AllFreeNovel
Share Us
In the dim hall outside our rooms, Seth paused by the one he and I had ended up sharing and took in Gabriel’s and my joined hands. He dipped his head in acknowledgment. “I’ll keep Ky company?” he said.
Gabriel offered him a crooked smile that looked more like his usual easy and confident self. “You can have her back for the night.”
“Hey, take as long as you want. Rose belongs to herself, not any of us.” Seth gave us a little salute and followed the others to the farther rooms.
I swiped the keycard and turned toward Gabriel as the door thumped shut behind us. “Now will you tell me what’s going on?”
He moved closer to me, setting a hand on my waist. With a nudge, he walked me back a step so I could lean against the wall. His other hand came up to brush my cheek. He gazed into my eyes for several seconds, so intently I didn’t know what to say.
My breath caught when he dipped his head toward mine. He caught my mouth with a kiss so soft and sweet the fluttering in my chest came back at full force. My fingers curled into the soft waves at the nape of his neck as I kissed him back, reveling in the moment. But I couldn’t lose myself completely. I knew Gabriel well enough not to believe he’d asked me in here just for this.
His lips slid from mine to kiss my cheek. “I love you,” he said. “You know that, don’t you?”
My heart squeezed. “I didn’t think you’d be here if you didn’t,” I said, but the teasing comment fell flat. I tipped my face against his shoulder. “I love you too.”
His arms came around me. For a minute, he just held me, and I melted into his warmth. Still waiting. His hand stroked over my hair. Then he drew back to look at me properly.
“That’s why I’m here,” he said. “And that’s why I’m not sure I should be. Not like this, not anymore.”
My brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“When that attack hit this afternoon…” His jaw tensed. “They compelled me with magic. Tried to force me to go outside and make some kind of scene to help them figure out where we are.”
Moldy cinders. No wonder he was upset. “But you didn’t,” I said. “You stopped them.”
He held up his right hand, the one that had been resting on my waist. A dark bruise mottled the whole back of it. I sucked in my breath in horrified shock. He was left-handed, so I hadn’t noticed anything odd about him mostly using that one during dinner—he must have managed to keep the bruise out of view without me realizing.
“This is how I stopped them,” he said. “That’s what it took. I couldn’t shake them otherwise. And next time, if they’re closer or they just try harder, I might not be able to do it at all.”
“If I’d known—”
“You would’ve used your magic to ward them off,” he filled in for me. “I know. That’s why I didn’t tell you. Because then they still would have figured out where we are, so how would that have helped anything?”
“I can’t let them hurt you—or make you hurt yourself,” I protested.
“I know.” He lowered his head again. His voice roughened. “The way I see it, there’s only two ways this can work so that I’m not a danger to you. Either I become your consort, so I have the same bond you can use to protect me like you do for the other guys, or I leave and hide out somewhere else where it won’t matter if I give myself away.”
“No,” I said firmly, shaking my head. “No. At this point, I don’t think they’d just let you go. You’ve seen way too much. They’d probably find you anyway, and the Spark only knows what they’d do to you if they caught you alone.” I paused, touching his face to bring his gaze back to mine. “I mean, unless you’d rather take your chances that way.”
“I wouldn’t,” he said. “I’m in this, Rose. I’ve been in this since the moment I got back, even if it took me a long time to admit just how much I wanted you. I want tobewith you, every way I can. I’d have gone into the ceremony that day at Seth’s house if you’d let me. Areyouready?”
I swallowed hard. “I don’t want you binding yourself to me because you feel like you have to.”
His laugh came out hoarse. “It’s not like that. Not even slightly. I know you, and I know what I want. There’s no one in this world I’d want to commit myself to other than you. Unless… unless there’s some other reason you don’t want to go through with it.”
My pulse lurched. “No. No, it’s not—” I didn’t know how to put the feeling swelling inside me into words. I tugged him to me and kissed him hard, as if that heat between us could say enough on its own.
Five consorts. Five men who would act as my husbands and more. From the moment Gabriel had walked back into my life, that thought had been there in my head. I’d wanted it before I’d even been sure he felt the same way.
“There isn’t anything I’d like more,” I said when we eased apart. “I just wish… it could have happened differently.”
“Me too. But you trust me, don’t you? To know I’m ready, no matter what else is going on.”
When he put it that way, yeah, I did. If any of us had always known their own mind, it was Gabriel. The corners of my lips curled up, but my smile was bittersweet. “Okay. But I don’t even know if the consort ceremony will work when I’m already consorted. The other guys, we kind of did it all at once. And I don’t know how we can do it withoutthatmagic bringing the Assembly down on us.”
“Yeah.” He was silent for a moment. “Isn’t there anything that can shield your magic, make it so they wouldn’t be able to detect it, even for a little while?”
“Not that I know of,” I said. “Nothing except more magic, I suppose. And of course if I cast some kind of shielding spell to mask it, the shielding spell will tip them off. If we had another witch who could cast a shield, someone they don’t see as a criminal…”
