Oh, dear.
“It isn’t my intention to make you uncomfortable and I can sense that you aren’t ready for anything romantic yet; I know that. And I know it probably has something to do with—” he swallowed like it was painful “—Alexander Del Conte.”
“Alex?” My cheeks burned. “We are just friends,” I hurried to add. “I grew up with him, and there’s nothing…”
“Daria, it’s okay,” he said. “I’ve heard how you loved him and I saw for myself how you look at him.”
At first, I was embarrassed—extremely embarrassed—but then that embarrassment morphed into anger. It was always the same, how I had loved him, how I had chased after him. Never how he had loved me. Never the other way around. “You’re seeing things, then,” I said through my teeth, “because if he makes me feel anything, it’s disgust.”
“Disgust?” Danton tilted his head. “Hmm, you may be the only woman in this world that would apply that term to him.”
“Well, I’m also the only woman in this world who sees him for what he is,” I said so fast and with so much conviction, Danton smiled at once.
And then I did feel disgusted. With myself.
“That changes things,” Danton whispered. “I’ll be patient. Whenever you are ready, whenever you are comfortable. I won’t press you.” He was standing so close I could see the different shades of blue in his eyes.
Uncomfortable, I turned away.
“I should let you rest,” he said. “This next week will be exceedingly busy for me, so if you’re feeling better in the morning, may I spend it with you?”
Absolutely not. I would be busy, like sneaking Fleck out of Gaia.
I forced a smile. “You may need the extra sleep—”
“No,” he grabbed my hand, “what I need is—”
A thud sounded from the bathroom, followed by a chuckle.
Danton went rigid; his eyes narrowed at the bathroom door.
That was final. Stefan was going to die.
“Is there someone…?” Danton started for my bathroom.
Do something!
“Danton, wait…” I started, but he was already halfway there. If he realized who was behind that door…
Hurry!
“Danton!”
That got his attention. He paused and I grabbed his arm, jerking him back to me. And then I threw my arms around his neck and pressed my lips against his.
I wouldn’t have believed what I was doing if I hadn’t been the one actually doing it. Danton couldn’t believe it either because he was about as pliable as a wall until I pressed my body into his. His confusion dissolved, and he melted into me.
His arms wrapped around the small of my back, crushing me against him, and his lips moved so fiercely against mine I had trouble breathing. But there was a part of me that enjoyed it. Enjoyed being held and kissed, desired and wanted, and that same part wanted Alex to see. See that someone else could want me like he’d wanted Vera. See if it made him jealous like I’d been jealous; see if it hurt him like he kept hurting me.
Danton’s lips started moving down my neck—wow, he moved fast—and his hands began slipping beneath the back of my dress and I went still. He stopped kissing me and spoke on my lips. “I think I could get used to this.”
This. What was this? I was kissing a guy I didn’t really care about—not like that—right in front of the guy I did.
What was wrong with me?
“I think you should probably go,” I said.
He didn’t let go. In fact, he held on to me tighter, and I could feel his heart pounding against me as his desire pulsed. For a long, terrible second, I thought he wasn’t going to leave, like I’d unleashed some caged animal and I was going to have to beat him off with a stick. One that shot bullets.
“Danton.” I pointedly flickered my eyes to the door. “Please.”
At last, he sighed and relaxed his grip around me.
“You’re right, you need to rest.” He brushed his lips lightly on mine. They were delicate and…small. “I’ll come find you in the morning.”
Danton took a deep breath, walked through the door, and I closed it after him.
What had I done?
I was afraid to turn around. Like, really afraid. I didn’t even hear my bathroom door open but I could feel Alex standing there. I couldn’t explain how because it wasn’t like I could feel any of his emotions, which I really, really wanted to right now, but I could feel him physically there. Like a magnet is drawn to a charge.
Finally, I turned around.
