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Maddox tamed his expression into impassiveness. If he had played any role in these events, if he had subtly manipulated the wraith Candy to attack Carter, if he had foreseen this entire plan, he did not make it in any way clear. Unfortunately for him, the usual impassive expression did not hide anything from his maker. Gideon saw more than any other creature in the world. He knew the heart of Maddox, and he had made his new soul. So when he reached out with the intention to know what lay inside Maddox, there was no stopping him. Gideon seeped through Maddox’s mind and found each and every point of betrayal, every moment of twisted influence, and at the core of it all, that love for his wolf had not abated for a moment all this time.
“I cannot break you of that beast, can I.” Gideon cradled the suckling, wounded Carter to his breast with a cold smirk at his second son. “Enjoy your mate. When I wake again, there will be a reckoning between you and I. You will pay for this.”
Maddox inclined his head slightly. “Understood.”
19
“So that’s it,” Will said, stunned. “Gideon has gone to sleep and taken Carter with him?”
Maddox had not told Will what happened to Carter, and he had no intention of doing so. Once again, the better option was to keep the secret to himself. Will would no longer be alive by the time Carter rose again in a hundred years. He would live the rest of his life in blissful ignorance of the darkness that shadowed the end of Gideon’s wakeful reign.
“For a hundred years,” Maddox said. “We are free, boy. We and all those we hold dear.”
“It just seems so… sudden.” Will was clearly confused. “He just got tired and decided to have a nap for a hundred years?”
“When you exist on the kind of scale of time Gideon does, a hundred year nap is practically nothing more than the blink of an eye. It sounds like a long time. It is not.”
“It’s longer than I’ll live,” Will pointed out. “I’ll never see him again, will I? I’ll never have to worry about him…” He gave Maddox a shrewd look. “Did you do something?”
At that moment, Lorien burst into the house. Maddox was grateful for the interruption, for all of a second.
“Did you hear!? Apparently, Gideon…”
Maddox stuffed a hand over Lorien’s mouth and dragged him out of the room at vampiric speed too fast to be perceived by human eyes.
“Not a word,” he said. “Not a hint of a rumor as to why Gideon is asleep. Do you understand me? I will not have Will destabilized again. Let him have some peace, please.”
Lorien nodded silently.
“Good,” Maddox said, releasing his grip. “This is our chance to start over, for the next hundred years at least. This is one small window of happiness that I intend to allow myself. Give me this, and I will ensure you enjoy the same with your mate.”
“A hundred years does not seem like very long,” Lorien mused when Maddox moved his hand away.
“It will be like the blink of an eye,” Maddox agreed. “But it will be the entirety of their lives, so let us live alongside them while we can. There has been enough political wrangling and vampire nonsense for their lifetimes.”
“Agreed,” Lorien said.
They both knew that heartbreak was in the distant future, but more important than an inevitable end was the life yet to be lived, the life where they shared existence with primal creatures of intensity and nobility. Henry and William shared that rough vulnerability, that inevitable mortality. It could not be changed. It could only be enjoyed.
“So,” Will said when they returned. “What are we going to do now?”
Maddox crossed the room, took Will in his arms, and kissed him deeply.
“We are going to live a normal life.”
Will laughed. “Fuck off. How would we do that? We both eat people.”
“So does everybody, if you want to be metaphorical and metaphysical about the matter,” Maddox smiled. “I suggest travel. And then perhaps we can find a nice house somewhere with Henry and Lorien, settle down, and enjoy ourselves.”
“You sound like you’re going into retirement,” Will smirked. “Hawaiian shirts and mai-tais on the beach?”
“Certainly,” Maddox replied, running his fingers through Will’s wild curls. “Why not?”
“I’d love to see you in Hawaii,” Will grinned. “Hell, I’d love to see Hawaii.”
“Your wish is my command, boy.”
20
