by Rye Brewer
I would have to go with them, then. I couldn’t break my word.
Just when I was on the verge of working out a new plan for the League. And it would appear suspicious if I disappeared around the same time as Genevieve’s supposed escape. I would need to be here to settle things down in the wake of her escape. I would need to be here when the heads of the other clans reconvened.
I motioned for Anissa to meet me outside while Branwen and Sirene discussed their plans. I dropped to the couch, my head in my hands. “How could I have let this happen?”
“You had no way of knowing. You would never hurt Elena. We all know it.”
“But I let it slip through my fingers. I forgot all about the blood, how we had to rid ourselves of the old supply.”
She knelt in front of me, hands on my knees. “Jonah. You can’t take everything on your shoulders at once. The real fault is with those who tainted the supply, not with you.”
Yes, and I had only just allowed Genevieve to break out of the dungeon. Another kick to my already bruised self-esteem.
I looked at Anissa, into her concerned eyes. “I want to go with them, but there are so many things happening here. So many loose threads, especially in the League.”
“What was the result of the meeting?”
“No result as of yet. We’re reconvening in forty-eight hours.”
“Are you ever going to tell me what you presented to them? Or is it a secret?”
She was teasing, I knew, but there was truth to her question. She was dying of curiosity.
“I suggested we no longer operate under a single ruler but, instead, as a triumvirate. Three voting members at a time.”
She nodded. “That doesn’t seem like a difficult decision, unless one of them has a lust for power. Like Lucian did. Like Marcus does.”
“Right, but that isn’t all I suggested. The real proposal was to bring in two non-voting members of different groups. Consultants, if you will. A witch and a fae. Someone to add context to the decisions up for a vote.”
“Oh. I see.” She sat back on her heels. “Who were you thinking of?”
“My father and your father.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. She saw how important this would be. “That settles it, then. You need to stay to see this through. I’ll go to Hallowthorn Landing to watch over Elena and Sirene.”
“Not so fast.” I took her hands. “Not until I make you my wife.”
Her tears spilled over. “There isn’t time for that sort of thing, even if we scale it down, there will still be planning involved. We’ll need time to gather the people we wish to be there with us—”
“All we need for now is us and an officiant.” I stood, bringing her with me. “We can do something more later, if you wish. Besides, nobody’s even nearby right now. I have no idea where Philippa or Scott ran off to, Gage is in Europe, your sister is on Shadowsbane. Allonic is in ShadesRealm. I wouldn’t know how to invite half of them to a wedding just now.”
“That’s so,” she sighed.
I wrapped my arms around her. “What matters to me more than anything is that I have you as my wife. We’ve waited long enough. I won’t be separated from you again without knowing at least one part of my life is settled.”
She nodded before leaning against my chest. “You’re right. And it will mean a lot to Gregor. And I do want to marry you.”
“Oh, I’m honored.”
She smiled as she looked up at me. “You know what I mean.”
“I do.” I kissed her forehead. “That sounds pretty good, you know. I do.”
“We’ll be saying it soon enough.”
15
Genevieve
I couldn’t believe Jonah Bourke was forcing me to debase myself in such a manner.
I barely stifled a groan as I stretched my arm as far as I could, telling myself to ignore the pain in my shoulder, the strain in my muscles. He wouldn’t make it easy for me to reach the key, would he?
I wouldn’t have, either, come to think of it. If I was in his out-of-fashion shoes.
“Come on,” I whispered, my knees stinging thanks to the unforgiving stone floor beneath them. I gripped one of the bars with one hand and pulled while stretching the other arm, my fingers splayed wide, hoping upon hope to make contact.
Thank heavens for long fingernails. One thing about me which hadn’t changed since captivity, even though I no longer had them manicured.
I let out a sigh of relief as I dragged the key toward me, the sound of it echoing down the corridor.
“What are you doing?” Marcus called out.
I knew he would eventually clue in to my being up to something.
“Quiet!” I hissed. There was no telling if one or more guards were listening. If he ruined this for me…
I got to my feet, the key concealed in my closed fist in case a guard happened to appear. It was a long, slow count to one hundred before I could breathe freely again, reasonably confident the threat had passed.
“You still haven’t learned to keep your mouth shut,” I whispered as I slid my arm through the bars once again, this time holding the key. I focused all of my concentration on making contact with the lock then sliding the key through. If I dropped it…
No. Not a possibility. There was no room for error.
I had to get back to Anton.
Just the thought of his name caused my chest to ache, as it had throughout every long day and longer night of my imprisonment. My Anton, my love, the one with whom I was meant to be. Now and always.
When Jonah had made mention of the shifters, I was nearly certain he knew of Anton and of Anton’s bloodline. Of the fact that he, too, was a shifter.
I’d assumed he was playing a game with me. Drawing me out, testing me to see if I would admit to a love affair with a shifter. A forbidden one, against our laws. Consorting with one outside our species.
As though I cared for their rules. As though either of us did.
