the bottom of my shirt and readying to pull it off.
A foot I didn’t recognize stepped onto Ivy House soil. Austin paused. The intruder continued up the walk, the steps slow and clumsy, not in a straight line. A moment later, the person turned and ran off.
Mr. Tom approached the front door, and I waited to see what would happen, dread filtering through my middle. After every battle or magical hurdle, there was one person who’d always made his presence known. One person who’d always turned up.
The front door opened. Mr. Tom stepped out. Shock blasted through the link, and then sorrow, and then rage.
I was running before I’d made a conscious effort.
“Go get the miss,” Mr. Tom shouted, perhaps to Ivy House, because no one else was there.
“I’m here.” I took the stairs down two at a time, Austin right behind me. “I’m here. What is it?”
But he didn’t need to answer me. As soon as I reached the threshold, I saw.
Sebastian lay sprawled out on the grass, a knife in his heart pinning a note to his chest. His face was so bloody that it was almost hard to tell who he was, but those sightless gray eyes were looking up at the sky. I recognized the shape of his face, too, and the clothes he’d been wearing when he’d left. I hadn’t felt him on the grounds, so he must’ve been force-fed the potion to hide him from Ivy House. I’d put up a spell to unmask that potion, but it hadn’t bothered Sebastian, it seemed.
“Because he’s dead,” I breathed, anger and sadness welling up through me. “My spell to unmask people seeks out pent-up energy and danger. He no longer has either.”
The note read, This was my employee. Then he was your employee. Now he is no one’s employee. Want to come over for a drink next month? I’ll send a jet. Check yes or no.
Two square boxes were under that. He literally wanted me to check a box. He’d likely magically receive the answer. His name was at the bottom, no PS this time.
Tears clouded my vision. My hands balled at my sides. My gut twisted with guilt. I was the reason Sebastian was dead. He’d helped me, and I’d gotten him killed.
I couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t live with that nutcase dogging my every step, watching me from the shadows.
“Yes, I will meet him,” I said through clenched teeth. “I will meet him face to face, and I will kill him for everything he’s done to me. Someone get me a pen.”
“I have a confession,” Ivy House said.
I waited for more bad news, and for a pen, and for the sobs to come. There had been too much death today. Austin had lost a few of his people, we’d taken the lives of more people than I cared to admit, and now Sebastian was gone, the guy who was supposed to join my team. My house. My life.
“I deadened my magic with the phoenix so you’d fight,” she said. “You needed them on your side, and you also needed a little shove to give the blood oath. By putting you in a dangerous situation, I nudged you into it.”
I closed my eyes, breathing through my nose. “I don’t care about that. I would’ve done it eventually anyway.”
“Just remember, I nudge because I love, and because sometimes you need it to reach your true potential.”
“This is not the time!”
“Good call. Chat later. Bye.”
What’d she think, we were on a call?
Mr. Tom handed me a pen. I reached down and checked “yes.”
The body disappeared.
Elliot Graves was ten times more advanced than I was. More experienced. If he’d employed Sebastian as a peon, then he was probably leagues above him in terms of magical ability.
I gritted my teeth. I didn’t care. I would take him on, and I would end his meddling in my life.
Epilogue
“It’s been an enlightening visit, to say the least,” Kingsley said, standing with Austin and me in the front yard of Ivy House. The rest of my people were in the house, flying around the woods, or tending to the flowers. Hollace had a green thumb, it turned out, and an eye for how a garden should look. He was quickly becoming Edgar’s best friend. He didn’t seem excited about that prospect.
It was a week after we’d ended the threat of Kinsella, although we still had no idea what had happened to the mage. Austin’s territory was as buttoned up as it needed to be, and Kingsley was anxious to get back to his family and his own territory.
“I haven’t taken orders from anyone but my wife in a long time,” Kingsley said, his eyes twinkling and a grin on his lips. He was usually only this free with facial expressions at Austin’s house, but clearly he was making an exception. “Not to mention I got to see some fabled creatures, including a female gargoyle and a freaking basajaun.” He shook his head. “That thi
ng was ruthless. I’m glad I got off his mountain alive. I would rather not tango with one of those.”
“I hear that,” Austin said.
“Can you handle it if I hug her?” Kingsley asked Austin.
“Yeah.”
They weren’t teasing.
Kingsley stepped closer and wrapped me in a bear hug, lifting me up and shaking me a little. I groaned as the air was squeezed out of me. He set me down and backed away, laughing.
“It was good meeting you, Jessie Ironheart,” he said. “Thank you for pushing my brother back to his family. We’ve missed him. Maybe now he’ll visit once in a while. And sorry about…” He pointed at the grass. “I don’t tend to like mages, but he was all right.”
I nodded, my guilt over Sebastian’s death still fresh. “Thanks for coming,” I said. “We couldn’t have done it without you.”
He clapped Austin on the back. “I figured I’d tell you here, in front of Jess. The people I brought knew going in that they’d have a choice to stay here and join your pack at the end of all this. I brought the guys and gals who never wanted you to leave in the first place, plus some newbies who need more room to advance than is available right now in my pack. All but a couple of them are going to stay.”
Austin’s eyes widened. “I can’t let you do that.”
“It’s done. Consider it a territory-warming present. Once you get everything official, throw a huge feast for everyone.”
“You’re too good to me, brother.” Austin put out his hand to shake.
Kingsley grabbed it and pulled him in closer, bumping chests and patting him on the back. “We’re family, and families stick together. We want to hear from you. Aurora especially wants to hear from her Uncle Auzzie.”
Austin nodded, his heart warm, his face unreadable. Kingsley nodded as though he knew how much his words meant to Austin, how much Austin had needed to hear them.
