Chapter Seventeen #3
“Well…” Briar pushed his glasses back up his nose.
A sign of his excitement. “That was before I knew just how powerful many gems are in this realm. Much like the Phoenix tears with supreme healing abilities that saved Lake from the brink of death, there are stones and crystals here that contain properties beyond what I’ve worked with in the past.”
“You can craft another stone?” Maddox asked him.
“Possibly.” Briar shifted forward in his chair. “I’d need time to craft one, of course. Not to mention, finding the right gem first. But at this time, I see no better option.”
A short silence followed, his words hanging in the air around us. Words that implied leaving the Shadow Realm wasn’t as impossible as it’d once seemed.
“If we do leave, my sister may be able to help us,” Callum said, sounding so hopeful. “Penny has traveled all over with her guild and might know of someone who has a ship we could use.”
Conflicting emotions stirred in my gut. Hope that we could someday leave the Shadow Realm and see our friends again—and for Callum to reunite with his family. But that hope clashed with a deep sadness as well.
“I don’t want to leave Onyx,” I said, dropping my gaze to my lap.
“I know you don’t, love,” Briar softly responded. “Yet, if the curse truly can’t be broken as Onyx claims, I fear our only choices at this point are for you to either leave this realm or for the curse to awaken and…”
“For Onyx to kill me,” I finished for him.
Another silence passed between us, this one heavier than the last.
Frustration built in my core, the intensity of it matched only by my heartbreak. “I have to believe there’s a way to beat this. That we all can be happy. Why else would Onyx be one of my fated mates? Lupin said each of you will play a pivotal role in my destiny.”
“That’s what frightens me,” Maddox said, his blue eyes finding me. “Because the mage also warned of all the possible tragedies that may befall you. More bad than good, you told us. The demon lord, it seems, is destined to bring one of those dark futures to fruition.”
“The storm,” Callum whispered, and the hand on my thigh shook. “My gut feeling was right.”
I looked toward the window and the dark sky beyond it. Hoping like hell they were wrong. That Onyx and I weren’t destined to crash and burn, like that asteroid shooting toward that lone planet.
***
When stressed, bake something. My life’s motto. It worked for everything.
Tart-faced brothel wench trying to steal your man? Make bread and pretend the dough was her face.
Learning the person you loved was cursed to murder you the moment he realized he felt the same? Cookies were your best friend. Baking them and eating them.
With an oatmeal cookie jutting from between my lips, I hopped over to check the croissant dough.
The laminated dough took time and patience, requiring several rounds of proving and folding in butter before it could be baked.
But the payoff was worth the preparation time.
Flaky, buttery croissants were to die for.
In all honestly, should I have been hopping around the kitchen eating cookies at like three in the morning? Probably not. But it wasn’t like I could sleep, not with visions of murdered sugarplum muffins and doom flags dancing in my head.
Hushed voices came from the corridor outside the kitchen.
I paused, cookie still between my lips, and narrowed my eyes at the archway. It took only a moment for me to figure out who those hushed voices belonged to. The scent of peaches and black cardamom gave them away.
“I know you’re out there,” I said, flipping around and putting my hands on my hips. “Might as well come out and eat some cookies. I may have made too many.”
“May have?” Rowan stepped from the shadows, his cocky gait making me smile. “I think you’ve baked enough to feed the entire army of demons.”
“Half of them at least,” Lake added, appearing beside him.
“You two should be in bed.” I slid the platter toward them, not surprised at all when Rowan sneered at it. The feisty thing didn’t like sweets.
“The rabbit’s snoring so loud I couldn’t even hear myself think.” Rowan hopped up on the kitchen island and brought a knee up, resting his arm on top. “Maybe Specs can create a sound-blocking muzzle we can strap on him when he sleeps.”
“Be nice to Callum,” I told him, trying not to laugh. My cinnamon roll of a knight did snore pretty bad though. “He can’t help it.”
“Then he needs to sleep outside.”
Lake lightly smacked Rowan’s leg with his tail.
