18. Chapter 18
Chapter 18
I t’s in uncomfortable silence that we’re sitting around the kitchen table, dim lights throwing warm shadows on Lorcan, Raven and Orpheus as they all wait for me to start.
But first things first. I fix my eyes on Orpheus, finding him already looking at me with a million questions in his eyes. “Do you think anyone will be coming to check on us?”
He just looks at me for a moment. “Why,” he answers softly but a little mockingly, “because they heard the unusual noise coming from my house?”
I almost let out a laugh. But then there are the million questions in his eyes again. Answers, he wants answers and, well, I can’t say he didn’t deserve them.
“Orpheus,” I start, making him sit a little straighter. I gesture at Lorcan. “This man’s name really is Lorcan MacArthur, but he’s not my father, he’s a former professor of mine.” Orpheus throws him a fleeting frown and turns his eyes back onto me. “And this…” I gesture at Raven next, finding myself struggling to explain her. “Um, this is Raven, a dear shifter friend who’s been cursed to stay in her animal form.”
“ You ,” Orpheus says forcefully. “Who are you?”
The intense look in his eyes is telling me he’s losing his patience, yet I still find myself hesitating. I’m not just wildly confused and reluctant to speak to him in the first place, I’m also scared of how telling this story will affect me. I feel on the verge of a breakdown and it’s not like talking about the trauma that these past two years have been will help.
Then it hits me. It doesn’t have to be me telling it. “Lorcan,” I say as I turn to look at him with a plea in my eyes.
He throws a suspicious glance at Orpheus. “You trust him?” he grits out.
“If it weren’t for him, I’d probably be dead.”
He lets out a sigh, but then he turns to Orpheus. “Well then,” he starts almost amicably, “you want to know who she is.”
“I was hoping to hear it from her ,” Orpheus snaps, “but yes.”
I look away. There’s a moment of silence before I hear Lorcan ask, “Ever heard of the Aurora?”
I glance at Orpheus, catching surprise flashing through his eyes, but there’s recognition in them as well.
Of course. Even if he doesn’t know, he knows . At least the deeper parts of him do. I watch him slide his forearms down the table, intense focus on his face.
Yeah, no, I can’t be here for this.
“Raven,” I ask my friend using our connection, “could you come tell me when he’s almost done?”
“Of course, Anna.”
I get up, making both men’s eyes dart in my direction. “I’m just going to the bathroom,” I say.
I see Orpheus open his mouth to protest, but the warning look I throw him makes them quickly close shut.
I walk out of the kitchen and go straight into the bathroom, closing the door behind me and letting my body slide down to the floor, my eyes fixing ahead without really registering anything.
It’s because my mind is already rushing back to the moment out there on the terrace, when I felt as if I’d seen him for the first time.
I run my hand down my face. This is all so confusing, I want to pull my hair out, then spend a couple of days staring into empty space, then pull some more of my hair out.
I can’t bear to even think about my next steps. There’s only one thing I know. No matter how dangerous it might be, I need to leave his house, as soon as possible.
It’s the softest knock that snaps me out of it. A delicate beak against the bathroom door.
I get up, open the door and throw Raven a grateful look before I go back into the kitchen.
Yeah, that’s right, I think as soon as my eyes land on him, I’ll just bunk with Lorcan.
I can feel Orpheus’s eyes on me, but I avoid meeting them as I take my seat.
“And that’s the last we saw of her,” Lorcan says, “prior to tonight, that is.”
“The shadows…” I hear Orpheus say. “They’re power lent to her by Baldur?”
I feel him looking straight at me, intently.
It’s Lorcan who starts replying with, “Technically—”
“Yes,” I cut him off, forcing myself to stop acting like a child and lock eyes with Orpheus. His eyebrows shoot up a little, but he stays quiet, waiting. “It’s his Shadow Magic, although…” I shake my head. “The more I see it in action, the more I believe it’s Shadow and Mind Magic combined.”
“Meaning?” comes a question.
“The shadows can inflict damage just as if they were corporeal, but as long as you’re in their grip, they’re in control of your nervous system as well.”
