Chapter Thirty
“Cate, thank God!”
I spun to face him as Channing threw his arms around me. Despite our audience, I returned the hug, relieved that he was in one piece. The last time I’d seen him, he was in a hospital bed, and if his behavior was any indication, he was angling for a return trip. He winced, and I drew back, searching him for signs that he had been injured. His T-shirt was slightly wrinkled but clean. There were no visible bruises. It even looked like he’d finally gotten a haircut. The job Lach had gotten him was clearly good for him. I released a sigh I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
“You’re okay,” I breathed.
“Yeah, but I’m still a little sore.” He nodded to his shoulder.
My relief vanished, his healing wound a reminder of how we’d gotten into this mess in the first place. Despite everything I’d done to keep him away, he’d already come back looking for trouble. “Channing, what the hell are you doing here?”
He glanced at the others. “I could ask you the same thing.”
“You haven’t returned my calls.” Although I probably would have avoided telling him where I was if he had.
“Maybe if you had bailed me out—”
“We should give them some privacy,” Aurora interjected loudly. She offered a sympathetic smile as she ushered Bain and Oberon out of the room. I wondered if Channing reminded her of Sirius, if the show of empathy was one sister supporting another. I nodded my gratitude to her as she stepped out.
Lach stood and circled the desk, not following them. I glared at him, but he simply raised a finger and sent the door slamming shut. He crossed his arms and leaned against the desk, inclining his head. Apparently, he was staying, but he was going to let me handle this.
“Please tell me that you didn’t make a bargain with him.” Channing threw a finger in Lach’s direction.
I already knew this conversation was not going to end well.
“Channing…” I didn’t know what to say. I shot a beseeching look at Lach, my eyes flicking toward the door, but his face remained stoic. He knew what I was asking him to do. He just wasn’t going to do it.
Channing cursed, and my head whipped back to find him studying us. His shoulders crumpled at whatever he saw, and he staggered to the nearest chair, sinking into it as he hung his head. “Please tell me it isn’t true.”
I took a deep breath, reminding myself that he was the entire reason I’d made this bargain in the first place. Somehow, remembering that made it both easier and harder to refuse his request. “I can’t.”
His spine curved, the truth bowing him as he began to shake. I reached to rub his back, but he threw me off with a choked curse. Before I could come up with the right thing to say, Channing popped to his feet, more curses falling from his lips as he began to pace.
Lach straightened, ready to intervene, but I held up a finger of my own. He settled against the desk, tracking Channing’s agitated steps.
My brother finally paused, dropping his head to stare vacantly at the floor. “What happened to staying away from the Gages?”
“One of us didn’t do it,” I bit out. Staying composed was the best way to calm him, but I refused to act like I’d done something wrong.
“Why the fuck would you get involved with them?” His eyes were clear as he whirled on me, but something wild moved through them before he resumed his desperate vigil. “I told you I had it handled.” He threw a scowl in Lach’s direction. “What did you do?”
“We have a bargain.” There was no reason to lie to him. There was no reason to believe I would break the bargain with Lach. I didn’t have an answer to his riddle. I hadn’t even been looking.
He stopped and stared, horrified. “You know what they are.” He moaned. “I tried to warn you.”
But he hadn’t—had he? I thought back to his reaction in the hospital, how he kept trying to say something and couldn’t.
I turned on Lach. “He tried to tell me you were fae the night he was shot, but he couldn’t. Why?”
“Humans bound to the court through magic cannot speak of it,” he admitted.
Channing had known and couldn’t warn me, and then he had gotten released from jail—because Lach had intervened—only to find me here with a man he considered a monster. I wrapped a hand around my throat as I considered what it must look like to my brother.
“What is he making you do?” Channing returned his attention to the ground, too disgusted to look at me.
“Nothing, really.” The last thing I wanted to do was explain our complicated relationship to Channing in front of Lach.
“Don’t lie to me,” Channing growled. “That asshole doesn’t do anything unless it benefits him.”
“That asshole is standing right here,” Lach reminded us.
We both ignored him. I fluttered a hand, trying to act as casually as possible. “It’s nothing.”
“What’s nothing?” Channing demanded. “What did you give him?”
