Chapter 23 #2
And Kes—the most timid person I knew—reached out and traced his cheek with her fingers before taking his face between her hands. “Someone who what, Shane?”
He sighed, and it was as if all of the tension, all of the resentment, all of the hatred left his body along with that single breath of air.
“Someone…” he said quietly, turning his head just enough to press a gentle kiss to her palm, “who loves you.”
She gaped at him in shock for a moment, but then she smiled, her entire face lighting up with joy.
Laughter came next, and then tears, and with one small corner of my heart, I wished I could say thank you to Blake.
For creating a situation so desperate that these two were forced to drop their walls and admit their deepest feelings.
I got up from the couch—determined to give Kes and Shane some privacy—but Kes stopped me.
“Raine. Wait. I need to know that you’re okay with this. With… us.”
Her uncertainty tore at my heart, but I understood her need for reassurance. She had no one else to ask. No one else she could be sure would care enough to advise her.
“Are you safe with him?” I asked simply. “Does he put your well-being before his own? Does he treat your feelings as though they are real and important and worth his time? Does he listen to you and make time for you? Does he respect your scars and see to your needs without you having to ask?”
Tears slipped from her gray eyes and slid down her cheeks.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I’m not afraid of him. And my magic can’t touch him, so there’s nothing for him to fear either.”
Oh, Kes. I almost cried with her as I recognized the pain behind those words.
She’d been used so terribly, she’d learned to fear her own power. Learned to fear being close to anyone, because she might be forced to hurt them. But Shane was half-goblin, and fae and goblin magic had no effect on each other. She could never steal his power, no matter how hard she tried.
“You don’t need my permission, or my approval.” I told her. “This choice is yours, but… I’m happy for you.”
My gaze locked with Shane’s. “I won’t tell you not to hurt her.
You two will hurt each other someday, because that’s inevitable when you care about someone deeply.
But Kes is my sister in every way that matters, so if you betray her, know that I have her back.
And my fae magic might not be able to hurt you, but I can drive a spike of ice right through your heart before you’ll even see me coming. ”
His response was calm, and his golden eyes were clear of enmity. “Fair enough, Kendrick.” He glanced down at Kes. “But you have nothing to worry about. If we’re going to be together, then her family becomes mine. Whether you accept me or not has no bearing on whether I choose to protect you.”
I nodded in acceptance. “Then I will leave you two to talk while I go and try to sleep. Tomorrow…”
It was already tomorrow. And we had so little time.
I could only hope that it would be enough
Those two days passed in what seemed to be only a handful of breathless hours.
We made calls, called in favors, begged for help, layered plans upon plans, but all of it depended on Blake’s next move.
All of it hinged on where he would choose to apply pressure, and by the time the call came, the waiting had begun to seem unbearable.
But it did finally come—at nine o’clock on Wednesday night. Only twelve hours before the march was set to begin.
And it came not to Faris, not to Callum, but to me.
As if Blake still saw me as the weakest link—the most vulnerable to his particular brand of manipulation. And once, that would have been true.
But no more. I’d seen Blake Masterson for who he truly was—as grotesque a monster as Elayara ever dreamed of being.
The call showed on my phone as an unknown number, but I knew it was him. I paused in the center of the team office, swiped to answer, and put the call on speaker without saying a word.
“Hello, Raine.”
That voice stirred so many memories. Reminded me of everything we’d endured together.
Blake, too, had been a victim. Had experienced years of trauma, just as I had.
We could so easily have worn each other’s shoes.
But he emerged from our prison and chose to become our tormentor. Chose to perpetuate the cycle of power.
Being a monster is a choice.
“Blake.”
“I hope you know, this isn’t how I wanted everything to go.”
No doubt he’d envisioned more progress towards world domination by now. “What did you want? A parade in your honor? A statue on the Capitol Mall?”
“I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, Raine.” His voice was so gentle, so reasonable as it echoed across the room. “If you and Kes had come to me in the beginning, when I invited you to join me, none of this would have happened.”
I wondered… Had there been signs, even back then? That the unassuming, middle-aged man with a kind voice would turn out to be a psychopath?
