The Heart of a Monster: The Complete Series

Chapter 19

Torrent

I’d have been happier about Rollick’s declaration that I could use my free time to drop in on Quinn if he hadn’t made it with a slyly suggestive gleam in his eyes.

“She did seem very eager to have your company,” he said as he ambled around his office, in a tone that somehow conjured all kinds of illicit imagery without him saying a single actually provocative word.

I didn’t show any outward reaction to his teasing from where I was standing near the door. “I’m sure it puts her more at ease when she can spend time with us, since we’re the only shadowkind who’ve completely had her back.”

Rollick paused and arched his eyebrows at me. “Implying I don’t. I’ve made my peace with her. In case you weren’t clear on this either, I never had any intention of literally devouring her.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” I said dryly. He had his own motivations, though—motivations we both knew were to further his interests, not Quinn’s. In the back of my head, I could still hear the way he’d talked about her when he’d come to retrieve her from us in Florida, like she was an inanimate trinket we’d stolen for him. The memory made me tense up inside along with a jab of guilt that I’d let myself think of her as nothing but a possession for so long.

Was I that much better than the demon in front of me? Well, I had adjusted my mindset eventually. I’d made up my failings to Quinn in every way I could since then. It seemed to be enough for her.

“You’ve always been so focused on the work,” Rollick went on in a casual tone. “I’m surprised to see you getting so caught up in a bit of… leisure, should we call it? If you were craving more time to indulge with the mortals, you only needed to ask. I’ve got a hotel full of them.”

My gut twisted for a second. I had craved it, and I’d stuffed down those cravings because I’d known as well as Rollick must that there’d been no way I could “indulge” in the same way I’d used to in my current physical state. I couldn’t appear in the middle of the club with my impossibly collapsed cheek and tentacles showing and sweep some woman off her feet.

But what I’d found with Quinn wasn’t like that at all. It didn’t feel like an indulgence. It felt… like a calling, like a mission I’d been meant for far more than any of the jobs I’d carried out for Rollick, as much as I’d appreciated his faith in my abilities.

“I know,” I said simply. “You’ve always provided whatever I needed. I’m sorry our goals ended up putting us at odds.” And I meant that.

Rollick nodded. “I am too. I never doubted that I could count on you before, and I thought our partnership was important to you. I’m aware that you had troubles because of your recreational activities in the past… I hope you know what you’re doing here. Even if I wasn’t exactly pleased about the mutiny, I wouldn’t like to see you going astray.”

When he’d first took me on, I’d told Rollick an abbreviated version of the history I’d recently shared with Quinn. It’d been reasonable for him to ask, since if there were any continuing grudges against me, that would affect him too. He’d never held my past carelessness against me, and the concern he expressed now sent an uncomfortable prickle over my skin.

Maybe it made sense for him to be concerned. He was only outside looking in on our strange relationship, and for most shadowkind, this sort of association with a mortal would have been more about getting off than anything else. Had I let my growing affection for Quinn distract me in ways that could get me—or her, or my squad—into trouble?

I couldn’t think of any, but the implications lingered even when I tried to shake off his words. “I appreciate that,” I said. “As well as your leniency as far as the mutiny went.”

Rollick shrugged, the corner of his lips quirking upward. “Good help is hard to find. You’re still the best lieutenant I’ve got in many of the ways that count most.”

One of which was the fact that no one knew I worked for him, so I could investigate these other powerful shadowkind without them targeting him. Somehow I doubted he’d have the same confidence in me if he knew the full extent of the discussions I’d been having with Quinn.

Discussions we were going to continue now.

I made myself look at my boss—really look at him, both the shiny human-like guise and the demon I could sense lurking within. He was striding forward as he always had, bolstering his power, protecting his empire. I couldn’t blame him for that. Just as he shouldn’t really blame me when I made whatever moves I needed to in order to defend what mattered to me.

