Night's Deceit

by Sela Croft

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  Callie’s voice quavered. “Is he okay?” She referred to her friend being escorted away. “You won’t let Dequan hurt him, will you?”

  “He shouldn’t have done what he did.”

  “But I asked him to.”

  “We have rules in this realm.”

  “Rules that you make, right? You’re the prince, so can’t you make an exception?”

  “Do you care about him that much?”

  I held my breath as I waited for Callie’s answer.

  “Yes…I do. Noah is important to me.”

  Chapter 12

  Logan

  Callie spoke about her friend, and her eyes lit up. “And then there was the time that Noah rescued me from that awful Devin Harper, when he and his troop of mindless drones had me cornered in the school cafeteria. It was before school had started, and they were poking fun at me, like they always did. Noah appeared out of nowhere. He just waltzed up to them, set a firm hand on Devin’s shoulder, and told him to leave me alone.

  “I guess he only did that because he had to.” Callie chewed her lower lip. “But did he? He was told to keep an eye on me. That doesn’t mean he had to defend me, does it?”

  “No, I suppose it doesn’t.” A tinge of jealousy hit my gut. Callie was close to Noah; that much was clear. It seemed he’d worked his way into her life, and she wasn’t going to give up on him easily. It made me wonder what sort of impression I’d made on her, and what stories she would tell about me—if she even mentioned me. Maybe she’d only remember me as the monster who’d held her hostage.

  “I don’t believe that Noah had to be my friend,” Callie said. “He wanted to be. And I’m glad, because I needed a friend.”

  The more Callie spoke of Noah, the better I understood. I was relieved that he was a friend, and not more than that to her. My thoughts drifted to what she thought of me. I seemed to care about her opinion. Callie was candid when speaking of her relationships, and open about her feelings. But her feeling for me seemed to vacillate between trust and fear.

  “What do you think?” Callie stared at me.

  “I’m sorry?” My attention had wandered.

  Callie giggled, then flicked her hair over her shoulder. The sound of her laughter, her scent drifting so enticingly around me, made my head spin. She affected me, in a way no woman had before.

  “Do you think I’m overthinking all of this…with Noah, I mean. Should I just forgive and forget? And ignore the fact that he didn’t tell me the truth from the start.”

  “You’re asking me?” I said, then leaned back in my chair. “I overthink everything.”

  “I hadn’t noticed.”

  I feigned insult. “What is it you’re implying?”

  “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. You have a lot going on…with the war and all.”

  This was my chance to bring up the situation I’d preferred to avoid. I’d gotten lost in our conversation, allowed her past to become the focus instead of the present. Yet, certain topics had to be discussed. She needed to understand.

  “The situation in Shadowland is stressful. Plus, there is one thing I can’t figure out.” I paused.

  “What?”

  “You puzzle me. It’s you I’ve been unable to figure out.”

  Her eyes widened, and she leaned back in her chair. Her subtle movements shifted the air currents, tantalizing me with her scent. My body ached to give into the temptation, but I managed to control my natural urge.

  I looked in Callie’s violet eyes. “You have a role to play in how events transpire. I just don’t know what it is.”

  “If I knew, I’d tell you,” Callie said. “I don’t know any more than you do. I have no idea what role I could play.”

  “But you believe that you are part of what’s going on?”

  “Well, since I’ve nearly been kidnapped, it’s difficult to deny.” Callie furrowed her brow. “There must be some reason for it.”

  “That’s good.”

  “It’s good that I’ve been almost kidnapped?” The twinkle in her eyes made it clear that she was teasing. It seemed I’d have to get used to that.

  I felt a connection to Callie, which was a novelty, since she was human. But it was comfortable being around her, and I wanted more of it.

  Yet that couldn’t happen.

  As prince, I wasn’t afforded such luxuries. There was no brushing aside an insurgency. There was no putting off dealing with a cunning and daring enemy. There was no time for me to explore this unfamiliar feeling.

  “It’s good that you’ve accepted the reality of your situation. I’m concerned that what is going on is much bigger than any of us can fathom.”

  Callie furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”

  “I worry that the events taking place in my realm could impact yours. I’m concerned that you’re in danger, as well as your family and friends in Oregon.”

  “My family?”

  Callie shivered and wrapped her arms around her. I wanted to comfort her. But comforting her wouldn’t make what I said any less true. And I had no idea how to make her feel better, anyway.

  “I don’t want to upset you,” I said. “I just need you to understand. I don’t enjoy talking about this. I hope you know that. But it’s life in Shadowland. The Fae insurgencies have gotten worse; they are becoming bolder. After what they did to my…”

  My voice drifted off on its own accord. The memory of the event angered me.

  “Your sister?” Callie said, with a tone of genuine concern.

  I nodded. “If they can get to her, if they can…” I shook my head, trying to shake out the memory. “If they can do that, they can do more. They wouldn’t take that risk, unless they were prepared to move to the next phase.”

  “Phase of what?”

  “Their plan. The plan I can’t figure out, but must be related to your arrival here.”

  “We’ve talked enough about me,” Callie said, then moved to my side of the table. “Let’s talk about you.”