“I’m not accepting responsibility for your actions, Blake. You can try that on your followers, but it won’t work on me.”
I heard a sigh.
“I doubted you would be able to see the wisdom of the future I envision. That’s why I have an offer for you. To help you understand that I have no desire to hurt you, or anyone else who’s suffered what we’ve suffered.”
Here it was—the moment we’d been waiting for. The only question was…
“I’m willing to make all this go away—the protests, the march, even the proposal to register and monitor your Idrian friends. I’m also prepared to ensure that Tairen-li-Corva is released into your care, effective immediately.”
I drew in a deep breath and held it for a five count, consciously willing my rage to subside. Commanding my voice to stay calm and even. “That’s very generous of you, Blake. And what is it you’re expecting in return for this generosity?”
“I understand that you have a new life now. That Logan and Ari are happy and stable, and I would so hate to take them away from that. So I won’t ask you to join me. You should enjoy whatever life is possible with your chosen mate, for as long as he has left.”
I could cheerfully have eviscerated him with my bare hands for that. And yet, somehow, I still held steady.
“Tell me what you want.”
“You know exactly what I want,” Blake said, his tone soft and velvety smooth.
“And it’s a small thing, really. Just one person.
One life in exchange for thousands, maybe even millions.
If you give me Kes, there will be no need for violence.
No reasons for war. Everything goes back to the way it was. ”
Just one life. Because to Blake, that really was a vanishingly small thing.
“I thought tomorrow was just a protest,” I said casually. “Just a peaceful march to gain sympathy for your cause.”
“And what a pity,” Blake replied without even a momentary pause, “if a peaceful march were to end in violence. What an absolute tragedy, if humans exercising their constitutional rights were to be senselessly attacked by untrustworthy monsters, with complete disregard for life and collateral damage.”
And there it was, precisely as we’d feared—Blake’s plan laid out in all its brutal, manipulative glory.
It would be the destruction of The Portal all over again, but bigger, louder, and likely on national TV. With complete disregard for life. It was exactly what we’d predicted, but hearing him say it aloud…
It chilled me as only outright evil could.
“I hear what you’re saying, but you’re asking me to betray someone I care about.” Mentally, I envisioned my hands around his throat, squeezing until he screamed. No… that was too easy. Too good for him. Being eaten alive by rats was too good for someone as twisted and corrupt as Blake Masterson.
“I’m asking you to do the right thing,” he corrected soothingly. “To secure peace and save millions from the chaos and destruction of a drawn-out conflict.”
Pretending it was my fault that he was planning to attack my city, with no thought for the lives that would be sacrificed. Actually, that was inaccurate. He’d thought about them. In fact, he was hoping for them.
“I’m going to need some time to think about it.”
“We don’t have time, Raine,” he reminded me. “The march is tomorrow. And I don’t think I need to tell you that the march itself will be the least of your worries.”
Which, of course, was why he’d waited this long. So I would have no opportunity to consider the unspeakable betrayal of his proposal.
“I can’t make a decision like this in moments,” I protested.
“What if I offered you something more? A little token of my sincerity, to make this sacrifice less distasteful. A chance to help the ones you love most.”
Maybe we should have expected him to play this like a used car salesman, but this wasn’t part of what we’d anticipated. After all, what more did he have to offer? What fresh horror had he prepared to guarantee our capitulation?
My fingers clenched around the phone, while sweat slicked my palm and tension coiled within my chest. “I’m listening.”
“You have someone you love. Someone you’re hoping to make a life with. But it seems he may not have as much time as you originally thought.”
There were no circles of hell hot enough for a man who would threaten me with Callum’s life.
“Strange that you would mention that,” I returned steadily, with a surge of grim satisfaction as he confirmed my suspicions. “Because we haven’t told anyone outside our family. So the only way for you to know would be…”
If he’d been behind the poisoning.
And if he was behind it…
“I have an antidote.”
Every muscle in my body clenched—in denial, revulsion, disbelief, shock. I saw the same reactions mirrored on other faces around the room, but somehow they remained silent.
“We studied the naga venom and developed a way to reverse its effects,” Blake announced.
“And the anti-venom can be yours, if you’re willing to consider taking a different path than this blind worship of outdated loyalty.
