KERADOC
I’m going to take a wild guess here and say it’s you, Haley Barnes,” I announced. “You’rethe—ahem—motherfucking witch. Yes?”
She gasped at my sudden intrusion, but that smile refused to dim, even as the magick finally fizzled out.
“Tell me you saw that,” she demanded, grabbing my hands and pulling me into a childlike spin. Her eyes shone with pride. With happiness. “Tell me you saw that epicness, Keradoc!”
Damn it, her excitement was contagious. Despite everything, I felt myself drawn to it, the proverbial moth to the flame.
Grinning, I ran my thumbs over her knuckles and said, “Yes, I did indeed witness something… quite magickal. It would seem congratulations are in order, though I must admit—I’ve no idea what feat you’ve just accomplished.”
“No idea? Noidea? Keradoc, after weeks of failed attempts, I just summoned freakingfirespirits with my own blood. Fire sprits! Something that allegedly hasn’t been done in Midnight since ancient times!”
“Fire spirits? Well that’s… something. I… suppose?”
Stopping our makeshift dance, she rolled her eyes playfully, a soft laugh slipping free. It sounded like the tinkling of bells. Like birds taking flight. Like I imagined flower petals unfurling after a storm would sound, were we able to hear such a thing.
“Right,” she teased. “The next time I unlock a new witchy achievement, remind me not to look for praise from a stuffy old fae warlord. You couldn’t possibly appreciate the nuances of… Oh.” Her eyes widened, and she glanced down at our still-entwined hands, gasping as if she only just realized she’d touched me at all.
She drew back at once, shoving her hands into her pockets and taking a step backward. Her eyes dimmed, that beautiful smile slipping.
Fuck.
I’d done that, I realized. My words. My touch. My very presence.
Never before had I so badly wanted to throw myself off some great height.
“Was there something you needed?” she asked, her tone suddenly forced. Awkward. “I mean, is everything okay? How are… things? Haven’t seen you since our shopping trip. I figured you were off doing… I don’t know. Warlord stuff.”
“Yes. Warlord stuff. Keeps me quite busy these days.” I didn’t tell her that while she hadn’t seen me, I’d seen her. I’d seen her kneeling on this very balcony, thighs clamped tight around another man’s face as she came on his tongue and cried out for him…
I cleared my throat and turned to look out over the balcony, hoping she hadn’t noticed the sudden bulge in my pants. Being so close to her now made my cock fuckingache.
An obsession that would only lead to madness, no doubt.
“My associates informed me about what happened at the facility,” I said firmly, forcing myself back to the matter at hand. “I wanted to discuss—”
“I know.”
“You… know?”
“I know what you’re going to say.” She blew out a breath, coming to stand beside me at the low stone wall, all that kept us from toppling over. Running her hands along the rock, she said, “I’m sure it sounds bad to you. I mean, itwasbad. Those people died, and Elian… He isn’t… He isn’t well. But Jax is covering for him and Hudson’s helping out where he can and I’m doing everything in my power to figure out the ritual and—”
“Haley, stop.” I glanced down at her, so fierce and fiery in the moonlight, always ready to defend her friends. To fight for them, even if it meant confronting her captor. Despite my best effortsnotto feel such things, it endeared me to her for reasons I couldn’t explain.
“I’m well aware that the demon is picking up the slack where the vampire-fae has failed me,” I continued. “That’s not why I’ve come here. I need to speak with you about some new developments with—”
“Failedyou?” Her eyes turned to cold steel, the last of the warmth evaporating in an instant. “Elian is risking his life for you. All of us are. Yet you’ve offered no protection, no assistance, not even the most basic information about your so-called strategy. We’re soldiers in this war now—all of us. Fighting foryourhome. For you. Yet you treat us like minions, like chess pieces you can just move around the board at your whim. This isn’t a game, Keradoc. This is real life.Ourreal life.”
“You act as though these men hung the very moons in the sky. But your so-called friends are fugitives of this realm. Fugitives ofmine. They’re fortunate I didn’t execute them on sight the moment they were dragged into my throne room. Not only did I spare their lives, I entrusted them with positions of great responsibility. Positions anyone else would’ve been honored to—”
“Trust and honor? Are you serious right now?” She laughed again, only it was nothing like the sweet music I’d heard earlier. This laugh held nothing but venom and ice, and it took everything in me not to shudder in its wake. “You didn’t put Elian in that position to spare his life, or because you trusted or wanted to honor him. You did it because it benefitted you, and if you believe otherwise, then you are truly delusional.”
“I’m disappointed in you, Haley Barnes. You call me delusional. You attackmycharacter, yet you’re ready to go to blows over an addict. A scheming, conniving criminal who would just as soon sell you on the streets for his next fix than—”
“I’m defending myfamily, Keradoc. And I’m not saying Elian is innocent—far from it. But what the hell did you expect? You knew he struggled with the Black—it was obvious the second you flashed that pill bottle the night you gave us these assignments. Yet that’s exactly where you put him—ground zero in the drug den. You can’t throw a man to the wolves and then blame him when he gets bitten.”
“Open your eyes, Haley!” I said, my voice rising. “We’resurroundedby wolves. And every moment we lose to bickering and petty indulgences is another moment those wolves close in. Another moment we grant them an opportunity to snap their jaws around our throats.”
