Chapter 20
EMBER
I slid through the secret door between the bedrooms and grabbed a robe from off the bench at the end of my bed.
My breath hitched, my heart still beating.
Had I really just had Ares Necroline’s fingers inside me?
I was fucking this whole thing up, wildly.
I dreaded what Rhiannon would say when she found out.
Another truly wretched scream broke through the haze of lust I’d stumbled into. It was the girl. I rushed out of my bedroom, finding all the lights on in the hallway. Avaline and Eryx both stood outside the girl’s door with Lara. Ares stood at the doorway to the girl’s room. Rhiannon was inside.
That figured. The child needed someone comforting to talk to and none of us filled the bill.
I stayed back, afraid to get too close to Ares right now.
He nodded, as though having been asked something, and turned.
When he saw me, the only indication that we’d been wrapped up in each other only moments ago was the way his eyes dragged over me as he passed by.
“Bronte’s asking for you,” he said, his voice gruff as he disappeared down the hall.
“It’s all right,” I said to the others. “Go back to bed.”
I didn’t wait to see what they would do next; I just walked into the bedroom. Inside, one of the silver mercury glass lamps next to the bed was lit. Rhiannon, dressed in a matching set of camel-colored cashmere sweats, sat on the edge of the bed, speaking softly to the teenage girl.
The girl had dark brown hair that was nearly the same color as her skin, and she was pretty, but far, far too thin and badly bruised from where Fairchild’s torturer had hit her. “Hello,” I said, keeping my voice as gentle as I could.
Even old as I was, I still remembered what it meant to be a terrified child.
Those who have been one never forget the feeling, and this girl would be no different.
I whispered a prayer to Paloma for a miracle.
That time might heal this child, rather than exacerbate her wounds.
Prayer did fuck all, but it seemed worth a shot.
“What is your name?” I asked as I sat down on the clear lucite desk chair I’d bought for Sera.
“This is Briony,” Rhi explained. “Briony Rathbourne.”
I nodded. “It is nice to meet you, Briony.” Rhiannon stared at me for a long moment, as though there was something I should say or do, but I didn’t know what it was. “I am Ember,” I said, finally.
The girl nodded, then winced as she spoke. Her bottom lip was split open. “You’re Ember Verona. Leader of the Orphium Maere. I know.”
As she spoke, something shifted around her. I realized, with an appropriate amount of wonder, that I saw her aura. Just the shadow of it, as I hadn’t touched my sword in two hundred years. But there was something familiar about it. I glanced at Rhiannon, who nodded.
Ares returned with a glass of water. “For you, Briony,” he said. “Do you remember me?”
The girl took a careful sip of water and nodded, holding it in her lap. She looked like every inch of her body hurt. “Yes. I remember you pulling the spirit from me. Thank you. It wanted to help me, but…” Tears filled her eyes. “My father was a bad man… I know that…”
Rhi touched her arm, her fingers featherlight on the girl’s bruised skin, the movement tender and comforting. “But you didn’t want him to die.”
The girl shook her head. “He was horrible, but he was all I had.”
“It will take time to heal,” Ares said, with the wisdom of someone who had been there. Curiosity about who he’d been before Roman Necroline found him itched at the back of my mind. I knew the stories about what had happened to his parents, but they were just that. Stories.
Ares’ voice was uncharacteristically tender as he said, “It’ll take time to find peace again, but you will. You are safe now.”
Rhiannon nodded. “Yes, we will keep you safe.” She gave me another pointed look as Briony turned her attention to me. She hadn’t even been back a day, and she was already getting judgy about how I operated. I wished to all Saints that she’d been born first, that she could lead the Maere.
She wanted to do this kind of work. I just wanted my family back. To be a part of something bigger than me again.
“Yes,” I agreed. “They’re right. We’ll keep you safe.” Rhi shook her head, as though I’d disappointed her. But that was no surprise. I stood. “I will let you get some rest.”
Lara was in the hallway, a bottle of heavy duty painkillers in her hand. “Can she take these?”
“Ask Rhiannon,” I replied, not knowing anything about what a human child her size might need in terms of dose.
Suddenly, the apartment felt too small. Too close. How was I supposed to know what to do with a kid? That familiar note in her aura haunted me, driving me to near-panic. Ares followed me through the apartment and onto the terrace. The night air was cold, but it had stopped raining.
He could see auric energy. I had to ask. “What did you see in her aura?”
Ares shut the door to the terrace, staring out at the city. “She is Maere.”
My breath caught. This was either a very good thing, or possibly the worst thing that could have happened to me. My cowardice won, at least for the moment. “You can’t know that. She’s barely even seventeen. She can’t have ascended.”
He shrugged. “She hasn’t.” He leaned against the balustrade, his jaw clenched in a way that I now recognized was him thinking, not frustration or anger.
“It resembles your aura, or Lara’s or Rhiannon’s, but…
I just thought she was a medium…” he shook his head a little, as though he couldn’t quite find the words.
But I knew what he was trying to puzzle out.
The Maere were supposed to be born as humans, not parapsychs.