Even so, he might have used my admission against me. I might have known he was too dimwitted to have any knowledge of my Anton.
I closed my eyes, envisioning the key sliding home as metal touched metal. I didn’t dare breathe as I guided it inside.
I opened my eyes and smiled in satisfaction. One turn, and the lock released.
One pull, and the door swung open.
“What’s happening?” Marcus hissed.
I rolled my eyes. He was dimwitted, too. Far too much so. I’d always believed it while the two of us were involved in business matters; he was the type who regarded himself as the smartest, the cleverest, the most capable man in any room but who really ought to have been serving drinks. Only the good fortune of being born to the right vampire had placed him in a position of power. He never could have reached clan leadership on his own merit.
But he’d been easy to use to suit my purposes, so I’d kept him around longer than I would have anyone else.
I ignored his question, peering out into the corridor, looking both ways. As ever, it seemed the guards were taking a break. Perhaps Jonah had advised them to do so in hopes of allowing me to escape unnoticed. I hoped so, but did not count on it. He would only have given me so many advantages, after all. Anything more would make it appear as though he wanted me to escape.
“I’m getting out of here,” I whispered, darting down the corridor to where he waited in his cell.
“What about me?” he demanded.
“What about you? I’m sure I don’t know.” I stood in front of the bars, staring into eyes only inches from mine.
“What do you mean, you don’t know? After all we’ve done together, everything we’ve been to each other?”
He thought we were more than we were; I’d always known he’d carried this mistaken idea, though I hadn’t been foolish enough to discourage him since he did, after all, make a reasonable ally.
For a time. Which was over.
He hadn’t yet caught on.
I dropped my voice to a purr. “My connection to
you is what put me in this dungeon,” I teased, lightly running my fingers up and down the bars. “What will you do for me if I unlock this door for you?”
“Anything,” he snarled, a mad light in his eyes.
I’d always suspected he was part mad, really. His time in the dungeon had merely awoken that which was already in him.
“Oh? Anything? That does sound tempting.” I smiled, licking my lips for show. I really shouldn’t waste time this way, but it was almost fun to toy with him. And I hadn’t had fun in so long.
“You know I can deliver, Genevieve,” he whispered, his words pouring out like water. “I’ll do anything you wish, anything you want. We’ll put ourselves back on top and grind Jonah Bourke and the rest of his clan under our heels. They will pay dearly for what they’ve done to us.”
“Hmm… I have to say, I like the way you think.” I pulled out the key, which, from the looks of it, was a skeleton key capable of fitting every lock. Very old-fashioned. One would think the League would have updated its technology a bit—or at least adapted something a bit more reliable.
“Hurry, hurry,” he begged, glancing down the corridor as I slid the key into the lock. He was panting for air, sweating with excitement. The promise of freedom.
I opened the door, holding a finger to my lips. “I think I heard something.”
He froze, eyes darting this way and that, still standing inside the cell. “What?” he finally breathed after we were greeted by nothing but silence.
I smiled. “Nothing.” In an instant, my claws were out, slashing across his throat, tearing it to pieces.
He gasped, eyes bulging from his head, hands gripping his throat as though that would help. Blood simply poured through his fingers, drenching the front of his already stained shirt, pooling on the floor. I shoved my hand into his chest cavity and pulled his heart out. I thought of all the evil he’d done.
“Hard to believe you actually have a heart.”
Pure shock and betrayal burned on his face as I closed the door and locked it as it had just been.
“I would never align myself with a walking liability such as you,” I whispered, watching as he fell to his knees. “And I would never leave you behind to speak of my escape. You fool.”
I slipped away, down the corridor and up the stairs leading to the main level as Marcus’s body hit the floor. Poor devil. Considering the pain and torture he’d caused throughout his long life, he’d gotten off easy.
The hall was dark, empty, and I dashed to the door on quick, light feet, with Anton’s face before me all the while. My beautiful, dark, powerful Anton. Not as powerful or well-known as his half-brother, Dietrich, but far more desirable. And smart enough not to allow his recreational activities to fall under Jonah Bourke’s watchful eye.
It would take days to reach him in Europe, but I was a patient person. I had already been away from Anton for months. I could wait several days more.
And so I coursed away from headquarters the moment the fresh, cool night air hit my skin. On my way to my love—and freedom from the League, from all of it.
16
Felicity
I paced my chambers, waiting for Allonic to return. He’d gone to Anissa, said she needed him. But the longer he was away, the more worried I became. He wouldn’t return to ShadesRealm without telling me first. Would he?
Ever since he’d disappeared on me for days on end, I would likely question the most innocent absences. There was no telling if something might happen to take him away from me again.
When a portal appeared in the corner and he stepped through, I let out a heavy sigh of relief and nearly threw myself into his arms without warning.
“I thought you would never come back,” I murmured, burying my face in his shoulder.
“I couldn’t have been away for more than half an hour.” He chuckled.
It was a thin chuckle, half-hearted, and I sensed his troubled spirit before I was out of his arms.
