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There’s the sound of fabric, and something brushing against the carpet.
They’re walking.
I count to five in my head, and then open my eyes.
Something dark, a figure, is standing beside the bed. As my eyes un-blur, I gasp.
“Hadrion!”
He clears his throat, stepping backward, hands up in a sign of surrender. I sit up, breathing hard.
“Holy shit, do not do that,” I growl at him.
“I thought you could use some fresh air,” he says, and I glance down at the clock. It’s well after midnight, and the streets outside in the city are still teeming with life, the honks of cars and sounds of motors filling the air. How it didn’t wake me up before, I have no idea. “And...” He runs a hand through his hair, sitting down gingerly at the end of the bed. This is so very different from Club Underworld Hadrion, who seems to have everything under control. “I wanted to apologize.”
“For scaring the living daylights out of me, or for not telling me the truth from the start?”
He sighs and hangs his head, hands hanging loosely between his knees.
“I was wrong, not to tell you, not to be honest with you,” he says, “although you can understand, it is difficult for me to open up. I have--“
“Trust issues.”
“Well, yes, it’s more complicated than that, but if that’s how you want to see it.”
I cross my arms and stare at him, wriggling myself until my back is against the headboard.
“I didn’t think you would understand,” he says, and his voice is quiet, his head still bent. “And even if you did, for what reason would you help me? You have no cause to. And I could not take the pendant from you. You have to give me the key. It’s a gift. It can’t be stolen.”
More and more, his words are making me angry and upset. So he just... expected to shower me with money until I was so amazed by him that I just handed him the key?
“Is that why you moved me into your private apartment, and...” I gesture around the room. There’s still unpacked bags from our shopping trip. It feels sort of gross now. “You were trying to soften me up, until you could take the key, without any risk of me dying, or... something?”
His gaze meets mine, and his eyebrows pull together, the gold of his eyes shimmering, like a cat’s in the dark.
“No,” he says simply. “I didn’t want you to die. But the key, the thought of going home, of being restored, of taking my rightful place... it consumed me. My subjects need me--“
“The undead?” I demand, and his eyes narrow.
“Those who have passed through the veil and are trapped on the other side, yes, the dead. Those are my people. The living have their gods, their religions, their ways, but the dead... they have me.” He spreads his hands, his voice so intense and tight it’salmost shaking. “I am all they have. And now they are with the betrayer, and--“ He lets out a slow, angry breath.
I believe him.
Looking at him now, knowing how he cares for his staff as well as he does. Even here in this little place where he’s only spent a decade of his existence, he cares to make sure everyone he comes in contact with is treated well. My knot in my chest starts to soften and unwind.
“Okay,” I say, my voice barely a whisper, “okay. Tell me what’s really going on.”
He blinks and gives me a curious, hesitant smile.
“Tell me everything,” I say, and settle back in the bed.
“I will, Katy, from the beginning. It will be long and difficult. It is late, and I’m sure you’re tired. We can start again in the morning.” His eyes are shadowed, and he looks away, and when he speaks again, I know he is speaking the truth. “And it pains me deeply to relive every bit of the betrayal. I am not sure that I can... handle my emotions without making some outward displays of rage.”
“Displays of rage,” I repeat, and his lips twitch.
“You would call it breaking things.”
“Oh,” I reply, and I swallow hard. “Okay, yeah, no. I’m not okay with that.” I smooth my fingers over my lap, my hands trembling a bit. Not that Dad ever hit Mom, no, never, but after she was gone, there were more than a few plates that met their end against the wall. “That’s something children do.”
