20
Luke
“Let’s go somewhere,” I implored.
Al and I sat in one of the smaller studies at the Vitruvian manor. We’d just finished giving our reports to Jay on the fruits of our recent labors at the High Court. Jay would be in meetings the rest of the afternoon, receiving all his other reports, and then he would have a High Council meeting that night.
Al looked at me from the corner of her eye. I could tell from the smile that played at the corners of her pouty lips that she was in.
“Ok, let’s go off campus,” she agreed.
Al went upstairs and then came back down in flats, a pair of blue jean shorts, and a white t-shirt that was cropped just enough to show a sliver of her flat stomach. She stood at the top of the stairs, the light of the chandelier glinting off a small diamond teardrop pendant she wore around her neck.
I wasn’t dressed as casually as Al, but I was dressed casually for me, because I’d planned all along to spend the day with Alarie in town. I wore a pair of blue slacks and a white button-up shirt, no tie. My light-brown hair looked perpetually ruffled, like I’d just run my fingers through it, probably because I had.
It was a great day for a walk into town. Alarie basked in the warmth of the sunlight, at one point closing her eyes and turning her face up at the sun while she was still walking. I walked beside her, holding her arm so she didn’t trip and fall on her face with her eyes closed.
“Hey, you want to come home with me for the Winter Gala?” I asked.
Her green eyes popped open. The happiness on her face changed to a pinched expression.
“I can’t, Luke. I’m going to the Winter Gala here. With Jay.”
“It’s really warm there and there are beaches,” I said, tempting her, tugging at her arm looped into mine.
She looked back at me, clearly contemplating. She looked torn.
“Did I mention I own my own island?” I bragged, trying to sway her.
“What! Your own—No, I can’t,” she replied, letting out an exasperated breath. “I already told Jay that I would stay here and go. And with you out of town, he’ll need me here.”
“Ok. You’re missing out, though,” I said, managing to sound only slightly disappointed.
Unconsciously, we were both heading to Bar Louie, our favorite bar. We’d probably run into Rhett at some point, if he wasn’t there already.
“Speaking of the Silver Court. Luke, can I ask you something?” she said.
I looked at her, arching my eyebrows as if to say, go ahead.
“Why aren’t you going with Jay tonight to the High Council meeting?”
I tugged my lips to the side at Al’s question.
“Well, Al, I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” I joked, “but I’m not really a high lord, you see. So, I don’t have a seat at that table.”
“But your House does. And, well…” she hesitated. “It doesn’t seem to be being filled.”
I nodded, understanding where she was going with this.
“You’re right, Al. My father rarely comes to Court. House Bellamy is aligned with Jay on most things, so we have essentially just given Jay a second vote for his disposal on the High Council.”
“But why, Luke? Why doesn’t your dad just have you in there on behalf of your House instead of here working for Jay? Couldn’t you attend the High Council meetings in your father’s stead?” she asked.
I gave her a smile much smaller than normal.
“My father has just never cared about what he views as High Court politics. He has always been this way. You know, before the war, Grey and Jay approached my father about taking on King Vandros. And all he cared about then, and all he cares about now, is his port and the silver that passes through there. He only agreed to throw in his lot with Grey and Jay because he knew war was bad for business.”
“And now? You’re here. And he’s there. So why doesn’t he just let you handle it?” she asked.
“He wants me back home. Or, more accurately, my mother wants me to come back home. They don’t want to encourage me to stay here. When I came to the High Court, he thought it was a waste of time. That all I did was go to parties and chase skirt. And, if I’m being honest, Al, he wasn’t always entirely wrong.”
She gave me a skeptical grin as if to say my father may still be right.
“So, are you planning to just work for Jay’s House forever?” Al asked.
“No, Al. And Jay knows it too,” I replied sternly.
Jay and I both knew that my time with House Vitruvian was growing short.
“I’m going to be on that High Council one day, and it is going to be under my own name,” I promised, my determination laid bare.
We passed by a small fair that was in town. It was a dinky fair, not like the magnificent one that visited Vlaise every spring. The bright lights of the rides didn’t quite show through the remaining daylight, but soon the sun would set and the sky would light up with the incandescence of the fair’s attractions.
“Oh, Luke, let’s go to the fair!” Al exclaimed excitedly.
I smirked at her excitement.
“Yeah, ok, but I’m starving. Let’s grab something to eat first,” I said.
We poked our heads into Bar Louie, and for once, Rhett wasn’t there.
