Consort of Secrets

by Eva Chase

  Celestine wasn’t taking any chances. I was surprised she hadn’t tracked me down in town the second she’d come across the other phone, if she was resorting to this.

  Maybe she simply hadn’t had a chance yet. Where was she right now? In her magicking room, already working some spell to trap me here more?

  The heat of my spark quivered inside me, bright from Jin’s attentions not that long ago. I focused on it as I padded to my door and eased it open.

  There was no way of telling whether she was using the magicking room or not, not without opening it up and looking inside. Unless… Maybe I could use my own magic to sense where she was, at least if she were nearby.

  I ducked back into my room. My hand shot back to my pocket with the contract. I didn’t have time to find a perfect hiding place, but for now… I glanced around and shoved the photocopy behind a row of books on one of the bookcases. Better than nothing.

  Moving back to the middle of the room, I inhaled deeply and spread my arms out at either side. Then I turned in a slow, smooth circle, gently rotating my hands.

  A trickle of magic flowed from my spark through me and out into the house. Seeking out the essence I’d recognize as my stepmother. There was a figure bent over the desk in his bedroom—Derek. There was one of the cleaning staff in the bathroom. A kitchen helper loading the lunch dishes in the rooms below. The—

  I felt her, with a cold prickle that rushed over me. She was close—she was coming into the front hall and heading up the stairs.

  I dropped my arms, hugging them to me. After a moment, Celestine’s shoes tapped softly past my door. I edged up to it and pressed my ear close.

  She stopped. There was a pause, and then a quiet knock. The squeak of a door hinge. And my former fiance’s voice. “Yes?”

  My stepmother spoke in such a hush I only made out the words by straining my ears. “We need to talk.”

  Derek didn’t say anything else, not right then. The hinge squeaked again—the door clicked shut. Then I couldn’t hear anything at all.

  Philomena clutched her skirts. “We must find out what they’re saying. They’re conspiring against you right now.”

  “I know.” My heart was outright racing now. I clenched my hands.

  I could do this. I had magic now, even if it wasn’t as much as she had.

  The spark inside me danced. I closed my eyes, picturing that hard closet floor, the press of the clothes with Derek’s spruce-y cologne, where I’d crouched when I’d heard him with Polly. His room was only maybe forty feet away. Not that far at all. I’d have rather my first attempt at this sort of magicking had been an even shorter distance, but I didn’t have a whole lot of choice, did I?

  I gathered the heat and the light inside me, and then I spun on my feet, whipping my arms around me at the same time, following the form of teleportation exactly as I’d been taught.

  A chill and a crackle snapped around me. Everything went black. Then I was reeling against the hanging pants in the closet I’d imagined, my head spinning. All the magic I’d held in my chest snuffed out as I caught my balance.

  I braced my hands against the floor, stilling any sound, clamping my mouth shut against a hitch of breath. I’d been lucky I’d had enough vigor in my spark to carry me this far. My chest was totally hollow now. I really needed not to get caught.

  The closet door was slightly ajar. I shrank deeper into the shadows, away from the thin streak of light that cut across the floor. I could make out the back of Celestine’s form where she stood in the middle of Derek’s room, the curve of her silver-blond bob and the sharp lines of her dress suit. The faint rasp of metal wheels shifting against wood suggested Derek had gone back to his desk chair.

  “Are you sure she hasn’t run off?” he said. I couldn’t tell from his flat tone whether the idea concerned him.

  “One of my staff saw her returning from town a short while ago,” Celestine said. “I laid down a spell when we arrived here last month to alert me if she traveled more than a few miles beyond our property. And I’ve just finished a magicking that will prevent her from leaving the boundaries of this estate, at least until tomorrow. So I’m not worried about that.”

  My lungs constricted. I really was trapped here then. But Celestine couldn’t keep a spell like that up once Dad returned.

  Derek sighed. “What if she doesn’t even know what we’re planning?”