“Will the woman be coming back?” he asks.
“I don’t see a scenario in which she won’t, but… I don’t think she’ll dare come here again.” I get up, planning on announcing my intention of leaving with Lorcan. “Now, if that answers all of your questions—”
“No, it doesn’t,” Orpheus cuts me off. It’s in a lower, softer voice that he asks, “May I speak with you in private?”
I lower myself back into my chair, but I shake my head, my eyes sweeping over Lorcan and Raven before landing back on him. “I assure you,” I say, a plea in my voice, “there’s absolutely no need for that.”
He just looks at me for a moment. “Very well.” With this defiance in his voice, he cuts to the chase, making all the muscles in my body tense up. “Is your intention to simply ignore what the woman said about me?”
I feel Lorcan’s eyes on me even before I hear him ask, his voice strangely hurt, “What did she say about him?”
I guess there will be no avoiding this tonight. “Alright, here goes.” I take a deep breath, glancing around the table. “When I performed the ritual that got us here…” I shake my head. “I mean, it was the only logical thing, to conclude that I had failed.”
“You did fail,” Lorcan cuts in with a bitter little laugh, “you failed spectacularly.”
I catch a frown that Orpheus throws him.
“Well,” I start, not without hesitation, “maybe I didn’t, not completely at least.”
Lorcan throws his arms up. “You either got us to the right time or you didn’t. When exactly did it become a matter of degree?”
I have to fight not to roll my eyes, but most of my attention seems to be on the way Orpheus is looking at me, seemingly with bated breath. “I had Jericho’s lighter in my hand and it was him I was thinking of when I got us back in time. Turns out the lighter was originally Orpheus’s.”
“It sounds to me as if you already have proof enough that she was telling the truth,” Orpheus jumps in with bitterness in his voice, “so why are you so reluctant to accept it?”
For some reason growing angrier by the second, Lorcan demands, “In the name of Lycan, will someone tell me what’s going on?”
It takes effort, simply because there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to know, a part of me that feels life is complicated enough already.
But that’s the part of me that’s gotten me in this mess in the first place. “Lorcan,” I force myself to start.
He quirks an eyebrow.
“Before he got rid of her, Serra called Orpheus my mate,” I finally say. Then I rush to add, “But that’s just not possible, right?”
*
I see surprise flash through Lorcan’s eyes. Then he looks at me as if I’m mad. “Why would you listen to a word that comes out of that woman’s mouth?”
“Or better yet,” Orpheus cuts in through gritted teeth, “why are you insisting on getting him involved in this?”
“It was him who tracked Jericho down,” I insist. Then I turn to look at Lorcan again. “Lorcan, I need you to tell me exactly how the Aurora’s mate can be identified.”
With that, I keep breathlessly staring at him.
“It depends on the bloodline,” he starts with a frown, “but your mates have powers that help draw you to them. Bane could shift his eyes, that’s how I found him.”
His eyes… A sad smile tugs at my lips before the anxiousness kicks in. “What would a fae have?”
With the corner of my eye, I see Orpheus lean forward in anticipation.
“He would be able to enter your dreams,” Lorcan says.
Enter my dreams? The words make me draw in a breath, my mind starting to buzz like crazy.
Then my eyes dart to Orpheus, finding him leaning back with a frown. “That’s not a power I have,” he says in a low voice.
“There you go,” Lorcan says with a sigh of relief.
I tear my gaze away from Orpheus and fix it ahead, frowning.
“Anna?” I hear Lorcan call out.
I grit my teeth. “What would it feel like, Lorcan, what you’re talking about?”
He frowns. “Feel? How would I know? It’s said that it can only happen in the Fae Realm, which makes it highly individual and indescribable, but… I guess the dreams would be more realistic.”
He pauses and then glances between the two of us with the realization hitting him. “Have you two been appearing in each other’s dreams?”
Orpheus and I lock eyes. I watch his eyebrows pull down and his face flush as I feel blood rush to mine as well. As if in a haze, I just look at him then force myself to tear my eyes away. It’s on one of the dim lights in the corridor that I fix them.