Kingsley gave me one last nod. “Take care of him, because he won’t take care of himself. And let him take care of you. It’s his job, and he won’t want to do anything else.”
“Okay.”
To Austin he said, “Don’t let her get into any trouble.”
“Yeah, right, as though I could stop her,” Austin replied with a laugh.
Kingsley looked at Ivy House one last time and then turned toward Austin’s waiting Jeep. Austin gave me a quick kiss.
“Will you be around later?” he asked.
“Of course. I just have to finally sign the papers to make everything official with Ivy House, and then I’m free to leave.”
“My house, then?” He chuckled softly and kissed me again. “I love you. See you tonight.”
He was striding away before I could respond. Which was maybe for the best. My heart fluttered with joy to hear it, but I was still afraid to say it. To feel it. It seemed too soon. It seemed not soon enough.
Shaking my head, I headed into the house, up the stairs, and into the office, the furniture still the same as it had been on my last visit. I sat in the creaking leather chair and took a deep breath, placing my hands on the desk.
“Mr. Tom?”
“You rang?” He stepped into the room.
I rolled my eyes. “The ledger, if you please.”
“Yes, miss,” he said, and I could tell he was almost giddy with excitement and trying not to show it.
He laid a large tome on the desk in front of me, years and years of markings contained within its pages. He opened to the last used pages, the neat scrawl only reaching halfway down the second page. The total number in all the combined accounts stared back at me.
“This is after the winery expenses, right?” I asked.
“Yes, as you will see here.” He traced a line farther up the page. “The cash has been sent to the escrow account. Tomorrow you go in to sign a few more documents and then it is all done.”
“Right.” I blew out a breath. “The blood oath is done, but I have to sign something, right?”
“Yes, for legal purposes.” He brought over a rolled-up parchment, flattening it out in front of me. He held out a fountain pen. “Make your mark at the bottom.”
A large X waited in front of a long line at the bottom of a document that was written in Latin or some other language I couldn’t read. The text was dirty red and looked suspiciously like dried blood.
“It isn’t blood, though, right?” I asked Mr. Tom.
“It is blood,” Ivy House said. “It is your blood, collected from the soil and transferred here after you assumed your power. You have but to sign, and it is done.”
I hadn’t put that much blood in the soil, but I didn’t see the point in saying so. They’d just tell me this could all easily be explained by magic.
I scribbled my name down.
Mr. Tom nodded, collected the paper, and rolled it back up. “Fantastic, miss. You are now officially the rightful heir to Ivy House. Congratulations. The Havercamps no longer have a claim to this house, not that Peggy wanted it anyway after she was denied.”
“Okay, then.” I stared at the ledger. “We’re going to automate this, I hope you know. Get a proper bookkeeping system up and running. Pay things online.”
Mr. Tom pursed his lips. “If you say so.”
“And this money…” I tapped the last number on the right. “I get that I can’t pass it down or anything, but are there rules on what I can spend it on? Can I, like, buy a vacation house?”
“Yes, and Ivy House has several vacation houses and castles already. I haven’t been to any of them, but the documents and details are in the filing cabinet. They probably all need work. Otherwise, you can do anything you like with it, miss, within reason. You can’t give it all away to Austin Steele, or anything like that, for example. You may donate to a reputable charity up to a certain percentage per year. And no, you cannot take it with you when you die. It stays with the house, and will be transferred to the next heir. But you can pay off Jimmy’s school tuition and your debts, and maybe buy yourself a nicer car and better clothes and fix up the furnishings.”
“Yes, yes, I get it.”
“Maybe a haircut and something besides sweats and jeans might be nice—”
“I got it. Fix myself up. Loud and clear.” I shook my head, letting it sink in. “I’m a billionaire.”
“As long as you are living, yes, you are a billionaire. One hundred and sixty times over. Not all liquid, though, let’s be realistic.”
I felt faint. “I might be the richest person in the world.”
“Those things always change, but you’ll certainly be one of them.”
“What a crazy life.”
“Yes, miss, I believe we covered that when you were trying to wrap your head around magic. Now, would you like to make any changes?”
I rubbed my eyes. “Give me some time to look through everything, Mr. Tom. I’m a whiz with a budget, not that I expressly need that skill now, but I need some time to sort through all this handwritten…stuff.”
“Yes, miss. I’ll bring up some coffee and snacks. Anything else?”
My head slid to what happened a week ago. To what would happen next month.
“No, thanks,” I said, because money could fix many things, but it couldn’t help me prepare for what I would be facing. I wasn’t sure anything could. I’d need to learn attack and kill spells, and if I didn’t basically use them before Elliot Graves could open his mouth, I’d be beaten before the duel started.
Because it would be a duel—of that I was certain—and I did not intend to lose.
. ~ . ~ . ~ .
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Check out Sin & Chocolate, the first book of the Washington Post & Amazon Charts bestselling series Demigods of San Francisco…
Some people are ordained for greatness…<
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Those people usually have a lot of drama in their life. Drama I happily do without. I live in a forgotten corner of nowhere for a reason: there is safety in anonymity. I have enough problems just trying to get by.
But when Kieran, a sinfully sexy demigod at the pinnacle of power, crashes into my life, suddenly my whole world is turned upside down.
He’s harboring a deadly secret, one that could destroy all he holds dear. He thinks I’m the key to his salvation, and he wants me to help him claim vengeance.
He also wants me with a passion that burns my body from the inside out.
To ignore him is impossible, but to give in to my desires, even for a night, would thrust me into danger I might not survive.
Remember what I said about drama? Now I’m in it up to my eyeballs, and I’m not sure if I should run…or fight.
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