He was trying to distract me. I must have been getting warm.
“Why does that auction interest you so much anyway? And why does it have to be at the school? Does this have something to do with our wards? Your friends want to see inside our defenses.”
“No.” He made a face. “I wouldn’t expose your school to dangerous Fae—like my kin. These would be handpicked individuals who I think would be willing to help with Witchkin education.”
“Does the reason you want to have this event have something to do with Imani?”
He tilted his head to the side. “What does she have to do with any of this?”
I wasn’t sure if he was acting or being genuine. In any case, I couldn’t say more without giving away what she was, and I didn’t intend to do that. “So why do I need to be your date at this event?”
His gaze flickered from me to Vega and back again. “No one else can claim you if you have allied yourself with me.”
“Except your father and the rest of your family.”
He tilted his head toward me as if admitting I had scored a point in this game. “I have spoken with them and explained the folly of their actions. Their display of barbaric hospitality cost me dearly, and they now realize my loss is their loss. My parents won’t act that way again.”
“And Quenylda?”
He hesitated. Vega had advised him to stop being such a pathological liar. I used that to my advantage.
“Don’t lie to me.”
“My sister will do whatever she likes. She only listens to my father to a point. I will ensure she isn’t near so you won’t have to put up with her cruelty.” He lifted his chin, looking pleased with himself. “I convinced the rest of my kin that they would be more likely to ensure our bloodline survives if they stop meddling in my love life. They have granted me discretion to attend to you as I see fit in this matter.”
“What do you see fit?”
“In exchange for your loyalty and alliance, you will be safe from the Raven Queen and her court. No other court is strong enough to risk war with our house. That is why it will benefit you to ally yourself with me.”
I watched his eyes shift to gold. “You do know she’s already claimed me, right?”
“She put first dibs on you. Since that time, her marking has dissolved. You didn’t break any rules or give in to her temptations, you’re essentially free—until she finds a way to put a more permanent marking on you. Or until someone else does.” He folded his hands in front of himself on the table. “It would be in your best interest to make it clear publicly and formally with whom you have aligned. You needn’t sleep with me or marry me. Even if you become adopted into my court, I wouldn’t use that to take advantage of you. I like to think I treat my subjects well.”
His Witchkin servants spoke highly of him. I knew that from a former student of Womby’s who now served as a maid. It was his wife who had been the cruel one. His sister-wife. Ick.
“I believe you when you say you don’t intend me any harm. But would you actually let me live my life the way I want to? Would you allow me to be a teacher? Your sovereign would expect me to become your baby-making machine to carry on the Silver Court’s bloodline.”
“I don’t care what my family thinks. I care what you think.” He reached out to hold my hands but stopped just short of touching me.
I hated the way his eyes looked so hurt when I drew back, but he had to know I wasn’t going to let him cloud my mind with touch any longer. “So if I let people think I’m your Witchkin pet, then you’ll do a favor for me?”
“It’s more than letting people think it’s the case, love.” His eyes twinkled with mirth. “You have to make it official. It will be a true contract. Then I’ll do a favor for you.”
I finally felt like I was getting somewhere with him. “So if I publicly renounce my independence and declare alliance with your court, you’ll drop all allegations against Felix Thatch and make Jeb stop the investigations of Thatch’s conduct?”
“I never said that.”
I threw up my hands in exasperation. Fae could be the most vexing people to communicate with. “What do you want? Do I need to ally with your court and date you?”
“That still wouldn’t be enough.”
I stood, ready to grab him by the front of his shirt and shout in his face. Or walk out. I hadn’t decided yet. “What is it with you? What do I have to give you?”
“How about you offer to give him a blow job?” Vega said behind me. “I bet he’d call it good then.”
Elric stood and bowed in a gentlemanly gesture. “Impeccable timing, Miss Bloodmire.” He frowned, not looking especially pleased to see her.
She curtsied, a gesture I’d never seen her do before. I glared at her. The moment I had needed her, she’d abandoned me. Now, I wished she hadn’t returned.
I gestured to the dance floor. “Why don’t you keep on dancing?”
“Because the two of you are morons.” She shoved me out of her way and took a seat beside me. “If you weren’t, you would have made Elric an offer he couldn’t refuse, and you would both be happy. But he isn’t going to ask because he doesn’t want to bind you. And you aren’t going to offer, because you’re too much of an idiot to think it up on your own.” She tipped back her drink.
I looked to Elric. “You want me to agree to marry you.”
There was no way I was going to offer myself up as a sacrifice to save Thatch with that, though the irony didn’t escape me. Thatch hadn’t wanted me to fall in love with Elric. He’d purposefully kept me from falling in love with him. If I offered to marry Elric to save Thatch’s job and reputation, Thatch would go berserk. It actually would be amusing if I were a spiteful person like Vega.
But I knew I wasn’t a wicked witch.
Elric seated himself across from Vega. He gestured to the chair next to her. I resumed my seat.
“I wouldn’t ever ask you to marry me—not if I didn’t think the idea would please you. I might ask you to consider it someday, but not now, and I certainly wouldn’t make you promise yourself to me for the future and build resentment in you.” His eyes were sad.