“Probably has his head under a skirt,” I japed.
Al nodded in agreement.
We ended up at a burger joint a street over from Bar Louie.
“Luke, has Rhett always been like this?” she asked. “I mean, do you think he will ever want to settle down… you know, for more than a night or two? It’s just—”
“I know what you mean, Al,” I said, pushing my chair slightly back from the round table we sat at.
My friend put on a good face, pretending he enjoyed bouncing from girl to girl. But it seemed that Al had spent enough time around Rhett to pick up on what very few ever noticed about him.
“Believe it or not, that’s actually what he’s trying to do,” I said.
She looked at me skeptically.
I took a sip of my beer, and then a deep breath.
“Rhett was engaged once,” I said.
Al looked like she would fall out of her chair in disbelief.
I gave her a knowing, sad smile. “Like Rhett told you, women were—are—enchanted by him. I won’t explain everything about his powers. That’s for him to tell you.”
She nodded in agreement.
“But one of the things that comes with his magic is that one woman and one woman alone can be his mate,” I explained.
Alarie’s eyes went wide in shock. People could love one another and not be mated. Some fae went their entire life without ever finding a mate, although, undoubtedly, they loved. But, outside of Rhett, it was unheard of to be limited to the possibility of one person being their mate. People could form a mating bond with anyone they loved enough. All the women Rhett went through, it was just an impossible numbers game for him. He was trying to find a needle in a haystack.
“He thought he had found his mate. He certainly loved her. And he certainly believed she loved him. We all did,” I spat bitterly.
“She wasn’t his mate?” Al asked, wearing the heartbreak she felt for our friend on her sleeve.
I pressed my lips into a tight line. “No, she wasn’t.”
“She didn’t love him?” she asked quietly.
“She did. But not of her own volition,” I said.
“Who?” Al bit off her question, knowing all too well the kind of cruel games that proliferated through the High Court.
“Someone on King Vandros’s side. We never found out exactly who. It was a cruel plan to distract Rhett. They made her feel as though she were in love, made it seem as though she was in love, and then one day they just stopped.”
“Why would anyone do that to him?” she asked.
“They were scared of him, Al,” I replied simply, taking another sip of my beer.
“Scared of Rhett? Sure, he’s…” she said.
I know what she wanted to say… a beguiling, sometimes bastard of a man.
“But he wouldn’t hurt anyone,” she finished.
I looked at her, and it was one of the few times I truly felt the gap in the years between us.
“Alarie, you’ve only seen the cute, fun side of Rhett’s magic. But Rhett was a formidable weapon for our side. Imagine for a minute that you’re a lord and you see your wife of fifty years fall for Rhett.”
Rhett had told her that people who were in love were immune to his powers.
“Imagine you have a daughter, a daughter who sees Rhett and will literally do anything he tells her to do, whether it’s good for her family… or her, for that matter.”
“But Rhett’s powers, it just makes them giggly and fall in love. You’re making it sound all… dark.”
“At the height of his powers, he could have told a girl to jump off a cliff and she would have done it, Al. No questions, no hesitancy,” I said, setting her mind down the not-so-nice path of Rhett’s power.
I looked at her, seeing that she was only just starting to truly understand the reach of Rhett’s abilities.
“Rhett wouldn’t do that,” she protested, but she didn’t sound so sure of herself anymore.
I’d grown up with Rhett. I knew what he was capable of. I knew what lurked behind his good looks and laissez-faire attitude. He was a warrior, just like me.
“Al, it was war,” was all I said in response.
At that moment, our burgers arrived at the table, offering us a reprieve from needing to go any further in our conversation.
I devoured my burger and fries and then started on the other half of Alarie’s burger.
“Slow down or you’re going to puke on the rides,” Alarie admonished.
“I wmll nmm,” I mumbled unintelligibly, a big bite still in my mouth.
“What?” She grinned, taking another sip of her beer, although I think she understood the gist of my denial.
* * * *
“You can hardly call this a fair, Al,” I said, skeptical.
“What’s wrong with it?” she retorted as she walked around the small grounds, tickets clutched in her small hands, deciding which ride to torture me with first.
Without waiting for an answer, Al stopped at the Ferris wheel in front of us.
“Let’s ride the Ferris wheel, Luke!” she cried excitedly.
“Is that a wire hanger holding the cart to the wheel?” I asked incredulously, not answering her.
“You scared?” she teased.
