“I’ll have to go to Sinistral,” Alec said. “I have to admit it. I’m…afraid of what I’ll become if I live there, without her. A demon. I don’t feel like a demon, but there’s that part of me. I know it would come out, eventually. I won’t be able to hold it back forever.” He rubbed his hand against his forehead with a low groan. “But if it saves her life, it’s better than nothing.”
“I know what you mean,” Montague said. “I guess I’ll…go to Ulf’s place. I don’t think I can get in on the Lisbeth thing, and I think Rayner understands that too.”
“I’ll call my parents,” I said.
“So is that the plan?” Firian said. “You’re going to marry her and take her to the Hapsburg Hut?”
“Ladyswald,” I said. “Yes. It’s the only way to get her out of this. It’s what they wanted all along. My parents and her aunt both. She won’t be able to make any trouble there, but…she’ll be safe. She’ll still have us.”
“Fuck,” Montague said softly.
“We’ll find a way to get her out, someday, when things quiet down,” I said. “It’s temporary”
I could tell that none of us knew for sure if that was true. If I took Charlotte to my parents’, considering our history now with rebellious behavior, we would probably never be trusted again, not unless we proved ourselves. And it seemed possible to me that in the course of proving ourselves, we might start to care about the lives we’d built. There would be children. And manipulation.
Am I really saving her at all?
My stomach clenched and I realized I’d been running from that all my life. Sure, I talked about wanting to be on the council, to be someone important. Deep down, it sounded stifling, but I also knew how it worked. It’s easy to give up money and power before you have it. Afterwards? Forget it. We’d have kids to think about, their friends at school, money Charlotte could send home to her parents to help them out, all that sort of thing that ties you down.
I’ll make her happy. We’ll fight and tease and I’ll find all the ways I can make her forget what we had to leave behind.
Montague and Alec looked solemn. They loved her enough to let her go. I wondered if I loved her that much. It seemed like a funny phrase. Sure, I guess, when you love someone you’re supposed to just want them to be happy, but I couldn’t imagine a life with an empty place where Charlotte used to be.
Hell if I could let her go.
It was hard enough letting them go.
Chapter Twenty-One
Charlotte
For some reason, the next morning, they let me sleep in. Like, waaay in. I was perpetually exhausted and I decided not to fight it, even though I wondered idly if maybe the main room had a carbon monoxide leak and everyone died or something. I felt wretched. I threw up in the sink and crawled back to bed, in tears from the pain.
Then, Daisy opened the door.
Usually I was greeted by the Torture Witch, and this had been going on long enough that I wondered if the Torture Witch had just cast a spell to make herself look like Daisy and this was some new game.
I’d been thinking a lot about Torture Witch. There was something weird about the other day…I couldn’t pinpoint it. Couldn’t think straight.
“Hey,” Daisy said gently, sitting down in the chair that was the only furniture in the room besides the bed and desk. “They won’t let the boys back here, so they sent me, and…” She bit her lip. “Well, I just want to say, I think it might be the best thing. Seeing you like this has really been freaking me out. I don’t say things like this much, like…I just want to say that you are the coolest witch I know. You’re super brave and kind and you don’t care too much what other people think or say, but you don’t just act like that to annoy your grandmother. You’re like, real.”
“Aw…thanks. I actually do care what other people think and say, but…”
“Okay, well, everyone does. You still care less.”
“Daisy, what’s happening? Are they executing me or something?”
“What? Ohmigod. I wouldn’t say that might be the best thing!”
“Oh. Right.” I let out a breath. “But something is happening.”
“You’re going to marry Harris and go to Ladyswald,” she said. “I am still going to try to find five more faery brides so I can save Orson, but I doubt I can make it in time to help you. Alec and Montague have to go their separate ways.”
“What,” I said, throwing off my blanket even as I was in pain every time I moved, or didn’t move, or anything really. “What? No. Nooo no no. We had a plan.”
“Okay, can you summon all these dead spirits right now?”
“I…I don’t know. Maybe I should try.”