Despite all his lies, I could see he wasn’t a malicious person. He did care about me. I only wished I could have dated one man who knew how to show it in a normal way.
He rubbed a finger against the rim of his glass, the crystal singing softly, the single note growing louder despite the muffled noise beyond the table. I couldn’t figure out what he really wanted. He had me stumped.
I looked from Vega, lounging across her chair with her sinister smile, and back to Elric. “I thought marriage was what you wanted. What could possibly be a better bargain than that?”
“Duh, Clarissa. He wants the same thing all Fae want.” Vega smacked me in the backside of the head, not hard enough to hurt, but with enough force to make me crash forward and spill my water.
She rolled her eyes. “Isn’t it obvious? He wants an heir.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Son of a Succubus
The concept that Fae wanted children because they were now barren due to the humans and their “Morty Magic” of electronics, plastic, chemicals, and other materials was no revelation. My biological mother had been exploring the Fae Fertility Paradox to find the answer. Elric had married Red affinities and noticed the ability to sire children with them.
I was a Red affinity.
Even thinking about the Fae Fertility Paradox sent a thrill of fear through me. I glanced around to see if anyone had overheard. If people knew he wanted an heir, they might assume I knew how to solve his fertility problem.
“Relax.” Vega said. “I didn’t give anything away. I’m just stating the obvious.”
Elric’s eyes were pleading. “I know how you feel about this matter. You’ve already told me you don’t want to have children. I wouldn’t ever ask it of you. I don’t want you to resent me.”
“But if you offered to giv
e him a child, he wouldn’t be able to refuse. You could ask anything of him. You could ask him to give you immaculate orgasms every night for the rest of your life. He wouldn’t be able to tell you he has a headache.” Her lips twisted into a smile. “You can make this Fae putty in your hands.”
He sighed. “Vega has me figured out.”
She cackled.
I still couldn’t believe that was the price of this bargain. I stared at my spilled water, too shocked by what I would have to do if I was going to help Thatch. He was a jerk. Why did I have to feel the need to come to his rescue in any way? He could take care of himself. He always had.
I felt myself start to hyperventilate. I found my gaze flickering to the smoky shadows of the bar behind Elric, trying to determine whether I could see any exits. More than ever, I wanted to get out of this place.
“Calm yourself. There’s no reason to panic,” Elric said. “You aren’t dealing with my father or the Raven Queen bent on doing you harm. I’m not trying to trick you or entice you to give me your soul. You were the one who came to me. You can walk away at any time.”
But didn’t he see? I couldn’t. I had to undo the damage he had done. It was damage I had done. I shouldn’t have trusted Elric with my secret fears. How could I not have suspected he would use them to his advantage to destroy Thatch?
Vega pinched me. “Get a grip.”
I twitched away from her. I pushed myself to my feet, feeling like a panic attack was about to come on.
Elric stood, hesitating before circling his arms around me.
I considered drawing back. Part of me wanted to, but the comfort of his touch soothed the turmoil inside me. I didn’t want to push him away. His familiar warmth was a balm to my anxiety. If only we could have stayed like this, our relationship platonic and friendly.
“It’s all right.” He smoothed his hand up and down my arm.
Vega coughed.
“You don’t need to agree to anything.” Elric drew back enough to stare into my eyes. His flickered from yellow to green. There was anguish in him as he pulled away. His hands remained anchored on my shoulders. “All I’m asking is for you to think about it. I haven’t told anyone about what Thatch was doing outside of your school. It hasn’t been reported to the Fae school board or Fae Council. Jeb is trying to be discreet about looking into the situation. I can ask him to hold off on investigating anything for another week or two, to give everyone time to think upon this matter. Will that bring you some comfort?”
I nodded woodenly. As difficult as it was, I forced myself to pull away.
I had two weeks to decide if I would bear Elric’s heir. What could possibly go wrong?
CHAPTER TWELVE
Indecent Proposal
For the next couple of days, I considered Elric’s offer. Every time I did, it sent me into a panic. I wasn’t ready to become pregnant and be a mother. He might have said I didn’t need to marry him, but I would have to sleep with him. As pleasant a lover as he could be, I didn’t want to get lured down that road with my affinity again. He knew exactly how to enchant me with touch. He could make me agree to anything.
I was so lost in thought as I walked down the hallway after lunch, I didn’t even notice Thatch until I collided with him.
“Is there some reason you’re unable to watch where you’re going?” he asked.
He made it so easy to hate him.
“Ahem, Felix,” Gertrude Periwinkle said from behind me.
She beckoned to him. He went to her side like an obedient puppy.
She whispered to him. “What did I tell you about talking to her? No one needs to see you confronting her in public right now. It just makes things look worse for you.”
He glanced over his shoulder at me. From the expression on his face, I wouldn’t have been surprised if little daggers of malice shot out at me. I hurried on.
That night I sat on my bed, too lost in thought to change into my pajamas. Vega came and went. She spoke, but I didn’t listen. Finally, she smacked me with a notebook. That got my attention.
