Chapter 13
Thirteen
Kyrith
I’m loitering, hovering in the walls as I watch the heirs arrive. My pride is raw and stinging from Jasper’s rejection, and like this, with my feelings muted slightly, I can appreciate the ridiculousness of that reaction.
I’ve turned them down and pushed them away before, but being on the receiving end was different.
He did the right thing, so why did every step he took away from me feel so wrong?
Why did I feel like such a bitch? Worst of all, why was it that all it took for me to give up my resistance was Jasper coming across me in flagrante?
Ugh. I know why, and lying to myself is stupid.
I’m hopelessly attracted to all of the heirs, even the ones I shouldn’t be.
It’s gotten so out of hand that I was imagining Lambert’s hands as I played with my breasts, and Dakari’s dark eyes peering up at me from between my legs when I stroked my clit.
In my head, Jasper crooned sweet words in my ear and told me how pretty I looked as I was about to come…
And then the real Jasper turned up unannounced in my bedroom. I couldn’t even blame him for it, because the Arcanaeum’s complicity in the scheme was obvious.
The building is ridiculously invested in my non-existent sex life. It’s the wingwoman I didn’t ask for and can’t get rid of.
“Are you going to avoid us all night?” Dakari asks, drawing my attention back to where he leans against the doorframe. The door to the room is shut, hiding him from the occupants within, who are currently already arguing about which team is better placed to win the match.
Damn. Caught. How did he know?
“I was just…” I trail off, failing to find an excuse. “I needed a moment.”
I manifest beside him, and he wastes no time taking my hand in his, forcing me solid as he examines the bracelet on my wrist with a critical eye.
His lip quirks, and he accepts my evasion for what it is.
“This from Jasper?” he asks.
“Yes.”
He can’t talk; he got me a book. I’m accepting all bribes equally, which is a form of neutrality… Right?
I debate taking the silver chain off all over again, but it’s so delicate, and the tiny beads along it are so pretty—like an ocean trapped in glass—that I don’t have the heart to pretend it meant nothing and shut it away in a box.
It’s a beautiful gift, and a thoughtful one. Much like Dakari’s and Lambert’s, and even North’s.
There’s a deep, long look shared between us, and I huff out a breath in response.
“Penny for them,” I try, wondering if he’ll indulge me.
His lip quirks. “I’m trying to figure out what happened between the two of you to make you hesitant to enter that room.”
“Nothing,” I answer too quickly.
Magic, even I don’t believe the lie.
“Do you think…” I begin, then cut myself off.
Jasper’s words swirl in my mind. In many ways, he’s right; I’m not the kind of woman to be so easily influenced by good sex, and if I truly wanted any of the heirs to stop, I could’ve said as much.
Instead, I’ve given them excuses. Sure, to some men, that would’ve been enough to send them packing, but deep down, I know Lambert would just see them as a checklist of issues we can work through. He won’t be driven off by anything less than an explicit no.
Yet… The thought of saying that to him…
“Penny for them,” he prompts, turning my own words back at me.
“It was stupid to believe that I could date anyone. If inepts are off limits, and I can’t leave the building, anyone I become involved with will be connected to one of the six families in some way.”
He nods. “True.”
“Should I just…do it?” I ask earnestly. “Seize what Lambert and Jasper are offering me, and damn the consequences? Have I earned that much? Or does my duty to the Arcanaeum supersede any chance I have at…” Pleasure?
Love? Affection? Joy? I cringe at the silliness of my own thoughts.
“Never mind. I should be grateful for what I’ve—”
Dakari leans forward, pressing me against the door with his body. His hand, which never left my wrist, pulls my arm up and over my head, leaving an inch or less between our faces.
There’s a moment where nothing happens beyond the rush of all of my breath leaving me. A second where he hesitates, like he’s giving me a chance to rebuke him. Then his lips close the gap.
My mouth yields beneath his, knees going weak until the only thing holding me up is the heady weight of him against me. My free hand falls against his chest, bracing myself against him as he slowly and methodically dismantles my ability to think.
Magic. I—oh, how I missed this.
I melt against him as his other hand comes up to cup my jaw, changing the angle and deepening the kiss.
His tongue sweeps out, wet and demanding, tracing the seam of my lips until I yield with a moan.
He invades my mouth, twining our tongues together in an achingly familiar dance.
My eyes flutter shut, every cell weeping with welcome as I gasp, breasts heaving and heavy as desire roars to life like it never left me.
His thick thigh slips between mine, and I spread my legs eagerly, seeking more pressure on the bundle of nerves as I drink him down like oxygen.
I’ve spent nights relearning my body and the heights it can reach, but none of that prepared me for the intensity of Dakari’s single-minded focus.
The reality of experiencing this once more is so much better than I remember it being, so much rawer than my books could ever truly describe.
It’s a kiss laden with nostalgia and desire, and my heart weeps at being denied this for so long.
When he draws back, I can’t help the weak noise of protest that drags free of my throat or the book that flies from the shelf, hanging threateningly in the air.
He just raises that scarred brow at me. “Baby girl, I’m with Jasper on this one. You want more? You have to tell us. I’m just making sure you’re not confused about my intentions, since you didn’t mention me.”
Then, with a cocky smile worthy of Lambert, he pushes the book aside with one finger and opens the door, leaving me to fall through the gap. I’m flushed and panting, and I freeze under the force of the too-knowing male gazes on the other side.
“Boss!” Lambert vaults over the sofa and envelops me in a huge, bone-crushing hug. His sugar-and-nutmeg scent washes over me, the warmth of him filling the cold void left by Dakari’s absence. “You’re almost late. North’s in the stands already.”