Alex stood in the doorway, his arms folded over his chest as he leaned against the frame. I couldn’t read his face, couldn’t tell what he was thinking or feeling. He just stood there, staring at me. I hated that I couldn’t sense his feelings and I might have thought it was because he didn’t have any, but now I knew that wasn’t the case. I felt a surge of something, but what that something was, I had no idea.
“Well.” I dropped my gaze. “That was close.”
He stood perfectly still, staring at me for what felt like an eternity. His eyes were cold and hard, and without a word, he slipped back into my bathroom.
I swallowed and followed him inside.
A bar of soap had slipped from the tub’s rim and fallen to the floor, and Stefan was lying flat on the ground beside it, beaming. Beside him was the little flower, the one Alex had given me, sitting in its bowl atop a pedestal.
Alex had his back to me and was crouched beside Stefan, hoisting him up.
“I’ll help.” I grabbed Stefan’s legs.
Alex didn’t respond.
In heavy silence, we carried Stefan back to the couch, and as soon as Stefan was comfortable, Alex moved to a chair, pulled a dagger from somewhere inside his boot, and fidgeted absently with the hilt, staring at nothing.
His silence was killing me. “Alex?”
He traced his finger along the blade.
I felt sick. Not because of what I’d said and done—I’d only done it to distract Danton—but because I had enjoyed it. Enjoyed using Danton to hurt someone else.
Someone I cared about.
“Say something,” I whispered.
Alex snapped his eyes to mine. There was so much anger in them that my confidence evaporated. In one swift motion, he shoved his dagger back into his boot and started for the door.
“Wait” —I hurried after him— “where are you going?”
He kept walking.
“Alex, please!”
He spun on me and I froze. His eyes were so cold. Never, in all my life, could I remember him looking at me like that—like he hated me. I wanted to say I was sorry. Sorry for what I’d said and what I’d done, but I was too afraid the words would never make it out all the way.
“I have to go,” he said in a very low, controlled voice.
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from crying. “Fine,” I whispered. “Run away like you always do.”
He leaned close, his face a handbreadth from mine, and for a split second I felt his anger. I felt it boiling beneath the surface, hotter than fire, sweltering like the sun. He opened his lips to say something, but at the last second, he turned the door handle and left.
I slammed my fist on the door after him and sagged against it, right as a light tap-tap-tap sounded on the other side, followed by a soft “Rook?”
It was Thad, and he sounded a little scared. Slowly, I creaked the door open. Thad stood on the other side, wide-eyed.
“You know, you’re not supposed to knock from the inside,” he said, stepping into my room, keeping a safe distance.
I walked back to Stefan, who was drawing invisible pictures in the air with his finger, smiling to himself.
“Did you find something that’ll fix him?” I asked.
“Rook.”
I turned around. Thad’s arms were folded and he looked very much like a scolding parent.
“What?” I said.
“Would you like to explain why Del Can’t l
ooked like he was about to burn down the castle?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He arched a brow and waited.
I glanced away and took the rag from Stefan’s hands. “Pretty!” Stefan giggled.
“Can you fix him?” I asked Thad.
“I’m not telling until you tell me what happened.”
I glared at him over my shoulder, but he just grinned with his arms folded. With a grumble, I told him what had happened, well, with a few minor edits. All the while, his eyes turned wider and his amusement became overpowering. “Wow,” he said at last.
“Well? Stefan?”
Thad leaned forward with that annoying smirk.
“Don’t,” I threatened.
He shook his head and pulled a small vial from his cloak. It looked like a glass teardrop, filled with a glowing pale blue liquid. “I can’t believe you did that,” Thad continued, gazing at the little vial.
“His foot?” I pointed to Stefan impatiently.
Thad studied me a moment and then looked at Stefan. “Well, I didn’t find exactly what Del Can’t wanted, but I did find something that would help.” He held the vial in the air before me, and I took it.
The liquid swirled and bubbled inside.
“What is it?” I asked.
“A kind of mending serum. I found it in the healing ward.”