“Fine, fine, I take it back.” Rowan shot him a look. Warmth reflected in his irises though. He’d never admit it, but he enjoyed this kind of back and forth with our wolf—tail smacks included. “You’re such a violent, fluffy bastard.”
Another whack, this one to Rowan’s butt.
“Ah, pup.” My favorite tooth made its appearance. “If you wanted to touch my ass, you could’ve just asked.”
One corner of Lake’s mouth curled up into a half-sneer. His tail, however, gave away his good mood. It softly wagged behind him.
“I’m surprised Maddox isn’t with you,” I said, casting a glance toward the corridor. “Even more surprising is that I managed to sneak out of the room without him noticing.”
“Oh, he noticed.” Rowan picked at an oatmeal cookie. “But he knew you’d stomp your little foot if he came after you, so he sent me instead. The pup followed.”
I went to pull another batch of cookies from the oven. Chocolate chip this time. The ultimate comfort cookie.
“Spying on you isn’t the only reason I’m here.” Rowan broke the cookie in half, then took a tiny bit from the center. Testing it on his tongue before pausing, lifting his brow, then shoving the whole thing into his mouth. He wiped his hand on the front of his shirt before reaching into his satchel.
Curiosity spiked when seeing the flash of silver. It was the dagger Stryder had stolen from me the night of the ball. Rowan had first given it to me last summer when we were in the dark wood running from crow demons and other creatures that wanted us for dinner.
“Did you have this the whole time?” I asked, gliding my fingers over the black stones in the hilt.
Rowan nodded. “Was waiting for the right moment to give it back. Not sure if you know this or not, little treasure, but you and pointy things don’t get along.”
I rolled my eyes but secretly loved how he picked on me for my clumsiness. “Why are you giving it to me now?”
“Can you think of no reason?” Lake asked, his once happy tail drooping behind him. “Should Lord Onyx be consumed by his curse, it’s best that you have a means of protecting yourself. We will protect you too, of course, but in the time it takes us to reach you, it may be… well, too late.”
My heart dropped into my gut. “You expect me to use this on Onyx if he goes beast mode on me?” I shoved the dagger away, giving it back to Rowan. “No. There’s no way I could ever hurt him, Ro. I could never hurt any of you. Never. I’d rather die.”
“Take the dagger,” a silky voice said from the corridor.
As Onyx stepped into the kitchen, everything inside of me screamed to approach him. To pull him into my arms. Instead, I stood beside the counter, eyes stinging with unshed tears and a hole in my heart.
Rowan nodded to him.
“I don’t want the dagger, Onyx,” I said, my voice snippier than intended. “I’ll tell you just as I told them. I would never hurt you.”
“And if I hurt you?” He strode forward before coming to a stop in front of the kitchen island, leaving a large space between us. “If this wretched curse inside me awakens and I try to rip out your throat with my bare teeth, you’ll wish you had that blade to drive into my black heart.”
The words triggered a memory.
“That’s what you meant when we were in the cave?” I asked, understanding blazing through my skull. “When you said the day would come when I regretted meeting you and that you hoped I’d stab you if it did.”
Onyx stared at me, mask in place. But his chest rose and fell with the slight hitch in his breathing. “This between us will only end one of two ways, little bird. With one of us dead or you leaving this realm.”
“You want me to leave?” Such a silly thing to be upset over considering the threat, quite literally, in front of me.
“What I want I can’t have.” Onyx’s nostrils flared before he turned away from me, facing the archway. “Danger lurks beyond the barrier, but I’m beginning to think those knights of yours are right. You can’t remain here forever, no matter how deeply I wish for you to.”
As he left the kitchen, disappearing into the shadows, a piece of my heart went with him.
That summer night so long ago, during the Festival of the Lights, Lupin had warned me that one of my fated mates would either love me or be the cause of my death.
No more guesses as to who he’d been referring to.
But despite the odds stacked against us and all the risks involved, I wasn’t ready to give up on Onyx.
Not ready to give up on us.