by Liz Schulte
His eyes came to life as if he felt the shift in my thoughts. I shifted my gaze to his unmoving chest in front of me. So still, so cold—I could feel the chill of his skin though we weren’t touching. My heart thudded in my ears and my mind warred with itself until finally one side won out over the other. I took a step back from him, bumping into the closed door. “What did you need?” I asked with a stronger voice.
The intent, hungry expression on his face didn’t change. “I guess that depends on you.”
I frowned at him. “Corbin, why did you call?”
“Ah. So that’s how you want this to go?” He took a step forward, closing the gap between us. “Shall I persuade you?”
I shook my head.
“You can’t always get what you want, pet.” He braced one arm on the door then leaned down, his cold lips grazing mine.
I turned my head away. “Stop.”
“Why?” he asked, the vibration of his voice in my ear making goosebumps pop up all over my body.
“I love Cheney.” I forced myself to look at his sinfully alluring face. “I won’t leave him.”
“But you want to. You might be good at faking it, love, but I can feel what you try to hide. I know your deepest, darkest desires even if you refuse to see them.” He brushed a finger over my pulse, his eyes half closing. “Your frustration, your anger, your guilt, and even your jealousy when you saw me with Frost. I know it all. I just don’t know why you resist. You should never be tied down—” A smile eased across his face. “Unless that’s what you’re into.”
I shook my head until my voice worked again. “I don’t want to leave him.”
Corbin’s lips grazed my jaw. “Are you really so certain?”
The ever-so-slight pull of him drawing on my soul made my insides tighten, and I shoved him back with my mind. “I’m positive. If you didn’t need anything, I’m going home. I’m tired.”
He gave a vague surrendering gesture and sauntered over to his chair concealed in shadows. “I have decided on my price.”
“Okay.”
“My price is you don’t marry the elf.”
A mixture of relief and panic seized me. “What? No. You can’t ask that.”
“I can, and I am. Our connection suits me at the moment. Later, if I choose, I may allow you to marry him and break your connection with me, but for now, I want to keep it.”
“But—I—No.” I moved into the room. “You don’t even know if the marriage will break our connection.”
He steepled his hands and drummed his fingers against one another, a red-jeweled ring I hadn’t noticed before catching the dim light. “It’s not a risk I’m willing to take. You said anything you are able to give. You have all the power to give me this consideration. I’m not asking for your love or for you to leave the elf. I’m simply asking that you do not marry him.”
“Corbin—”
“Don’t forget, you came to me. You need me, pet. Not the other way around. This is what I want or I will kill the necromancer now and any other witch you try to use so you will have no one for your spell except yourself. I promise you, I am a much better friend than enemy.”
My mind raced for a moment. Cold calmness slowly crept in along the edges of panic and soothed the tension. “So am I. What’s to keep me from killing you right now?” I released my magic, cracking the floor in a perfect line from me to the center of his chair, making a blackened window shatter to reveal the pink and yellow sky of the sunrise.
He winked, unfazed. “I’m willing to take my chances.” He stood up and yawned, expertly avoiding the light as he retreated deeper into the house. “Think about my offer, Selene,” his voice drifted back to me. “I expect your answer by tonight.”
“Are you running away again, Selene?” Cheney came from my right. His back was against a large pillar and his hands were half in his pockets as he watched me.
“I’m tired.” I was done talking to him, to Corbin, to anyone who wanted to force me to submit to their will.
“Don’t do this again. Don’t walk away. If we are going to be together for the next couple thousand years, and I fully intend for us to be, we’re going to have fights. There are going to be times you hate me. You can’t run away every time things get hard.”
“I didn’t run away. Something came up.” I couldn’t look him in the eye. “What are we doing here, Cheney?” Maybe we were clinging to something that was never going to work out. Maybe it would be best for everyone if we stopped fighting and just admitted it.
“We’re having an argument. These things happen.” He didn’t move toward me. He stayed in his casual position against the pillar, watching me like I was deer that would bolt any minute. “What did Corbin need?” he finally asked.
The center of my forehead began to ache from stress, exhaustion, and general worry. “Just to update me.”
Cheney nodded, then let out a sigh. “I might have been unreasonable. I don’t like any of this. Every move we have made is because someone’s forcing our hand. It’s my instinct to resist that.”
I couldn’t fault him for it—it was probably a good instinct. The fact that my back had been against a wall since I returned was allowing one problem to bleed into another and another and another. It had to stop before the problem became too large to handle. I lifted my hands and shrugged, eyes filling with tears. There was nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t slow things down and I couldn’t make the people we needed to help us do so willingly. The only way I could assure everything was our decision and ours alone was if I fell on my own sword.
“Lily’s going to come tonight. She was mad I wanted to leave her out to begin with.”
I closed my eyes. I didn’t want her to come anymore. I couldn’t take one more burden placed on me. After all this, if she died, I knew that we couldn’t survive it.
“You were right. This is my mess and you shouldn’t involve yourself or your sister in it. I’m sorry I had a meltdown.”
He pushed off the polished stone with one foot and came toward me with his graceful and lethal gait. “What happened?” His fingers curled around my shoulders, worry settling over his face.
