Tithe

by Chani Lynn Feener

  “You’re needed at the manor,” Mavek told her smoothly, stepping closer so that he could touch her arm. When she froze at his touch he frowned at her. “What’s wrong? You seem upset. You seem upset a lot lately. Is this still about last night?”

  Right. Last night. When she’d been drunk on faerie wine and made a complete fool of herself. Had that really been less than twenty-four hours ago?

  “Tabby visited the night market,” she said, just as surprised as he was once the words were out. She hadn’t decided whether or not to tell him about the rest, but at least this would start a dialogue. “She’s fine now,” she continued after the smallest of pauses, “at least she should be.”

  Mavek didn’t say anything for a long time, and then his fingers were on her elbow, lightly urging her closer to the heat of his body. She tried to resist, but that familiar smell of mahogany and teak lulled her in.

  “The Erlking governs the market,” he began softly, leaning so that he was speaking to the top of her head as he cradled her close. “I have no say in what goes on there, or who is allowed to partake. I am sorry that Tabitha had to go through this horrible experience.” He paused, then, “How did you know where to find it?”

  Since she hadn’t even known about the market, it was a fair question to ask. But how to answer?

  Her hesitation must have been enough, however, for in the next moment he was pulling back to stare down at her, his hazel eyes reflecting yellow in the foyer light. The effect forced her to acknowledge what he actually was, even if the clothing had momentarily disguised him.

  “Cole Vincent Bricker,” he answered his own question.

  She flinched. “You know his full name.”

  “And you?” he countered. “What do you know, brave heart?”

  She wouldn’t lie, not to him. “He’s a Heartless.”

  “You weren’t supposed to find out. Not yet. Knowing… it complicates things. I didn’t want that for you.”

  “You mean because I’ll have to compete against him?” She was still gripping the knife and at the reminder, bent to slip it back into her boot. Doing so allowed her to put a little distance between them, which she sorely needed because it was hard to concentrate with him so close. “I understood the risks when I agreed to the Tithe.”

  He shook his head, dark hair glinting blue from the move. “You don’t.”

  Arden blinked, unsure what he meant. Everything she knew she’d learned from him. “Are you admitting you’ve kept things from me? Other things?”

  Mavek didn’t hesitate. “There is a lot that I’m not allowed to tell you.”

  “This is the first I’m hearing of it.” Her tone was harsh, and she crossed her arms defensively. She’d been aware, of course, that he had secrets—many of them—but she’d trusted that they didn’t involve her. Had she been naïve, knowing what his kind was capable of and yet trusting him all the same?

  The memory of when they’d first met came to mind, forcing its way past her defenses. She’d been sobbing outside her mother’s hospital room, fresh scratches running down her arms from elbow to wrist. Her mom had gotten her good that time, and blood had long since welled and trailed down to plop in thick drops onto the white tile at her feet.

  At first, she hadn’t recognized him for what he was through her tears, but as soon as it hit her she’d bolted back so fast she’d ended up tripping over the leg of the bench she’d been sitting on.

  He’d caught her.

  Over the course of the next two weeks, Mavek had visited regularly, dropping hints here and there that he knew more about her mom’s situation than he was letting on. He’d made her work for the information, made her yearn for it to the point that she’d enter the hospital and frantically search for him on her way to her mother’s room. To the point that she’d dream about him at night, and the dreams weren’t always about getting answers, even though they’d started off that way.

  The whole thing had been innocent enough in the beginning, him telling her about her family’s curse, something she’d known since she was old enough to express to her mother that she saw creatures that weren’t human lurking in the woods behind their house.

  Having seen the way their mom reacted to Arden, her sister Ainsley had smartly kept her own sight quiet, so much so, that Arden hadn’t even noticed. Some older sister she’d turned out to be. It was Mavek who pointed out that her sister was also cursed, and then after their mother had killed herself, that the curse was so much more than the ability to see things that others couldn’t.

  After the funeral she’d trusted him, because she’d had no one else to turn to. Cole had left her, Tabby was awkward and uncomfortable, and Ainsley… Every time Arden looked at her younger sister, she saw their mother’s waxy face lying in that coffin.

  She couldn’t let that happen to Ainsley; she wouldn’t. And so she’d agreed to become a Heartless, his Heartless.

  “You said that I wouldn’t be killed,” she challenged, thinking about Eskel’s brother, “but I can be, can’t I?”

  Mavek’s gaze hardened. “That will not happen.”

  “But it could.”