I eyed him suspiciously.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he defended. “It’s perfectly safe. If there’s one thing I know, it’s poisons. Besides…have I ever led you astray?”
“You really want me to answer that?”
He snorted while I hurried to Stefan’s side. He was sleeping. “Stefan,” I said, “Thad got something to help your foot.”
Stefan snored, loudly.
“Stefan, wake up,” I said, a little louder this time.
Stefan started choking on another snore when Thad walked over and smacked Stefan across the face.
“O—ow!” Stefan gasped, opening his eyes. I frowned at Thad but unstoppered the vial and poured the glowing liquid down Stefan’s throat, plugging Stefan’s nose to make sure he drank all of it.
At first Stefan choked, but then he started gulping it down and finished off the bottle. He beamed so big his dimples showed. “Is there more?” he asked, and then his eyes rolled back in his head, his mouth went slack, and he would’ve rolled right off the couch if I hadn’t caught him.
My mouth hung open. “What just happened?”
“Huh.” Thad stood with his hands on his hips, looking perplexed.
“Thaddeus!”
“I mean, that stuff was supposed to knock Goldilocks out, but it wasn’t supposed to happen so fast…” His voice trailed, his eyes widened, and he let out an ominous “Ooooh.”
“What!”
“Uh—” Thad scratched the back of his neck “—I sorta forgot he’d had faerie wine.”
“And?”
Thad looked at Stefan as though he were a museum artifact. “The faerie wine acts as an agonist to the efficacy of analgesics.”
“English?”
A spark lit his eyes. “Sleeping Beauty isn’t going to be awake for the ceremony tomorrow night.”
His words lingered in the air like a bad perfume. If Stefan was stuck in my room, on my couch, my surveillance was going to increase ten-fold. My time was exponentially decreasing. “I’m going to kill you,” I said.
“Whoa, now, Rook, no need to get—”
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” I was standing and shaking, fists clenched at my sides.
“Well, yeah, I’m trying to help…”
“They’re going to kill Fleck!”
Thad was taken aback. “What?”
I explained to him what I’d seen, what I’d heard, and once I was done, Thad plopped in a chair, folded his arms behind his head, and said, “Hellfire.”
After a few seconds, he turned to me. “You weren’t really sick, were you?”
I shook my head.
“So,” Thad looked curious, “just what were you doing before we showed up?”
I reached in the folds of my dress and pulled out the kerchief Tran had given me. Inside was an amulet just like the one the Del Contes had used to transport themselves to my house on Earth, and the one I’d used that had delivered me into Tiernan’s evil hands.
But this was an amulet to Tran.
When Thad saw it, he gasped. “Okay, Rook, now you know I’m not one to avoid danger, but that’s just crazy,” Thad said. “The Black Bard can’t possibly be Tran Chiton. Tran Chiton hasn’t been seen in decades!”
“Shh!” I said as we ran down the hall. “Not so loud.”
“This is mental!”
“And you’d know all about mental, wouldn’t you?” I spat.
Thad made a face.
Where did she go…?
“Princess?” Rhea emerged from one of the doors and I stopped.
“Are you busy?” I asked.
She wiped her hands on her dress. “Not at all, what do you need?”
“I need you to keep an eye on Stefan.”
She studied my face. “Of course.”
Rhea followed us back to my room, where Stefan had fallen facedown on the floor, smiling and drooling all over himself.
“Whoops,” Thad said, “that’s gonna hurt.”
“No one is allowed in,” I said to her, and she nodded with understanding.
I tugged the amulet’s chain over my head and looked at Thad. “Are you coming or not?”
“Wait, now,” Thad said, “let’s think about this.”
I clasped the amulet in my hands. “I don’t have time to think about it. You”—I jabbed my finger at him—“just made sure of it.”
Thad rolled his eyes and bolted to my side. “I don’t know which I can’t believe more. What you’re telling me, or that I’m reluctant to believe it.”
