Chapter 46 #3
“As much as I’d love to do unspeakable things to you, we should really talk about what all of this means.” The disappointment in his voice was blatant.
My face scrunched when his hands fell from me. Backing up, I fell down onto the bed, looking up at him with lustful eyes in the hopes that he’d change his mind.
Dark brows settled upon me, a deep tic in his jaw threatening to tear me apart. “Stop.”
I batted my eyes innocently. “Stop what?”
“Stop looking at me like that.”
My fingers lifted my shirt, reaching my arms underneath and around back to undo my bra. I slipped the straps over my arms, removing the lingerie without showing him any skin. “Like what?”
“You know what,” he grumbled, his voice holding a deep gravel within it as he fought an inner battle with his self-control.
My eyes dipped to the front of his pants, where his desire was painfully obvious.
“Fine.” I shrugged, wiggling to the edge of the bed to pull my pants off, leaving just my top and underwear.
Without breaking eye contact, I crawled across the mattress, settling myself under the covers, where I removed my panties and tossed them at him.
Reflexes as sharp as ever, he caught the black satin in his fist. “Maeve,” he practically groaned, refusing to come towards me. “I’m serious.”
My lips cocked up to the side. Salaciously taunting this man was one of my favorite hobbies. “Me too. Go ahead. Let's talk.”
Though I knew it took an incredible amount of restraint, he moved to the wardrobe, removing a pair of lounge pants and throwing them on the bed. “Please,” he begged. “We really do need to discuss this, and I can’t think straight knowing what's waiting for me under those covers.”
I scowled, but agreed, accepting his offering and tugging the pants over my thighs. When I was decent and he changed into something more comfortable, he joined me in the bed.
For a few moments, I laid in the comfort of his arms, going over the details of our meeting with Franlow, which had gone much as we’d expected after his return—a ton of back and forth, bartering and drawing up a plan.
We ultimately decided that bringing his troops to Lumosia was the safer bet, as it was a less known territory.
We never delved too much into the specifics of what Sebastian and the others saw on their journey. It was almost as if Franlow truly did not want to know.
“So,” I began, nestling further into his shoulder. “What happened out there?”
“We were about halfway to Lumosia when we saw the first one. The look on Azain when he realized we were telling the truth…” Sebastian ran a hand over his face then into his hair as he forced air into his lungs.
“We avoided it, but then they kept coming.
We saw four within a few miles of each other, that's when we decided to split up.
Pia and Kohen stayed en route to Lumosia so they could fill Archer in, and the rest of us returned here.
We saw even more on the way back. We managed to avoid all but one, which Kade tried to kill with his fire, but the flame didn't get deep enough to scorch its heart. Just injured it enough for us to get away.”
“Shit,” I muttered, fishing a stray hair out of my eye. “There weren't any on our way here, though. What changed?”
“I don’t know. But I still want you riding with me when we leave in the morning. I’m not taking any chances out there. It’s probably going to be even worse than when we left it.”
“Wait. So what happened to your face?” I licked the tip of my thumb, using it to wipe clean the dried blood in his brow.
“Oh.” He held a hand to the injury and his cheeks blushed. “Not my proudest moment, but I directed my horse straight into a low lying branch. Smacked me right in the face.”
I refrained from laughing, although it was quite funny.
“How long do you think we need to prepare before we attack?” In my opinion, once Franlow’s soldiers settled in Lumosia, we shouldn’t waste any time.
“I’ll work with Azain to draw up a strategy. I don’t want to waste a single second. The sooner we can kill Bitchmont and his hybrid army, the better.”
“Agreed.” My fingertip traced the tattoo on his bicep, outlining every line of black ink.
“How was it while I was gone?” he asked me, his gaze following my finger.
“Oh it was absolutely dreadful. I had no idea what to do without you. I spent most of my time lying in bed, anticipating your return,” I teased, stifling my laugh.
“Ha-ha,” Sebastian monotoned.
Rolling in his arms, I lifted my nose to see him better. “In all seriousness, it was fine. I spent some time with Sawyer training and we had a good heart to heart.”
“Oh yeah? About what?”
“The future. Kids. He told me that he was adopted.”
Sebastian’s lips tipped to the side. “What?”
“You didn’t know that?” My surprise was evident in my tone. For as long as they’d been friends, the knowledge that Sebastian didn’t know something so important about Sawyer blew my mind. I wouldn’t have said anything, but I thought for sure Seb knew that information already.
