Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
“ S elene, you have to?—”
“Can you hear me?”
Ronin’s sister’s voice was faint and muffled, and he could barely hear her through the commstone. He’d shipped the device to her, thought it would be an easier way for them to communicate versus writing letters, but he didn’t anticipate how much trouble his tech-averse twin would have operating it.
“I don’t think he can hear me,” Selene mumbled to herself. “Stupid stone. How does this work?”
“You’ve got to?—”
“Hello? Ronin?”
“Put the damn stone under your ear, Leenie!”
Selene released an exasperated huff. “Sheesh, Ro, you don’t have to shout at me.” There was muffled jostling, followed by a few taps and scrapes.
“Hello?” His wolf whimpered at the crystal-clear voice of his twin. Something within Ronin settled, all his restless energy given temporary pause. Selene was the only individual in the world who could soothe him so effectively. Make him feel like he didn’t need the fighting or the fucking or the Delirium.
“It’s really not that hard to operate,” Ronin said. “You’re usually so good with new things. I can’t believe you’re struggling with this.”
Selene laughed. She was not good with new things. Never had been. It was one of the reasons she’d never left Denevrae, the small village they’d grown up in on the outskirts of Aethalia. She’d stayed behind to keep the cottage after their parents had succumbed to True Death and the Empire had come sniffing around, lured by rumors of the largest white wolf bi-form Ethyrios had ever seen. And to persuade him to become a weapon in their war.
Though they were twins, they were polar opposites—Selene shy and reserved, content to live her cozy, provincial life filled with her painting and her gardening and her healing. Whereas Ronin had been ready to escape the moment he’d learned to shift. He’d wanted a life of grand adventure and daring exploits. Had wanted to become someone .
And he had.
Just not the kind of someone he’d imagined.
“How are you? Really?” Concern tinged Selene’s voice. She’d begged him to come home after his caging, but he’d refused. That would’ve been even more pathetic than his current existence. “You staying off the Delirium?”
Selene had a moral opposition to the substance. Had never quite given up her worship of Adelphinae and the Creator Goddess’s tenets of faith espousing equality between Fae and humans. Selene abhorred that Delirium bastardized the true purpose of emotion feedings, an act of worship and communion between the two species. Plus, Selene was of the opinion that banishing the humans to the colonies and forcing them to sell memories was barbaric. Though, she was careful about who she shared those beliefs with these days.
Ronin could still remember the fights they’d had after he’d agreed to join the war. Selene had been horrified to learn that her twin was going to be used to slaughter as many humans as possible. Had begged him not to go. But he was young and hungry and stupid. And craving the acclaim the Empire had promised him. Besides, he didn’t believe in Adelphinae. Didn’t believe in the Fae’s High Gods either.
Ronin didn’t believe in anything other than his wolf and his immortality. Everything else was a myth.
Funny that he, too, turned out to be a myth.
Selene and Ronin didn’t communicate at all during his years as the Empire’s greatest weapon. It was only afterward, when he’d been discarded like a rusted tool, that she’d begun answering his letters again.
Selene’s tender heart couldn’t abandon Ronin in his time of need, no matter how much he’d defied her principles.
“Well?” she said. “Are you?”
“You know better than to ask me that.”
Selene’s heavy sigh weighed on his useless conscience. She’d never stopped trying to get him to be better. Whatever the fuck that meant anymore.
“Just be careful, okay? You know how addictive it is.”
“I can quit any time I want to.”
“I can hear you smirking through this ridiculous stone, and I know you’re lying. You’re drinking one now, aren’t you?”
“Of course not.” He placed his half-consumed bottle of Delirium onto the table as quietly as possible. Right next to the chessboard that sat in stasis, awaiting his sister’s move.
Another reason he’d purchased the commstones—playing chess via letters resulted in the slowest games ever.
“I heard that,” Selene said at the light chink. “Bishop to d7. Check.”
Ronin groaned, moving Selene’s bishop across the board and removing his rook. He pinched the bridge of his nose, not in the mood for another of his sister’s lectures. But he tolerated them. The High Gods knew no one else cared enough to check up on him.
“I’m fine,” Ronin sighed. “For the love of Anaemos, will you stop pestering me about it? Knight to d7.”
Ronin tossed Selene’s bishop off the board, chuckling as he heard Selene do the same through the commstone.
“Clever move, brother.” She clucked her tongue. “What else is going on up there in Kheimos? I’m a bit jealous, actually. It’s been unseasonably warm down here. We haven’t even had our first snow of the season yet. It doesn’t feel like winter without it. Queen to d8. Check.”
Fuck, she was good at this game, her aggressive moves a contrast to her shy, sweet demeanor.
And he knew she was angling for an invite. She’d done so in her letters as well. But he’d never allow her to come here. To see what a complete and utter mess his life had become.
