Chapter 3 #2
“You are not in charge of me,” Gregory said, looking around the room and allowing his gaze to linger on me. “You will not intervene unless asked. You will not override my decisions. You will make sure that Dr. Ducharme understands this.”
“But—” I began.
“Also, I need my entire team on board,” Gregory continued. “You mentioned it first, but consider what it means: is Gloria open to working with me?”
I sucked in a breath. “I don’t know,” I admitted.
“Then we will not succeed.” He rested his chin over his linked hands. “I will not waste my efforts. I’ve never once held any hostility toward her, but it will be unproductive to play games while we are actively working on a case.”
“Gloria will cooperate,” Bryce said. “I will talk to her. She is our mother’s godmother. I have complete faith that she will not betray Bianca.”
Gregory pressed his lips together and looked down at his desk. “Hopefully that will be enough.”
“She will,” Declan interjected. “Being a fae’s godparent is an important role. We’ve seen proof of that bond with Abigail. She returned for Bianca’s sake.”
Bianca’s adoptive mother? “How is she relevant?” I asked him.
Declan glanced at me. “Abigail is Bianca’s godmother. Didn’t you know?”
“Why else would she would risk everything to adopt her?” Bryce frowned. “Her actions might have been misguided, but Abigail put herself on the line to do what she thought was best.”
“What?” I looked at Declan. “How can you not be upset that you weren’t told? Jonathon is in your quintet!”
I turned my attention back to Bryce. “You were there. You saw that they forced her to be relocated. She was hurt and terrified. You saw that she didn’t want to go.”
“There is no excuse for what happened,” Declan said, his voice low.
“The Griers made a catastrophic mistake in thinking they were preventing a crisis. Their regret doesn’t undo the damage, but they’re committed to making amends if Bianca allows it.
So I take that, along with the knowledge that they raised her in a much safer environment than she was in, into account. At least for now.”
“And they are not incorrect that she requires extensive treatment,” Gregory responded evenly. “I reviewed her records. She has not had a physical exam in a decade, and she still has not spoken to a therapist. It is neglectful to allow this to continue. You must do something.”
“I will not force her into treatment,” I told him.
“I respect your insistence on helping her maintain her autonomy, especially after she’s had it stripped from her for so many years.” Gregory watched me. “However, she is hurting herself.”
“She knows what she’s doing,” I said, pulse roaring in my ears. “I trust her to make her own decisions.”
“Just…” Gregory sighed. He removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“It would be best if you remembered that while she is Mu, she suffers from complex trauma that, right now, we do not fully grasp. You cannot assume she understands the social context you and I take for granted. It is your responsibility to consider this throughout all your interactions. The consequences will be severe if you fail.”
“What?” I stepped back. Why did it seem like he was threatening me? “Everything will be fine.”
First Finn, and now him. Why did everyone think so little of me?
I would only have to prove them wrong.
Bianca POV
I stepped out of the coffeeshop with a large pumpkin spice latte in one hand and a medium decaf coffee in the other. The crisp afternoon air carried the scent of roasted beans and cinnamon, but my thoughts were still tangled with Seigneur.
Even after leaving the library, his piercing gaze lingered in my mind, impossible to shake.
I’d tried—first by wandering longer than necessary, then with a stop at the coffeeshop—but something about our conversation lingered.
Men like Seigneur didn’t just ask questions. They already knew the answers.
I had a feeling that I’d be seeing him again.
Still, why wouldn’t he want anyone to know we’d met?
On the way out of the library, I returned all the books I’d borrowed since I was no longer a student, but it didn’t matter: I had better reading material now.
I was nearly done with the first book of Miles’s collection.
They were terribly written, with absurdly dramatic love scenes, but somehow, I couldn’t stop reading them.
Still, before returning to the ridiculous world of Sinful Response , I had a more pressing matter to attend to. Damen had been pouty and weird since Julian and I had bonded, probably feeling neglected. That was most likely why he’d asked me to accompany him today.
It would be remiss to forget my duty to him and his delicate emotions.
“Hello, Mistress,” Xavier said as he stepped in front of me, cutting off my beeline to the Psychology building.
I stopped, surprised, as my heart pounded. Where had he come from?
“H-hello…” I responded.
