Chapter 15
Elysia woke up in a surprisingly comfortable bed considering she was in the home of Kava’s Shadow. She had always expected his house to look like a soldier’s barracks. Bare. Functional. Boring. Nothing could be further from the truth. The man liked to live in comfort.
She was in the room she’d always taken on the rare occasion that she’d needed a place to lay her head. The bed duvet was a bright, cheerful blue and there were enough pillows to make you think a woman had been involved. There was a fresh herbal scent on all the bedding that felt both relaxing and clean.
It was the smell of breakfast frying that dragged her from the bed out into the warmly lit kitchen, though. Gage stood there barefoot and shirtless.
He turned around with an almost boyish grin slapped across his face. “Bathroom is just down the hall there, sweetheart. But you know that.” He laughed, still grinning like an ass, and turned back to the food.
She touched her face in confusion when it dawned on her just why he was laughing so hard. Elysia darted to the bathroom and slammed the door shut with a bang. She could still hear him chuckling as he scraped the pan.
A long look in the mirror gave her quite the view. In spite of her best efforts to remove all the makeup that had transformed her into Georgia Parker at the House last evening—she’d clearly left some behind. Eyes like a raccoon. Contour smeared just enough to make her look like a haggard, broken-nosed swamp thing. And her wig... half secured, half flapping in the breeze like it was about to make its great escape.
Like any brother, blood or not, she was sure he would never let her live this down.
After a much more thorough scrubbing, she returned to the kitchen with a bare face and her dark hair swept up into a loose bun on the top of her head.
“Ah, there you are.” Gage plunked down a plate of food in front of her and sat back, sipping a coffee.
Elysia ate a few bites before she gave in to the eyes that were staring pointedly in her direction.
“Do you have something to say, Gage?”
He smiled as sweetly as any lethal half-naked man could. “You seem to be doing a superb job lying low. Exceptional really.” He took another drink of coffee. “Did I say exceptional? I meant to say the worst possible job I could have ever imagined.”
She was tempted to kick him so hard that coffee would spill down his stupid shirtless self. Overstuffed ass. She tossed her head back, gearing up to give him an earful. There was something about Gage chastising her that always made her feel like a petulant thirteen-year-old girl instead of a woman in her twenties, and today was no different.
“Well then, maybe you should have helped me like I asked you to. Oh, I’m sorry—what was it you said? That I could handle Beatriz’s bullshit on my own?” Her eyes narrowed at him.
Gage remained unbothered. “Dirty work. I believe I said dirty work.”
Elysia stabbed at a bite of egg, rolling her eyes. She waved her fork menacingly as she spoke, bits of egg flying. “Topp knows everything. Which I’m sure you do as well even though you’ve been waiting for me to say it. He saw me at the House acting... strangely. Made a comment about my behavior while I’m sleeping, which no, I will not be explaining right now.” She stabbed at the plate again. “I don’t understand what he’s playing at. He didn’t even seem angry. Well, perhaps that I had lied, but now I don’t know what his next move is.” Anxiety scratched at her.
Gage sat with his fingers wrapped tensely around his cup. He didn't yell at her for the House, or for hiding the truth from him for so long, or even for not spelling it out now despite the fact that he had already made it clear he knew she was cursed. But he wasn’t going to beat around the bush any longer, either.
“The king has been hunting and killing your kind since the Fall, but from my understanding, he hated magic long before that.”
Elysia stilled and Gage’s eyes softened just a fraction. “Did you really think that I didn't know what the trances and your skills meant, Elysia? I might not have all the details, but I am well aware of what the sum adds up to. And you obviously forget that I am not from here—my people never lost their magic. Every day that I am here is like being without a limb.”
His deep tan skin creased. “I always knew, Elysia. Since the moment I met you.”
She blinked, absorbing the blow he had just dealt her. She knew she should be angry, but all that rolled through her was a shock of hurt. “You should have told me…” She’d been so alone. Always having to hide. She hadn’t realized he still believed magic to be good . No one in their right mind would move to Kava if they thought magic was natural or good.
She studied him now. Despite their sibling camaraderie, they usually stuck to conversations about training. Over the years, he’d learned more about her life, but kept his quiet. She’d assumed that was because of his work. Frankly, she hadn’t really wanted to know more about what he did when she wasn’t around. Whenever she felt the pull of his secrets, she ignored it the best she could, much like she often ignored the draw of finding out what Beatriz was up to. She had needed him to just be her friend. And on some level, it had felt wrong to pry into the business of one of the few people she actually cared about and respected.
It was bizarre for her to think about his life before Relaclave. Much like a child with their parents, sometimes she forgot he used to have a whole different life. One she clearly didn’t know anything about. He’d been twenty years old when he’d plucked her out of that bloody food cart. Now somewhere in his mid thirties, she couldn’t imagine why he had stayed in Kava all these years. All he’d ever been willing to tell her was that his family had sent him to work here, and that he didn’t like to talk about them.
The lines near his eyes deepened. “You’ve been worrying this thread for too long. It was bound to break at some point.”
He spread his hands out wide. “What will it be, then? A ticket to warmer shores? A land where your damn plants can actually grow? You can’t stay here anymore. My family would welcome you.”
She stayed quiet, and his voice became gruff. “It’s only a matter of time before the prince shows his colors and you’re dead or used for worse by the king.”
When she still didn’t answer, he looked at her seriously. “I will stuff you in a sack myself, Elysia, and watch you set sail as the steamship’s luggage if that’s what it takes.”
Elysia sighed, the wheels of her mind racing, searching for answers she did not yet have.
She poked at her now cold food. “I need more time. There’s a group,” she explained. “Rollie is how I found them. A whole group of people that I think can help. They want some type of diversion as payment, but I can meet with them this week.”
Gage’s eyes were sad as he set down his coffee and leaned on his elbows over the high countertop closer to her. “You’re not getting it, sweetheart. It doesn’t matter what these people know—they will not have a way to stop what runs in your blood. To stop you from escaping your body in your sleep. You did it last night, you know. Looked like a gleaming, silver tether coming out of your body. Eyes wide open. Maybe you’ve been doing it longer than you think.”
Elysia’s heart sank a little more because he was right, and it was no wonder Topp had known. She thought she remembered all of her nightly excursions. But this just proved that she didn’t. She’d been desperate and irrationally banking on this unknown group of people who were ultimately just as screwed as her to help her solve what could not be solved.
What could they possibly offer her?
Answers about why and how would not stop her from spinning like a top after the secrets in her path.
Answers would not keep her sleeping soundly through the night.
Answers would not stop the prince from turning her in.
She’d been found out. The prince knew. Death or worse were her only options now. Her heart squeezed tight, refusing to accept this. She couldn’t just leave. This was her home. Maybe this group Rollie had put her onto was nothing but smoke and mirrors, but then maybe they were more. The sweet song of magic that guided her hand told her what she needed was still here, and she clung to that inkling like it was truth.
She knew they wouldn’t be able to kill the magic in her. But that didn’t mean they didn’t have anything to offer. The soft voice of reason inside her head pleaded with her to take Gage’s offer and go.
“I’m going to meet with them. I have to.” She lifted her chin, defiant even in the face of her own demise.
Gage looked her square in the eyes as he broke her heart. “Your prince helps him. He’s hunted just as many of your kind as the king has. You have to live, Elysia. You don’t understand how important it is that you live.”
She could hear some meaning that she didn’t understand behind his words, but she couldn’t care about that right now. Not with the ghosts of Topp’s hands pressed to her face even as her hope died.
Perhaps her father was right. She really was cursed, after all.