I wrapped the chain around Thad’s neck, too—the two of us standing close.
“Or maybe this is just an excuse for you to get close to me.” He winked with a stupid smirk on his face.
I rolled my eyes before closing them tight.
Please take us to Tran.
The air thickened, pressing all around me until I couldn’t breathe, and vomit rose in my throat. Then it was gone.
Chapter 12
Swapping Serum
The air had changed. It felt warmer and the scent of wood smoke and freshly baked bread permeated the air.
I opened my eyes.
We were standing in what looked like a large closet. There were brooms and a mop standing in a half-filled bucket, with boxes stacked from floor to ceiling in towers that looked like they’d fall if I so much as breathed on them.
“What the…?” Thad said as the door to the closet creaked open.
A short figure dressed in a potato sack appeared on the other side.
“Grool!” I said.
Grool scowled, grumbled, and then he slammed the door shut.
Thad looked at me in disbelief, pointing a thumb at the door. “How do you know Ugly?”
I lifted the chain from our necks and stumbled to the door, but before I could try to open it, it opened again—this time, with Tran on the other side. And I was happy to see that he was dressed as himself, wizardly white beard and all.
Thad’s astonishment crashed into me.
“Now, Grool,” Tran said over his shoulder, “is that any way to treat our guests?”
Grool mumbled from somewhere, I heard something shatter, and then heavy footsteps pounded off in the distance. Tran shook his head and looked back at us with a grin. “Good evening! You’re a bit earlier than I’d expected…”
Thad gasped. “It can’t be.”
Tran regarded him blankly and I felt something cold before he looked back at me. “I see you brought someone with you.”
I glanced back at Thad, who was very, very quiet.
“I’m sorry,” I said,
turning back to Tran, “but it’s urgent. Fleck’s in danger.”
“But of course he is!” Tran exclaimed. “Everyone’s in danger, but please, come out of the closet, would you?” He stepped aside. “Lingering there has never done anyone any good.” He shook his head.
Thad’s lips parted a little, and the piece of grass he’d just shoved in his mouth promptly fell to the floor. “I can’t believe…you’re alive?”
“I might say the same,” Tran replied in a low, scratchy voice. Tran didn’t smile. His eyes tightened a bit as though Thad were an object of scientific study, and then he scratched his beard.
So maybe I shouldn’t have brought Thad, but I didn’t have time to take him back. I needed Tran’s help sneaking Fleck out of here. Now.
I walked past Tran, right into his house with a quiet Thad behind me. It was the same house I’d been in before, when I had been with the Del Contes. Everything was just as tidy, including Grool’s bookshelf of spirit-filled vases and his torture wall.
But that had been in the middle of the Arborenne, which was very, very far from my room at the castle. I looked at Tran, who was fixing a kettle over a blazing fire. “How’d we get here?” I asked.
“The amulet in your hands, child, don’t you remember? You used it only a moment ago.”
“I know that, but—”
“Wait a second,” Thad said. “You’ve been here before?”
I rolled my eyes and looked back at Tran. “So we’re in the Arborenne?”
“Oh, spirits, no.” Tran stood and dusted his hands. “I never keep my home there for long. Gaia knows the vegetation there drives me mad.”
Right, so that didn’t make any sense. “So, where are we, then?” I asked.
Tran glanced around, thoughtful. “I’m not really sure this time. Somewhere between here and there. We may not be anywhere.” His clear eyes flickered to Thad before settling back on me. “You wanted to discuss the Daloren child?”
“Ow!” shouted Thad from behind me.
He was standing next to Grool’s bookshelf of vases, shaking his hand while Grool stood near Thad’s feet, waving a very long bone.
“No touch!” growled Grool.
“I wasn’t!” Thad argued.
Grool reeled the bone back and Thad dodged just in time.
Thad looked at Tran. “What’s Ugly’s problem?”
The Keeper's Flame (A Pandoran Novel, #2) Page 14