My heart beat faster as he continued, wondering how close he might come to the truth of things.
He squinted a little, thinking hard. “I couldn’t see it before.
Not until she was with the rest of you. It’s not that the Maere signature is weaker in her.
It is strong. But more like, it hasn’t matured. ”
But it would. And then she would be locked into a life just like mine. My heart pounded in my ears. At least he hadn’t gotten to the heart of things. Not yet, anyway.
“Well,” I snapped. “She is a child.”
He stared at me, those gorgeous light green eyes roving over me, like he knew what it felt like to be inside me. Technically, he did, but the way he looked at me scared me half to death. If only that were possible.
I wrapped my arms tight around my body. “Sorry. This is all just… a lot.”
He nodded, seeming to wait for me to say more.
A frigid wind howled over the city, but on the terrace, we were protected enough that it didn’t so much as lift my hair.
Still, it got colder by the moment. The sky was clear enough tonight that I could see all the way to the seawall.
Lightning struck over the water, illuminating a gargantuan tail as it sank back into the ocean.
“They’re getting bold,” Ares breathed at the sight of the scaled tail sinking beneath the enormous waves. “It’s been ages since the Ceti came so close.”
I shivered, but not because of the wind.
The seas were not for us. They were for the monsters.
Another web of lightning crossed the night sky, showing the raging sea, threatening as any of the Ceti.
We stared at it for a long time. It was rare that the cloud cover lifted enough to see the ocean, even when it stopped raining.
Most of the time, that was well enough. No one in Orphium wanted to think of the sea.
Of what lurked beyond the seawall. As one of the few who’d traversed those waters, I certainly did not.
I ran my eyes over the city, watching as people went to their windows, stared at the seething masses of water and Ceti.
The eldritch horrors of what lay beyond were captivating, if terrifying. It was impossible to look away.
“What does all of this mean?” I whispered, leaning on the balustrade, my arm pressing into Ares.
Though he didn’t jerk away, I felt his absence acutely as he carefully sidestepped my touch.
My heart sank. Whatever that was in his bedroom earlier, it was not what I’d thought it had been.
It was not the start of anything between us.
It was a lapse in his perfectly calculated exterior.
I had never once seen Ares Necroline deviate from his mission to help his own people.
There were rumors about him, of course. About what the proclivities of Orphium’s most dangerous necromancer might be—that he might enjoy the strange and unusual when it came to sex.
But I’d never found evidence of anything violent.
Mostly, it seemed he hurt feelings, not lovers.
The man fucked, and rather often, to be honest. But he never darkened a lover’s door twice.
If that held true, then he and I were done.
I couldn’t let that affect me. Couldn’t let it show that it hurt.
I hadn’t been with anyone in years. Hadn’t been in love in centuries.
But I knew myself well enough to know that the resentment that was merely a kernel of emotion in me now would germinate and spread like an invasive vine.
This was why everyone always left me. Because the mess inside me always leaked out onto those I loved. There was no way to keep it in. No way to keep me from ruining anything good that ever happened to me.
“Maybe it doesn’t mean anything at all,” Ares mused from his new spot, a few feet away from me. He stared at the sea, watching the confluence of sea creatures as they feasted, just beyond the city. “Maybe it’s all just a coincidence.”
“Do you actually believe that?” I couldn’t believe that he would ignore this.
The Ceti hadn’t been seen in numbers this great for centuries—not this close to the city.
They were deep water creatures, and only surfaced to breed in summer, and never so close to land.
He knew that as well as any child. “Or are you just being an asshole?”
Ares pushed off the balustrade, obviously annoyed. His tone was loathsome, laced with superiority. “I think it’s unwise to connect too many dots at once.” Here was the Ares Necroline I’d always disliked. There was something comforting about being back on opposite sides of things.
Perhaps that was why he did it. To put me back in my place. Two could play that game. I scoffed, giving him my worst glare. “And that’s that, right?”
I had his hackles up, and loved every moment of it. If he wanted to be horrible, we could be horrible. He positively glowered. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
I shook my head, pushing past him with the unmistakable thrill of having riled him. The feeling was nearly as delicious as his touch. And if I could not have that, this would suffice. “You’re the only one who is ever allowed to be right, Necroline. Have you ever noticed that?”
It was an unfair thing to say. He didn’t always have to be right. In fact, he was quite a good listener. But I wanted to hurt him, and the way he flinched at my words was enough to show me I had. Had I gone too far? That would be like me.
“Are you sure you’re not talking about yourself?” he hissed as I brushed past him. “Because the only arrogant asshole I see is you.”
Yes, I’d gone too far. I stopped short, my heart in my throat, then turned slowly to face him. “Is that really what you think of me, or is this all just foreplay?”
Ares took a deep breath, and I wasn’t sure if he wanted to punch me or kiss me. I knew the feeling well. He was a dick and I was an insufferable bitch. We’d be perfect for one another if we weren’t both emotionally constipated, immortal fools. So much the worse for both of us then.
When he failed to find a good answer, I stalked back inside. There was no reason to keep on with this nonsense. I was an ancient immortal. Perhaps it was time I grew the fuck up.