Chapter 24 Blaze
Blaze
The question rocks me, though I try hard to hide the heaviness of the topic from my face. I know I don’t have to hide from her, especially not now. She looked at North and I both in our forms and stayed instead of running.
I rub her arms and peer down at the scar she’s tracing, my stomach twisting as the memory flashes behind my eyes.
“Let’s sit down,” I manage.
Juniper grabs an oversized sweater and shorts out of her dresser, then tosses me a pair of her own clean leggings. I chuckle as I hold the stretchy pants in my hands, then slip them onto my long legs.
She bites her lip once I have everything tucked away. “Hot,” she says.
I laugh. “North will be jealous.”
“He can wear this red pair,” she says, grabbing out another legging.
“He’ll love that.”
I settle on the end of her bed and sigh looking her over—her ass cheeks hanging out, soft belly accentuated so fucking sexily in those spandex shorts. Her sweater forms around her tits and curves up on the sides, showing off her hips.
I could get hard just staring at her like this.
Juniper stretches her neck sideways as she sits onto the bed at my side, and when she turns toward me and crosses her legs beneath her, she reaches out to trace another scar.
“There’s so many,” she notes.
“The small ones, I did myself,” I admit.
“What?”
“I didn’t have much magic in my prison, but I had enough to make an ice shard from the small amount of water I was given. Each of these is a notch for every day I was imprisoned.”
Juniper’s brows narrow. “I think we’re going to have to start at the beginning.”
I almost smile as I bend my knee in to face her—not because of the subject, because the subject is brutal. But because she’s eager to hear it, to understand what I went through and what I’ll never go through again.
“I told you I lost everything because of who I fell in love with… I fell in love with a human woman. It was during a time when I thought I was untouchable. I had figured out how to strengthen my magic, and when I met Adeline, I thought this is who I need to complete my life. I was so in love with her. Still, I didn’t realize just how bad things would go by falling for her.
You see, we have this Codex—it’s like a bound set of rules and spells, and it includes the history of the Nether Realm.
Only a few people can read it. I’m one of those few people.
I was just supposed to be transcribing it, but what I learned…
I took advantage of it. One winter, things changed.
It started out no different from any other winter.
We came to the human world, did our job, had a bit of fun.
And then, I met Adeline. It started out as just courting her, and it kept progressing.
By the time the spring equinox came around, I was obsessed.
I was ready to introduce her to my mother and the Nether Realm, to take her home.
But three days before, my mother found out about it.
She started sending letters warning me not to bring her home, that the Council would charge me with treason if I did.
Three letters. I ignored it. I thought all she needed to do was meet Adeline and things would be fine. ”
I pause for a moment to bite back the bile in my throat, and Juniper clasps her hands around mine, encouraging me to go on.
“The moment we crossed the bridge, they were there. The Nether’s henchmen—demons like North and I, though much less powerful.
I realized when they tried to put me in chains that this wouldn’t be as simple as I thought.
I got us free, and we ran back to the human world.
I fought for her at every turn, but one day, I made a mistake.
I left her to take care of what I later realized was a diversion.
I thought she was safe. And when I realized they took her, I accidentally froze the entire town we were in.
I went back to the Nether Realm to find her, and I was put in chains that I couldn’t break.
Trolls beat me to the point that my magic began to bleed.
And when my demon friends refused to beat me further, the Council turned to the fae.
Any demon who spoke or worked against them was locked up, some tortured and killed because of me…
I begged to talk to my mother. I thought if I just appealed to her, if I could get her to see how much Adeline meant to me, that she meant no harm to the rest of us, she’d agree.
She’d let us be together. I thought my mother loved me, but…
Soon after, I was brought in front of the Council, and that day, I realized it was my mother who orchestrated our capture.
She’s the one who pushed for the Codex enforcement, for me to be beaten, my friends to be killed, and she made me watch that day as she slit Adeline’s throat herself. ”
Juniper gasps, hands pressing against her mouth.
I shake my head at myself, cursing how stupid I was.
“The moment Adeline died, it was like every ounce of magic left in my veins disappeared. I stopped fighting and swore none of it was worth it. And I sat in that cell for centuries. North visited so many times. He begged me to fight. It didn’t feel worth it.
Eventually, he managed to get them to strike a deal.
I could be free as long as I worked for the Council in the winter.
A boring desk job that only allowed me out of their sight so long as North was with me.
It wasn’t that our mother trusted North.
She just doesn’t think he’s smart enough to come up with a plan against her that might actually work. ”
I can see the insult on Juniper’s face from the corner of my eye, and my lips flicker as if I’m going to smile.
“She underestimates him, and that might eventually be her downfall,” I add.
Juniper fumbles with her hands a moment as she takes in my story. “So… the trolls. The fae at the bar. They’re all here because of me?”
I reach for her face, my heart sinking at the fear in her eyes. “We won’t let any of that happen to you.”
“How can you be so positive? If you don’t have your magic—”
“Juniper, you’ve given me life again. You’ve given me a reason to fight, to want to be on this side of the cage.
The past few decades, I’ve only gone through the motions.
I haven’t tried to break free. I’ve been haunted by the images I can’t shake.