  “We’ve talked about me.”

  “No, we’ve talked about your life,” she said. “And I appreciate that you shared that much. But it’s clear you have a lot weighing on you, right now. And it’s best to talk it out. You can’t hold all this in, and bear the burden alone.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “You don’t have to be a prince around me,” Callie said. “You can if you wish, of course. You are royalty, so you can do whatever you want. But if you just want to talk… well, I’m here to listen.”

  I slumped back in my chair, unable to suppress the sadness and regret that consumed me. “I can’t even keep my family safe,” I said. “If I’m unable to protect the people that mean the most to me, how am I to defend an entire city? I know you don’t have an answer. And I shouldn’t burden you with my problems.”

  “I asked you to.”

  “My sister is the anchor of our family, and means the world to me. Without our parents, we’ve looked to her for guidance. And it’s my duty to protect her, yet I failed.”

  “But you got her back. You saved her.”

  I shook my head. “This time…but what if they come back for her?”

  Callie’s eyes filled with sadness, as if she understood what I felt.

  An unseen fist squeezed my heart. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost her.”

  Chapter 13

  Callie

  Logan’s vulnerability drew me to him, made me feel bonded. He’d shared his inner emotions, and I connected with him as I hadn’t before.

  I trusted him, in a similar way to how I trusted Rosamon and Noah. Although, I had no basis for doing so. Yet, I was inclined to share all that I’d held back, to tell him everything. But I wasn’t prepared for that, just yet.

  “Tell me more about your sister,” I said, still harboring uncertainly about the nature of the relationship I had with Logan. “Tell me about your relationship with her. It’s clear that she�
��s very important to you.”

  Logan settled in his seat. “At times, we’ve had a contemptuous relationship, but without true malice. She’d join in with my brothers to mock me, but often came to my rescue, in the end.”

  I thought of my sister and what we’d shared, but kept my focus on Logan.

  “It’s always been hard, though, given her ability.”

  “Her ability?”

  “As you know, she can see the future, a talent that had created conflict,” Logan said.

  “How so?” Predicting the future had no downside that I could envision.

  “Her protective instinct clouds her judgment, sometimes. I understand the reason for her decisions, even if I disagree.”

  I leaned closer, interested in what he was saying, wanting to absorb all of it. But that wasn’t the only thing pulling me toward him. My attraction to him grew stronger; the bond between us were strengthening. “What do you mean?”

  “She picks and choses what she will share with me,” Logan said. “I know she does this out of concern for my wellbeing. She has trouble separating her personal relationship with me from my official status.”

  I blinked, waiting for him to explain.

  “At times, she views me as her brother, not royalty. I appreciate that more than I could express. There are days that I need to be anything but the ruler of Shadowland. But, as much as I wish I could cast off my title, I can’t. I’m responsible for what happens in my kingdom. If my sister has information—good, bad, or otherwise—I need to know it. She tries to assure me that her decisions to withhold information from me are for the best of everyone. But I can’t help but feel that our familial bond has something to do with her hesitation.”

  “Withholding stuff from you…like what?” I held my breath, wondering if Natasha knew of my twin sister, and that she’d been lured into Shadowland. It seemed that she must. And if she hadn’t shared that information with Logan, it might be an effort to protect him.

  “It’s become a sore spot between us, I’m afraid,” Logan said. “I hate that we fight, but sometimes, that’s all we can do. We just don’t see eye-to-eye all the time.”

  “Siblings can be that way,” I said, speaking from experience.

  Logan studied me. “You haven’t mentioned siblings.”

  I blushed and shrugged. “You haven’t asked.”

  He tilted his head to the side and gazed at me.

  “Okay, fine,” I said. “Maybe you did ask, in more ways that you realize.” My stomach knotted at what I was about to reveal.

  “What are you saying, Callie?”

  My name rolled past Logan’s lips, with the ease of an old friend trying to nudge the truth out of the other.

  “You’ve asked why I’m here. You’ve asked more than once. And, well… I said I didn’t know. Which is kind of true. Half true, anyway.”

  “You’re rambling.”

  “I do that when I’m flustered.”

  “I’ve noticed.” Logan frowned. “I assure you that I won’t be mad. I just want you to tell me.”

  “I know.”

  “I realize that I’ve gotten mad at you, in the past, and I apologize for that.” Logan’s expression was kind. “I apologize for the things I’ve said to you. I don’t want you to feel like you have to worry about me losing my temper.”

  I sensed the sincerity in his tone, and in his expression. I rested my hand on his knee. “Thank you for that. And I’m sorry I haven’t been completely truthful with you. I was worried about saying too much because, well, because...”

  My eyes clouded with tears. Logan put his hand over mine. His skin was cold, but it didn’t bother me. His touch was a comfort.

  “My sister Rosamon is out there somewhere,” I said, the words catching in my throat. “She’s lost, Logan. I don’t know how she got here, I really don’t. Noah said it might have something to do with him, but even he’s not sure. All I know is that one minute I was looking for her in the abandoned church, and the next minute I was here.”

