Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
The suite is dim when I slip through the door, the low flame in the hearth painting everything in amber and shadow. I pause, breathing in the warm scent of woodsmoke and the odd tang of the salve the healer used on Chase’s leg.
He’s on his back, one arm thrown across the empty space where I should be. Since I don’t want to disturb his sleep, I start to take a step backward. That’s when he turns, his eyes finding me.
“Hey,” I say, hurrying to his side.
“I woke up.” His voice is low. Raw. “Where were you?”
Guilt crashes over me. My boyfriend woke up after almost dying, and while he was doing that whole disorientation thing, I was naked in a tent with Adric.
Bad move. Very, very bad.
So, of course, I add one more bad to the list by conjuring a lie.
“I went for a walk,” I say. “I thought you’d sleep for hours. Maybe days.”
“I feel like I have.” He winces as he pushes himself up against the headboard. “And I’m sore,” he adds with a grimace. “But mostly I’m alive.” His eyes meet mine. “Thanks to you.”
“No,” I say, moving to sit beside him on the bed. “Thanks to Adric.”
He nods, then silently takes my hand. I’m quiet, too, lost in this surreal moment. Chase is alive because the blood of a brother he’s been at odds with for more time than I can comprehend now flows in his veins. The same brother with whom I’d just—
No.
I shut that thought down hard. Because how can I tell him? He doesn’t need that awkward truth added to everything he’s dealing with.
“Why?”
I jump a little, then remind myself that he can’t read my mind. “Why what?”
“Why did he save me?” He reaches out to tuck a lock of hair behind my ear. “I’m a huge thorn in his side. I have been for years.”
I wave a dismissive hand. “You’re his brother. Of course, he’d save you.”
But I don’t quite meet his eyes when I say that. After all, Adric hadn’t exactly jumped at the thought of playing the hero when I’d begged for his help. Instead, he’d asked for payment. And I was the price.
And that’s why when morning comes, I’ll be standing at Adric’s side as the betrothal ceremony officially binds us. A ceremony that Chase still knows nothing about.
“Trust me,” he continues. “I know my brother. If he hasn’t already extracted his price, he soon will.”
“Maybe he’s not as bad as you think.”
Chase almost chuckles. “I know him better than you. I’m his brother, and yet he tortured me for a millennium.”
I draw a breath, then take his hand. “I know you were tortured, but it’s not what you think.”
He chokes out a small laugh. “I was there.”
“One day,” I say, then realize I’m crying. I wipe away the tear and continue. “Adric ordered you held for one day.”
“The hell he did. I still remember every—”
“Kali.” My voice is firm. Certain. “He never intended you to be held that long, much less tortured. She acted on her own.”
“And you know this because he told you?” I can hear the sneer in his voice.
“I think you know it, too. You know the man. You never understood how he could do that to you. And you were right. He never did.”
I watch his face, catching the moment when he believes.
“I’m so sorry.”
He looks away. “He’s not a fucking saint. He demanded a price for my cure, didn’t he?”
I nod. He’s right about that.
I draw a breath. “What if it were me? What if I’d been the one dying, and you’d been the one begging him to help? What price would you have paid then?”
He’s quiet for a beat, then his eyes lock on mine. “Anything,” he says. “I’d give the bastard whatever he wanted.”
I nod, my throat choked with tears, and I reach up to brush an errant one from my cheek.
He squeezes my hand. “Tell me.”
I don’t want to. I want to hold my secret close and never let him know what I did. Except I can’t. Not when every person in the castle, and many from outside, will be at the ceremony in just a few hours. For all I know, even dignitaries from other realms will be coming to stand witness.
Will my mother be there?
I push the thought aside. My mother is dead, and neither Heaven nor Hell is among the realms. Chase already explained that to me and Tia. The woman I saw last night wasn’t my mom, dead or alive. That was just a trick of the light. Just Kali talking to one of the castle’s librarians.
Unless that was a lie.
I push the thought away. Honestly, right now I’m so damn—
“Cora.”
I startle. “Sorry.”
Chase takes my hand. “Dammit, Cora, how steep was that price?”
“Compared to getting you back?” I shake my head. “Not steep at all.”
He just looks at me, and I know I can’t put it off any longer. I look down at my hand twisted in his sheets. I can’t bear to see the way he’ll look at me once he knows the truth.
“Cora,” he whispers. “Please.”
“Me,” I say, blinking fast so I won’t cry. “The price was me.”
He uses his forefinger to tilt my head up. “How?”