  “She knows something,” Celestine snapped. “Someone’s been poking around in our business. That’s enough. We can’t risk delaying any longer.”

  “And her father—”

  Celestine’s shoulders went rigid. Her voice took on an iron edge. “Should remain undisturbed. We can have the matter settled without him knowing there was any trouble.”

  What was she talking about? How exactly were they planning on “settling” this “matter”? I bit my lip, wishing I could see their expressions. Wishing I could ask them what the hell they meant.

  “Well,” Derek said. “I suppose if you think it’s best. All this subterfuge has been tiring. We might as well get the gist of it over with.”

  “Excellent,” Celestine said. “All you have to do is meet me by the old ash tree just beyond the back gardens at midnight. I’ll take care of the rest. I have everything we need for the ceremony. And I can handle Rosalind.”

  The ceremony. A chill shot through me, so sharp my whole body stiffened. My pulse thumped.

  That was what they were talking about. The gist of it. Settling the matter. They were going to force me into the consort ceremony with Derek tonight.

  Of course. There’d be no chance for me to go to Dad then. No chance for me to find any other way out of Celestine’s magic. They’d found the perfect solution to their problem.

  How the hell was I going to stop them?

  The chair’s wheels rattled as Derek shifted it. “She isn’t going to want to come. You might have a fight on your hands. What if she comes to me looking to light some of her magic? She’ll be suspicious if I put her off. Or does that not matter anymore?”

  Celestine guffawed. “It’d take a lot more than some inexperienced chit with a half-kindled spark to overpower me. I’ve been preparing for this day for years. Why not let her have a little taste if she comes to you wanting it? She might as well enjoy that brief freedom while it lasts. When we’re done tonight, she won’t be able to so much as twitch that spark of hers unless it suits us.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Rose

  Derek tried to work for a few minutes after Celestine left before he grunted to himself and pushed back his chair. My body deflated as he walked out of the room. I waited until his footsteps had treaded away down the hall, and then I unfolded myself from the floor of his closet.

  My legs wobbled under me as I slipped to the door. I couldn’t pretend the weakness was only from staying crouched on the floor. My whole body felt shaky, as if I’d just come out of a rough bout of the flu.

  But the rough times weren’t behind me. They were ahead.

  My breath only steadied slightly when I’d darted into the hall. I dashed for my room and shut that door behind me firmly, turning the lock—as if that would do me any good when Celestine came to collect me. A shudder passed through me. I sank onto the side of the bed, clutching my stomach.

  Midnight. I had about ten hours left before my fate was sealed. Spark help me, I had no idea how to change that fate.

  Celestine was right. There was no way I could challenge her. Even if I’d come with my spark freshly flaring after that tryst with Damon, the magic I had couldn’t compare with hers, fully kindled. She must have stoked her own inner flame high before my father had left.

  Ugh, thinking about that even vaguely made me feel even more sick.

  It didn’t matter. It wasn’t as if I could reach the guys from in here anyway. I was trapped like a mouse in a cage.

  My hand rubbed over the ribbon I’d wrapped around my wrist this morning. Blue today—bright blue like Gabriel’s
eyes and his confidence as limitless as the sky. I’d always thought he was the one who’d held us all together all those years ago, but today I’d been coming to the guys to see if I could take that role now. So much for that. I couldn’t even send them a simple message…

  My fingers stilled against the silky fabric. My gaze rose to the window. The memory swam up of Kyler standing in front of it that first night when I was back, holding up my white ribbon to return it to me.

  In case you need us, and you can’t reach out any other way.

  My pulse skipped. My beautiful brilliant boy. Of course it’d be Ky who’d thought of a solution to a problem that hadn’t even happened yet.

  I went to my jewelry case, my breath catching for a second before I opened it. But there they all were, the other five ribbons. My stepmother hadn’t thought to steal away this method of communication.

  I probably could have used the blue one to the same effect, but I slid out the white instead. The one I’d used before. The clearest message. The brightest signal I could offer against the dark bars of the gate.

