Chapter 39 Nyrith
NYRITH
RAE
Truffle wrappers littered the counter as Zeke, Ash, and Cyn bickered over which flavor was best from the box I’d brought home after work.
“I like the coconut cream,” Ash said.
Zeke’s nose scrunched. “Ew. Coconut is awful.”
“That’s because you hate the texture—the cream doesn’t have it,” Cyn said. “Either way, he’s wrong. Try this one.” He lifted a truffle for Zeke to bite. “It’s red velvet.”
After taking a bite, Zeke nodded. “Good, but it’s no chocolate lava cake.”
“That’s just chocolate on chocolate,” Ash said, laughing.
I opened the refrigerator, checking what I needed from the store. “You’re all wrong,” I said. “The strawberry crème tart is the best.”
“You would think the tart’s best,” Cyn muttered.
I turned to face him. “What?”
“You’re tart.” He shrugged. Zeke shoved his shoulder, but Cyn kept going. “What? You’ve all smelled it. Sweet and tart, like apple crisp. Fucking drives me nuts on top of the fruity floral. She needs to put something on to mute all that shit.”
“Just admit you like her,” Ash said.
“I hate her.”
“Well, she’s right here, and none of you make a lick of sense,” I said, glaring at Cyn. “Especially you.”
Except for the times I used perfume or lotion, only the guys mentioned my scent. Ezra’s implication about my arousal and emotions stuck in my mind. Maybe Shyrlivi biology let them smell what humans couldn’t.
I reached for the box. “You’ve had enough. Save some for Ezra—ah!” I squealed when Ash grabbed me around the waist, hoisting me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. My skirt rode up when I kicked my legs, so I reached behind me to avoid flashing Zeke and Cyn.
“Don’t come between a man and his sweets.” Ash laughed as I struggled.
Zeke came around to see my face, lifting the last strawberry crème tart truffle for me to taste. “Open.”
“I’m not a dog,” I said.
He slipped the truffle past my lips the moment I finished talking. His fingers were cool against my lips when I closed my mouth around them, and he took his time as he pulled away.
“Tart,” Cyn spat, sniffing.
Ash’s laughter died when the front door opened and his body stiffened.
“What’s the matter?” I couldn’t see anything from my position. “Put me down.”
Ash set me down without a word.
I turned to see Ezra looming in the entryway behind my boss. My boss… standing in my living room. “What are you doing in my house?”
Zeke tilted his head. “Who’s that?”
“My boss. Shane Chasteen.”
Zeke grabbed my forearm, pulling me back when I tried to leave the kitchen to confront Shane. “That’s your boss?”
Ash moved to my side. “Why didn’t you say something, Cyn?”
“I didn’t know,” he muttered, a low growl building in his chest like an animal ready to strike.
I looked at them, noting their strange reactions before meeting Ezra’s icy stare. “What’s going on?”
“Cyn isn’t to blame,” Ezra said, eyes never leaving mine. “He used a glamor spell to hide his true identity. He may have something to do with our predicament, which is why I made him come here.”
Dread tightened my gut as I took in Shane’s face in a horrifying new light.
I’d chalked up all the times I noticed the air around him distorting and a strange smell to poor food choices…
“He’s an infernal,” I whispered.
Ezra crossed his arms.
Ash stepped forward, placing his body in front of mine. “What are you doing here? Who sanctioned your visit?”
“Visit?” Shane’s laugh came out cruel and distorted, sending shivers down my spine. “I’ve lived on this pathetic planet for a year now, Prince Cyriac,” he sneered at Ash, the title dripping with contempt. “As for how I got here? Made a deal with a guy in the Jinphni District.” He shrugged.
“Who? How did you cross?”
Shane looked over his shoulder at Ezra. “I don’t know his name. People aren’t exactly on a first-name basis down there. He offered something to the slipstream, and here I am. Again, I don’t know or care. I wanted out, and he got me out.”
Ezra’s lips thinned. “What is your purpose for coming to the human plane?”
“Got sick of Elyrdin.” He shrugged. “Humans are more interesting.” His eyes met mine when I stepped beside Ash to see better. “So much more interesting.”
Cyn stepped forward and seized my wrist with a clawed hand. I knew he’d shifted at the threat. “I’ll do more than break your fucking arm if you come near her.”
Shane scoffed and looked down at his sling. “A shame I can’t heal like royalty. You certainly surprised me.”
Cyn broke Shane’s arm? Why hadn’t he said anything? While I didn’t get along with Cyn, I wasn’t above allowing him to protect me. I couldn’t fend off an infernal.
“Why did you target me?”
Zeke laced his warm fingers through mine on my other side, his touch reassuring. I wondered why he never transformed.
