Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
The Georgia peach was a subtle feature of Vale’s house. Symbolic peaches were embedded in the exterior as well as the interior, even sculpted in the iron gates. It was more than a state symbol, however; the fruit was also the Taoist symbol of immortality. A fitting nod to the seat of a demigod.
I laughed when we arrived in the kitchen and I spotted a bowl of fresh peaches on the counter.
“Something funny?” Vale asked, as he opened the fridge.
“No, I like a house that really leans into a motif.”
He scanned the shelves. “Why don’t I pull out all the options, and we can help ourselves?”
“Sounds good to me.”
“All the options” was a smorgasbord of deli meats, three loaves of different types of bread, barbecue chicken drumsticks, more cheese than a monger, and a deep dish of lasagna.
“Are you running a restaurant out of your kitchen?” I asked, slicing a large piece of lasagna.
“I have a sizable staff with sizable appetites.”
“Nice of you to oblige them. Who cooks?”
“Dahlia, usually, but the lasagna is mine.”
I let the forkful of meat, cheese, and pasta hover in front of my mouth. “You made this?”
“It isn’t poison, I promise. And the fact that there’s only half left suggests it was a hit with the other members of the household.”
I slid the fork into my mouth and took a bite. If I wasn’t careful, I’d end up in a food coma before Leanne made her next move.
“You don’t have to eat at the counter, you know. I have a table and chairs. Several, in fact.” He piled a plate with a selection from each offering and carried it to the table in the breakfast nook.
I carried my plate over to join him.
“Satisfied?” he asked.
“It’s delicious,” I admitted.
Vale made short work of a drumstick. “There’s another reason I invited you here, aside from lunch. I wasn’t sure the best way to bring it up. Harriet said to leave it alone.”
My emergency radar kicked into high gear, and I fought the urge to drop my lasagna and run. “Then maybe you should listen to her. Harriet’s a smart witch.”
A smile flickered across his lips. “She is, but my curiosity got the better of me.”
I quickly swallowed another mouthful of lasagna, in case I was about to lose my appetite. “And?”
“There is no record of you, Maya August, prior to your arrival on Evermore. No record of your Gorgon mother either.”
I snorted. “You ran a search for ‘Gorgon mothers’?”
“I ran multiple searches. My knowledge base isn’t limited to my own region. I put in a request to the other regions for information. I found Gorgon mothers, but no matches.”
“And you think the HOA would hire someone with no record as their assistant director of security?”
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
“What’s your question, Vale?” My heart pounded as I tried to maintain a neutral tone.
“Who are you?”
“Maya August. I was scrubbed from all written records.”
“Impossible. No one can be removed completely. I’m a demigod and I wouldn’t be able to erase myself. Harriet couldn’t find a record of you using magic either.”
I balked. “You asked your best friend to investigate me?”
“Not investigate you. Just figure out why there was no trace of you. I assumed it was a glitch until she came away from the spell empty-handed. Now it seems clear that you’re hiding something.
I’ve let you into my world, my home.” He waved a hand at the kitchen.
“I want to know whether my trust in you has been misplaced.”
I set down the fork and gave him my full attention. “You convinced me to trust you less than an hour ago, and now you’re questioning whether you should trust me? What are you doing, Vale?”
He broke eye contact with me. “You have more power than you let on. You live on a secret island that’s arguably outside my jurisdiction. If my people are at risk, I deserve to know.”
We were treading dangerous ground. I chose my answer carefully. “Evermore is a clean slate for me and everyone else on the island. I’d like to keep it that way.”
“If you can be scrubbed, why not also scrub those who’ve been snagged by modern technology? Why bother to create islands like Evermore at all?”
“Because scrubbing can’t help them if they continue to live in the regular world.
You can’t scrub someone who’s still interacting with people and functioning in regular society.
You’ll hit snag after snag. It would mean constant cleanup.
No one has the resources or the emotional bandwidth to devote to that, which is why the islands became necessary. ”
“Why do you need a clean slate, Maya? You said you’re only thirty-five. Why would someone so young need to erase evidence of her existence, unless, of course, thirty-five is a lie?”
“It’s the truth.” A lump gathered in my throat. It was time to redirect the inquisitive demigod before he dove too deep. If he dragged me down, we’d both drown.
“Then why?”
“I think you can agree that we all have moments in our past we’d rather forget or be forgotten by others. Accepting the job at Evermore granted me that opportunity and I took it,” I said.
