Chapter 24
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Titus
“You can slap glasses on my face and put a cloak over my amazing body, but I’m not fooling anyone, Titus.” Tristen playfully fixes his hair as he sits at Selene’s vanity. He picks up a bottle of perfume and smells it before he sets it down and continues to snoop, opening the small drawers.
Selene and I plotted; Everett must have wanted us to look in Blackthorn’s library. We don’t want Galen to grow suspicious since Selene has never visited the library, so we’re sending Tristen tonight.
“Have you ever seen scholars?” He grabs her hair comb and brushes the sides of his hair. “They are not muscled and sexy like me.” He sinks a fang into his lip, as if I’m the target he’s seducing.
I snatch the comb from his hand. “Stop touching Selene's things.” Stop putting your scent all over what’s mine!
The color drains from my face. That’s why he’s doing this.
Tristen’s eyes narrow. “We need to leave before you make a public mistake,” he hisses.
“I can’t leave.”
His sigh is a mountain of disappointment that kicks me in the gut. Turning, he grabs one of her makeup brushes and spins it between his fingers. He’s trapped in a role, as am I.
“I will not fit in,” Tristen shrugs dramatically. “And you know me. I hate missions where I’m doomed to fail.”
I look him up and down. “Just pretend you’re chasing tail,” I suggest.
“You want me to sleep with the librarians?” Tristen flashes a flirtatious smirk. “That’s a mission I can nail down, pun intended.”
Scratch that. I’ve had the unfortunate circumstance of being in a room next to Tristen when he has company. No wall is thick enough to stop the screams of pleasure my brother causes. If he does that in the library, he’ll be kicked out and banned.
“No, just pretend,” I correct him.
“Pretend what? That my dick is a bookmark they can slip between their pages—I mean legs?” He winks, then looks back in the bathroom mirror and grins haughtily at his reflection.
“Tristen,” I sigh and close my eyes as I lean against the door.
All I smell is Selene when I inhale. I hear her grabbing clothes off the hanger in her closet.
“We need this. Use your magic, hide in the shadows, and find us any books on Caldara that you can. If you have to flirt to get help, then do it, but keep your dick in your pants,” I order. “I don’t want them to remember you.”
He stands suddenly, grabs my shoulders, and jerks me forward until the tip of my nose hits the mirror of Selene’s vanity.
“Hey!” I shove back. The gold foil of the mirror frame catches my eye. It’s adorned with carved roses. I’m starting to hate those flowers. They’re everywhere, reminding the people that Galen is always watching.
Tristen nudges my eyes towards our reflection. “Have you seen my face?” He grins from ear to ear. “No one can forget perfection.”
I spin around. “You’re an idiot. I take it back; don’t ask for help. Hide in the shadows and look for any books on Caldara you can find.”
He crosses his arms in protest. “The library is huge. Do you know how long it will take me without asking for help?”
“Do what you must.” I walk back to the wall and stand like the guard I am supposed to be portraying.
Selene exits her closet, dressed in her leathers again. “If you two are done bickering, I am ready to go train.”
Look up. Don’t look at her hips. My chest feels too tight for my heart. She’s the key to unleashing the tension, but she’d rather keep me bottled up.
Our eyes clash, feet planted firmly. I wait for Selene to crumble, to admit what’s happening; she waits for me to acknowledge we can never be.
Tristen steps in front of me, blocking my view. He tries to open the door, but Selene grabs his hand. My forearms flex with a need to switch places with my brother. She touches him so easily, like his skin isn’t fire that burns her.
“Tristen, I’ve been thinking,” Selene states, head held high, eyes ignoring me, “when you go to the library tonight, start in the map section.”
“Map?” he asks. “I thought we needed a book.”
“Caldara is a location. The curse is irrelevant, I think.” She bites her inner cheek.
“You think?” Tristen raises a shoulder. “If I break out in nasty oozing hives, you'd better run, because I will hunt you down.”
Selene’s eyes bounce from the door to Tristen. “I do hope you can control your replies when you’re in the king’s presence. He’d have your tongue for speaking back to me,” she warns him.