“Nothing happened. I just—nothing. Nothing happened. That’s just how I feel.”
“That’s how you feel?” He raised an eyebrow.
I nodded, my throat tightening and tears threatening to spill over under his scrutiny. “It’s best this way.” My voice broke, and the first tears dribbled down my cheeks.
He pulled me into his arms. My head rested on his chest where I could hear his heartbeat and feel his warmth as my tears soaked into his shirt. All the worry and stress eased, and I could feel myself backing away from the edge I was about to jump over. Cheney was my home. I always saw things more clearly with him. His hand ran down my hair and traced the line of my spine.
“You never have to do anything alone, Selene. I will always be with you.” He turned me around in his arms and splayed a hand over my stomach and warmth spread throughout me. I wasn’t showing yet and the baby was much too small to feel, but I would have bet money I could feel it in that moment. I felt complete and whole, family ties rooting me to exactly where I was—where I was meant to be.
“By tomorrow, all of this will just be fading memories from another bad day,” he said.
My head fell back against his shoulder.
“What are we going to do about Frost?” he asked after a couple of moments.
I took a deep breath. “If she doesn’t attack us, we’re going to let her go.”
The rise and fall of Cheney’s breath was soothing, lulling. “What changed your mind?”
That was an excellent question. One I had no intention of answering to him or to myself. Maybe I was punishing Corbin for his threat or maybe I wasn’t—it didn’t really matter what my motivations were. In the end all that mattered was doing the right thing even if it was for the wrong reason. “We’re not cold-blooded killers and we aren’t going to become them.”
&nb
sp; “What about Corbin?”
“If Corbin wants her dead, then he can do it himself. I don’t want to be involved in a necromancer/vampire war.”
“He could retaliate.”
“So could I.” I swallowed back my anxiety and focused on the future. “Starting tomorrow it will be all wedding plans and elections.” I tried to force the enthusiasm to replace my nerves. “Let’s get married tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Cheney came around me so that he could see my face. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.” I kissed him. I wanted to be with Cheney; I loved him. Nothing had changed. I wasn’t scared to commit or settle down with him. Corbin’s proposition made me see that clearer than I ever had before. I was going to marry Cheney and he couldn’t stop me. If I had even an inkling of luck or the universe had a moment of goodwill left in it for me, then the bond with Corbin would be broken forever. “I’ll talk to Alana this morning to make sure she can have everything together and settled by then.”
He brushed a hair from my face and kissed me again. “Are you positive you want us to still run in the election? We can still walk away.”
“That’s one thing I am absolutely positive about. If they will have us, I don’t want to walk away. We can still do so much.”
“Our lives will belong to the public.”
“There are worse things than that. I’ll get used to it.”
He settled his lips against mine again in a long, languid kiss that eased every muscle throughout my body until I was basically goo. “I never thought our fight would end like this.”
I smiled, our noses still touching. “Like what?”
“With you embracing our happily ever after.” He kissed me again, this time with more purpose, and pulled me closer to him.
I LEFT SELENE SLEEPING in our bed. Something was still wrong, but she wasn’t talking about it. Picking a fight with her was probably not the smartest thing I could have done, but the pressure was mounting and time was running out with too many unsteady pieces still in play. Sebastian and Sy met me in my office.
“We have a problem,” I told him.
“Jessica?” Sebastian asked.
“Or the vampire?” Sy added.
“Both. You might as well add in Frost, too. Selene is overwhelmed. I don’t trust any of them not to turn on us tonight. We need a plan—” My office door swung open, and Tahlik swept into the room. “Knocking is customary, Tahlik.”
“Oh, we’re all family here.” He sat down.
“Family?” Sy smirked at him. “I didn’t think you knew the meaning of that word, Tahlik. We’re sort of in the middle of something here. Cheney doesn’t have time to have his ass kissed.”
“Yes, family.” Tahlik’s eye stayed trained on me. “That’s why I’m here. If it were just business, I wouldn’t be giving you this courtesy.”
“What courtesy is that?” I kept my voice flat, bordering on bored in case Tahlik was here on a fishing expedition.
“Very well, we will dispense with pleasantries and I will get right to the point. You and my daughter will not be participating in the election. You will step aside, the sooner the better. This afternoon would be fine.”
He knew. He had to know something. If I questioned him about what he knew, I would look guilty. Ambivalence was my only armor. I laughed softly. “I appreciate your advice, but Selene and I will make our own decisions. If that’s all…” I gestured to the door.
He smiled, but didn’t move. “I know everything. Selene went to the underworld. She brought back the Pole of Charon and now our world is threatened and you, Cheney, are covering it up for her. If you continue, I’ll have no choice but to expose both of you to the public.”
Sy got to him first, lifting him from the chair by the throat, silver eyes flashing. “Never threaten Selene in front of me if you value your life.”
“We could put him in the dungeon,” Sebastian said, sounding almost bored.
“Put him down,” I said, and Sy dropped him.
The threat didn’t wipe the smile from Tahlik’s smug face as a hand went to his throat. “I have contingencies set if I do not return home. It’s time you stepped aside.”