“No. He never told me that,” he said flatly, his face drooping before he forced a subject change. “Anything else?”
My face froze.
Sebastian’s eyebrow arched in pure panic. “Oh gods. What?”
When I didn’t speak, he demanded with a low rumble, “Spill it.”
“Don’t be mad,” I deadpanned, rolling to my stomach and lifting myself up onto my elbows.
“I already don’t like this.” Sebastian’s face portrayed a look of betrayal, as if he was thinking about how I had just been alone with Sawyer for days.
“It’s not that bad. Really,” I began, pleading ignorance. “But when Sawyer and I were training this morning, someone may have overheard—“
Sebastian cut me off, running a hand over his face, letting it linger on his jaw to massage the muscle. “Gods, Maeve…overheard what?”
“It’s not a huge deal. But Franlow overheard Sawyer and me talking about my ability to wield the stars and—”
“For fuck’s sake!” Sebastian backed up against the headboard, sitting upright. “You have got to be kidding me,” he growled, his eyes fiery and wide.
I held my hands up in submission. “I handled it. I was honest and told him our theory about Blythe's soul and my body. He wanted to kick us out, but I reminded him how much he needs us.” What I didn’t say was that if Sebastian hadn’t returned when he did, Franlow probably would have kicked us out.
For minutes, silence flooded our room, and for a moment I worried I had lost my hearing.
I contemplated flashing him my breasts to snap him back into the conversation, but instead I waved a hand in front of Sebastian’s face, reeling him back into the reality he seemed to have lost. “Say something. You're scaring me.”
He cleared his throat, unclamping his jaw to scrape his teeth on his lower lip. “Do you understand what this means?” he grilled me, his words so precise and slow that it made my fists clench.
“Um?” I did not want to answer wrong.
“I’ll tell you what this means.”
Thank the gods.
Legs tossed over the side of the mattress, he rose, his back muscles flexing with his movement.
“It means that we have no leverage anymore.
If anything, Franlow has power over us. Sure, he needs our knowledge to keep his kingdom safe, but they don't need us as much as we need them. They can still help themselves without helping us. Now he just has information that he can use against us if he needed to.”
I swallowed a mouthful of spit. “But, he still agreed to work with us. He even said that the less he knew, the better.”
“Well we don’t really have a choice but to take his word for it, now do we?” Sebastian snapped with a sharp turn of his neck, allowing his glacial eyes to ice me out.
My face formed a scowl of all scowls. “I wasn’t the one who let it slip, so if you're going to give anyone an attitude, it should be Sawyer.”
“I would, but you told me to cut him some slack. Remember?”
I found my own footing. “What’s your problem?”
His eyes widened in blatant shock. “You really don’t see the problem here?”
“Of course I see the problem! I’m not an idiot. I just don’t know what you expect me to do about it?”
He huffed a breath through his nose, the air shooting out like smoke. I could tell he was biting his tongue, and though I should have done the same, I couldn’t.
“What’s done is done. If I could turn the clock back, I’d compel Sawyer to keep his mouth shut, but unfortunately I wasn't granted the power of time,” I shot into the silence.
Head hung, Sebastian’s neck shook. “I work so hard to try and protect you, just for it to be undone like it never mattered.”
“It was not undone. It’s just one more person who knows what the world is bound to find out anyway,” I countered, my voice softening. “Let me ask again, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to talk to Franlow again? Compel him to keep his mouth shut?”
“No.” Sebastian’s eyes pinned mine, his pout deadly. “I suppose there is nothing that can be done except pray to the gods that this doesn’t bite us in the ass.”
“Okay, great. Now that we're on the same page, could you show me that you still know how to smile?” I took a chance with the sarcasm, but I had hardly seen the man smile in what felt like a week.
“I’ll smile when there's something to smile about. Currently, the only things in my life worth any sort of facial expression, are things that scare me or piss me off,” he grumbled, crossing his arms over his bare chest.
A frown found its way to my own face. “Which category do I fall under?”
Did I scare him? I wouldn't blame him if I did—not with the power I carried. And I already knew that I pissed him off, so—
“That’s not what I meant.”
The only sound in our room was the tapping of his foot on the floorboards. I broke the stillness, moving to the lamp by my bedside and flicking it off before crawling under the covers.