He leaned across the table, dropping his voice to a near whisper. “And what is it you’d like to forget, or have others forget?”
“If I told you, then it wouldn’t be forgotten, now would it?” I got up from the table and carried my plate to the sink.
Vale followed. As I moved away from the counter, he stood directly in front of me, hips square with mine. “Who are you?”
I took a step forward and tipped up my chin so that our lips hovered dangerously close together. “Maya August. Believe me or don’t. It really doesn’t matter to me.” My pulse raced like it was finishing the final lap of the Grand Prix.
I didn’t do relationships. Never had and swore I never would. Relationships were too personal. Too dangerous. I wasn’t just risking my heart; I was risking the entire life I’d built from scratch.
But as I gazed into those ice-blue eyes, it was like watching the polar caps begin to melt.
His mouth inched closer. Close enough that our breaths mingled, that the air between us felt charged and fragile, like glass about to crack.
“I looked into you for the same reason I invited you to dinner and into my home,” he said, “because I like the way you make me feel. And I would very much like to keep feeling it.”
Resistance in this moment was utterly futile. “So would I,” I breathed.
He murmured my name first—not even a full sentence, just my name, like it was a question he’d been holding on his tongue from the moment we met. I moved closer in answer, pressing against the length of him.
His hand found my waist slowly, giving me time to pull away.
I didn’t.
Instead, my fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt, grounding me.
There was no gentleness involved. No caution. We plunged headfirst into the deep waters we’d been circling.
My mouth parted first. He felt that not-so-subtle invitation—and responded. The kiss deepened, slow and deliberate. His tongue met mine, a gentle glide that sent a shiver through me. A quiet, startled sound escaped my throat, half surprise, half relief.
His fingers spread across the small of my back, anchoring me to him. My hand slid into his hair, holding him there as our mouths moved together—unhurried, savoring.
Hungry.
We broke apart simultaneously, as though separated by an explosion, and ended up on opposite sides of the room. To be fair, whatever this was between us was explosive.
“We can’t do this,” Vale said firmly.
“No kidding. Why do you think I’m over here?”
“The door is here.” He motioned to the entryway behind him. “How do you expect to leave?”
“I expect you to leave first, then I leave, then we both pretend this never happened.”
“I’m the Protector of the Region. It’s impossible for us not to interact.”
“You have fifty lackeys at your disposal at any given moment. Assign one of them to be your liaison with me. Gage.”
“No, not Gage,” he said, a little too quickly.
“Then Cowboy. Or Harriet. I don’t care, as long as it isn’t you.”
His eyes twinkled with amusement. “Am I that repulsive to you?”
“Obviously not, or I wouldn’t have let you stick your tongue in my mouth, because that’s objectively revolting.” It took my head a minute to catch up with our mouths. “Wait a minute. I know why I can’t do this. Why can’t you?”
“You didn’t let me finish my sentence. I started to say, ‘I would very much like to keep feeling it, but I can’t put my people at risk.’ Secrets are dangerous, Maya. They make you an unknown entity.”
My heartbeat finally started to calm the hell down. “Right. Well, glad we’re on the same page.”
“Boss?” Cowboy’s gruff voice broke through our bubble, forcing us back to reality.
Vale’s hands curled into fists. “What is it?” he ground out.
“The cardinal is about to abandon the nest.”
“You’re sure?”
“Gage just called from the neighbor’s roof. Said she’s in the lane behind her house loading boxes.”
Vale swore. “So much for a lead on the Coranians.”
“We can’t let her leave town,” I said. “She’ll still have her hold on Ronald.”
“Don’t worry. We’re not letting her go anywhere.”
“Truck’s out front with the engine running,” Cowboy said.
As disappointed as I was by the development, I was grateful for the interruption. I couldn’t lose my head around Vale. It wasn’t professional.
And it certainly wasn’t safe—for either of us.
We parked on Lincoln Street. Cowboy headed up Jones Street on foot to keep eyes on the front door in case she tried to flee.
Gage was still positioned on the neighbor’s roof.
Vale and I approached the lane behind Leanne’s house.
Sure enough, the garage door was up to reveal an SUV with its trunk open and jammed full of antiques.
The faerie was about to embark on her next murderous adventure.
Vale leaned against the back of the garden wall. “Going somewhere, Leanne?”
The faerie turned to face us, her porcelain cheeks stained pink. “Well, hello again. What brings you back so soon, Protector?”
Vale didn’t move. “I asked if you were going somewhere.”