“No. You can’t. They basically broke you, they got Ignatius and Stuart on the run, Orson is dying…it’s bad. It’s really bad. We need to bail on all of this. Harris is going to take good care of you.”
“I don’t want to be taken good care of like I’m an old dog whose owner died! I…I…” I was close to tears, thinking of Ignatius at the trial, and how upset he was when I gave up my magic and just wanted to go home to my family, about Samuel and Professor MacGuinness saying goodbye after never being together, and all the things I might have had a chance to change for the future. Did I really have to just give up?
Daisy rubbed my back and even though it kind of hurt, it was also nice that she was trying to comfort me. “Who knows where the future goes, right? Let me tell you, you should definitely remind the Nicolescus that you helped take down a demon. Like, constantly.” She took a deep breath. “Anyway, it got real fast. I’ll help you dress nice but pretend I didn’t say anything because Harris wants to propose.”
Not gonna lie. I felt like someone had kicked my legs out from under me. Like I had no choices.
But when I saw Harris waiting for me, with this tiny glimmer of nerves in his blue eyes, for one second I could pretend that this was a happily ever after. That I was just a girl who got butterflies in my stomach when I saw this boy, and now he was going to ask me to marry him, and it would all be okay.
It only worked if I forgot everything else.
Daisy had done her best to spruce me up, but she couldn’t put me in a dress because of all my wounds, so I was wearing my short cape and slim pants, and she worked some kind of magic with my hair and a curling iron. I don’t know how or why she had a curling iron. I had never seen her curl her own hair.
Harris had this look on his face that reminded me just how upsetting it must be for my guys to see me suffering. Like, I was back to some normalcy right now, and I knew he was relieved.
Harris being Harris, he tucked all of his more vulnerable emotions away by the time I reached him on the other side of the room, which was sort of a parlor with musty old floral-print furniture.
“Charlotte, I know you’re going to be upset at me. I hope so. I am looking forward to all the ways you’re going to yell at me over this decision, and my only recourse will be to find ways to shut you up.”
My lips twitched as I suppressed a smile. “What did you do?”
“All of us agreed,” he said. “I need to get you out of here. No one could withstand what they’ve been putting you through for long. Everything we fought for, all the happiness you’ve known with Alec and Monty…it’s worthless if we have to watch you get broken down into a shell of yourself. I hate giving in more than anything, except…I love you more than I hate giving in. So…I want you to marry me, and I’m taking you home to the Hudson.”
I’m glad Daisy warned me. It was still a shock to hear him say the words. Even when I knew it was coming, I reacted with surprise that wasn’t fake. “To your…parents’ house?”
“For now,” he said. “Before long, I think they would want us to live on our own, but they will not trust us very much. However, they won’t hurt you. They want us to marry.”
“You’re supposed to ask a woman to marry you, not just tell her.”
“Too bad,” he said. “You have no choice. I wou
ld rather command you than watch you die in front of me…”
I punched him in the stomach. I wasn’t very strong at the moment, but I did want to hear him make a “Guh!” sound, which he did, so I judged it just right.
Then I patted him on the head. “It sounds like my zombie forgot that he already did die in front of someone and she brought him back with her power.”
“Are you ever going to get tired of bringing that up?” He looked super annoyed at me. Rich people were so good at looking sexily indignant. Then he reached for me, hands spread on my back and bottom, and pulled me against him, filling me with a sharp need that surprised me. Just because I was in too much pain didn’t mean I didn’t think about it.
“No,” I said. “I’ll probably bring it up on your actual deathbed when you’re a hundred.”
“Charlotte, I will make you happy,” he said. “It won’t be pleasant there, in many ways, but I will bear the brunt of it all. Just try—try—not to agitate the native inhabitants.”
The time for fighting was done. I knew he was right. He was trying to give me some kind of life, where I would still see my family and be free. “Okay…” He kissed me, and at first I savored the taste of him, yearning only for the affection I’d been missing. Then, I gripped his shirt. “Alec and Monty…” A lump rose to my throat.
