Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
I hesitated to let them in.
“Luna,” Areleus’s voice called from the other side. His urging served as a warning and likely the only one I’d receive. The only reason I heeded it was from fear of what they’d do to gain entrance if I refused.
Once I opened the door, my eyes dropped to Areleus’s arms, searching for the tell-tale marks of his magic restrictions. They were gone. Moving with his signature lethal grace, he slipped by me, taking command of the room. Midnight-blue slim shirt and cobalt pants showed a fit body that belied his presented age. A shrewd malice lingered in his eyes as they landed on me before moving to his son. Helena’s outfit of white pants, jacket, and a terracotta midriff shirt, along with the elaborate twists in her hair that formed a crown of her head, gave a deceptive impression. A fashionable menace. I glanced at Emoni, looking for any signs that she was falling for the false presentation.
“Why are you here?” Dominic asked, his tone icy, narrowed eyes piercing them.
“If you weren’t in such a rush to return to your”—Areleus frowned—“ Luna , you’d have noticed the shades are gone.” I knew he’d wanted to say ‘human toy.’ Using my name made me real and not just an animation that could be dismissed. Presenting me as more than a plaything that they didn’t understand.
Anand’s and Dominic’s sudden intake of breath filled the room.
“All of them?” Anand asked.
Areleus nodded, looking at Emoni who crept away to the farthest corner, correctly reading the danger they posed. Her easing away was interrupted by Helena rushing over to her.
“I see you’ve acquired another one,” Helena whispered, her eyes trailing the length of Emoni’s body with a pleased smile. She reached out to touch the spiral of curls that had pulled from her tie. Emoni blocked her hand. When she made another attempt, Emoni knocked her hand away.
“Don’t touch me,” Emoni demanded.
“But I want to.” In Helena’s world that was all that mattered.
“That sounds like a ‘you’ problem,” Emoni snapped back.
Undeterred, Helena made another attempt. Emoni pushed her hand away. “I’m being polite. You won’t like it very much if I stop.”
I think she would. A woman who suggested taking off my finger then invited me to dinner probably saw this as flirting.
“I like this one. I see the interest.” She flashed a dubious brow arch in her brother’s direction.
“She’s not mine,” Dominic said, and Emoni and I both skewered him with a look. I wanted to take his tight-lipped smile as an apology, but I had no idea what to make of it. How long would it take for him not to see humans as trinkets to be collected, used, and discarded when their interest waned?
“We have to find them,” Anand said, standing, his odd magic roiling from him. It was noticeably dark, ominous, and dangerous, and for the first time Emoni openly showed a desire to be away from this mess. I didn’t blame her. I wanted the same.
“Centuries they have been imprisoned and now they are free,” Areleus mused. The look he lobbed in my direction showed his accusation, although he managed to keep it out of his voice. Snatching away the distance between us, he bent until we were face to face.
“What are you?” he inquired. “What secrets has my son kept from me?”
“None,” I blurted. Even to me, I sounded unconvincing. I definitely needed to get better at lying. Not a skill I really wanted, but my new life required it.
“Nailah has set up a meeting with the Conventicle.” Helena settled her attention casually on Emoni, but with wariness of having this discussion with her present. I assumed she decided Dominic would handle it, so she returned her attention to him. “She still sees the same deaths as she saw before.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed to slits on his sister, studying her. “And what are you leaving out, Helena?” he asked.
“And ours,” she admitted.
Emoni didn’t require any encouragement to leave. Anand’s mere mention that she should go home had her quickly gathering her things and readying to leave. Her dedication to my safety was the only thing that caused her to linger. She insisted I join her and refused to leave until I promised her, with a level of assurance I didn’t truly feel, that I would be okay. That moment of hesitation cost her and Helena was quick to stop her exit.
“She’s allowed to leave without consequence?” she asked, shocked. They had openly discussed information about the Conventicle in front of Emoni, which meant that information needed to be protected. Magical manipulation would leave her without any of the information.
Emoni attempted to sidestep past Helena. Moving with liquid grace and strikingly fast movement, Helena’s hand was around Emoni’s throat. She hoisted her into the air.
“Put her down, now,” I hissed. Anger raced through me like an inferno, igniting all my protective urges. Grabbing the marble coaster from the counter, I used it to add heft to my strike to her head. Her mouth gaped in surprise. It was shock more than pain that caused her to release my friend.
“Don’t you ever touch her.”
Sheer awe at my retaliation had stunned Helena into momentary silence. The prey attacking the predator. Uncomfortable silence filled the air as we watched Helena’s contemplation of how I’d pay. Her eyes were murderous, her claws extended, and thunderous magic rippled off her so violently it felt as if the building would eventually come down.
“Helena.” Dominic’s tone managed to be cajoling yet firm. The confidence with which he dealt with an enraged Helena seemed well practiced. “You will not retaliate.”
She was past retaliation. The world needed to be set on fire to display her displeasure. It was extremely unsettling to remember that she was responsible for protecting humans and keeping the other supernaturals in check.
“If Luna trusts her, then she is to be trusted.” Dominic looked to Emoni who had recovered and was standing a few feet away with pepper spray she’d retrieved from the contents of her bag aimed in Helena’s direction.
“We can trust that everything revealed to you will be kept secret?” Dominic confirmed.
Without taking her eyes off her target, Emoni nodded.
“Just her word?” Helena barked. “No magical binding or oaths? We’re taking the word of humans now.”
Emoni split her attention between looking at the objects on the floor as she returned them to her purse and Helena, while keeping the pepper spray extended toward her.
“She will be allowed to leave. No magic and she will not be touched,” Dominic asserted, directing the demand to his father who looked similarly disgusted.
“I don’t recognize you anymore, brother.” The disappointment in Helena’s voice made him flinch. He recovered from the insult quickly and appeared to be considering her words. Was being around me making him too merciful to do his job? What I saw in his expression, Helena did as well. She relaxed, seeing the potential for him to be the Dominic she wanted him to be.
Emoni attempted to quietly slip away but had to get past Helena who only allowed a small space for her to navigate. Anand volunteered to escort Emoni home and to meet them later. She wouldn’t drive with the amount of alcohol she’d consumed, but Anand could drive her car home and she wouldn’t be without it.
She hesitated on the threshold of the door, giving me an over-the-shoulder look of concern. I offered a nod of assurance and a wide smile, but it didn’t put a dent in her worried expression.