  “Death is not allowed,” he insisted, “not from the Heartless. Not against each other. They cannot take your life any more than you could take theirs. It is against the rules. Only a pure soul can be the tithe, and a soul who has committed murder is far from pure.”

  “So then say I fail,” she saw him catching his breath but she persisted forward, “say I don’t win, that I’m not the tithe. Then you lose the game and you can do whatever you want with me. Right?” He was too slow in responding, though she gave him less than two seconds to do so. “Right?!”

  In a blink, Mavek crowded her back against the front door. At first, the shock kept her silent—he’d never made moves against her before—but then he spoke, and his words pulled her out of her daze.

  “I can do whatever I want with you now, Arden Rose Archer. And you’ll let me.” He ignored her wince, and the way her cheeks heated to a bright pink. “It’s safe to say that had I wanted you dead, you would be. I could find another knight, there’s still time, as you love to keep pointing out. If you’re asking could I kill you, then yes. I have the means to do so. I have the strength. But I will not—would not ever—harm you.”

  Arden waited to catch her breath before she forced courage back into herself and locked eyes with him. She hoped that the flush on her cheeks could be interpreted as anger when she spoke, so she made sure that emotion entered her inflection. “You’re hurting me right now,” she told him, eying him to make sure he understood that she didn’t mean physically—and seeing when he did so that he discarded her words. Which only made her angrier. “Step back.”

  “You don’t give me orders, Arden,” he said, but there was less fight in his tone. In fact, he sounded completely put out, exhausted even.

  “I’m not the only one with a name,” she countered, and he stilled, despite that they both knew she didn’t have the slightest clue what his true name was. That wasn’t exactly something the fae went around sharing.

  “You’d use that against me?” he asked, obviously hurt over the implication that she would do so if she could. “Here? Over this?” He let out a frustrated growl from the back of his throat. “Last night you were kissing me. Tonight you’re making threats?”

  “Last night I was drugged by your people’s crappy wine,” she snapped.

  Mavek vehemently shook his head. “Don’t lie to me. We both know your actions toward me had very little to do with the drink, heart.”

  Knowing that he’d see the truth written all over her face if she didn’t move, she shoved to the side. He allowed her to pass, giving her space as she paced back and forth on the other side of the living room. She was careful to hide her face from him while she attempted to compose herself. But she knew without turning that it was already too late.

  She closed her eyes and wished that she could disappear.

  “How long have you know
n?” Perhaps she hadn’t been doing a good job of hiding her feelings as of late, but prior to his leaving three months ago, Arden was certain that she’d been better at it.

  “Always,” he said, completely shattering any remaining ounce of dignity that she had left.

  “Oh.” She tried to hold onto her anger but it slipped through her grasp. “This is embarrassing.”

  “It doesn’t have to be.” His voice was closer now, moving up behind her. “Why are we fighting, Arden? What’s this really about? Do you honestly believe that I would ever allow harm to come to you? That I would punish you for losing the Tithe challenge? That I wouldn’t be—” He stopped himself abruptly, and cleared his throat. “Do you really know me so little?”

  “My best friend is lying in bed right now unconscious,” she said, because it was the only defense she had and she needed a moment to collect her thoughts. She couldn’t answer his questions, not really. She didn’t know why she’d suddenly distrusted him, only that it had something to do with the way Cole and Eskel sneered the word Unseelie.

  It wasn’t that she liked the Unseelie either. She didn’t. However, she’d always separated Mavek from the rest of them in her mind and now… Now that idea of him was shattered, thanks to what she knew about Eskel’s brother Everett.

  “That was no doing of mine,” Mavek maintained.

  No, it wasn’t. She’d seen firsthand what the Erlking’s fae were capable of. She had made comparisons in her head about how different they were from the ones she was used to seeing locally—the ones Mavek ruled. Since the Erlking’s arrival Arden had been drugged, witnessed other faeries being attacked, and forced to save her best friend from a horrible death.

  Those Unseelie might be here because of the upcoming Tithe, but Mavek hadn’t brought them.

  “Tell me who Titania’s Heartless is.” Arden had had enough surprises to last her a lifetime. The last thing she needed was to find out that someone else she knew was a knight.

  “If I do,” he posed, “you’ll forgive me?”

  “For?”

  “Whatever it is I’ve done to upset you so.”

  “I don’t want to go to the manor tonight, Mavek,” she confessed. “I don’t care if she’s the queen and she’s summoned me. I don’t want to go back there.” She pictured the small hobgoblin roasting over orange flames and bile rose up her esophagus. “Not yet.”