Open yourself up to the possibilities. Accept that you cannot control everything, cannot save everyone, but you can save the one you love the most.”
My fingers contracted so hard the phone case creaked, and I heard a brief, startled gasp from somewhere behind me. My magic had escaped its bonds, and when I lifted my free hand, I could see the glowing blue nimbus of my fae power, looking for a target.
“I’m sure right now you’re angry with me,” Blake said, in a tone that suggested this was an amusingly childish response.
“I can even sense you preparing to refuse me. But would it be fair to turn this down without even asking the one whose life and future could be saved? Can you live with yourself if you hide this possibility from someone you claim to care about?”
He was so smooth. So reasonable. So calm and self-controlled as he held this double-edged sword to my throat.
“No,” I said, and if my voice cracked under the strain, can you blame me? “But you have to give me time. One hour, Blake. Surely you can afford to give me that much.”
He actually dared to laugh. “One hour for you to kick against the currents of fate… makes little difference to me. By all means. Take your hour. But if I don’t hear from you before that hour is up, I will have no choice but to assume that your answer is no.”
A pause.
“And Raine,” he murmured softly, “you don’t want that to happen.”
The line went dead…
And I threw my phone across the office. It smacked into the wall, rebounded, and nearly hit Angelica, but she just picked it up and set it on the desk beside her. Each of her movements were cool and detached as usual, but her eyes…
They burned with the unquenchable fire of retribution.
Out of all of us gathered there, Kes was the first one to speak.
“Raine, you know I would…”
“No.” Callum came to stand in front of me, his gaze firmly fixed on mine. “Never. I don’t care if he’s telling the truth. A life purchased at that cost isn’t worth living.”
“I know,” I said calmly. “And I would never negotiate such a deal with him ordinarily. But we still need to locate his base. Still need to find the kids he’s taken. This is our only chance, as long as we’re crazy enough to take it and twist it for our own purposes.”
“He’s confirmed his intent to attack the march,” Deverin put in thoughtfully. “Which I didn’t expect.”
“That’s because he doesn’t truly trust anyone other than himself, so he assumes I wouldn’t either.” He might not even have considered that Kes and Callum and everyone else I cared about would be listening to the entire call.
“And because he knew you would need that motivation,” Kira added. She’d been angry all day, which meant that scales dappled her skin and claws repeatedly appeared at the tips of her fingers. “He had to make the offer too good for you to refuse.”
“He’s still going to attack the march,” Ryker insisted. “There’s no way he intends to keep his promises.”
“I agree.” I nodded. “But this doesn’t change the fact that there’s only one way to win. Only one way to triple his double-cross and end up where we need to be.” I looked around at the people I considered family and told them the inescapable truth. “We have to give him Kes.”
The room went dead. Everyone was left staring at me in stunned silence before erupting in shouts and denials.
“Wait!” Faris’s deep-throated bellow silenced the uproar. “Raine, I know you better than that, but you’d best explain what you meant before Isaacson decides to slit your throat and be done with it.”
I glanced at the goblin and found him staring at me through narrowed golden eyes.
“Oh, stop fussing,” I said wearily. “Do you see Kes freaking out? She knows what I meant. I’m going to find a way to disguise myself as her.”
Kira was the first to point out the biggest flaw in my plan. “Your hair won’t take dye,” she said thoughtfully. “So your disguise wouldn’t last long. What if I—”
“Sorry,” I interrupted. “But no. You’re at least four inches shorter than Kes, and Blake would definitely notice.”
She huffed in annoyance.
If only my fae magic had come with the ability to use glamour. I could have altered my appearance flawlessly, and none of Blake’s people would have been able to detect the difference. Except maybe Heather, but…
“I have an idea,” Shane said coolly. “That is, if you all would be willing to trust me that far.”
The room went tense and silent until Faris spoke up. “I never had a problem with you, Isaacson,” he grumbled. “So hurry up and spit it out. What’s your plan?”
Shane stepped towards me and grinned, with a flash of fangs that radiated malevolence and somehow told me everything I needed to know.
I was going to love this plan.
And if we were insanely lucky?
Blake was going to hate it.