“Enough,” she said sounding tired, pressing the back of her hand against her mouth. “I thought we would do this calmly, traditionally, but I’m tired. I haven’t closed my eyes since I saw Alex and Slide die. The Hollow One is reborn. If that weren’t bad enough, a demon mistress is hunting my daughter, creating Demon Wilds who can only be destroyed by decapitation, taking out their hearts or souls. If you do not wish to be part of Slide, then leave. Go now. I do not have the patience to fight anymore. You will die if you try.”
“Nice rhyme,” Matthew said, sitting up slowly. He smiled at her like she hadn’t just thrown him across the room.
“Carve. You will go to the conservatory and wait there until further instructions. Now,” she added when he seemed to take a long time to get on his feet.
He bowed with a graceful flourish and left, limping out the door, silver spurs clinking with each step. I watched him go and didn’t see my mother until she pulled me up, handed me my knife and urged me to sheath it. She went to the double doors we’d entered and stood beside them, waiting.
Satan was the first one to kneel in front of her, hand her his knife, and lean his head forward. She drew a line that welled blood across the skin of his neck, took his hand and pulled him to his feet.
“Welcome to Slide,” she said handing back his dagger.
“To Serve. Protect. Til Death,” he growled back.
Grim was next. He knelt, she sliced, he took back his knife and she welcomed him and he declared the same words Satan had said adding a few more syllables for clarity.
My mother didn’t seem to notice the few who left out the smaller doors around the edges like the one Matthew had gone through. I leaned against the wall and felt small and miserable. I shouldn’t have leaned the woman and the man. Matthew had defenses against that sort of thing, so did my mother and uncles, maybe from their Hollow blood, but the woman and the man didn’t. Neither one of them swore to my mother. I’d succeeded in losing two Wilds for my mother because I couldn’t handle any more violence.
I shouldn’t be there. I shouldn’t have interfered with the stupid Wild traditions that I’d never understand. I didn’t belong in this House with its rules and its violence.
I slipped out a side door and wandered the halls until I found the conservatory. I went inside and closed the door quickly behind me. It had been so long since I’d been there. I heard the sound of plucking strings and wove through the plants until I came to the wall of glass with a small cleared area with a harp, a chaise covered in bright pink floral fabric, and a white wicker table.
Matthew sat at the harp, plucking strings with the concentration most people would save for rune casting.
I stood there watching him, but he didn’t seem to notice me. I turned and examined the plant beside me, a blue species with bright orange flowers that I’d never seen before. Matthew would know what it was. It probably produced a rare poison or something.
I walked away from Matthew, letting the harmonic trills soothe me, beat back the hysteria that had been building ever since I’d seen the Hollow One with his luminescent skin and white eyes. Lewis but not my Lewis. Not ever again. I leaned forward to sniff a beautiful white flower, but it smelled like rotting meat. I pulled away in disgust and noticed the sticky tendril that seemed to beckon. It was an insect trap of some kind.
The door opened and closed. I stood there, screened from Matthew and my mother who moved through the jungle like an angry tiger.
“What are you doing?” she demanded, interrupting the notes so they fell cascading into discordant swirls, leaving the room silent.
“I know I’m not the greatest harpist, but I recall you using my instruments without permission in the recent past.”
“I mean,” she growled. “What are you doing in my House at all? How could you disrupt our ancient traditions with your whimsical Intending mash-up? I wanted things to progress in a civilized manner.”
“The Wild had other plans.”
“Do you think that I couldn’t take care of things on my own?”
I edged out in time to see Matthew grab my mother by the shoulders.
“I know. We both know that you could wipe Slide off the face of the earth if you felt so inclined. I know that you don’t need me. But I need you, Helen. I need you. I need to know that I did the best that I could for you.”
He dropped to his knees.
“What are you doing?”
He pulled his hair forward as he bent his neck, allowing her access to the back of his neck.
“Get up,” she hissed, dragging him to his feet by his shirt. “You’re Carve. You don’t give Slide fealty.”
“My House is yours if you will take it.”
“As if I’ve ever wanted the burden of another House, not to mention one like Carve.”
“Take me, then,” he whispered, his shirt still clutched in her fist. “You’ve ruined me forever. From the moment I read your words and felt your imprint, I became yours. Forever. Completely, utterly yours.”
“You told me you never wanted to see me again, that you were ashamed of what I’d become and wished you’d never written a word.”
“I know,” he whispered, his eyes closed and a look of agony on his face. “I know. I sold you to Alex. Alex who died not 24 hours ago. Instead of waiting, of being appropriately Wild, I took advantage of your distraction to renew the offer. I kissed you. You should kill me for that.”
“Shut up!” she hissed before she twisted the front of his shirt and pulled him to her, kissing him with a ferocity that could not be pleasant.
He folded around her, his arms wrapping her until their bodies were cemented together.
I backed away, fighting down the horror of seeing my mother choosing to kiss someone who wasn’t my father. He’d only died a few hours before, killed by my Lewis who didn’t know me. I stumbled into a plant that fell over, smashing against the floor, dirt and shards of ceramic exploding on impact.