  The only question now was how to get it out there without Celestine noticing.

  What reason could I have to go out to the gates if I didn’t want her to think I was up to anything suspicious? Ah.

  I balled the ribbon in my pocket and made myself amble down to the front door as if I had nothing all that urgent on my mind. Outside, I headed toward the garage. One of the workers who’d been polishing the hood of Celestine’s Jaguar glanced up.

  “Miss Hallowell. Do you need to go somewhere?”

  “No,” I said. “I just noticed when I came in today that the gate’s hinges are getting a little squeaky. Figured I’d take care of that before my dad gets home. I know you Sunday staff are always extra busy.”

  I shot him a sympathetic smile, and he grinned back. He was probably the only one on duty in the garage today. “Much appreciated,” he said. “If you’re sure you don’t mind…”

  “Oh, it’s nothing.”

  A strange pressure wafted against me as I approached the gate. My stepmother’s spell. I stopped by the hinges, my chest tight. All at once I felt very, very certain I did not want to pass beyond these walls. I suspected if I’d tried to, my feet would have turned me right around of their own accord.

  That was fine. I wasn’t here to leave anyway. I could work around her spell.

  I dripped the oil onto each of the hinges. Then I paused for just a second to snag the ribbon on one. Against the outside of the bars, where it would barely be visible from this side.

  There. I’d put out my call.

  I’d just have to hope that one of my guys saw it in time.

  The window’s screen made a faint grating sound as I tugged it out of the frame. I winced and stopped to listen for any movement outside or in the rooms around me.

  Crickets chirped in the dark yard below. The warm evening breeze teased through my hair, carrying the scent of the garden’s hyacinths. Faint strains of the jazz music Derek was playing on his computer filtered from his open window to mine. That was all.

  I let out my breath and set down the screen. I’d claimed I was going to bed with a headache right after we’d finished dinner, so I didn’t think anyone would bother me until Celestine came calling at midnight. But I’d needed to wait until it was dark enough that even the weekend staff had been sent home, other than the few who lived on the property. Dark enough that I could expect the shadows to properly hide me.

  The cloth bag I’d tucked my supplies into bumped against my back as I climbed onto the ledge. I’d raided the common magicking room before dinner. The simple linen dress I’d changed into had come from there too.

  I hitched the loose skirt up to my thighs. The rough bark of the oak tree bit into my fingers as I grasped the oak’s branch and clambered all the way out.

  It was a nerve-wracking descent, clinging to the trunk and easing my way down from branch to branch as quietly as possible. Finally I was close enough to the base to lower myself to the ground. I crept across the soft grass along the side of the house, ducking beneath the level of the windows.

  At the back corner, I stopped and peered around the side of the manor. My pulse skittered. In the hazy light of the solar lanterns that hung around the patio, Celestine’s man Douglas was strolling through the back gardens. His gaze swept the shadowy grounds.

  But he was positioned to catch someone sneaking out the back doors. I backtracked a few steps and dashed for the tallest hedge that bordered the outer boundary of the gardens. There, I dropped to my knees. The sharp evergreen smell of the hedge filled my nose as I listened.

  No running footsteps, no shouts of alarm. He hadn’t noticed me.

  My heart kept thudding. I slunk along the hedge until I reached the last short grassy stretch before the darker sprawl of the forest. I peered through the brambles, trying to make out Douglas’s position. Only a bit of the light from the patio penetrated the dusk this far out, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

  There. He ambled a little farther to the left, and then he turned on his heel to face the patio. I pushed forward, my bare feet pattering across the grass and onto the uneven ground of the forest floor.

  I ran several paces through the trees and stopped in the thicker shadows. There, I listened again for any sign of pursuit.

  None came. Exhaling in a rush, I pulled my flats from my bag and tugged them onto my feet to give me a little protection against the pebbles and roots. Then I hurried onward.

  Speed mattered more than silence now. If the guys had come, I didn’t know how long they’d been waiting—or how long they could keep waiting.

