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Devere stilled, coat half over his shoulders, then shrugged it into place and turned to face me. “Pure iron, preferably to the heart or head.”
“How?”
“A pistol shot, a dagger, the fireplace poker there.”
He said it so casually, reeling off a list of potential weapons with which to kill a fae. “What happens to you?” I asked. “If he dies?”
“Therein lies the problem.” He buttoned up his coat and headed for the door. “If he dies, so does his magic. As much as I despise him, we are intricately tied together.”
“Let me come. I’ll stand beside you. You and me together, he will have no choice but to listen.”
“No, Val. This is between Adair and me. You have been through enough.” He swept through the doorway, tinkling the store bell, and slammed the door behind him.
Hush buzzed from beneath my collar and hopped onto the fireplace mantel.
“He is stubborn,” I told her. “And I never listen. He has clearly forgotten that about me. If he believes I will let him confront Adair alone, then he really does not know me at all.”
I’d wait a little while for him to hail a carriage so we didn’t argue on the street, then hail one of my own. Assuming he was heading to Rochefort Manor, I’d meet him there.
“I love him,” I told Hush. “I’ve told him, but he doesn’t believe it. He is as stubborn now as he was as a boy.”
Hush scurried along the mantelpiece, then up the wall, and vanished behind the plain wooden clock.
The store bell tinkled. Perhaps Devere had come to his senses and returned to invite me to go with him. I turned to the door and froze.
Lord Rochefort cast his gaze around the store. “Finally, you and I can have an honest and frank discussion alone.”
Finally?He’d been waiting.
“Leave,” I told him.
He turned, as though he might, but instead he flicked the OPEN sign to CLOSED and turned the door lock over with a solid clunk.
“I own this store, I own this town, I own Devere, and I own you.” He faced me again and glided between the displays of toys. “Do sit by the fireplace there, Valentine. We have much to discuss.”
“I’ve never met someone so despicable, so selfish, so criminally self-absorbed and as devoid of feeling as you. Get out.”
He smiled as though each of those things were a compliment. “I beg to differ. In fact, I do believe you fucked someone exactly as you’ve described just last night. No?”
“What? No, Devere is nothing like you—”
“Oh, do stop, Valentine. The doe-eyed innocent fool act is quite tiresome.Sit down.”
I suddenly, inexplicably needed to sit. There was no use fighting it. The store tipped, the floor shifted, and I reached for the chair by the fire to stop from falling. This was his doing, some kind of compulsion! “Get out of my head.”
“It is quite amusing how you believe you can stand against me. I’m just asking you tosit, Valentine, for your own well-being. We do not have to fight. I’m here to help you. It may come as a surprise but I want the same as you—for all of this to end. So dositdown, please.”
Every mention ofsithit me like a hammer blow until I finally did. The weight dragging me down vanished, leaving me panting and dizzy in the chair. I had to stop him. It had to end.
“There, see. Isn’t that better? You think me the villain, but I’ve always had your well-being in mind.”
My well-being! I clutched the chair, anchoring myself. Adair liked his games, and this was just another game to him. I couldn’t let him see how his every tug of a string had me dancing for him. “What do you want?”
“Devere.”
“You just missed him.”
His smile thinned. “So hostile, Valentine—”