The best thing I could do was convince Channing that there was no issue. The deal was done. The bargain had been made. I belonged to Lachlan Gage, and there was nothing that could be done about it. “I come here at night and stay until morning.”
It wasn’t the time to explain the banns and Ciara’s betrothal or that I slept down the hall from the man he considered a monster. But I wouldn’t lie to him.
The blood drained from his face, and he stumbled a step before catching himself on the back of a chair. “You have to spend the night with him?”
I hadn’t considered how it would sound to him.
“Not like that,” I said a little too quickly.
“What is it like?” Channing asked, suspicion seeping into his voice.
“We hang out.” Not exactly. “I make his life a living hell, and he annoys the shit out of me.”
Displeasure flattened Lach’s mouth at this description of our arrangement, but he remained silent.
A storm brewed in my brother’s blue eyes as he scrutinized my face. “That’s all? There’s nothing more between you two?”
I swallowed. He didn’t need to hear that Lach knew how I tasted or that I knew how good his cock felt in my hands. Nope. That was on a need-to-know basis, and nobody, especially my brother, needed to know. “I can take care of myself.”
Channing winced, pressing his fingers to his temple like he’d heard what I refused to admit.
“For how long?” he asked in a voice so soft it made me go completely still.
“Until morning,” I repeated.
He shook his head, panting slightly. “How long do you have to keep doing this?”
I licked my lips, peeking to find Lach silent and stone-faced. “Technically or realistically?”
“How long, Cate?” Channing demanded.
“Until he decides to release me.” It was close to the truth, and it was going to be easier for him to swallow than the actual terms of our arrangement.
His breath sawed in and out of him, his chest heaving. He turned to Lach. “Release her and I will do anything—”
“Don’t you dare,” I cut him off before he ruined his own life. “This was my decision to make.”
But Channing shook his head again. “Like hell it was. You did it because of me. Now let me undo it.”
I whipped toward Lach. “Stay out of this,” I warned my…whatever he was.
Channing turned to him, but he didn’t advance. “Let her go.” His voice shook, his lower lip trembling. It wasn’t a demand. It was a plea. “I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll live in the Otherworld. I’ll do whatever you ask.”
I clapped a hand over my mouth, barely choking back a sob as Lach considered for a moment. His eyes found mine, and he shook his head. “Tempting, but no. Your sister is much prettier. I think I’ll keep her.”
I closed my eyes, a single tear escaping, and begged the universe to intervene.
“You son of a bitch!” Channing started toward him, but Lach just lifted his hand and studied his nails. And Channing froze. From the unnatural position of his body, I knew magic was involved.
I sighed, swiping angrily at my weepy eyes. I should have forced my brother to leave. Of course he was going to make this worse. “Lach, don’t,” I murmured.
Lach checked his fingernails, not looking at either of us. “Your concern for your sister is admirable, but I assure you, she’s perfectly safe with me.”
“Bullshit,” Channing said through clenched teeth as though even his jaw refused to move. “No one is safe with you.”
Shadows flooded Lach’s eyes, and I knew the barb had struck. “I have offered her a place to stay, entertained her, and enjoyed her company.”
I was going to kill him. There was no mistaking the implication of his words.
When Channing finally dared to speak, every word was pained. “You said you didn’t have to sleep with him.”
Lach smirked. “She doesn’t have to—”
“Stop!” I yelled, thoroughly done with both of them. “I have done nothing I did not want to do since I made the bargain with Lach.” I swiveled my attention from Channing to Lach. “And stop trying to screw with his head. This is not one of your fae pissing contests, and I am not a prize.”
A muscle ticked in Lach’s jaw like he was biting back a response. At last, he shrugged. It wasn’t quite the acquiescence I was looking for, but it was something.
“Now release him,” I said softly.
“Are you going to behave?” Lach asked my brother in a mocking tone.
Channing just stared at him.
Something snapped inside of me. “Now.”
Lach groaned and waved one hand. “Get out of here before I regret my benevolence.”
“What benevolence?” Channing wilted as the magic released him. He glowered at us as he started backing toward the door, his attention bouncing between Lach and me as if he was debating what he should do: listen to the command of the fae prince or look out for his sister.