“There is a long list of people who wish to play with my tongue, Queen Selene.” He steps back and bows mockingly. “Oh, my mistake.” He bows again, more formal this time.
Selene glances at me with concern. “Children have better manners.”
“He's trying to make you smile.”
Her lips form a line. “Why?”
I glance at my brother. The truth is, he’s triggered by tense, quiet atmospheres. After we lost our parents, each of us was tossed on a horse, forced to ride for hours with our new guardian until we reached the training orphanage we’d call home. The wind was so strong it stole voices.
We rode, letting nature carve us into shells. My eyes were raw from the wind, but I kept them fixed on my brother’s hands. I was so worried he'd let go of the reins and fall off.
We didn’t have accelerated healing then. We were no better than humans until we came into our magic. The cold caused his hands to shudder; his knuckles looked as delicate as thin white eggshells. Then, the shaking stopped; his hands turned to iron, numb and unmoving.
Each time I get on a horse and hold the reins, I recall his little hands.
Now, when the mood becomes too much, Tristen makes people laugh, scream, or shout, anything but silent thinking.
“Because when you’re stressed, it makes my brother react.” Tristen’s voice is all sharp edges now.
Selene turns her head and stares at her bed. “I think better in silence,” she mutters as she clasps her hands behind her back. That’s her form of apology.
“Oh, my lovely queen, it would be a travesty to deny you my voice, especially when you have been caged for so long. I’m trying to redefine how entertaining vampires can be.”
“I make my own definitions,” Selene responds. “Trust me, you do not wish to hear what I think of you.”
“Oh, but I do.” Tristen playfully tries to link his elbow with hers.
He’s testing me again. Touching and flirting with Selene, so when it happens in front of an audience, I will not react.
She slips her arm free but doesn’t scold him. There is a new light in her eyes. Tristen has a unique ability to make anyone feel at ease. Sometimes, I wonder if it’s untrained magic that he never focused on.
She rests her hand on the doorknob, looks at me, and asks, “Ready?”
In other words, do I have my emotions under control?
“I’m ready to do a lot of things, my queen,” I hiss under my breath, shoving my gulp down. How can she be so strong, fighting against the pull?
“Let’s go train and get some fresh air,” Tristen suggests, but his eyes push into me like hands shaking sense into me.
“Wait,” I step forward. “Why are you so sure we need a map?”
“It’s a location,” Selene firmly states, avoiding my eyes.
I slide between her and Tristen. “I’ve been honest with you, Selene. I’ve told you everything. My life is in your hands. My brother’s life is in your hands.”
“I know.”
Wow, she actually looks concerned.
“Then be honest with me. How are you certain it’s a location?”
Her tongue runs over her teeth. “Because Everett told me it used to be a kingdom. He rambled many things; some I can reveal, others I cannot.”
My nostrils flare with her sweet scent. “And why is that?” What are you hiding from me?
She’s good at masking her face so others can’t see her genuine emotions. “Everett told you if you were aware of the end, you would change it,” she says carefully.
I banish the air between us so our hips press against one another.
Selene’s eyes widen, and the tips of her pointed ears turn a faint cranberry hue.
Her lips part with a moan I wish I caught on my tongue.
Her foot slides forward, trying to move her closer.
She looks good covered in my shadow. “And do you know how this ends?” I urge.
I can’t help it; I reach up and cup her jaw, tilting it up.
Her next breath is sharp, quick, and… full of lust I wish I could sink my teeth into.
“Titus,” I listen to Tristen’s warning and disregard it.
“N… no,” Selene says. “I recognize we all will have to make sacrifices.” Her words falter as her lips part and inch towards mine.
That’s it.
Deep in my gut, I know she’s my mate. We’re unfortunate that our mark remains hidden, but sometimes mating marks take time to appear. Other times, they scar your skin when your eyes first meet.
“Stop fighting me. You won’t win.” I flatten my palm over the curve of her ass.
There, she’s surrendering. She pushes up on her toes so she can kiss me.
Before it happens, before we both commit a high crime, Tristen shoves us apart. Selene gasps, caught off guard, then recovers.
He flashes his fangs. “Stop! Now!” he commands me.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Selene sneers.
