Chapter 36
It was still dark when quiet voices woke Will. He could still feel Elodie and Eric at his sides, their bodies like two suns holding the night inside him at bay.
“What is going on between the two of you?” Eric whispered, and Will decided to keep his eyes closed. Then he felt the man pinch him in the side.
Was this Eric’s attempt to collect his part of their bargain?
“What do you mean?” Elodie shifted away from Will, presumably so she could glare darkly at Eric.
“Do you think I cannot see how familiar you are with each other? He is your employee—yes, a prestigious one—but do not lie to me. You are doing more than merely showing him off. Did you know Katelyn and Balto had planned another prank for him? They only called it off after they saw you at the ball.”
“One prank was enough. It would not be right to torment him any further.”
Eric snorted. “And you are not tormenting him? Let him do his work and find a few ordinary friends. There is no need to drag him into all of this.”
“Does Will strike you as someone who wants an ordinary, quiet life?”
“No. But this should not cost him his life. Look at him. Is this what you want for him?” Eric kept his voice low, but every word was sharp and accusing.
“I didn’t know he would do something like this!”
“But he is clearly doing it for you!”
Will would have liked nothing more than to punch Eric in the stomach and make him stop talking.
Elodie’s fingers traced the dried circle of protection on his chest. “I can’t send him away. He is the first good thing my house has known in a very long time. He is shocked, outraged, compassionate—he is so normal, not broken like us. Is it so wrong of me to want to enjoy that a little longer?”
“You are getting married.”
“I know! We are not doing anything!” Elodie spoke the lie with effortless ease. “I love talking to him, hearing all his wondrous ideas. The house no longer feels so empty with him in it. He is like a kind fairy.”
Eric snorted. “I think he would laugh at you if he heard that. We both know that’s not true.”
“Fine. He looks like a kind fairy.”
“He looks like the fairy from the tale where it seduces you and keeps you trapped beneath the mountain for seven years!”
Elodie laughed softly. “Yes. Dangerous.”
They were silent for a while, until Elodie’s movements stopped. “What is going on between you and him?”
Eric tensed. “What? Nothing. There is nothing.” He said it as hastily as a lie, even though it was the truth.
“Eric Maximilian Arcos. I have known you longer than anyone else in this damned city. Do not lie to me.”
“I am not lying.”
Elodie muttered something unintelligible, then rested her head upon Will’s chest again.
“What?” Eric hissed.
“Nothing.”
“Elodie.”
Her head snapped toward him, her hair brushing across Will’s face. “You are still the same bastard you were before. You pretend to be the hero, and in the end, you take everything from me. I am not allowed to have anything for myself. Everything I want, you have to steal away!”
Will felt Eric recoil. He wanted to reach a hand toward him, but something held him back. What if Eric truly was interested in Will only because Elodie was? Had he not known from the beginning that he was merely a pawn in their rivalry?
“That’s not true,” Eric whispered.
“So you will not take Will away from me?”
“I thought there was nothing between you.”
“Whatever. Go to sleep.”
With that, they fell silent and settled once more at Will’s sides. But the tension remained. Eric no longer placed his arm around them, and Will wondered whether he had never meant to hold them both at all, whether from the beginning he had only wanted Elodie and Will had been caught between them.
A new poison rose inside him. Jealousy ate coldly through his guts, and he felt infinitely lonely between the two people who had occupied every fiber of his being for the past two months. He was helpless, his heart was bleeding, and still he could not stop wanting them.
Tears burned at the corners of his eyes. Why could they not see how beautiful it had been only moments ago? How warm and peaceful they had lain beside one another. If only they could stop hating each other.
Perhaps Will was imagining it all, seeing something that did not exist. Convincing himself there was a place for him here and that he was not merely an intrusion. That he was the bond that could draw them together, rather than the wedge driving them apart.
Eventually, the two of them fell asleep again, and peace returned.
Will savored it as he blinked away his tears.
And for those stolen hours in the darkness, he allowed himself one small lie.
He imagined that the peace was real, that he was permitted to love the two bodies at his sides.
That they had found one another amid the horrors of this town.
But the truth was too loud. Will had killed Saint. He had endangered his friends—if he was even allowed to call them that—and now he was only digging deeper trenches between them.