Shane licked his lips. His behavior and speech didn’t match the uptight boss I knew. “Coincidence, really.” His gaze raked over me in a way that made my skin crawl and Ash snarl.
The way his eyes lingered on my thighs at the hem of my skirt made me thankful for the opaque tights I’d chosen.
“I saw you when Diane brought me to the store to see if I liked the place. After seeing you smile at a customer, I knew I needed to take the position. I wanted you to smile at me like that.”
I shuddered at the hungry expression on his face.
Shane’s upper lip curled in disgust. “Then I discovered your connection to these four.” He snorted. “It wasn’t supposed to go this way. I didn’t intend to return to Elyrdin, so you wouldn’t have known what I was. But then I realized you knew about infernals.”
Zeke squeezed my hand. “What are you saying?”
“Ah, the young Prince Alakai,” Shane sighed, slipping into his managerial tone with a weary air. “I’ll admit I let my anger at her rejection influence my behavior, but I knew I could move past it.”
No means no, asshole.
“We could have moved on. Until I saw you and Prince Cyriac in the food court with her. I even thought that wouldn’t be an issue, so I continued to pursue her. I knew I could convince her to give me a shot, despite how many unworthy humans she’d rejected while I worked there.”
Ash stepped near the coffee table while Zeke and Cyn flanked me. With Ezra at Shane’s back, I felt confident none of them would let Shane near me.
“I didn’t like you. You never got the hint.”
“Not all love stories begin with rainbows and sunshine, Raelynn,” Shane said in a tone one would use to chastise a small child.
“I followed you home one day and saw Prince Kilnejar and Prince Brakeal through the window and realized it wasn’t a one-time thing.
” He adjusted the strap of his sling. “With the princes around, I realized the council might surface, and I couldn’t have that. I didn’t want to go back to Elyrdin.”
Ash’s eyes narrowed. “What did you do?”
“I figured you would leave if I got rid of her, so I spoke with a lesser who stalked her to deliver a message.” He grinned.
“Provoking a horde of lesser infernals to tear into the human plane and come after you was the simple part. Another soul to devour. The hard part was finding a lesser with reasoning skills, but I got lucky.”
Shane’s selfishness was the root of the incessant torment after the princes’ arrival. He wanted me dead instead of facing punishment for coming to Earth.
Still, I couldn’t forget how my encounters with other infernals intensified prior to the guys’ arrival. I suspected a deeper reason for the increased activity. If Shane didn’t want the princes here, he wouldn’t have wanted me to find the book.
His stupidity only added an extra layer of frustration to our problems.
Zeke squinted. “Why didn’t you leave instead?”
“Just like your leader here sniffed out my glamor spell, the council would follow my magical signature and find me wherever I went. If you four left, they wouldn’t show up. I wouldn’t have to give up what I’ve gained here.”
Ezra moved to Shane’s side, studying his face. “So you had nothing to do with our summoning?”
“Summoning? You didn’t come on your own?”
Cyn cursed, and his hand flexed around my wrist. “I can’t believe you tore a rift between planes just to kill a human and avoid punishment.”
“I wouldn’t last one day outside of Elyrdin’s walls,” Shane snapped. “If the council banished me to Moicae, I wouldn’t get beyond Feranzis.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have come to Earth,” Ash said, crossing his arms.
“What’s wrong with it? Who am I hurting?”
“Well, you were gonna have me killed because I wouldn’t date you,” I said, leveling Shane with a flat stare. “Most human men move on with their lives when rejected.”
“I know I could have convinced you,” he said. “If it weren’t for them. Besides, I didn’t try to get rid of you because you wouldn’t date me.”
Zeke frowned. “You just said—”
“You think I’m so delusional I’d tear a rift between worlds because a little human wouldn’t date me?
No. I could have killed her myself, but I wanted no evidence of my connection to her death.
” Shane waved a hand, dismissing Zeke before he could say more.
For standing in the presence of royalty, Shane sure acted superior.
“Though her rejection played a part, I admit.”
A growl rumbled in Cyn’s chest, his body trembling with barely contained fury I felt through his grip on my arm. “Get on with it.”
With a gentle release of my hand, Zeke moved around me. He rested a hand on Cyn’s back, easing the tension in his posture. “Don’t. We need him alive,” he whispered, low enough only Cyn and I could hear.
Ash’s expression hardened. “Why wouldn’t it matter if we found out? What changed?”
“Nothing to concern yourself with, Prince Cyriac.”
Ezra spoke, drawing Shane’s attention from Ash. “What other reason did you have to want to eliminate Raelynn? Why did you change your mind in response to our presence?”