Is she snapping at Tristen for stopping us, me for forgetting my place, or herself?
“I could ask you the same!” Tristen shouts as he steps between us.
The truth is painfully clear. I almost kissed the queen. It doesn’t matter that she was meeting me halfway. They would find me guilty and kill me.
“Are you my mate?” I ask. I need her to say it.
“Titus!” Tristan rushes me and slaps his hand over my mouth. His eyes beg me to take back the words, just as he did when I told him our parents died.
I grab his wrist and tug it down. Say it! I glare at Selene. Meet me halfway.
Selene covers her mouth and turns away. “I don’t love people, Titus. I don’t know how.”
Let me teach you.
Gods, I want to say it out loud. I want to steal her away, forgetting everything we have to focus on.
Did Everett anticipate this outcome? Did he warn her? Is that why she denies me?
She presses her palm to her stomach. “Tristen is correct. We need to be careful.” She slips on her infamous mask—cold, detached, and unreasonable.
“Anything you believe you are feeling is just a fabrication. I’m sure bedding another will quell the sparks.
” She coughs again. “Tristen, I will spar with you today. I need to be more mindful of the distance Titus and I need to have.”
“You want me to sleep with someone else?” I snort. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.”
Tristen hangs his head.
“I hear you, Selene, but I’m listening with my eyes, too. I saw you flinch. How long can you keep this deception going?” I fume. “How long do you think your fingers can keep the need at bay. You need me! Every inch of me, every part. Me, your mate.”
“Stop,” she breathlessly whispers as her cheeks redden.
“Are you telling yourself to stop? It sounds like it. Stop slipping your fingers into your aching core when you bathe, stop thinking of me and how I will claim every inch of your body. Stop Selene. Go on, stop fantasizing about me because I know you are.”
“Stop,”
I chuckle, “That sounds like a whine a beggar makes. A plea. Beg me to make it stop and I will, Selene. Beg me to do something. Gods! Anything. Claim you! Reject you. Beg! I’m imploring you for anything but this current state.”
“I can not change it,” she snaps as she presses her thighs closer together.
I grab her wrist and hold her hands high, “For far too long, men have tried to make women think they can not do anything. I’m not that type of man.
These hands,” I shake them vigorously, “can change anything. Do anything. I wish they would. How do I convince a bird that’s been caged all its life to learn to fly?
Jump! Yes, we might fall, but eventually we will soar. ”
Her bottom lip trembles, shaking tears free from her eyes. I kiss her knuckles, then swiftly drop them.
Her gasp of agony over my abandoned touch will haunt me. But I will never force her. I am not Galen. She has to want this.
“Sometimes we lie to protect those we,” her breath catches. She was about to say a word she claimed never to have known.
Love.
Turning, she swings open the door, shattering the silencing spell over the room. “Come, we have more important things to focus on.”
Tristen strides forward and slaps me. “If Everett’s magic didn’t kill you, this will. What the fuck? I warned you.” He tugs his hair. “We need to leave. Now.”
“She’s my mate.”
He punches my jaw. His lips curl back, revealing his fangs. “You’re dooming yourself.”
“Mating bonds have laws,” I dispute, losing my patience.
His gaze rakes over me. “Laws?” he spits. “You think Galen respects the laws?”
“This is not the first time in history a royal has been bonded to someone lesser.”
His eyes search my face, and then he grabs my shirt with an iron grip. “You are not lesser, brother. It matters that she is married to a raving, murderous lunatic who has armies. We might be soldiers, killers without a home or titles of value, but we have things to lose.”
The plea in his voice would make a monster see reason. But the bond in my chest doesn’t care.
“We have Ember, Ryker, Nero, and Cyrus. Think of them when you want to sink your fangs into her.” He pulls me into a hug.
Slowly, I hug him back. “I can keep it hidden.” I say.
It’s not true.
Tristen breaks our hold and snorts as he shakes his head. “He’s a tip, brother. Learn to lie better.” He stomps to the door. “She’s the queen; she cannot be your mate.”
Why can’t she be both? Everett said I was meant to be a king. Therefore, Selene could still be a queen.
My queen.