“Stop being such a fucktard.” Vega snapped her fingers in my face. “Snap out of this emo mood. Precious time is being wasted.”
I turned away from her. “Leave me alone.”
“That isn’t an option.”
“I trusted you, and you made everything worse.” She was just one more person I couldn’t trust. My shoulders sagged in defeat. “Why won’t you just change rooms with Josie so you can have the tower to yourself like you always wanted?”
She strode around my bed, into my line of sight. “The answer is quite simple.” Her lips curled up into a smile. “If you really wanted that room so badly, you could do a favor for Elric. Then you could ask him to pay me more to not spy on you, and then you would have what you want.”
I leapt to my feet, my helplessness and desperation melting away under the heat of anger. “I don’t want to do a favor for Elric! You don’t get what it’s like to be the object of someone’s attention and not want that attention.”
She crossed her arms. “You’re right. I don’t.”
Vega was as gorgeous as a model. It was unlikely she was being honest.
I ignored her sarcasm. “I don’t want to help him. I don’t even want to help Thatch. Only I do. It’s driving me crazy. I can’t think. I hate them both.”
“Hmm. I think that means you love them both. I wonder which one you’ll end up with.” She leaned against my wardrobe, her smile mocking.
“Shut up! This isn’t a joke.”
She drummed her lacquered nails against the wood of the wardrobe. “What if you do this for yourself, not for either of them? And I don’t just mean what you ask for in return. What if you make what you get out of it and what you give him both things you want.”
That sounded cunning, like something she would do.
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t want an orgasm every day like you do.”
“That isn’t what I meant, though for the record, he doesn’t give me an orgasm every day.” She licked her lips, looking like she wanted to say more, but she hesitated, a very un-Vega-like thing to do.
It was more than just not being ready to have kids and settle down and have a family. I burned to make her understand what it felt like to have the curse of my affinity. There was no way I could share it with her. “It’s bad enough Witchkin and Fae already have their eyes on me. It isn’t going to take much for them to know what a freak I am.” She’d been spying on me long enough she must have suspected what I was. “If they know I can get pregnant. . . . I don’t want to be used again like Julian Thistledown tried to use me.”
Her eyes softened, an atypical response from my wicked roommate. “There is another way to get what you want and give Elric what he wants,” Vega said. “You don’t have to be the one to bear his child.”
“What do you mean? That’s the whole point of this. He expects me to get pregnant.”
“No. He wants a child of his blood. He wants you to make it possible. That doesn’t mean it has to come from you.”
“I’m not following you.”
“Of course you aren’t, but that’s because you’re an idiot.” She sighed in exasperation. “Must I spell it out for you? Who was working to ensure Witchkin and Fae could have children?”
“My . . . mother?”
“Yes. And how did she do that?”
“The Fae Fertility Paradox. But that killed more people than it helped.” I sat on my bed, captivated by the hope of a plan, even if it was going to be a dangerous one.
“Before she refined her methods.” Vega stalked closer to me. “She knew electricity had to be involved. She knew she could turn someone into a Red, but that didn’t mean she understood what she was doing. That was one way to build someone’s tolerance of electricity. It was only when she combined her knowledge of science and magic that she truly started to get results. She had to build a tolerance in the man and woman who wis
hed to conceive if they weren’t Red affinities.”
Her gaze skewered me, wicked delight dancing in her eyes. “Alouette Loraline’s experiments often proved fatal to Fae—though it wasn’t impossible. She found success in Fae who already proved they tolerated electricity. Elric has already had exposure to electronics. He tolerates it better than most Fae.”
“No, he doesn’t. Using a cell phone turned his fingers black and blistered his skin. He doesn’t tolerate electricity at all.”
She snorted. “Clarissa Lawrence, you are a complete nimrod. The fact that Elric was able to use a device for any sustained amount of time at all should tell you how well he tolerates it. If any other Fae even picked up a cell phone it would burn him or her.”
“Oh,” I said. I thought back to that time I had thrown my cell phone at an emissary from the Raven Court. It had smacked the woman in the face and burned her eye. She’d worn an eyepatch the next time I’d seen her.
Vega’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “Do you see what that means? Elric would be the perfect candidate for the Fae Fertility Paradox. That, and we already know it’s possible for him to sire heirs when we consider his track record for marrying Witchkin with certain . . . inclinations, he has a good chance of being fruitful.”
She raised an eyebrow as she said it, as if to suggest I knew which inclinations she meant. I did. Elric liked to marry Red affinities. He knew they would be more likely to produce offspring. I thought back to his interest in Imani and shivered. If he wasn’t having a child with me, I wondered if he would try to have one with the next Red affinity he found. What if the spell in Alouette Loraline’s journal was the only way to prevent his interest in Imani?
I might be able to help him have a child with his barren Fae wife. His sister-wife. Ick.
“We’d need to set some ground rules. If I help him, he can’t coerce one of our students to give him an heir,” I said, thinking of Imani. “The other problem is, my mother killed a lot of people in her experiments. I don’t want anyone to get hurt, Elric included. I don’t want to repeat her mistakes.”
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