“I’m going to miss them as much as you will.”
“No…no…”
“It’s not forever. We’ll find a way back to them. I swear.”
I started to let myself cry but that just made my ribs hurt. I stopped and forced myself to just…accept the hand fate had dealt me. The wife of Harrison von Hapsburg Nicolescu. Well, well. That was definitely not what I expected. My mind wandered to a scene of us getting announced at a ball by one of those guys who pounds a stick. “The Lord and Lady Harrison and Charlotte von Hapsburg Nicolescu…they have generously bid on this artwork by the renowned Alec Lyrman to benefit the Human Fund tonight…”
I waved my fan coyly in front of my face. “Ho ho ho, yes! He is certainly my favorite artist!”
We’d find a way to be happy, right? Right?
“My parents are already on their way,” he said. “As is your great-aunt. I couldn’t really…stop them, if we’re going to be serious about this.”
“On their way? To here? To pick us up?”
“For a handfasting,” he said. “That is, in this situation they want to rush the binding of our vows, and then take the time to prepare the public wedding. Your family will be invited to the public wedding, but the hand-fasting will take place here, tomorrow.”
“Binding vows? Tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“Do I need a wedding dress?”
“You need something presentable. I have some very potent healing spell for the bruises here. Let Daisy help you. I presume she will be your handmaiden and she did do well with your hair.”
“So this is…this is like a wedding. And my family won’t be here. Just…Catherine Caruthers? Who is terrible?”
“We’ll get through it.”
“This isn’t romantic at all. It’s so…sad.”
“Chosen One,” he said. “My chosen one. I’ll make it up to you later. I promise.”
I wasn’t sure whether to smile, because I got a genuine thrill when he said those words, or just sob until my insides ached as much as my outsides.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Charlotte
If anything kept me together, it was Alec and Montague. They were so good to me. They didn’t want me to be sad.
“You’re the woman I love, Charlotte,” Alec said.
“Alec, I know you will have needs,” I said. “I want you to know not to feel guilty. Don’t wait for me. I want you to be happy.”
“I don’t want to think about that,” he said.
“But I need you to know that the last thing I’d want is for you to hate who you are, because of me,” I said. “If you have to have sex with someone else, I want you to enjoy it.”
Of course, I didn’t love this idea. Like, at all. But I could tell he loved it even less than I did, so I couldn’t be too upset. The only thing that bothered me was just thinking about time passing, and that they would be lonely.
“Princess, I have so many memories of you to keep until I see you again,” he said. “And we will see each other again. There’s always dreams.”
“Yes…” I brightened a little. The dreams weren’t real enough. I got incubus Alec in the dreams, but I wanted human Alec just as much. Relationships weren’t just hot dreams. They were knowing you could turn to that person any time, and have their arms around you, or just sit around sharing a meal and talking about the day. That was how we fell in love.
“I’ll be happy knowing you’re safe,” he said. “It’s you I’ll be thinking about. You on that exercise bike. Every time I work out.” He grinned.
I clung to him. “Oh, Alec. I can’t stand it. Harris isn’t half the slab of man meat that you are.”
He snorted. “Yeah, I’m aware. But at least I trust him with my favorite roomie.”
Montague tried to hold himself a little more aloof. Of course. I knew he would have the easiest time out there in the world; he would be the hardest to recapture once he was gone. That scared me too.
“Man, I fucking hate goodbyes,” he said. “Plus, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous of Harris. I was your first boyfriend. If anyone gets to make vows to you, it should be me. But I’ll say the gracious things about being glad you’re safe.”
“You don’t have to,” I said. “This sucks.”
He lifted a lock of my hair and twisted it around his finger. “You are probably safer without me. But…”
“I’ll miss your brand of danger,” I said.
We kissed, and then I kissed Alec, but there were tears on my cheeks and before long the salty taste of them intruded on the sweetness of our kisses and I had to stop and wipe them away. This parting didn’t seem real, but it was. Mr. Coopman gathered us all up and said our families would all be proud that we’d made the right decision. He waved a stack of clipboards in front of us.