What was it about him that unsettled me? Was it the questionable reading material he’d procured for Jiayi, or maybe the cryptic warnings I had been given to avoid him?
“Sorry,” he said. He stepped beside me and swung his bag over his left shoulder. “Didn’t mean to scare you, but I didn’t expect to see you so soon. Bryce has been determined to keep me away. Where are you going? I’ll walk with you.”
Wouldn’t the others get upset? But Xavier was supposed to be mine, so should I care what they thought?
I shook my head. No, I couldn’t let them tell me what to do. I had to learn to handle my responsibilities at some point.
“Oh,” Xavier said, stepping back. “Okay, I’ll leave you alone—”
“No!” I protested. I couldn’t be afraid. It would be horrible to reject someone who just wanted to impress me.
Besides, he wasn’t allowed to hurt me anyway. I was his mistress.
“Yes, p-please walk with me,” I said.
He frowned, thin brows furrowing with confusion. “But you just—”
“It’s fine,” I interrupted, showing him the white paper cups. “I-I’m going to meet Damen. Come with me?”
I had serious questions for him anyway. For example, how did he come to own a book on advanced demonology that was also bound with human skin and written in blood? Did it magically make the book more legitimate?
“Gladly.” Xavier half-bowed, and his pale mouth curled in the corner. “I am yours to command,” he said, stepping beside me. “Although I am surprised you’re not with Bryce.”
“Why?” I paused.
“Well, because you’re married,” Xavier answered.
“Because you’re brother and sister. Because he’s your Er Bashou, which makes him your confidant, and it’s his job to take care of you.
He’s a terrifying warrior and relentlessly stubborn.
While he acts foolishly on the surface, it’s a facade to throw off his enemies.
I am surprised, therefore, that he is letting you wander about unchaperoned. ”
My skin heated—all of those things were true. But that wasn’t the Bryce that I knew.
Besides, who would act ignorant to lull their foes into a false sense of security? That wasn’t normal behavior.
“But I suppose he’s not perfect,” Xavier finished, frowning. “In any case, his lack of foresight has given me the perfect opening.”
My heart began to race as the boys’ warnings echoed through my thoughts. I already knew what he was going to say before his mouth opened.
And sure enough…
“Please, Mistress.” His expression was apologetic, and there was a worry line on his forehead. “You must visit the Unseelie court.”
Oh no.
My throat closed, and I blinked at him as I tightened my grip around the paper cups.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, my chest swelling with a feeling I couldn’t quite place. I didn’t know precisely what this relationship between me and my Officers entailed, but I wanted to help Xavier.
Funny, this was almost the same as when Bryce and I were shopping, and he looked sad at the game store. I only wanted to make him happy.
Was this normal?
“The Queen is dead,” Xavier said. “And the King has begun to behave very strangely. People are being killed every day in grand rituals. As you appointed the rulers to their roles, you’re the only person who can stop him.”
A flash of memory passed over me: rough walls, moss-covered stones, and a fleeting glimpse of grinning black teeth.
“Mistress?” Xavier’s voice cut through the darkness, and he grasped my upper arm. My vision cleared, and by a random miracle, I hadn’t dropped either of the cups. But still…
Nausea was thick in my throat, and the world, outside of Xavier’s concerned expression, wavered in my vision.
The memory faded like sand falling through my fingers, and with it came the sense that something—or someone—was being forgotten.
A crucial detail that I needed to remember.
But I couldn’t focus. My attention moved to the feeling of Xavier’s touch on me. Even though he was doing nothing wrong, I couldn’t catch my breath.
Sickness swelled in my chest, and my cold sweat had nothing to do with the strange phenomenon after his announcement.
“Mistress,” Xavier began. “Do you need to sit?” he asked, lightly pulling my arm as he nodded toward a concrete bench between two rose bushes.
The sun seemed clouded over, and the temperature had dropped.
But I doubted it had anything to do with the weather. There was something very wrong with my head.
“N-n-no,” I began as he pulled me with him. I couldn’t show weakness; otherwise, Xavier would never trust me.
I shook my head. “I’m not sure how I can help you. I don’t know what to do,” I whispered. “I didn’t even know about the fae until recently.”
“I know that,” Xavier responded. He released my arm—which instantly made the weight lift from my chest—and snatched his bag from the ground.