A prickle of discomfort was spreading through my calves. I shifted my tentacles against the floor, looking forward to the reprieve of diving back into the shadows. “I do my best. Thank you for your trust.” Even if I was going to betray it again.

It was a short trip down through the gloomy innards of the building to Rollick’s personal suite one floor below. There was something to be said for being able to simply step out of the shadows right next to where Quinn was already lounging in the living room rather than needing to go through the song-and-dance of pretending to be the wind tapping on the windows.

Lance and Crag had already arrived. Lance had plopped himself down on one of the armchairs and collected Quinn on his lap, where she was laughing as he gave an account of his exploits that was ending with, “…and that was the last time they ever sold balloons at that zoo.” The gargoyle, leaning against the entertainment unit a few feet away, gave a grunt that seemed to dismiss the story as frivolous. They all looked up as I emerged.

“The boss gave you a free pass too,” Lance observed with a grin. “I’m starting to think our mortal is even more tricksy than he is.”

Quinn snorted. “I’m working on it.” She gave him a peck on his cheek—which he answered with a pleased growl and a nip of her neck—and then got up to wrap me in a hug. “It’s good to see you.”

Something about the press of her arms around me suggested that she needed this embrace more than her breezy words implied. I hugged her back, a mix of worry and anger rising in me as I wondered what had happened to her in the past couple of days to shake her up. There was a slight catch to her breath, a tiny tremor that ran through her limbs that I only picked up thanks to the sensitivity of my suction cups, that spoke of a vulnerability I hadn’t sensed in her the last time we’d spoken.

“Are you all right?” I asked quietly, letting my lips brush her hair and inhaling the freshly sweet scent of her.

“Yeah. Pretty much. I mean, it’s not the greatest situation still, right.” She eased back and seemed to gather herself. “There are some things I’d like to talk about. Maybe we should go out on the terrace. Rollick said he doesn’t have cameras in here, but the only place I’m pretty much sure of is outside. For more private matters.”

I tipped my head toward the wall. “We can’t make use of any of the nearby guestrooms today, unfortunately. Someone’s checked in?—”

“We couldn’t anyway,” Quinn broke in with a grimace. “He—he set us up. He recorded everything that happened in there.”

Oh. Oh. Fury seared through me so abruptly and forcefully my vision briefly hazed red. My jaw clenched. Rollick had given no indication of it when we’d spoken… Well, why would he? I doubted he wanted to chat with me about what he’d witnessed if he’d decided to dismiss our flouting of his unstated rules.

It shouldn’t have surprised me. I’d even thought to check for recording devices—I just hadn’t done a thorough enough job of it, obviously. I hadn’t managed to protect Quinn in that most basic way—he’d watched her, maybe even enjoyed seeing her pleasure when it hadn’t been meant for him at all…

Quinn grasped my arm, bringing me back to the present. Lance had sprung off the chair with a snarl; Crag had marched forward to grip Quinn’s shoulder, his gaze searching the room.

Our woman glanced around at all of us. “I’m okay. He and I… hashed it out, as well as it could be hashed out. I’m not happy about it, but it’s already happened, and… and if everything works the way we hope it will, then soon it won’t matter. So don’t go rushing off to defend my honor or anything. I’d rather you were here with me.”

“I should skewer him,” Lance muttered, waving his claws through the air. “Turn him into a demon shish kabob.”

“Easier said than done,” I replied, understanding Quinn’s request. We wouldn’t gain anything by taking Rollick to task for it, not anything that would help her. We might very well end up shish kabobs ourselves. “Come on, let’s go get some fresh air. And I’ll make a particularly careful sweep of the terrace before we talk further.”

It felt strange, stepping out into the warm mid-morning brightness outside. I didn’t normally take on physical form outside in a setting like this by daylight. A burst of laughter carried up from the beach far below; faint strains of animated chatter filtered from the rooftop lounge. But no one could see me and my monstrousness in our current perch.