I let out a shaky breath as I bent over the mess. The plant had long stalks with spiked balls on the end in greens and purples. One of them turned and opened up, showing more spikes before it bit my arm.
“What happened?” my mother asked as I stood, staring at my arm where it began to swell up, green and purple like the plant. She turned me around by my shoulders with an expression of frustrated exhaustion, as though I’d intended to get bit by the plant.
“Matthew,” she said, a command that he leapt to obey, cutting off the stem of another plant and chewing it up before he slit my arm open, allowing purple and green puss to ooze out before he expectorated the green pulp on my arm.
Having Matthew spit on my arm was almost as bad as watching him kiss my mother.
“What are you doing here?” my mother asked me, pulling me to the chaise where she sat me down. She bent under the chaise and came up with a basket of gauze and scissors, almost like they were used to this sort of thing.
“I was spying on you,” I said dully.
My mother sighed as Matthew laughed, but his laugh sounded dangerous. “She means,” he said, leaning towards me dangerously. I patted his cheek distractedly. His skin felt softer than it looked. Soft because the runes made the Wild skin tougher, less mobile.
“She means what am I doing in the conservatory instead of swearing fealty to Slide,” I said in monotone. “I don’t belong here,” I said to my mother, dropping my hand to my lap, refusing to look at the arm my mother slowly bandaged.
“You’re my daughter,” my mother began.
“I can’t help you maintain your House,” I interrupted then bit my lip. “I know that I’m trained. Thanks for that,” I said meeting Matthew’s eyes for a moment before I shook my head. “But I’m not a Daughter. I can’t pretend that I am. My place is fighting the demon mistress, not being diplomatic and randomly violent with Wilds. I can’t do that. I don’t understand it and I never will.”
“I had thought to send you to Houses as an emissary with Snowy, to encourage White hous
es to ally against the demon mistress,” my mother said quietly. “You said you wanted to fight her. The best way to stop the evil is to unite, to give hope to those who are currently panicking.”
I shook my head. “I will not do that. Not me, but Snowy would be amazing. My arm really hurts. What is that plant and why do you have it in your greenhouse?”
“It’s a beautiful thing,” Matthew said, his melodious voice taking the edge off the pain. “Very rare. Very dangerous.”
“Like my mother,” I said.
He shrugged and put his hands behind him as he looked out the window to the darkness beyond.
“What are you going to do? You looked close to breaking the Code.”
My mother stared at me dully while I felt a wave of embarrassment that had me shifting uncomfortably.
“We will marry soon,” she said sadly. I could feel her despair at losing my father, her uncertainty in dealing with Matthew, but she’d made her decision.
“How soon?” Matthew asked, turning.
“Now,” she answered, looking down at her hands. “Shelley,” she said quietly, but the sound wasn’t what carried. This was her House, Shelley was hers. She could control his actions from anywhere in the world. He entered shortly with Grim behind him carrying a sheaf of papers.
“You still have the original marriage certificate?” Matthew asked.
“Slide hated paperwork,” Satan said, coming out of the bushes with a lit cigar in his fist. He seemed incredibly cheerful as he grinned at me before he scowled when he saw my arm. “You have a fight with Molly?” he growled.
“I should clean it up,” Matthew said turning. “Maybe some of it can be saved.”
“It will wait,” My mother said, placing her palm against his chest to keep him in place.
“So eager,” Matthew said with a sneer.
My mother ground her teeth. “After the ceremony, you will return to Carve and ensure their alliance with Slide.”
Matthew scowled. “Certainly. Tomorrow I’ll go directly…”
“Not tomorrow. Immediately,” my mother said, her eyes burning into his with a power that made me feel sick.
“I’m supposed to leave before my wedding night?” he asked in a strangely unemotional voice.
“Alex died yesterday.”
“You’ve been separated for a decade,” he said carefully.
“A decade of loneliness,” my mother hissed before she straightened and tried to be calm instead of erupting in insane grief and frustration that my dad’s death and their failed marriage left her with.
“I can’t help you with that if I’m on the other side of the world,” Matthew said, brushing her face quickly before he caught the hand she brought up to push him away.
“I don’t need your help with that. I need you…”
He pulled her against him, breaking off her words. “Say it again,” he whispered with his head cocked to the side, his eyes showing rare vulnerability.
“What?” she asked, pulling away.
He wouldn’t let her go. “Say that you need me.” His eyes burned as he gazed at her with an intensity that made Satan cough uncomfortably.
She frowned, confused, the rush of her emotions intense enough that I blocked them. I didn’t want to know how she felt. I felt messed up enough. The only people I wanted to read were happy ones who weren’t related to me.
“I need you,” my mother whispered with her eyes closed.
“I’ll go to Carve directly, as you wish,” he said in a lilting voice that gave me shivers. What it did to my mother, I did not want to know. “Although if you want Alex, I could give that to you.”
She gasped and jerked away from him, hand raised to slap him, but Grim caught her wrist.
“I have the papers, Helen,” he said in his flat, steady voice. “If you wish to marry him, you must have a night together to seal the marriage. If you aren’t comfortable with that arrangement, you should cancel and return his knife.”
