Chapter Thirty Damien
Chapter Thirty
Damien
When I looked back at the Void for the first time since we’d reunited, I spied the smoke originating from the docks.
Someone had bombed the ships. Possibly with people still inside.
Or maybe it had been a rescue? I had to believe in the second option.
Everett had certainly made it clear it hadn’t been him or the woman he worked with, after all.
I’d been too focused on chasing Everett and wondering about my birth parents to fully take in the moonlit destruction. Somewhere along the way, I’d felt myself being pulled, a small hand wrapping around my waist. I didn’t shake it off. Not her.
While a huge part of me wanted nothing more than to bolt to the Broken Wing and drink myself into a stupor, she kept me grounded. Kept me from running.
The worst part of it was that she had no idea of the ghastly truth.
What I had done to her.
How I’d deceived her.
Would she stay after learning the truth? I doubted it. So I held on to her, knowing our time was running out—that my kin were somehow tied to this monstrosity too.
If what I’d heard was true, Everett had a brother. One that could be me.
And I loathed him. Had hated him from the second I laid eyes upon him, and not simply because he courted Wren, though that didn’t help.
No, I’d sensed a darkness lurking beneath the blue of his eyes that had put me on edge when I’d relieved him of his wristwatch, posing as a waiter.
He’d glanced at me for just a moment, long enough for my skin to crawl.
My companions and I continued walking in silence. All of us deep in thought.
I dared a glance at Wren, noting her attention moving to the people living in the south, the ones without homes.
They camped outside alleys or homes, children and elderly alike.
That was how it worked—the wealthy kept rising while suffocating the less fortunate.
It was a vicious cycle that kept on repeating, and I’d watched several succumb to the hunger, the backbreaking work, the cruelty they experienced each day.
“This needs to end,” Wren whispered, quietly enough that I didn’t think she intended for me to hear.
It was a reflex to slide my own arm around her waist. It felt natural, like we’d done it thousands of times, and my heart didn’t thunder in panic.
How could it when she looked at me like that, water filling her eyes, staring at me like I was a hero? “We need to do something, Damien.”
Change didn’t occur overnight. She knew it too. Maybe that was why she slumped in my grip. A throbbing ache pulsed in my shoulder where I’d been stabbed, but I ignored it.
I could run as Ruby suggested, but I suspected my friend would change her mind once the dust settled. She, too, wasn’t one to run, and it could’ve been panic that caused her to act out of character.
“First we focus on the people that were taken,” I said solemnly. “We figure out where they were headed. It was Hockley’s ship, so he must keep some sort of record hidden in his study.”
They’d likely been brought to the palace, but there was also the chance that someone had taken them to our second enemy.
By the time we stepped over the boundary separating the Void and the north, all of us shuffled to a halt, beyond tired.
“Still can’t believe that my father is such a monster. I mean, I knew he wasn’t a good man, never had been, but…” Grayson scrubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t think I can go back there. Back home.”
I looked at him, possibly for the first time without jealousy coursing in my veins. He appeared beaten. Broken.
For a fraction of a second, a mere blink, an image of Grayson with blood pooling from his mouth crossed my thoughts. I squeezed my eyes shut, and when they opened, all traces of red vanished from his lips.
These damned hallucinations. They wouldn’t leave me be.
“Stay with me, Gray,” Ruby offered. “I have a couch that’s uncomfortable as all hell, but we can pile it with blankets.”
Grayson craned his neck, a hint of a smile on his face. “Thank you,” he said sincerely, eyes creasing. “I’ll take you up on that offer.”
The fact that he was sickened enough to leave the comforts of his palatial home surprised me, yet warmth spread, a kind of hope, I thought. Grayson was the new generation of lords. He’d take over when his father stepped down.
Perhaps things could change in time.
Fuck. Now I sound like Wren. Optimistic and hopeful.
Ruby nodded to me knowingly before leading Grayson away. Wren lifted her hand in farewell, but it was half-hearted.
How could we go up against the lords? And who had bombed the docks? Friend, or foe?
Wren shuffled along with me as I led her to her town house. That trust she placed in me made the guilt weighing on my shoulders unbearable. I should tell her now. Well, not tonight, but soon. Tell her I’d taken her locket.
I would, I decided, once her head cleared and the terror of the evening wore off.
“Stay with me?” she asked outside the entrance of her home. We’d come through the back, her garden free from prying eyes.
“Stay,” I echoed, throat tightening.
“I’m here, right here, Damien, and I need you.” Wren’s eyes pleaded with mine, the unspoken words causing my breath to catch.
What she didn’t grasp was how much I needed her, too.
She became utterly still when I kissed her temple. Wordlessly, I held her, rocking slightly, soothing my frayed nerves. Her frayed nerves.
She clutched me tighter in reply, nuzzling my hair, my shoulders, my cheek. I felt a hint of wetness touch my skin. To think that just hours ago I’d nearly thrown such a gift away. Believed she would toss me aside once she grew bored of a southerner.