Yet every time I look at you, every moment we’re together, I feel my magic getting stronger. ”
“Have you gotten any letters?” she asks.
I swallow, teeth clenching, and her shoulders fall.
“How many?”
“Two,” I answer. “I expect the third will be here tomorrow.”
Her eyes widen. “What happens on Sunday?”
I hold her gaze for a moment longer and squeeze her fingers. “They come after us.”
Her jaw begins to quiver, eyes blinking over and over like she can blink back her fear.
“I have a plan,” I say fast.
“You fucking better,” she whispers. “What’s the plan? I don’t want to die—”
“You’re not going to die. Never, if we can help it,” I say, and she squints at me.
“What?”
I shift on the bed, trying to choose my words carefully. “There’s a binding enchantment. Between North and I, we can make it strong enough that it’ll hide you from any Nether creatures. When they look for you, they’ll look for the human. This spell would change that. You’d appear like one of us.”
“What, I’d be a demon?” she asks.
“No. It would hide your human scent and confuse or scare anything looking for you. You’d be covered in our magic, in our marks. Ice and snow and fire at once. That means something to many of these creatures.”
“Would that keep them from coming after us?” she asks.
“It’ll buy us time to run. I’ll be able to build up my magic so that by the time we’re forced to go back on the equinox, we’re ready.”
“Why do you have to go back?”
“If we don’t, she’ll tear apart this world to find us. Everything will fall apart. It’ll be eternal chaos,” I answer.
“So… we’ll have to run? I’ll have to leave my home? My life? My friends?”
Shit.
The sadness in her eyes makes me want to vomit.
“Yes,” I manage. “The island won’t be safe. It’s too small. They could come after you and your friends. We have to lead them elsewhere, plant false flags to keep them guessing.”
“They won’t just burn the island for the hell of it looking for me?”
“I can guarantee they’ll destroy it if you stay. Once we’re gone, we can protect the island.”
“How? How is that any different from if I stay?”
“Because the law states they can break any barrier to obtain you or us for treason. Which is why we have to hide you.”
I can see her mind reeling as she takes everything in. “Unless you bound me and left me.”
My jaw tightens as I bite back emotion, and I don’t answer.
She peers over me with glistening eyes, and it nearly shatters me entirely.
“Would you ever leave me?”
I’m in agony at the question.
“I would rather face a thousand years of torture in their chains than a single day free without you.”
Because I wouldn’t know how.
She blinks, throat moving up and down. I can see the tension in her hands as she rubs them together, the tightness in her body as she cycles through everything I’ve just told her.
“It doesn’t sound like I have much of a choice,” she says, and there’s an edge to her voice that suddenly has me on alert. “What about Pack? Oreo?” she asks.
“They would get the same protection. I would never leave them,” I tell her. “This is your choice, Juniper.”
Still, she shakes her head at me and rises from the bed.
“No, Blaze. It isn’t my choice. There’s no choice to be made here.
It isn’t a choice if it means condemning either of you.
You took that option away when you came back to the bar that night.
When you sent your brother the day after we were together, knowing…
” She pauses to take a breath, her chest sinking.
“Knowing I would fall for him as easily as I did for you.”
Fuck.
She starts toward the door before I can pull her back.
“Juniper, wait—”
“No.” She storms quickly out of the room and into the living area where North is watching a cooking show, Pack in his lap. North sits up, and upon seeing her storming toward him, his eyes widen.
“Did you know?” she asks North as Pack rushes toward her. “The whole time? Did you know about this?”
North looks at me. “I… You told her?” he asks.
“I had to,” I reply.
Before North can even stand, Juniper is at her door. Her hand is on the knob. She twists it, and my stomach bottoms out.
“Get out, both of you.”
“Juniper—”
“No,” she cuts me off. “No, this isn’t about lies or you two being fucking monster Santa Claus anymore.
This is about both of you not thinking how much it would hurt to not have a choice in my future.
It doesn’t matter that obviously my answer is going to be yes.
It’s about not getting the choice. And that fucking hurts. ”
“You’re saying yes?” I ask, a fraction of hope restored.
“No, I thought it’d be nice to let our friend Cornelius either eat me or take me to meet your mother instead, or saying no and never seeing either of you again—of course, I’m saying yes,” she snaps. “I can agree to this while also being eternally angry with you.”
Neither North or I move.
The tension in the air makes it feel like time has stopped.
When neither of us move, Juniper eventually lets out a heavy, tired breath and shakes her head. “I just… I need time to process all of this.” She frustratedly drags her hands through her hair. “I need to be alone. Please.”
I reach for her as I make my way to the door, but she backs out of my grasp.
“Don’t touch me yet,” she whispers.
God, this hurts.
“Okay,” I say softly.
North says something to her when he follows out of the door behind me, except my mind is so fuzzy that I don’t catch it. I make my way out of her screen porch and slump on her steps, head hanging.
North sighs as he settles at my side.
“I pushed her too hard,” I say softly. “I should have walked away the moment I began to feel something for her. She’d be safe. She wouldn’t have to deal with this.”
“She wouldn’t still be alive to say yes, and you know that,” North replies.
The notion makes me clench my fingers tighter.
Because I know he’s right.