Though his apartment was luxurious, purchased with his fight winnings, it certainly didn’t look it at the moment. Empty bottles of Delirium and greasy take-out containers lined the counters, discarded boots and dirty clothes piled on chairs.
“Maybe I could come visit this year?” Hesitation quieted her voice.
There it was.
“Not this year, Leenie.” He studied the board, searching for his next move.
“You say that every year.”
“It’s not a good time,” he sighed. “Knight to b8. Gotcha.”
“You say that every year, too.” Selene exhaled long and loud, pieces clacking as she removed her queen. “I’m worried about you. You’re up there all alone, thousands of miles away from me, participating in those dangerous, no-magic cage fights. Who’s going to help you if something happens? Who’s going to take care of you?”
“I can take care of myself,” he snarled. “Those fights aren’t dangerous for me.”
“They’re not dangerous for the old you. The one who had back-up.”
Ronin’s wolf huffed. Back-up. Please. If anything, you were my back-up. Silly female.
“I said I can handle myself. Will you fucking stop? High Gods, you sound just like?—”
Ronin stopped himself. He knew bringing up their mother would just upset her. Family was more important than anything to Selene, and despite the fact that their parents had passed peacefully, their deaths had hit her hard. Even centuries later, the grief hadn’t fully let her go. He didn’t need Selene to burst into a crying fit on top of the guilt trip she was laying down.
“My life is about to change in a way that means you won’t have to worry about me so much anymore.”
“How’s that?”
“I have a new assignment. Straight from Imperial Affairs and the High Councilor himself. And if I succeed, they’re going to remove my cage.”
Selene squealed and Ronin nearly ripped the commstone from his ear. “Ro, that’s wonderful! Will you come back home then?”
Ronin didn’t yet know what he would do if he succeeded in getting his wolf back. There were certainly more welcoming places to roam in the fields surrounding Denevrae versus the frozen, lifeless tundra up here.
“Haven’t thought that far ahead. I need to complete the assignment first.”
He told Selene what he’d been tasked with, protecting another operative and posing as her lover while they worked to gather intel on a suspected enemy of the Empire. He didn’t tell Selene who it was. Firstly, the IA probably wouldn’t want him spreading the word about it and secondly, he didn’t want to give Selene any information that could put her in danger if things went…poorly.
“Posing as a lover, eh?”
Ronin shook his head. Out of all the outrageous things he’d just shared with his twin, somehow he knew that detail was what she’d get hung up on.
“Just a job. Don’t get all excited.”
“Is she pretty?”
Ronin scrubbed a hand down his face. Yeah, she was fucking gorgeous. Soft and curvy in all the right places with a strong pair of legs that wouldn’t quit and an ass he wanted to sink his teeth into. Not to mention that lustrous copper hair and a face that males would start wars over.
“I guess. If uptight killer ice queen with a massive stick up her ass sounds pretty to you.”
“Bless the Creator,” Selene cackled. “You like her. Either that, or you’ve finally met a female who’s not so eager to throw herself at you.”
“Both of those statements are false,” Ronin growled.
“Mmhmm. Now I really want to come up there so I can meet her.”
“Trust me, she’s not nearly as fun as I’m making her sound.”
“Rook to d8. Checkmate.”
“ Fuck ,” Ronin exhaled, moving Selene’s white rook down the board. His sister had bested him. Again. In all the years they’d been playing together, he’d never been able to beat her.
A knock followed by muffled voices sounded through the stone. “I’ve gotta go, Ro. I’m having company over tonight.”
Ronin bit back a shocked grunt. Selene kept pretty much to herself, but he was pleased to hear she was making friends back home. “Good for you. Now, when you’re hosting an orgy, you’re going to want to?—”
Selene’s warm laugh settled over him like a comforting blanket. “You’re incorrigible. Trust me, it’s not that kind of get-together.”
Something about the way she said it made Ronin curious to ask exactly what kind of get-together it was, but the voices on the other end grew louder and he didn’t want to keep his sister from her guests. Especially since she entertained so rarely.
“Night, Leenie. Have fun at your orgy. Make safe choices.”
Selene snickered again. “Have fun with your ice queen. Love you, big bro.”
“Love you, too.”
Ronin removed the stone and tossed it onto the table next to his half-drunk Delirium and his lost game. He plucked up the bottle and took another long pull before glancing at the clock on his bookshelf. Just before seven.
He groaned, stretching his arms across the back of the cushions, and gazed out the window. Below the sharp, icy fangs of the Blackspurs, a turret of the Otto estate punched through a gap in the trees, bone-shard white through the black skin of evergreens. Ronin shivered. What awaited him and Mireille in that old mansion in the mountains?
He pushed up off his couch and strode into the kitchen to grab another Delirium.
Is that a good idea? his wolf asked in a bored voice.
“Fuck off, furball,” Ronin said out loud. “You’re the reason I need it.”
His wolf snarled, and Ronin headed to the bathroom to get ready for his date.
Amatu fucking spare him.