“You say that now, sunshine, but you can leave Andalay if you’d like. You’ll be safe from all this.”
The thought of her being caught anywhere near another bombing or in the hands of a murderer scared me half to death. And I’d only been frightened once before in my life: the day Cap found me in the snow, half alive and on death’s doorstep.
She lifted her chin. “I won’t abandon you. Not if you don’t lie to me. Not if you stay.” Wren’s smile strained. “Fight with me.”
I pictured it then—all of us reclaiming our city. Discovering the connection between the Fates and the mystery woman ordering shipments of people on her own. Flashes of possibility assaulted me, Wren the center of every one of them. Of justice doled out. People saved from a cruel death.
It hurt. Fates, it hurt to see things that might never be. Yet the look she gave me now, wide-eyed and pleading, barred any words of dissent.
“I’ll stay, but you may not want me to.”
When she ran her palm over my stubbled cheek, I leaned into it, embracing her delicate touch. It was something I’d craved for so damned long: to feel her touch me like this without needing a lie or an excuse.
Tonight, seeing her with Grayson made me realize how selfish and foolish I’d been. How I’d nearly lost her to my own pride and ignorance.
I liked Wren Hayes. My enemy’s daughter and princess of Ward One. I liked her to the point that I woke each morning thinking about when I’d see her again. When she’d yell at me for saying something arrogant. Her small smiles that she tried to hide that were meant just for me.
“You’re not leaving my sight, Damien,” she said fiercely. “Besides, as much as you vex me sometimes, you make me feel safe.” She glanced away. “I really want to feel safe right now.”
“I can do that,” I promised without thought. If nothing more, I could protect her heart tonight.
It was tomorrow and the days to come that worried me.
Wren led me through her home, hand in mine.
I studied the boards on the stairs she avoided, and we crept to her room without making a sound.
She shut the door behind her and silently brought me to her bathroom to sit me on the edge of the tub.
Since the pipes were old and produced too much noise, she didn’t turn them on, but she did dip a washcloth into a basin of fresh water beside the sink.
I gazed up as she approached, stunned by her beauty.
Her kindness. My heart swelled as she cleaned my face free of grime, when she checked my stab wound, when she took off my threadbare jacket.
In the end, she got down on her knees and took off my shoes.
My throat tightened as she peered up at me, and I knew then and there it didn’t matter who she was.
Goodness couldn’t be faked or replicated, not forced.
Wren might not have a gift with her now or be influential among her peers, but her empathy set her apart.
“Your turn.” I got up and gently lifted her until she’d taken my place on the edge of the tub.
Snagging a fresh linen, I went to work, wiping the streaks of grime from her face, making sure I didn’t press too hard on her skin.
With her face clean, I took in her dress.
It didn’t appear to have laces or buttons, and I dropped to my knees like she’d done for me, taking off her boots instead.
I was surprised by how scuffed they were.
“I go hunting with him sometimes. It seems like it’s the only time he’s proud of me,” she said hoarsely, noticing where my attention strayed. “I like them worn in.”
Tonight, she’d found out her father was beyond worse than a simple devil in disguise.
Tonight, I’d found out I had a brother. A family who’d abandoned me.
Tonight, I’d decided I wouldn’t run.
“Do you need help undressing?” I asked, eyeing the tiles of the bathroom like they held all the answers we sought.
“Damien,” she said, forcing my chin up. She smiled at the tremble in my words, and once more her hand cupped my cheek, cradling it like I was someone precious. I felt weightless, and the sensation sent a spike of fear coursing through me.
Rising, she gave me her back before moving her long hair out of the way. “Can you undo the ties?”
I hadn’t realized there were a few ties close to her neck.
With hands that shook for an entirely different reason besides fear, I yanked on a bow, watching as the silk slid free.
Small loops ringed in metal held the ribbon in place, allowing the user to tighten the garment.
I loosened them as well until I slid the fabric away.
My fingers grazed her bare shoulder and she shuddered.
“I stole some ointment for you,” she admitted. “It was in my father’s bathroom. It should help heal your wound faster.”
My hands paused their work, not wishing to leave.
“Thank you.”
She nodded and turned. “I’ll apply it after I change.”
I expected her to usher me out the door, but every muscle locked when she pulled the sleeves of her dress from her arms and allowed it to slide down her body.
The world faded. There was just a goddess standing before me in nothing but a see-through chemise. My heart pounded, my eyes roaming her form. Her perfect body of curves and wondrous, supple handfuls. She met my gaze before her hands drifted to my shirt, pausing on the first button.
It was a question.
I’d lose her to the truth. I shouldn’t be doing this—
“Damien.” Fuck, my name on her lips debilitated me. Froze me in place. I could see nothing but her. “I want to forget tonight. Please.”
My heart rate picked up.
“Wren…” I pleaded. “You’ll regret it.”
“I won’t. No matter what,” she argued. “I know my own mind. Trust that.”
I trusted nothing now.
But she stole every ounce of willpower I owned when she rose up on her toes and fused her lips to mine.