Chapter 14 The Deal #2
“I think we can learn to tolerate each other to get what we want.” Draven’s gaze is unbreaking, and his eyes slide down my body, appraising me.
It feels intentional. He knows exactly what it stirs in me.
“We can make the others believe it. Fated do not bond instantly. It takes time. Every passerby is our audience, every courtier our judge. If they think they’ve witnessed us falling for each other, then we can write any story we want.
I can protect you and teach you to protect yourself.
It will explain why we’ll spend so much time together, while we search for the Arcadian Artifacts—and your family—right under the others’ noses. ”
“You really want to do this?” I point between us.
His full lips coil in the corners, reminding me of a jackal before it snarls.
“Yes.” He really looks me over now, as if he’s measuring all my scars, weighing my worth against his own, testing if I’m the real thing or fool’s gold. “Unless, of course, you have some other pressing proposal? Childish dreams of romance with maybe one of your little study pals?”
For a moment my thoughts stray to Wynter, his soft smiles and pretty silver eyes.
I wonder if he’ll think I stood him up at the ball, or if he’ll have heard the rumors of our abrupt departure.
He is both gentle and kind. But it doesn’t matter, and the more quickly I strike that idea from my mind, the sooner I can move on.
Between him and Draven I don’t even know who I’d choose if I had the choice.
I’d just want someone who’d choose me back, I suppose.
“No,” I say decisively, folding my hands together on the table. “But I’d still like to know what that would look like for us. A story we tell others? Or one we tell ourselves?”
He blinks a bit, the colors in his eyes shifting in an almost dizzying way. I suppose I’ll learn the language there one day. They finally settle on indigo as he swallows, shifting in his chair, leaning against one side, supporting his head with his hand.
“I need you to play your role as my partner, at least right now. But … when the dust settles …” Draven runs a thumb along his fingers, his wings pulling tighter around his shoulders. “I won’t ever force you to remain at my side. When our deal is done … it’ll be in your hands.”
I nod. “My family returned and power of my own. So long as I pretend to be your bride and mate and help you seize your throne.” Anxiety twinges in my gut. It could be years before we track those weapons down. Does my family have that long?
I lean back in my armchair, really taking him in, but … for all his games and arrogance … this seems genuine. And if there’s one thing I can trust, it’s his ambition. “We’ll need to start right away,” I say.
His eyes spark.
“But how do we know we won’t betray the other?” Trust isn’t given, it’s earned. Built. And it takes more than a pretty face and seductive words to gain mine.
“We’ll need a vow that can’t be broken.” He stands and I copy him. He moves like a dark god, limned with dominance, reeking of potential. Beside him, I feel like nothing but a changeling human, with a hope of being his equal in power and no clear evidence it’ll ever come to pass.
I crush the doubt beneath a heel. After all, I was once a girl crying in the snow with nothing. Then I became the Wraith of Westfall. A World-chosen changeling.
I don’t know what destiny has in store, but I have to believe it’s building to something.
He closes the distance strung between us.
“If you do this … you need to understand the level of commitment it will take to make it convincing. Whether you’re in a classroom, or ballroom, the Oval or Hearth, you will have to act as if this is real, at all times.
There can be no romances, no girl talks, no dalliances, no confidants.
Even if it comes to us sitting on the throne, the people can only ever see what you and I create.
It’s you and me against the world. Our fates will be bound, truly fated or not. ”
Standing before him is like standing on the edge of a ravine, a bottomless chasm with no ending. But it doesn’t feel like a choice.
What better path to my family, to vengeance, is there, when this could be a path to more … to justice? He’s offering me a chance to seize power, to have control over my life for the first time. I’d get to choose my fate, the sides I want to play, the people I want as my allies.
His goals would accomplish mine, too.
“I can do that.”
“Convince me.”
I’m startled by his arrogance, by his unwillingness to leap blindly, like I must.
“I came here with one last hope. You have the sway and titles to make it a reality.” I look him dead in the eyes.
“But I won’t live a life as a trophy. I will hold power of my own, you will make sure of it, and it must mean something.
