AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Florence took my hand and held it tightly. It was the closest she knew I’d let her come to giving me sympathy now. In our world, we were only going to survive by being strong, and that meant no more meltdowns on my part. I had to tread my path and I had to survive it. I wasn’t against a life with Apollo, but I had hoped everything would progress a bit more organically.
By the time the Callahan New Year’s Eve party was in full swing that night, I’d almost convinced myself and Florence that everything was okay.
I was fine with the ring on my finger, and I was over the incident with Kane. Not that Florence knew about the Kane incident. Neo had been very specific, and I’d been a very good girl at obeying his instructions. I ignored the vague thought that Kincaid men had a habit of having a singular power over me, for good or bad.
The kids were outside under heaters and fires, and the adults were inside. It was hard to tell which group was drinking more, or who was pretending their function was fancier. We were all certainly dressed up to the nines in our best gowns and suits and acting like we weren’t all years away from real adulthood. And I wasn’t having a terrible time as Florence and I talked with Exie and Triss.
Then Valen walked out onto the patio, and I realised that nothing was okay, and that maybe it would never be okay again. I took a step towards him involuntarily. Florence grabbed my arm and coughed. I nodded to her and forced a smile.
“Holy shit. He looks like terrible,” Exie said. “Where’s he been?”
He did look like shit. Not his clothes. They were impeccable. He wore a black suit, black shirt open at the collar, and black shoes. His tattoos peeked out at the collar and sleeves. There was a grazing of stubble over his jaw that served to make him look even sexier than usual. But his colour was paler than usual. Ashen somehow and haunted. I hadn’t seen him like that since he’d disappeared from school six weeks ago and come back a shell of a man. Apollo had been worried about him then as well. I hated to think what he’d been forced to do, this time or that.
“Harlow?” Exie pressed.
“Hm?” I asked, forgetting what her question was.
Triss laughed. “Harlow’s been too busy with her new fiancé to keep track of who the tame wolf’s been paid to kill now.”
I forced my smile widen. “Of course. Leave that to the men,” I said, and we all tittered.
The women stick together.
“Darling,” Apollo said as he came up and put his hand on my back. “Can you make sure Valk gets a drink?”
I wondered why it was suddenly my job to get Valen, who was well known for his ability to find the booze if he wanted to, a drink. Then my hand shifted on my glass, I felt the weight of my ring again, and I realised why it was my job. I was officially our mothers. I was the host here and it was my job to see to it that everyone was having a good time and being taken care of.
“Of course, Apollo.”
He smiled at the others, kissed my cheek, and then got caught up in Luis’ attention.
“Excuse me,” I said to Florence, Triss and Exie.
Florence looked a little bit like she didn’t want me to leave her with the others, but then she might have just been worried about me going to talk to Valen. I gave her a nod, encouragement regardless of what her look had been, and swept away.
By the time I got to him, Valen had found himself at the bar no problem.
“Valen,” I said, and he turned to me.
“What?” he asked.
I was supposed to be the good host, but I was going to make use of the moment I had. “Where have you been?” my voice was too plaintive. There was too much in it. And he noticed.
Suddenly on alert, he asked, “Why? What happened?”
Neo’s words were loud in my head, and I shook it to clear them. “Nothing. I just… You just left.”
He set his jaw hard. “I don’t owe you anything, princess.”
I took a step back. “No. I… No, you don’t.”
He looked over my head at the party going on around us. The night was at the tipping point between refined social gathering and raging kegger. Everyone was just drunk enough that the volume of each song that played was being turned up incrementally and soon we’d put aside all pretence of social acceptability and just be horny, drunk teenagers.
Unthinking, I brushed a piece of hair away from my face with my left hand and the movement caught his eye. I couldn’t tell what went through his mind at the sight of the great, honking diamond on my finger.
When he spoke, his voice was choked and gravelly. “You asked about protection, princess–”
I was going to stop that right there. “I only have no barriers with you, Valen.”