  “Your sister is here? Your human sister is lost in Shadowland?” Logan’s concern was evident.

  I nodded, with tears running down my cheeks. “She’s more than my sister,” I said, gasping for breath between sobs. “She’s my twin. She’s the only family I have—I mean, real family. That sounds awful, I know, because our adoptive parents have been so good to us. But we are adopted, you see. Rosamon and I were orphaned at a young age and we swore we’d always look out for each other… and now… now… I don’t know…” I could barely breath.

  “Callie, I had no idea,” Logan said softly, then wrapped his arms around me.

  His gesture soothed me. He held me close, and I cried on his shoulder. The feeling of his arms, wrapped tightly around me, made me feel safe enough to express my fears, and to share my despair.

  Logan ran his hand through my hair, and his lips hovered just above my ear. He whispered, “We will find her. I swear that I’ll do everything in my power to reunite you.”

  I pulled back a little, but not separating completely—not yet. “How will you do that?” I looked up at him, and our gazes locked. “I have no idea where she is, or who has her, or what they want with her.”

  “Trust me, Callie. I will do whatever it takes. I’ve faced much greater challenges in this world.”

  Chapter 14

  Callie

  I wanted to hold onto that moment, for as long as possible. I’d taken the leap and confessed the truth. Logan hadn’t been angry, but had reassured me. He’d reached out, and I hadn’t resisted when he’d taken me in his arms. He’d promised to help me find my sister, and for the first time since I’d entered his realm, I felt hope.

  Yet I had to face reality. I shook my head and inhaled sharply. Tears pooled in my eyes. “But how, Logan? Everything I’ve learned about this place, as little as it is, tells me that your world is dangerous. I mean, it’s beautiful here, with all the glowing things and the lights and the glass-looking buildings. But the Fae are still out there. And their world is a mystery of its own, and terrifying.”

  Logan released me. Perhaps he’d grown tired of my rambling. He seemed to ponder something.

  “What is it?”

  “I’m sorry,” he said and shook his head. “You made me think of something.”

  “Tell me…please.”

  “You swore you’d always look out for each other,” Logan said, seeming to consider that further. “You have to find her; you would do anything to find her, correct?”

  “Of course, wouldn’t you if it was your sister?”

  “Of course. That’s just it.”

  “That’s just what?”

  “Dequan mentioned something about a magic force interfering with Noah’s magic.”

  I was intrigued. “Noah told me that it was more powerful than anything he’d experienced before.”

  “That must have something to do with what’s going on here. Whatever it was that interrupted your journey to find your sister, is the force behind what brought you here originally.”

  “I’m confused,” I said. “Noah seemed to think that I was somehow the cause of the issue.”

  Logan’s eyes went wide. “You?”

  “That’s exactly what I said. But he mentioned that the second I began to think about my sister, things started going crazy. And the more I thought about her, the worse it became.”

  Logan shook his head and pushed himself to his feet. He paced with his hand under his chin, mumbling. I watched for a few moments, impatiently waiting for him to let me in on his internal dialogue.

  “Well,” I said. “What are you thinking?”

  Logan ran his fingers through his hair, then his emerald green eyes met mine. “I’m not sure, but whatever did that, whatever caused the loss of control, has to be involved with everything else that’s going on.”

  “It’s me then? Noah said that I was the one that—”

  “I don’t think it was you, Callie, not directly. I think whatever i
t is that is pulling the strings was able to pick up on your bond with your sister and use it against you. It’s similar to what they did with my sister, using her powers against her.”

  “My relationship with Rosamon is nothing like your sister’s ability.”

  “Maybe not, but it’s clear that your connection with your twin is something unique and of great interest to the Fae and their well-trained vampire hunters. Is there anything else strange or out of the ordinary that has happened to you since you’ve been in Shadowland?”

  “Everything that happens is out of the ordinary,” I said, with a soft chuckle. “I’m in a dining room, having dinner with a vampire. That would be considered strange in my world.”

  He smiled, then nodded in agreement. “What about before you arrived?”

  I tried to think, but the days before Shadowland felt like a dream. My world seemed so far away. My life before the vampires and Logan was a faded memory.

  “I don’t think so,” I said. “There isn’t anything that stands out.”

  “That’s okay,” he said, his hand falling to his side. “I still think that this merits more investigation.”

  “I agree, especially if it could lead us to finding my sister.”

  “It will,” Logan said, then walked over to me. I got to my feet and he held my hands. The gesture was familiar and easy. “I have to find my cousin. Perhaps Noah and he will be able to divulge more details about what happened.”

  “Noah will help if he can.”

  “And I need to find Raulia.”

  “Who is that?”

  Logan laughed, but he wasn’t mocking me. His sense of humor was new to me. “Raulia is another vampire. She’s a wolf shapeshifter and has been trying to track down a few of our enemies to gain more answers.”

  “I’m still learning the words… and names, I guess. But Noah did mention that there was a wolf who could shapeshift.”

  “I won’t be long,” Logan said, releasing my hands and stepping back. “I promise.”

  “What do you mean you won’t be long?”

  “Well, I mean that I will return as quickly as possible.”