Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
PARIS
“What do you mean this is a planned attack?” Medusa demanded.
Anguish held me in a chokehold.
“Tell me!” she barked.
“A human told me about it at the ballroom,” I managed, taking a moment to get the next part out. “She communicated it telepathically while we danced. She—” I stopped, keeping her name to myself.
Sarah. If I revealed her name, I’d condemn her. I couldn’t do that to someone on my side.
Wait. My side? There was only the new side of taking Aidan down now. Only, old habits die hard. Part of me reveled in this. As a thrall, I’d been waiting for this with bated breath. Praying to Aidan for the palace to come tumbling down in fire and vampire agony.
Shit.
Medusa opened a portal.
“Come on,” she said, a bite of disappointment in her tone.
I’d let her down, but a sorry wasn’t forthcoming. It’d slipped my mind, but it also filled me with glee.
Down with the vampires.
Down with that damn palace.
As much as I wanted to kill that voice, it was still part of my discombobulated existence.
What am I doing?
“We have to help Silvanus,” Medusa pressed.
Shit. Shit. Shit. What should I do? Help the vampires when my people were fighting the good fight and finally resisting this fucked-up utopia that’d been forced upon us?
Executioners like me were made pariahs, hunted and killed for being who we were made to be. Chased, hated, constantly on alert, forced to hide, labeled enemies of peace.
This was our uprising, and I should be right there in the trenches with them.
“Paris?”
Ugh. Her voice. Why didn’t she fuck off and help her king herself?
My two parts collided in a dichotomy of hate and empathy. And we were supposed to come together to fight Aidan, right?
I backed away from her, conflicted, sweating just about everywhere.
“Damn,” I breathed.
“We’ll be getting you out of here, Paris. There’s a plan in place to attack the palace within the next week,” Sarah had said.
And then I remembered her telling me the king’s death wasn’t their priority, but bringing down the eight vampire palaces was.
Oh. Shit. Were there multiple attacks taking place right now?
I went to say this, only for Medusa to vanish through the portal, leaving me behind.
I guess I’d made my choice.
Staggering backward, I fell onto my arse, the concrete path hell on my booty.
“By Aidan—no!” I roared. “Stop saying that fucking name!”
The wind howled in response, and I howled right back. My scream a painful expulsion of frustration, tears breaking free instantly.
“I can’t do this,” I wailed. “I can’t do this.”
I pulled my knees up, sobbing into my jeans. I was overwhelmed, my stomach performing a series of backflips.
What now? What happened to Silvanus? Would he be taken prisoner? Ransomed? Tortured until he begged for death?
I pressed my face harder into the denim, eyes clamped tightly shut.
“I don’t want this,” I whispered, tears and snot pouring out of me. “I don’t want this.”
If I stayed scrunched up against reality like this, maybe things would stop spinning so much and sort themselves out.
It’d be great to have zero burdens pressing down on me.
“Delusional prick,” I scolded myself, lifting my head.
They called that burying one’s head in the sand.
“Guilty,” I said, resting my left cheek on my knees.
Check me out being all weak. How pathetic was I? But my head in the sand felt like the best course of action. Not picking a side meant keeping shit at bay. Totally childish, totally irresponsible, and comforting as hell.
Now, how did I get off this island? There were no boats, the pier was out of action anyway, and I didn’t fancy a swim in those waters.
Hmmm.
I got to my feet, wiping my eyes and nose on my T-shirt before taking some deep breaths, letting the cold night refresh me.
Think, elfy. There’s always a way out of this stuff.
Once I had my determined head on, I hurried down the garden path, stepping over the low metal gate before stopping to assess my options.
The path continued in a zig-zaggy descent, cutting through the grassy slopes of the hill down to a muddy beach and the ruins of the collapsed pier.
Maybe not that way.
I scouted the perimeter of the hilltop, finding no sign of anything useful.
“Bollocks.” I stuffed my hands into my pockets, rocking on my heels while I drew on the energy of the island flora.
What about using the wood of the pier to build a raft?
Ha! As if I knew how to make anything other than a mess.
Okay. No being defeatist here. What about something inside the house? There might be an emergency raft in there.
I went to look, rooting through cupboards and a tiny utility room, coming up empty.
Seeing as Silvanus flew, why would he need anything other than his own awesome skills?
Dammit.
Taking a break, I sat on the sofa, where I picked up a trace of his scent. Regret licked over my soul, going to war with the rest of me. Longing also joined the fray, just to screw with me some more.
Fuck this.
I got up to fetch my beer from upstairs. Annoyingly, I’d dropped it, the contents of the bottle spilling across the carpet.
Brain throbbing, I parked myself on the bed. Head between my knees, desperate to figure this out. Because staying here wouldn’t work. Being close to the vampire king was an exercise in pain. For me, for him, for those around us.
If things weren’t so complicated, maybe there’d be space to draw boundaries. But we weren’t that lucky, cursed to think with our dicks and chaotic emotions.
I mean, what the hell? I hadn’t felt anything so intense for a long time.
In fact, I didn’t recall ever being so intoxicated by a man.
Hal wasn’t anything but a fuckbuddy, not the kind of guy to shake my core.
And look at how that’d turned out. He’d begged Silvanus to kill me to save his own life, so the fucker could go hug the nearest hungry shark.
Pfft. What did it matter anyway. After this, the king and I were done, right?
“Shit.” I leaned back on my hands, the onslaught of emotions feral.
Talk about a conflict.
I should’ve gone with Medusa to help move us all in the direction of clearing Aidan’s lie from the world.
Disgusted with myself, I got up, pacing the room for an idea.
“Caer?” I tried.
No answer.
Big shock. Not.
The front door opened.
My heart skipped several beats.
“Silvanus?” I called, my tone squeaky.
No response.
Gingerly, I moved to the top of the stairs, crouching to peek downstairs.
“Hello there.” Aidan greeted me with a wave of his rotten hand.
Oh. Shit.