CHAPTER FOURTEEN
This time, I woke up in a bed that smelled like Laurie.
His scent was so familiar that it had become as recognizable as coffee or freshly mown grass.
One of those commonplace, everyday scents.
As soon as it hit me, the spark of panic in my mind went dim.
I sat upright and looked around. Light shone from a crack beneath a nearby door, casting a subtle glow over the room. I recognized it instantly.
I was back at the Seelie Court.
As soon as I had the thought, everything from last night came rushing back.
The fireworks, the conversation with Laurie, the Horn.
My heart pounded harder. I remembered finding Michael in the desert and confronting him.
The battle with Lucifer. I remembered what Michael had said to me, mind to mind, when he’d realized he was going to die. What happens to one happens to both.
I remembered the memory Michael had given me as his body came apart. What I’d seen after I was caught in that blast of white light.
Your power will not be enough.
No, it will not.
Don’t do this, Olorel.
Why had Michael looked at the other angel with such horror? What had he seen right at the end?
Since I’d experienced the memory through him, I had felt Michael’s physical reaction. Like he was being torn in two. I knew that feeling well. Maybe angels and my kind weren’t so different after all. Maybe we hadn’t fallen as far as we believed.
Piano music floated through the stillness, cutting my thoughts short.
I pushed the luxurious covers aside and stood, noting that someone had taken my clothes off.
Probably Laurie. Wearing only my bra and some lacy underwear, I spotted my cell phone on the nightstand and went over to pick it up.
It was almost 11:00 a.m. I’d been out for five hours.
I took my phone with me and crossed the huge room.
I opened the door and slipped through, then quickly went into the elegant bathroom I’d used last time.
Within seconds, I discovered that Laurie had kept my toothbrush from that day.
There was also a dress in my size, with buttons down its flowered length …
along with matching lingerie, of course, because it was Laurie.
Ten minutes later, my hair wet, my skin scrubbed clean of all that dust, I opened the bathroom door and followed the sound of the piano music.
My bare feet moved soundlessly against the shining, tiled floor.
I’d examined every inch of myself in the shower, and other than some soreness, I seemed to be completely fine.
There were no scrapes or bruises from hitting the ground.
Even the bruises from my training sessions with Adam and Gil were gone.
Healed, I thought as I walked toward another familiar doorway. But how? Had Zara been here … or was it Michael’s power?
They were questions I’d have to ask Laurie.
I stopped on the threshold and crossed my arms, taking advantage of this rare opportunity to observe the Seelie King.
He sat at the piano, wearing what looked like designer sweatpants and nothing else.
The hard lines of his body shone in a shaft of morning light pouring in through the curtains.
His hair hung free, still slightly damp from his own shower.
His long lashes cast a shadow over his cheek as he gazed down at the keys.
The song drifting through the quiet, sun-dappled air was … hesitant. Afraid, maybe. Pleading.
I’d only been standing there a few seconds when Laurie’s gaze rose to mine. There was no hint of surprise in his expression. He finished the final, lingering notes of the piece without looking away from me.
“I’ve never heard that one before. It’s beautiful,” I said softly.
Laurie’s fingers danced over some random, trilling notes. “Thank you. I call it ‘Fortuna.’”
I paused, searching Laurie’s expression. A strange little throb went through my heart. “You wrote that? And you named it after me?”
He gave me a pitying look and played some of the piece’s chords again. “Of course not. I named it after another Fortuna I know. Goodness, this is awkward now.”
My lips twisted as I kept watching him. Sometimes I forgot how kind Laurie could be. So much had happened since we’d met, and we had both made terrible mistakes, but he was still the person who’d left me a chair in that cold, empty room beneath the Unseelie Court.
While Laurie’s clever fingers moved into another melody, I inevitably started thinking about the day ahead.
I needed to tell Collith and Laurie everything I’d learned from Michael.
But … I found myself reluctant to face it all yet.
Right now, I wanted nothing more than to admire the sight of Laurie in the light streaming through the window, and listen to his beautiful music.
“Is this always how you start your day?” I asked him. “You play?”
Laurie tilted his head as he considered my question. “No. This is always how I start my day.”