Understanding this as the yes that it is, Lorcan jumps in, “Wait a minute, Anna. How long has this been going on?”
Fuck. I run my hand down my face.
“Since her first night here,” Orpheus answers in my stead, his voice low and tense.
Great. Yet another proof that this really is happening.
I take a deep breath and turn back to Orpheus. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
He just looks at me for a second. “Tell the woman who barely wanted to speak to me that I’d been making love to her in my dreams?” he asks. “Yes, someone throw me in prison already.”
“So you didn’t know you were entering my actual dreams?”
His jaw clenches. “I thought I was dreaming,” he replies with hurt defiance in his voice. “This wasn’t the Fae Realm that I know. It was… different.”
Then he looks away, making me regret even asking.
“Exactly, different ,” Lorcan jumps in, making me turn to look at him. “You never suspected anything, Anna?”
My eyebrows pull down. “I thought it was Jericho.”
He swings an arm in Orpheus’s direction. “In his body?”
“And what was I supposed to think?” I snap defiantly. “In this point in time, the Aurora doesn’t even get born. Isn’t that supposed to apply to her mate as well?”
Lorcan lets out a sigh. “Apparently not.”
I feel Orpheus’s eyes on me, but I don’t find it in myself to even glance at him.
“This doesn’t change anything, though,” Lorcan asks, this weird hesitation in his voice, “does it?”
For a moment, I just look at him, afraid to take a single step in that direction. “There will be plenty of time to discuss that tomorrow. Right now…” I get up and glance around the table, finding only somber faces. “It’s been a long day and I think we should all go to bed.”
“Go to bed?” Lorcan protests as he gets up as well. “What do you mean? You’ve just been attacked by that monster of a woman. You need to leave this place.”
“She’s not going anywhere ,” I hear Orpheus say in this final tone of voice. When I turn to look at him, he’s also standing, scowling at Lorcan.
For a moment, I just watch them stare each other down.
“No, Lorcan’s right,” I finally say. “I think I’ve put you in enough danger for one night, Orpheus.”
“No,” he says with a determined shake of his head. “You’ll sleep in your room and I’ll be right outside in case anything happens.”
I open my mouth to protest because this sounds too much like a prince’s command. He doesn’t give me a chance though. Looking at Lorcan, he adds, “You’re welcome to stay as well, if that would ease your mind.”
Lorcan is shaking his head, but I’m so unbelievably tired and I’m finding myself unable to keep ignoring how unsafe I feel at the very thought of leaving. “Alright, but just for the night.”
I see his eyebrows shoot up at that, but the next second, Lorcan is coming to stand between us, flushing with anger. “You’re seriously choosing to ignore my advice?”
For a moment, I consider telling him with how much ease Orpheus managed to get Serra to leave, but then I get this feeling I might end up getting myself into an even lengthier discussion with that. So I just say, “I think this might be the safest place for me tonight, Lorcan.”
He blows out a frustrated breath. “You know,” he says bitterly, “I thought you’d matured, but sure, have it your way, as always, Miss Novak . Just don’t expect me to shed any tears when I find your dead body in the morning.”
With that, he turns on his heel and starts walking out of the kitchen. I roll my eyes. “Good night to you, too, Lorcan,” I say amicably as I follow him out onto the corridor, meaning to see him out.
But he just grunts and storms out of the house, leaving me standing there with the door into my room to my left, and Orpheus and Raven behind me.
“I’ll stay close, Anna,” Raven comes to tell me.
“Thank you, Raven,” I say as I turn to give her a smile. She flies away.
And now it’s just the two of us.
It’s with a lot of hesitation that I turn to look at him, finding him getting settled right across from my door. He stops to look up at me. I open my mouth to say something, even though I have no idea what to say.
“You clearly don’t want to talk to me,” he snaps, “so do me a favor and stop pretending it isn’t so.”
Watching him go back to settling in, I hesitate. He did just save my life.
This time, he doesn’t look up, his voice sounding a lot more tired as he says, “Please, just go to bed, Anyi.”
I nod although he’s no longer looking at me. Already breathing a sigh of relief, I get in my room and close the door behind me.