  The bridge Kyler had picked for our emergency meeting spot lay about a twenty-minute walk northeast of the manor. I hit the stream first and treaded along its rocky bank. The burble of the water was faintly soothing as it guided me on into the deeper woods. The moon was rising, but its pale light barely touched the forest floor.

  The trees parted where the stream widened to almost a river at the bridge. The arching structure was built of stones now so worn and lichen splotched you’d almost think they’d grown right out of the stream.

  Four figures were standing around it. A choked noise of relief broke from my throat as I scrambled the last several feet to meet them.

  Kyler reached me first, pushing off the side of the bridge and striding forward to catch me in his arms. He kissed me hard, and for a second it almost felt as if everything was all right now.

  He drew back, his hands resting on my shoulders, his eyes dark in the dim moonlight. “Are you okay? What happened? You have no idea how worried we’ve been.”

  The other guys gathered around us. I dragged in my breath. Everything wasn’t all right yet. It might not ever be. And the time I had to try to make it right was slipping away with every thump of my pulse.

  “My stepmother knows I’m starting to figure out something’s wrong,” I said. “She found the phone you gave me. I don’t know what else she might have noticed. She decided—she decided they have to do the consort ceremony tonight. To make sure I’m already bound to Derek and under their control before my father gets home.”

  Kyler’s eyes widened. Damon swore. Seth stepped closer, his brawny shoulders tensed. “We won’t let them hurt you. Do you need us to get you out of here?”

  “You can hide out at my studio,” Jin offered. “I have plenty of room.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t. She’s put down a spell around the estate—it’ll stop me from leaving. And even if I could break through that, as soon as she comes for me and sees I’m gone, she has ways of tracking me down.”

  “So what do you need from us?” Ky said, swift and solemn. “Just say the word. We’re here.”

  They were. Like always. My throat choked up again. It took me a second before I could speak.

  “I don’t want to ask this,” I said. “Not when I promised you we’d have time—not when there’s still so much I don’t know about h
ow we’d get by, afterward. But the only way I can think of that I’d be able to challenge her and win… is if I’m already consorted. My spark fully kindled. I don’t even know if just one—but maybe, with all of you—”

  I stumbled over my words. The guys were staring at me. I made myself barrel on. “You don’t have to. I wouldn’t blame you for feeling it’s too fast, too much. It doesn’t have to be permanent—the standard consort partnership can be severed—but only after at least a few years have passed. It’s still a huge commitment. I know that. If I could see any other option—”

  “Rose,” Damon broke in, his voice raw. He stepped up beside me. His jaw clenched and then released. “I’m in. You’ve got me.”

  My heart flipped over. I hadn’t known if any of the guys would agree, but Damon was the last one I’d have expected to offer first.

  “And me,” Kyler said without hesitation. “No way am I sitting this out. We can worry about the fine print later.”

  Jin chuckled breathlessly, raking his hand through his blue-streaked hair. “Oh, to hell with it. Yes. I’m ready. You’re the best adventure I’ve ever been a part of, Briar Rose. I’m in until the end.”

  My heart swelled with so much joy and affection I didn’t know what to do with it. But Seth was still standing silent beside his twin, his mouth tightly slanted.

  I grasped his hand. “You don’t have to. It’s all right.”

  His eyes met mine with so much emotion it nearly rocked me on my heels. “It’s not that I don’t want to,” he said roughly. “You have no idea how much I want you, Rose. All I’m trying to figure out is what’s right for you.” He squeezed my hand back. “I love you. Don’t you doubt that for a second. We all love you.”

  He shot a pointed look around our little circle.

  “Yes,” Ky said with a giddy laugh. “So much, Rose.”

  Jin’s expression turned unusually serious. “I do. More than I wanted to admit to myself.”

  Damon scuffed his sneaker against the ground and glowered at Seth. But when his gaze slid to me, it softened. His voice came out with a rasp. “Sometimes I feel like I’ve loved you my whole life, angel.”