The tune cut short as Laurie shifted his attention to the top of the instrument—it was littered with composition pages and crumpled balls of paper—and swept a careless arm over it.
Everything tumbled to the floor. A marble bounced and rolled.
Laurie cocked his head again and looked at me, the picture of sensuality and mischief.
An automatic denial rose to my lips, but I couldn’t seem to actually say the words. Seconds passed, and I felt my eyes widen when they still wouldn’t come out. Dear God, was I actually tempted to say yes?
My face must’ve given something away, or Laurie could smell my arousal, because he rose from the piano bench.
Suddenly all the teasing was gone from his expression, and I recognized the intent way he looked at me.
Fuck, I thought, instantly fighting the urge to back away. The hunt would only excite Laurie more.
He was a faerie, after all.
He stopped in front of me. His fingers trailed up the length of my arm and across my collarbone. Then he skimmed them along the side of my neck. His voice was thick with promise as he said, “I miss this. And this. And this.”
“We need to talk,” I said, willing myself to push him away. I put my hands on his chest to do exactly that.
Laurie’s hand slipped beneath my dress, and he ran a single fingertip along the skin just above my underwear. “I think talking is the last thing we should be doing right now.”
“Laurie …”
A floorboard squeaked. Laurie didn’t even react, but I did, and something inside me lurched in panic when I turned my head and saw Collith. He leaned against the doorjamb, his face shrouded in shadow. For a quiet, shivering moment, none of us moved.
Desperate for someone to speak, I stepped back from Laurie and looked between the two of them again.
There was a forced note of nonchalance in my voice as I asked, “Can someone fill in the blanks, please? The last thing I remember is being in the desert and watching Lucifer and Michael fight to the death.”
“You were hit with Michael’s power,” Laurie said, turning away. He walked over to a side table, where there was a teapot with steam rising from its spout. “Would anyone else like a cup?”
“No, thank you,” I said slowly, watching him pour the hot tea. “What does that mean, exactly?”
“We don’t know. I’m afraid knowledge of the original angels has faded over time,” Collith said, pushing off the door frame to draw closer. He nodded at Laurie. “I’ll have some. Lemon, please.”
I watched them with a distracted frown. Collith poured his tea, then stirred it with subtle, graceful flicks of his wrist. He said something to Laurie, but my mind had gone back to the memory Michael had shown me.
Back to his last conversation with Olorel.
And I knew, even though it was still my first instinct not to trust anyone, that I couldn’t keep this to myself.
“We need to talk,” I repeated.
My gaze rose and met Laurie’s. This time, he saw something that made him fall silent. Without a word, Laurie walked over to the settee and sat, stretching out his legs as he brought the delicate cup to his lips. Collith looked at me and nodded as if to say, We’re listening.
So I took a deep breath, and I told them everything, starting with what Michael had whispered to me just before he’d died.
When I was done, silence filled the room like a winter night.
At some point while I was talking, I’d wrapped my hand around the edge of the piano.
I stared down at my hand now, thinking how just a few hours ago, my knuckles had been covered in bruises.
If Michael’s power did that, what else had it done to me?
While Collith and Laurie absorbed the revelation that their entire fae history was a lie, I relived that final moment with Michael again.
“‘What happens to one happens to both,’” I repeated, frowning at the memory. “That’s what Michael said to me just before he died. He meant Oliver and Lucifer, right? He must’ve. So we only need to kill one of them!”
My gaze shot up, but their expressions made my excitement dim. “I would agree,” Collith said.
“What is it? This is a good thing, right?”
“The Dark Prince is an angel,” Laurie reminded me. “If the Beast’s life is tied to his, then they’re both pretty damn near indestructible.”
He was right. No wonder they both looked so grim. And right now, there was nothing we could do with this newfound knowledge, anyway. Lucifer knew where the grave was.
I also didn’t miss that Collith and Laurie weren’t bringing up the biggest revelation of all—that I might be capable of closing the Gate.
The part of the story I had considered leaving out, but in the end had decided to trust them with.
Because the toxic, broken pattern between us could only end if someone took the first step toward changing it.
I knew Olorel’s reply haunted all three of us.
The cost will be my life.