My mother turned her furious gaze to Grim but he only smiled back at her mildly. Her expression softened. “I’m sorry,” she said before she took a deep breath and smoothed down her suit. “Of course. I can handle it.”
“Matthew’s always liked riling people up,” Satan said slamming Matthew on the back.
Matthew stood there looking irritated, but didn’t shift beneath the friendly blow.
“It’s true,” Matthew said. “I am sorry, Helen.” He shrugged. “I’m not well-mannered. I am powerful. I am wealthy. I am desperately in love with you. Other than that, I haven’t got anything to recommend myself to you.”
“She likes that you’re a horticulturalist and a musician,” I said with an ache in my chest and arm. “If you weed her garden and play music instead of talking, you should be fine.”
Shelley coughed while Satan laughed and squeezed my shoulder. “Matthew’s abilities are with nerves, darlin’. Helen is going to enjoy their marriage whether she likes it or not.”
My mother gritted her teeth as she smiled. “Thank you for the reminder, Saturn.”
“He also has that voice that can seduce practically anyone. Not even I am immune to his voice when he sings that one song, the one about…” Satan said in his gravelly voice.
“Once again, thanks dear brother,” My mother said, grabbing Satan by the back of his coat and moving him into place beside Shelley. “Matthew will not ever use those skills on me. I would consider it an act of war.”
“Doesn’t that seem a bit…”
“If I should put him in a tornado that carried him to the middle of the ocean and left him there, it would amount to the same thing,” she said coldly. “Don’t you agree, Matthew?”
He looked at her for what seemed like a long time. “I will not force you to love me,” he finally said.
My mother exhaled in relief, wrapping her arms around her waist as she tried to breathe.
“It seems a pity to waste your skills,” Satan growled.
“Begin,” my mother said to Shelley, standing beside Matthew with Grim on his other side with Satan by my mother. She gripped Satan’s arm like she’d rip it off if he said anything else about Matthew.
I sat on the chaise feeling feverish and sick. I only half heard the words, “Do you, Helen of Slide, take Carve to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”
“I do,” she replied coldly and without hesitation. My dad just died.
“Do you, Matthew of Carve, take Slide to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”
“I do. Hopefully it will work better than her last marriage. I don’t see how it can considering the fact that Alex was a far better man than I will ever be. I’m going to make mistakes. We all know that I am going to make mistakes. The only thing I have to recommend me is my determination to try. What if it isn’t enough? What if I break her heart again?”
“We’ll all kill you,” Satan said out of the side of his mouth his cigar didn’t dangle. “That’d be ‘til death’. Helen, good luck with him. You’re going to need it.”
“He will love me,” my mother said, gazing levelly at Matthew. “Or I’ll destroy the world.”
“No pressure,” I said.
He sighed as he squeezed her hands. “Oh, I will love you for always ,” he said, eyes burning into hers. “But how can that make up for all the doubt I ever gave you, for all the pain and harm I’ve…”
She broke off his words with a kiss that I didn’t want to see. I turned away, standing up to slip out of the conservatory doors, closing it quietly behind me.
Chapter 10
I walked around my mother’s House with anxiety and sorrow building in my chest until I found the garage. I needed to get away, fast. When I slipped inside the door and let my eyes adjust to the dim backup lights, I saw the big black car in a garage full of fabulous black cars and one white Porche.
I sank into the driver’s
seat of my dead brother’s car, leaning back with my eyes closed for a moment while I tried to get a grip. Hot tears slid down my cheeks even when I squeezed my eyes closed. Devlin. Lewis. My dad. What now? My mother wanted me to be an ambassador, cool, calm, collected, representing the House of Slide. I shook my head. I couldn’t do it. I searched under the seat and felt the familiar weight of Devlin’s key chain.
I pulled it up and saw hanging on the key chain an origami bird dangling beside a stone the color of dried blood. Lewis. He’d said that he had the stone. Was it Devlin’s stone, the one my dad had given him?
I started the car with a choking groan before I backed out slowly, scraping a beautiful shiny black BMW before I got my brother’s car out into the main drive. I edged along until I braked at the garage door. I could run it down, but that wouldn’t be very good manners. I tried the garage door opener clipped to the visor and the garage slid open without a sound. I revved the engine and took off, skidding down the drive in the darkness, the headlights illuminating the pavement neatly edged with box. The gates were already opening when I got to them. The tires squealed as I turned into the street, barely glancing at the place where Lewis’s purple mustang had been parked.
I drove downtown, near my uncle Grim’s house, turning tightly into the alley where Lewis’s garage sat. I parked the car, switching off the engine as I sat in the darkness, staring at the building where I’d found Lewis.
I got out, letting the keys dangle, careful not to touch the stone. Now was not the time to explore Devlin’s realities, not when I could feel eyes on me.
I went to the door and tried the knob.
“You got a key?” Aiden asked, his Cool/Hot voice sending shivers down my spine.
“Do I need one?”
He came up beside me and put a key in the lock. He smelled like chocolate and fire, his Mohawk blue and purple, which matched the bright blue of his glowing eyes. He looked bigger, older, less like a skinny teenager, but still unstable.
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