“As soon as the wedding is over, you can sign these release papers.”
“Hand-fasting,” I said. “The wedding is later when my family can be present.”
“Details, yes, hand-fasting,” he said dismissively.
“So why can’t my family come to this?” I pressed.
I could see him trying to decide what excuse to present. “We have a visitor limit here so as not to strain our security resources,” he said.
“But Harris’ parents and Councilwoman Caruthers can come.”
“The Nicolescu family is being very generous to you,” he said pointedly. “Young woman, you would be in a whole heap of trouble that you would never escape if you didn’t have the Nicolescus and your great-aunt to vouch for you. And if I may give you a word of advice? I would keep quiet and appreciate the generosity bestowed upon you.”
As he dismissed us, Harris glanced at me like, Why did you bother? You knew how that would go.
And I looked at him back like, If I’m going to marry you, you better have my back when I challenge the status quo because I honestly can’t help it. I’m a modern girl who was raised on saucy memes.
I’m not sure he really understood all that from just my expression. Whatever. He knew what he was getting into.
The next morning, the Nicolescu parents arrived, and so did Catherine Caruthers. They all had this ‘last season of Downton Abbey’ look: rich, well-dressed, vaguely aware that the modern world was intruding upon their comforts. I barely saw them, because I was whisked off to be made ready for the ceremony. Meanwhile, I saw staff bringing in flowers, all carting them off to the Haven’s chapel, while there seemed to be a vague light of interest in the eyes of the denizens as they were murmuring about a wedding. I had a feeling this half-crazed assortment of magical rejects weren’t going to be allowed to watch the ceremony, but I guess even just
the buzz in the area was a change of pace.
The jitters in my stomach were building as I struggled to eat breakfast with the guys, thinking this was the last time we’d ever be together. This wedding felt like the wrong thing to do and I also felt like I couldn’t stop it. After breakfast, one of the staff summoned Daisy and me to a private room just off of the chapel to get ready. This room was actually slightly elegant, with a tall bay window and elegant wooden furniture. A big cardboard box wrapped with a white bow was sitting on the window seat. I looked at it nervously.
“Where were you at breakfast?” I asked.
“I have the thirteen girls!” Daisy whispered urgently.
“You do?”
She nodded. “You just looked so depressed, I have been working this place hard,” she said. “And I have to give credit to Polly because she knows people here and she convinced a few of them herself. We have the thirteen brides for the faery queen. I got them all to sign their names for a binding oath. I got the last one like, ten minutes ago.”
“Wow. So…what do we do? If we got a message to the faery queen right now, maybe I could get out of this?”
Daisy took some paper out of her pocket and nodded toward some candles in a multi-candle sconce on the wall. I pulled one out so we could light it and send the message. She unfolded the paper with twelve names written on it, and at the bottom, with a brief pause, she signed her own.
“Um,” she said. “Just so you know…”
“What?”
“They are really…rough. These girls. Because, I mean, you’ve seen this place.”
“They’ll probably clean up okay in the faery world, right?” I said.
She looked at me.
“Like…how rough?” I asked.
“Well, this place had been hard on them, and some of them have been…you know…mistreated for a while. I sort of made promises to them that the faeries might not keep, but I’m not a faery, so I can lie. It can’t be worse than here, right? We also have a nonconformist artsy chick who calls herself ‘Persona’, and it was like hell getting her to sign her real name, which is Lucinda by the way. She’s this sloppy mess here.” She pointed at a garbled signature. “She’s probably going to be real fun when the faeries tell her they expect her to just be a wife and breed little faery babies, so I sold her on this bohemian vision of faery dances and art and stuff. Then we have a girl from the Bathorite Society. They’re witches who believe in dominating the Fixed Plane via an alliance with vampires. She’s only agreeing because she is convinced that they have her slated for execution here, and I told her the faeries—”
Battle of the Hexes: A Paranormal Academy Series (A Witch Among Warlocks Book 4) Page 14