No lies between us. I need to be able to bring them here, it’s not enough just to find them. ”
“You’d force them to come here? Even if they were … happy wherever they are?”
The idea has never occurred to me—except for … well, when I saw my father whole and healthy at the seraph princess’s side. The thought sets my blood to boiling, the rancor burning like acid in my throat. “None of them are happy while we’re all separated. Not after what’s been done to us.”
He tilts his head, his tongue tracing his teeth as if he isn’t sure he believes that.
My veins pulse with liquid-hot rage, but suddenly he speaks.
“I can assure you that all your demands will be met. So long as you uphold your end as my partner and confidant.” A wicked grin slashes across his face.
“Should you fall for me and choose to stay at the end of our arrangement, I can promise you even more.”
I roll my eyes. I’m sure he’s just fucking with me; he seems to enjoy the way my face heats against my will, flames licking my cheeks any time he suggests there could be more between us.
It was fun when it didn’t feel so real, but right now his wanton looks are my biggest threat.
Falling for him would be reckless, a distraction in the face of all this, and I hate how easily he pulls me into him.
“Are you sure you’re able to make this kind of commitment? You don’t seem like the type to keep his cock in his pants. I’m worried you’ll screw this up more than I will.”
He puts a hand to his chest in mock offense. “I always keep my promises, Rune. Especially when they’re tied up in unbreakable magical bonds.”
A tension laces through me. “You’d give up any chance of romance?” He doesn’t seem worried about it. I press on, “Sex?”
“You’re that certain my charm will never work on you?”
I lift an eyebrow at the idiot, crossing my arms, and he swallows, glancing off.
“Second thoughts?” I prompt, forcing a saccharine smile in place.
The devilish lift of his lips sends a heat barreling through me. “Well … at one point, Rune, you’ll need to release some tension. I’m patient.” That same self-assured grin is back in place. “So, no. No second thoughts. I think you’ll break before I do.”
He can’t be the one to hold that power between us, so I snatch it back.
“You’re awfully arrogant. I remember what you said about me in this dress.”
His eyes catch fire.
I wonder if his spite would outlast his desire. I toy with the neckline of my dress. “What exactly did you find so distracting about it?”
He steps toward me until we’re nearly chest to chest and barely have breathing room between us. Then in one slow movement, he leans into the nape of my neck, his whisper a prayer for only my ears. “Everything about you is distracting, Rune Ryker.”
I roll my eyes, tucking my hair out of my face as a fever washes over me. I remind myself of all his promises, ignoring the call of temptation. He lifts his gloved hand to his mouth, pulling it off with his teeth, and the action sets my skin afire.
Maybe I will break first after all.
“So … partners?” Draven holds out his bare hand for me to take, letting it hang in the air.
Three stars are tattooed in the tender space between his thumb and forefinger, and more of the heavy linework I saw on his father curves and juts across the rest of his hand—the outline of the World card imprinted there for all to see.
My heart races in my chest as I wait for some unseen trap to spring, or someone to interrupt this moment, warning me to stop.
But it’s just him and me.
I clasp his arm and feel his thumb trace across the fabric of my inner elbow. “What are those three stars for?”
“That’s my business.” The rebuttal is sharp. He clearly didn’t intend to sound defensive.
“Is this really how you’re going to start this? You’d break the pact before we even begin.”
He huffs out a sigh. “One for each member of my family. Happy?”
I read him over, and though he holds my gaze, part of me wonders if he means the one surrounding him or wherever it was he came before. If he even remembers. More mysteries for me to uncover later, especially if we’re bound in truth.
“Yes. No lies between partners.” I squeeze his arm harder, the muscle beneath the jacket steadying.
My loyalty will come wrapped in golden dressings, my devotion to him second only to my family.
Hells, equal to them, as I can’t save them without him.
Our fates will be bound from here on out. I can swear that. I will swear that.
The smile lurking at the edges of his mouth rises, like a wolf cornering a sheep.
“Then it’s a deal. So long as you hold up your end, I’ll keep mine.”