He’s not lying. The screen shows the crowd roaring as the two opposing teams file onto the court. UAA isn’t playing tonight, but the others have decided to gather anyway, and I’m glad for the company.
Northcliff has begrudgingly agreed to take a new pendant to the latest game, albeit only because Eddy demanded to go with him.
Jasper is already seated, and Dakari takes a spot on his right, leaving the left-hand side of the corner sofa free for Lambert and me. I glance at Leo’s armchair, expecting to find him with a book in his lap.
He’s there, as predicted, but his attention has left the book to study me.
“We have some things to discuss,” I tell Lambert, as the excitable Winthrop heir drags me towards the seat. “What wild ideas are you coming up with? And why—”
“It’s not a wild idea at all,” Lambert protests, pulling me into his lap, like some kind of doll.
“Put me down,” I tell him, fighting until he releases me to my own seat. Even then, he waits for me to kick my feet up onto the cushions, and then steals them, unstrapping one shoe at a time. “Now, explain.”
“You don’t have to worry about impartiality if you have all of us.” He says it so easily. Like it’s such a simple answer, we should all have thought of it. Maybe if it weren’t such a ludicrous notion, we would’ve.
Instantly, my gaze flies to Dakari. Was that…? Did he kiss me because…? My head is spinning, and when Lambert’s thumbs dig into my insole, massaging my left foot with the perfect amount of pressure, my thoughts fragment.
Dimly, I realise the game on the screen has started, and Eddy’s cheers are filling the room as she blindly supports both sides simultaneously, but none of us are focused on it.
“You can’t tell me you’ve all agreed to this,” I eventually stammer, glancing at Leo, whose icy eyes are still fixed on me. “North dislikes me. Pierce is—”
“Pierce?” Lambert raises his eyebrows. “Okay, well… I didn’t think you’d want him, but if you want to be really fair…”
“North agreed,” Jasper tells me. “But said that you wouldn’t be interested in him. Leo is…”
“He’s scared that you won’t like whips and chains in the bedroom,” Lambert confides easily. “But he does have a contract, if you want to read through it to make sure before you turn him down.”
My stomach does a tiny flip.
A contract? What in the—? I’m dreaming. I’ve fallen into one of the black-covered inept novels the Arcanaeum treats me to every now and again. Contracts? Chains?
A traitorous part of me can’t help but wonder if that includes spankings, but I shut that thought down.
My eyes flick up, taking in the quiet ó Rinn in the corner. Leo says nothing, reading me with that same cool, watchful stare that makes me squirm. What would it take to melt the frost in those watchful eyes?
With a smile, Lambert leans forward and shuts my gaping mouth with one finger. “Can I take it from your drooling that you’re at least a little bit interested?”
“You’re forgetting the part where I told you I can’t share a woman with a Talcott,” Leo interrupts. “I’m sorry, Kyrith. I… Once my ensorcellment is broken, maybe.”
But he’s interested. All of them are interested.
“For how long?” I ask. “And what happens if this all breaks down? When one of you wants to settle for a normal life or just a girlfriend you can take out to dinner?”
The silence is thick for a second before Jasper says. “Lass, none of us is thinking short term.”
“Sometimes, boss, you’ve just got to take the shot—”
Lambert’s words are cut off as Dakari stands abruptly, his hands fisted at his sides as he stares at the screen.
“Mother.” Pierce’s voice is cordial, cultured, and completely unexpected.
My chin jerks around, eyes widening as I realise the magiball court we were watching has disappeared, replaced by a brick driveway, bordered by immaculate striped lawns on both sides and a moonlit face that I recognise.
Isidora Carlton’s jaw is set stiffly, her grey gaze critical as her heels click on the flagstones. She strides towards the looming home in the distance, and Pierce hastens to keep pace with her, the pendant bobbing with each step.
“You promised results, and instead you dare to join this meeting with her covenant on your face and still no sign of the McKinley heir?” she snarls. “You were supposed to have him by now. Or at the very least, his sister, so we had leverage.”
Her hand flashes up, and the view on the screen wobbles and shakes.
Pierce grunts. “It was for a good reason.”
She slapped her son, I realise belatedly, and yet the two of them resume walking as if it’s nothing.
“You better have something that will make this meeting go well for us,” she threatens.
“Anthea is working on Abe Talcott, but we need control of the restorationist if we’re to keep his favour—” She cuts herself off as they reach the steps of a fourteenth-century manor.
“You’d better have a plan, because I won’t protect you this time. ”
Her ring-laden fingers grip the iron butler-style doorbell, and she pulls once. Pierce glances down at his feet, breaking my view of whoever answers.
“Isidora. You’re late.”
My entire body goes wooden, chest seizing. That voice.
No. Surely not. This can’t be—
He should be dead.
Pierce looks up, and my feet fall from Lambert’s lap as I scramble upright at the same time that every single door in the Arcanaeum slams shut.
“No.” Without his hold on me, I lose control of my physical form, falling backwards through the sofa. “No. It can’t—”
“Kyrith?” Lambert asks.
“There was a complication, Magister,” Isidora says. “Anthea is still smoothing over the incident.”
Mathias’s mouth moves, but I can’t hear him over the ringing in my ears. His fingers twine in his beard in the way they do when he’s displeased. Even losing my physical form can’t erase the chill running through me.
Mathias Ackland is alive.
Mathias, who tricked me, lured me in with promises of magic, and then sank that dagger into my chest as I begged him to stop.
For five hundred years, I’ve listened to him gloat as I relived that moment, consoling myself with the knowledge that he was long gone, that he couldn't harm me.
I was wrong.