I made good on my promise, scanning every part of the terrace and its furnishings with both my eyes and my tentacles. When I was satisfied that even Rollick couldn’t have concealed a device anywhere nearby, I sank down onto one of the loungers to rest my now-aching legs.

Lance paced around the terrace, leaping into a handspring with his usual agility but an energy that was more restless uneasiness than his usual buoyant spirits.

“What do we do now?” he said. “Less than two days before the deal ends and Rollick gets to make more demands. What is he going to want next?”

“Everything we find out about our enemies makes it clear how much of a menace they are,” Crag rumbled. “I don’t think we’ll be able to destroy them quickly.”

Quinn sat down on the chair next to mine and reached out her hand to rest it on one of my tentacles as easily as if she’d been taking my hand. I wasn’t sure when I’d get used to her easy affection toward every part of me.

“Not if we’re trying to do it using Rollick’s subtle methods,” she said. “I think we need to put the plan we talked about before into action. The morning when the ten days will be fully up—a little less than forty-eight hours from now. Let them deal with each other.”

She spoke with a firmness she hadn’t shown before. Her recent interactions with the demon had obviously solidified her resolve. I felt no desire to disagree with her after what she’d just revealed about him.

I pushed myself up straighter, letting my tentacle loop around her arm. “We still need to balance the factors carefully.”

Quinn nodded. “I’ve been thinking about that. I have a couple of things I can ‘hide’ in the apartment that will show that I’ve been there, and I think I know where to put them that Rollick won’t notice them ahead of time. And once we’ve delivered the message, you can keep watch and recognize when the other shadowkind are acting on it. If you ‘warn’ him just a little before they get here, we’ll have time for him to approve of a plan to get me to a different safe spot and gather his defenses, but not enough time for him to head them off completely.”

“Then they smash each other!” Lance said, his eyes brightening as he smacked one fist into the other palm.

My chest constricted. “We can’t cut it too close. If they catch one glimpse of you leaving—or if Rollick’s no longer bound by the deal and decides it’s safer to simply remove you more permanently?—”

Quinn gave me a reassuring squeeze. “It’ll be better if it’s earlier in the morning anyway, before it’s at all light out, when there aren’t any people around. Crag can offer to fly me to wherever we’ll be going—that’ll be the obvious strategy anyway. And by the time Rollick is finished dealing with the rest of them, we’ll have vanished.”

She glanced at me. “Can you find someplace where we’ll be able to get by at least until we take stock of how the clash turned out? I’ll wear my vest the whole time, so we don’t have to worry about anyone tracking me from my sorcerer energies.”

She was putting so much trust in me—in all of us—to pull this plan off. For a second, my throat closed up.

There wasn’t anything to be ashamed of in the devotion that’d kindled in me, more with every moment I spent with her. She’d earned it far more than Rollick ever had. Let him deal with the consequences of the conflict he’d gotten himself wrapped up in, not her. That was justice, not indulgence.

“I can manage that in the time we have,” I said. “But—what you really wanted was to get back to your parents and your studies…”

Quinn’s mouth tightened, but she held her chin steady. “I did, but if that needs to wait so that we’re all safe and the people back home are too, then that’s how it needs to be. I’ll be one step closer to being really free. I can’t complain about that.”

Well, she could. She just wouldn’t, not with that fierce stubbornness to survive that’d already kept her going so long.

I couldn’t resist tugging her to me, slipping my arms around her again. Quinn tipped her head against my shoulder, melting into my embrace.

“He’s going to be even more mad at the three of you,” she murmured. “You were lucky he mostly forgave you the first time…”

I cut her off before she could follow that train of thought any farther. “Let him be angry, then. I’d rather deal with that than see him keep you on a leash.”

Crag let out a thrumming sound of agreement, and Lance hissed through his vicious grin.

We were really going to do this. We were going to screw over one of the most powerful shadowkind in the realms in epic fashion…

And I didn’t feel the slightest doubt about my decision, not while I held this strange and wonderful mortal woman in my arms.