“Oh, this is bullshit.” Sy threw up his hands and paced away.
“And for whom am I stepping aside? You?”
“Well someone has to step in. Who better than me? I have an interest in keeping my daughter’s…indiscretions quiet and protecting her as much as I can.”
“Selene’s indiscretions?” I sighed. “Where are you getting your information from, Tahlik? You must hear how absurd this sounds. How would Selene even get to the underworld and back? It isn’t possible.”
“Usually that would be true, but if you, say, knew a necromancer, as I know you do, it could perhaps be done.”
He knew everything. We were betrayed. I stood up. “I will take this into consideration.” I gestured toward the door.
Tahlik stopped halfway there and turned around. “Though racial integration will have to end someday, I do hope you stay with my daughter. It is a great comfort to know you can look past her mixed-race shortcomings. She shouldn’t be left to raise a child on her own.”
My fist smashed into his nose, blood spattering down his face and smearing on my hand, but I didn’t stop there. The more I hit him, the better I felt. Too much tension had built up inside of me, and the release of pummeling this arrogant son of a bitch clouded all rational thought. I hit him again and again. Hands grabbed at me, trying to pull me back, but I continued to swing until an arm locked around my chest, dragging me away.
Tahlik didn’t move on the floor and Sy didn’t make a move to help him. “I’m glad you did that. If he called her his daughter one more time, I would have done it myself.”
I shook Sebastian off of me and wiped the blood off my hands. “Get him out of my sight.”
“Where? We can detain him until we have a plan.” Sebastian frowned at Tahlik’s unmoving form. “I don’t know how much time that will buy him or what sort of contingency he has set up.”
There was a knock on the door before it opened again, hitting Tahlik with a soft thump. Selene glanced down then stopped. “Oh my God, what happened?” She knelt down beside him, feeling his pulse. “Cheney?”
“Tahlik knows. He came here to threaten us and demand we step down.”
She looked at Tahlik with a mixture of sympathy he didn’t deserve and disappointment, but not shock or hurt. “But what happened to him?”
“He went too far,” I told her, and she nodded.
“We’re trying to figure out how to stop him from talking,” Sy said. “He won’t hurt you again.”
Tahlik stirred and Selene helped him to his feet, then stuck her head out into the hallway and called for two guards. “Take him to a doctor, please.”
“You are going to regret this,” Tahlik said as the guards walked him out of the room. “I will make each of you pay.”
“Why did you let him go?” Sy asked.
Selene rolled her eyes and shook her head. “No. I’m done. No more games, no more manipulations, and no more deals. If he tells everyone, so be it. I deserve it. I’m willing to accept responsibility for my own actions.”
“He won’t talk if the two of you step down. He wants to be Erlking,” Sy said. “I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: who cares about the fae? They’re needy and ungrateful. Walk away”
Selene looked at me and I shrugged. “I was ready to walk away earlier. I don’t mind doing it now. Walking away doesn’t have to mean giving up, though. Sebastian can run against him.”
She looked at Sebastian and Sebastian looked back at her. They were as different as different can be, but when everything else was taken away they were both just idealists at the core. They were the last two people who would ever give up on a cause.
“Sometimes you have to know when to walk away,” Sebastian said. “Nothing is worth dying over.”
Selene c
losed her eyes and took my hand. “I want to continue on as we are. He’s not going to chase me away again.”
My heart broke looking at her determined, lovely face. “Once the people find out what happened they will want justice. Don’t you understand what that means?”
She nodded, her eyes soft. “I’ll accept it.” She wiped the back of her hand across her nose. “We have to come clean before Tahlik can. It will take any leverage he has over us away.”
“But how did he know?” Sebastian asked. “Someone had to have told him, and frankly there aren’t many of us who know exactly what happened.”
Selene shook her head. “I have to go talk to Alana—if you still want to marry me.”
I kissed her forehead. “I never wanted to marry you more.”
She nodded. “I will come back when I’m done with Alana and we can make our announcement.”
“Okay.” Had Selene been panicked or upset or even wishy-washy about this decision I could have argued with her. But she was serene, and looked more at peace now than she had in days.
“You can’t let her do this,” Sy said once she’d left the room.
“I agree,” Sebastian said. “We need to find out who has been talking and put an end to it.”
“What good would it do?” I asked. “Whoever it is was only telling the truth—a truth that is obviously weighing heavily on Selene’s conscience or she wouldn’t be so willing to confess. Did you see how relaxed she was when she left?” I shook my head. “Maybe she’s right. I’ve seen her escape more tight situations than any one person ever should. If anyone can come through this unscathed, it’s her.”
“Not this time.” The worry lacing Sy’s voice was tangible. “I told you what was at stake. She can’t charm them. They will end her and probably all of us for helping.” Sy paced. “There has to be a way to stop this or change her mind, and that way is going to start with finding out who betrayed us. I’ll talk to the vampire. Sebastian, you talk to Jessica, and Cheney, try to talk to Frost. They are our three most likely suspects.”
“And you really think they will just confess?” Sebastian rolled his eyes.