I didn’t care if it was a wire hanger. I would go to the top of a Ferris wheel hung by a fucking thread just to see Al this happy. The fair had brought something out in her that I’d never seen before; something I’d never even imagined that she’d had in her. No matter how much I made her smile and laugh, there was always an edge to her that I could never soften. But in this moment, Al displayed a childlike joy.
We climbed into the cart together. The cart was tiny, and so was she, but my tall, muscled frame was a tight fit. The two of us pressed against each other inside of the metal cart, our legs touching, our arms overlapping. There was nowhere to put our hands, so my right hand and her left hand ended up resting on the top of my right thigh. My pulse was racing as the Ferris wheel began its rotation.
When our cart reached the top, the Ferris wheel abruptly jerked to a halt. The feeble hanger holding the cart to the wheel made a screeching noise, and the cart rocked back and forth with the momentum of the sudden stop.
Al saw me look up at the hanger with a look of dread, and she burst out laughing. She laughed like I’d never heard her laugh before, like a dam had broken inside of her, letting out a wave of joy that washed away every dark image that lingered in her beautiful eyes, leaving nothing but pure unadulterated Alarie.
Her laughter washed over me for the moment that our cart rested at the top of the Ferris wheel, overlooking all of Vlaise. The sight of the tall spires of the High Court lighting up in the night’s sky would have been intoxicating if I were not already drunk on the sound of her laughter.
Our cart jerked on the rusty hanger as the Ferris wheel started forward again, bringing us toward the ground for our next rotation. Still laughing, Al started at the jerk of our cart, grabbing my hand in hers. Her hand felt so small in my big hand, but she entwined her fingers with mine and they somehow fit together perfectly. Al’s laughter or the movement of the Ferris wheel, or perhaps both, set off a chain reaction with the decrepit hanger that secured our cart to the Ferris wheel.
To my horror, Al discovered that she could make our cart rock back and forth, alternating between us lying on our backs looking at the stars and us being thrown forward, looking directly at the ground. She cackled in pure delight as she caused the cart to rock, reveling in my reaction. We grasped each other’s hands too tightly in the mania of the moment.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” I exclaimed, daring to open my mouth.
My burger and several beers sloshed around in my stomach.
“Me too!” Al laughed, not sounding at all upset about it and continuing to rock our cart.
When, at last, we exited the death trap posing as a fair attraction, Al dropped my hand. But when I climbed out of the cart after her, she took my hand back into hers, entwining our fingers once more. Neither one of us was sick, although I certainly felt green for a few minutes after.
We walked hand in hand back to the manor, laughing our asses off about the fair and our genius idea to go drinking before going to ride jerky, spinning rides.
“Try not to miss me too much while I’m at the beach!” I quipped when we arrived at the door of the Vitruvian manor.
I squeezed her hand and moved to let it drop, but Al hung onto it.
“Luke,” Al said, all laughter gone from her voice.
I looked at her, my heart stilled by her serious tone.
“Yeah, Al? What is it?” I asked.
“You want to know the real reason why I can’t go to the Winter Gala with you?” she asked.
“Only if you want me to,” I said, trying to be nonchalant.
“We’re dating, Luke. Jay and I…”
I raised my eyebrows, rolling my tongue along the inside of my bottom lip.
“And here I was thinking you were going after my job,” I joked.
She started laughing, and I immediately felt better.
“I’m sorry. I should have told you sooner. I was worried that you’d think… you know, think that’s how I plan to get ahead at Court,” she said.
“Al, I know how smart and hard-working you are. Why would I possibly think that about you?” I asked.
She smiled, relieved. “So, we’re—”
“Good,” I said, finishing her sentence. I brought my other hand on top of hers, enclosing her hand in mine. “You don’t have to keep secrets from me.”
Her smile settled into a small smirk. She nodded her head slightly.
“Same goes for you,” she said.
I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze before she pulled away. Al walked to the door of the Vitruvian manor and then looked back at me, where I stood a few steps down.
“I am, you know,” she whispered.
“You’re what?” I asked.
She looked like she was glowing from the light of the house behind her. All signs of the joy she had shown at the fair had disappeared from her beautiful face.
“Going to miss you,” she said, and then she disappeared into the Vitruvian manor before I could respond.
“Right back at ya, Al,” I whispered to the door.
Walking away, I flexed my hand, fingers splayed, trying to dispel the ache that had settled there in the absence of her.