“What happened?” I placed my hands on my hips. “Be honest with me, please.”
His golden eyes were darker than normal. Without their usual glow. “Who’s to say anything happened?”
“You’re avoiding the subject, answering questions with questions. Come, now.” I took him by the arm and led him to a sofa by the fire. “Please. What is it? Is Anissa in trouble?”
“No, for once,” he replied as we sat. “She wanted to give me something. A tool to help me with what I need to do.”
“What you need to do?” I didn’t like the sound of that.
He nodded. “I have to make things right. You know I do. Of all people, you know what it would mean to me to right the wrong I set into motion.”
Rather than arguing the point and telling him once again he was not at fault for Tabitha’s murder, I merely nodded. “Yes. I know what it would mean to you.”
His face took on a pained expression. “Because of that, I must change my original plan.”
“What plan is that?” And why did my heart catch at the sound of his words? Because he delivered them with such clear dismay?
He took one of my hands. “I asked you to be mine, Felicity. When I did so, it was with an open heart. With the best of intentions and in all seriousness. I still wish this could be so, but it can no longer be, not if I am to put things to right.”
I withdrew my hand from his grasp, and he let me go with nothing more than a soft groan.
“You can’t mean this. Did I not already tell you how I love you? How nothing you’ve done changes that? Why would you push me away now?”
He shook his head. “No, no, you misunderstand me. It isn’t that I don’t trust your love or believe you mean it when you pledge it to me. It isn’t that I no longer love you. It’s that if I am to do what must be done, you can be no part of it.”
While it appeared as though he was trying to comfort me, his words provided little.
“What does one have to do with the other?”
He sighed as he reached into the inner pocket of his robes. “I wish you had not asked. I had hoped to avoid telling you too much.”
“You may hope all you wish, but you don’t know me at all if you think I’m going to allow you to walk away from me without a detailed explanation.” I felt the color in my cheeks, the way my nostrils flared, heard my heart pounding away. He thought he could push me aside that easily?
When he revealed an old, intricately carved dagger, I reached for it out of sheer curiosity.
He pulled away. “No. You must never touch this. The magic is too strong. This is what Anissa wished to give me, as a way to help with what I have to do.”
“What is it you have to do?” And why did Anissa have it if it was so powerful?
Knowing Anissa, there were any number of ways which she might have come to obtain it.
“This is an ancient shade relic my sister happened upon by accident. She witnessed the murder of an extremely powerful vampire with this very dagger and believed it would be helpful to me.”
Cold fingers of dread plucked at my heart. “You’re going to kill Garan, aren’t you?”
“I must.” His eyes began to glow with their customary light. “It must be done if the shades are ever to avoid a terrible war against the fae. You’ve seen what’s already happened. You know how much worse this will get before it is over. I cannot allow that to happen. I will do everything in my power to ensure it does not happen.”
“I know you will, which is why you ought to be the one leading the shades.”
“And I intend to, once I’ve seen to Garan’s destruction.” He wrapped the dagger in many layers of fabric before tucking it back into his robes.
Such precaution could only mean the dagger was as powerful as he claimed it to be.
“I wanted for so long to take what I saw as my rightful place, Felicity.”
“I know you did. I know it only makes sense for you to still want to take your place—now, more than ever.”
“That is the problem, how
ever.” He took both of my hands this time, holding them tight, studying me with those glowing eyes I loved so well. “I no longer want it. But I need to take it, just the same, even when all I want now is a life with you.”
There was so much pain in his voice, so much honesty, I couldn’t help but believe him.
“The shades have already exposed themselves far too much to the outside world,” he explained. “We were the memory keepers, the Custodians, in charge of the very history of the many races and species which comprise the numerous realms throughout the known universe. Can you fathom what a task that is? The enormity of it? The gravity?”
As a mage for the fae, I’d experienced many things, but this I had not. “I cannot.”
“The focus has shifted away from that work,” he explained. “Garan has seen to it. His greed, his depravity. He has lost sight of our purpose, and I fear for the fate of the memories we guard. Without careful guarding, the magic and secrets and weapons of one race could fall into the hands of another. This cannot happen. It must not.”
“I understand,” I assured him.
“You do? You know why it is that I need to do this? Not because I wish to be in power, not because I care so much about sitting on the throne. I haven’t cared about that since I realized how much you mean to me.”
I smiled in spite of the tears which were beginning to well in my eyes. “I truly understand. So this is goodbye, then? That’s what you’re telling me?” I could barely speak for the pain tearing its way through my chest. He was breaking my heart, no matter how noble the intentions behind his actions.
He nodded slowly. “I am so sorry, Felicity. I do not see any other way. I could never ask you to spend your life in ShadesRealm, unable to live outside our caves.”
I blinked away more tears, staring at him. “Is that what you’re concerned with? You think it would be unfair to ask me to make that sacrifice?”
He nodded slowly. “Yes. Of course. And it would be unfair, and it would most certainly be a sacrifice. One which you do not know the full depth and breadth of.”