“I’m his betrothed,” I say, and though my head may be up, my eyes are firmly on the bedclothes. But that’s the coward’s way out, and I force myself to meet the pain in his beautiful golden eyes. “Chase?” His name is a whisper, barely audible. “Chase, please.”
But he doesn’t say anything. Then nothing, then nothing still.
Across the room, the fire pops. He looks at the ceiling for a long second, as if there might be an answer up there. Then his eyes come back to mine, and what I see in them isn’t anger. Instead, he looks like someone punched him in the gut. And I guess that someone would be me.
“I see,” he says.
“The ceremony’s this morning. In a few hours.” I whisper the words, barely audible. “I’m sorry,” I add, only realizing I’ve started crying when he brushes the tears from my cheek. “It was the only way to save you.”
“God, Cora.” His voice sounds like pain.
“I won’t put the realms at risk,” I say, my voice thick. “I swear.”
“I believe you,” he says, but I can tell from his tone that he’s thinking about the loophole. Consummation of our wedding will bring down the barriers, which means there is no way we’ll be consummating that wedding.
But there’s no prophetic ramification triggered by sex when we’re only engaged. And I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I’m a fan of that loophole.
I say none of that. Instead, I hold my breath, waiting for Chase to call me out. But he says nothing.
Then again, he doesn’t have to. I can see the shock—and the worry—all over his face. Along with a hefty dose of jealousy.
“I had to save you,” I whisper. “I love you. What else could I have done?”
For a moment, I think he’s going to simply blow off my question. Or toss the fact that I like the loophole in my face. Or ask me if I’ve already slept with Adric. If maybe I was doing that very thing while Chase struggled for his life.
So much guilt weighs heavy in my chest that I almost wish he would ask.
But he doesn’t. He just draws a breath, looking miserable. “We’ve all paid too high a price coming here. You shouldn’t be a bargaining chip. I should never have needed my brother’s blood. And Whistler should still be alive.”
I can only nod as fresh grief for Whistler washes over me. Chase is giving us both an out, I realize. And I’m taking it.
“He saved my life,” I say quietly. “That night after the Whitehall party. You both did. But Whistler was the one who got there first—blade out, shoving me and Tia behind him.” I shake my head.
“That was so weird. Even though I was almost certain who you really were—well, more or less—I had no idea who or what he was.” I sigh. “Turns out he was a friend.”
“He was,” Chase says, wiping away the tear that’s trickling down my cheek. He shifts then, grimacing as he moves to pull the sheet aside, silently inviting me to join him. I don’t hesitate, and soon I’m curled up against him, careful not to bump his wounded thigh as I snuggle close.
For a moment, we’re both silent, the crackle and pop of the fire acting like a soundtrack to my fingers gently stroking his bare chest.
“How long had you known him?” I finally ask.
Chase is quiet for a beat, then he twines his fingers in mine, stopping my lazy doodles on his skin.
“An eternity. He was one of the first allies I found after my brother tore us apart.” I nod, remembering what he’d told me about how he and Adric used to be one being—the Guardian—who had maintained the barriers between realms, and how Adric had split them apart with the Guardian’s very own blade.
A single act, now known as The Breaking, that set the barriers to failing.
And, in some weird and convoluted way, led to me now being in bed with this man—and betrothed to Adric.
“We’ll do a proper memorial when we’re back in the Real,” I promise. “Mr. Griffin knew him. Tia, too. They should be there.”
He brushes a kiss over my forehead. “He would like that.”
I sigh, and for a few minutes, we just sit there in the half-dark, both missing our friend.
Then his hand moves. Not much—just his fingers tracing a slow line down my arm. But there’s a new tension between us with a decidedly sensual edge.
“A few hours still, right?” His voice is rough.
I nod.
“After that, you’re his. Officially.”
“Chase—”
“I’m not asking you to back out. I know why you’re doing it, and I love you for that. But you’re still mine, Cora. Until some maid comes in here bearing your engagement gown, you’re still mine.”
“I’ll always be yours,” I say, but he only shakes his head.
“I want what’s left of the night.” His fingers twine with mine. “I want you while I still have the right.”
“I told Adric I wouldn’t give you up. We won’t—”
He silences me with a finger to my lips.
“Just us now,” he says, and before I can even think about protesting, his mouth is on mine, hot and demanding.
I melt into it, a wild hunger mixed with relief flowing through me, because oh god, I need this.
Need him. Hard and wild and claiming. I need it like I need my next breath.
And yet…
“Your leg.” I have to force the words out. “We can’t. The wound.”
“Gone.” He takes my hand and slides it under the bedsheet, then presses it against the place where the wound had been, now healed, leaving only a slightly raised scar.