“Go.” I sighed. “I will be okay. I can handle this dick.” But Channing hesitated, so I crossed the room and took him by the shoulders. “You don’t have to worry about me,” I whispered.
His sliding throat told me he didn’t believe a word I was saying. He’d made it one step outside, his hand still on the door, when Lach called after him, “Channing, your sister offered her life for yours.”
“I didn’t ask—”
“That doesn’t matter,” he broke in. “I will not touch you. That is part of our agreement. But I cannot stop another family from killing you if you’re stupid enough to insult them. So before you threaten another fae, remember that your sister will still be indebted to me. Have enough fucking respect to remember that in the future.”
Channing blanched as he realized what he’d nearly done. “I wasn’t thinking—”
“Precisely,” Lach sneered. “So where your sister is concerned, it’s better if you let me do the thinking.”
I was definitely going to kill him. I pointed at the door. “Channing, get out of here before you’re a material witness.”
Lach lifted a brow. “We’re back to threats?” He groaned as my eyes narrowed. “On second thought, let me give him a ride home.” He snapped his fingers, and Channing vanished.
I whirled around like my brother might reappear. “Where did you send him?”
“The best place for him. A jail cell.”
I hated that he had a point, especially until Bain forgot the insult. “You didn’t!”
“They’ll let him out.” He beckoned me with his finger.
I just stared back at him. “What are you doing?”
“Kiss and make up?” he suggested.
My blood heated, but I didn’t move. “We have to fight first.”
He sighed and picked up an apple from the bowl on his desk. His sharp teeth snapped its flesh as he nodded.
“You had no fucking right.” My voice trembled, but I was past giving a shit.
His hand dropped to his side, the apple forgotten as his eyebrows shot up. “No fucking right to what? Save your brother’s life?”
“To…insinuate that something is going on between us.” I paced the path Channing had worn into the rug—well out of Lach’s reach. I didn’t trust him to keep his hands to himself, and I needed to maintain a clear head.
“Something is going on between us,” he said slowly.
“Yes, you own my soul,” I shot back, “so I’m forced to live here.”
His nostrils flared, twin veins straining in his neck. “Any closer to figuring out my end of the bargain, Cate?” His tongue licked his lower lip. “Are you trying to figure it out when my fingers are between your legs? Or when you spend all day with my sister? When you sleep in the safety of my home? Eat my food? Are you any closer to breaking it when you kiss me? When you tell me you’re coming home?”
Angry words with an undercurrent of accusation that cut through me. Because he was right. I had stopped trying and I had started trusting—the biggest mistake of all. And now, as that sharp truth sliced straight to my heart, I refused to let him see me bleed.
“So you think that gives you the right to brag to my brother about it? Because you own me? Because you’ve stolen half my life from me? Tell me, Lach, what choice have you given me?” He shifted, his hands clutching his desk with such force that it splintered like he’d done to my bed. I flinched at the sound, but I didn’t stop. “What about Ciara? And Shaw? Can I learn how to love my brother by watching you ruin your family’s lives like you ruined mine?”
The words were out of my mouth, flung without thinking and impossible to take back. He flinched as they hit their mark. His knuckles blanched white, the wood creaking under his grip.
Lach released the desk, and I froze, waiting for him to stalk toward me, for him to… I had no idea what he would do to me. But he simply straightened, his voice dull. “I told you I would ruin you.” He checked his watch, but he didn’t look at me, didn’t move toward me. “I have a meeting.”
He vanished without another word. I stood there long after he was gone, those hollow words replaying in my head on repeat with my own.
Then ruin me.
I had granted him permission, but I had not realized how he would do it. He had ruined me in a way that I didn’t quite understand. Because he was right. I wasn’t looking for a way out of the bargain. I was working to help his court, to help him. I slept in a bed he owned, wishing he was in it with me. I laughed with his sister and groaned at his brother’s jokes. I came home to this place, to them, to a family, to him.
Tears slipped down my cheeks as I stared at the empty space where he’d been moments ago, the fight echoing in the cavernous vacancy he’d left in place of my heart.
We’d ruined each other.