  She was afraid he wasn’t going to answer her at first, but then she felt him lightly touch the center of her spine. Despite herself, she shivered as he trailed a knuckle down from the spot beneath her neck to her lower back. She knew he felt it, because he exhaled softly and shifted his weight.

  “Please don’t doubt me, heart. I—” Mavek let out another shaky breath, “—I need you.”

  He’d told her something along that line before, about how necessary she was to him and his people. About how important a role she was going to play in protecting them all. There’d been a span of time when Arden had felt badly about doing something in defense of a group of creatures who could do so much harm to her own kind. But Mavek had shown her that not all of the Unseelie were evil. Dark, yes, monsters surely, but not evil. Not necessarily.

  She gathered from his tone though that he wasn’t referring to the Tithe now, and her chest constricted painfully. She didn’t want to let hope in.

  “Robert Allen Marx,” he said, giving her the last Heartless’s name. A name she didn’t know. “And we don’t have to go tonight.”

  “We?” she somehow managed past her dry throat.

  “I’m not leaving you,” he told her, “not like this. I can’t stand when you’re angry at me. Especially when I don’t know why.”

  “It’s not just you,” she admitted with a sigh. “It’s everything. Everyone. There’s a month left until the Tithe and I’m only just now finding out details that I should have known from the start.”

  “Would it have changed your mind?” He tilted his head, watching her closely. “Would anything?”

  She thought it over. If it was just her life on the line, probably. She’d meant what she said to Eskel about accepting her fate. If for some reason she didn’t win the Tithe, Arden fully intended to hold Mavek to his promise to stop her from losing her mind like her mom, even if that meant death. But it wasn’t just her. Ainsley would eventually go through the same thing, and Arden couldn’t bear to think about that.

  And it wouldn’t happen until after Arden herself had slipped into insanity. Meaning that even if she entrusted Mavek to watch out for her sister, she’d never truly know if Ainsley would be alright. The Tithe was their only option.

  “No,” she answered finally, turning so that she could meet his gaze head on. “I want my sister and my freedom.”

  “And me?” his voice was low, smooth. “If you lose the sight you won’t be able to see me coming.”

  Arden lifted a brow, but mostly in an attempt to cover the rush of red to her cheeks. “Kind of a strange thing to say to someone who you just had to assure you wouldn’t harm, don’t you think?” Before he could answer she added, “Besides, once the Tithe is over, you won’t have any more need of me.”

  “Is that what you believe?” He brushed a single knuckle against her lips in a feather light touch that momentarily put them both off kilter. “That’s kind of a strange thing to say to someone who just told you that he needed you. And I do. Not just for the Tithe.”

  “So,” she had to pause to clear her throat, a bit embarrassed by it, “what are you saying?”

  Mavek hesitated and then took a deliberate step back, shaking his head almost imperceptibly. “We can’t do this, not now. Soon, but not now.”

  “Why not?” She wanted to press him for more details on what he meant by “this.” “Is it because I’m human?”

  “Partly.”

  She should have been glad that he didn’t add yet another lie to his list, but she wasn’t.

  “But also because of the timing,” he continued. “Both Titania and the Erlking are in town with all of their courts in tow. It wouldn’t be smart to show them that I’ve grown fonder of you than socially acceptable.”

  This time Arden was the one to take the step back, and when Mavek winced it was obvious that he knew why. She felt her heart twist painfully and cursed herself for being such a fool. Of course the only thing between them was fondness, because despite everything she wanted to convince herself of, in the end he was still an Unseelie. Her lifespan was a blink in comparison to his. The most they would have together, even if they were to become romantically involved, would be a few years before she aged past her prime while he remained the same.

  “I didn’t mean it that way,” he tried to ease her feelings, but it was too late.

  “I’m exhausted.” She steeled herself and forced back the tears that threatened. “I need sleep.”

  Mavek looked like he was about to argue but stopped himself. “I promise, as soon as the Tithe is over, I’ll make all of this right between us, Arden. You won’t ever have to question me or my loyalties again come November first.”

  “You want to be with me, but can’t because of the Tithe and our roles in it,” Arden said, “and I’m supposed to just be okay with waiting around a month so that we can… what? Go on a date?”

  “You’ve already waited a year.” His eyes flashed, a clear indicator that he was close to losing his patience again. “I’m only asking for another few weeks. It’ll all make sense after that. Once the Tithe is over.”

  “I intend to win, Mavek,” she reminded, “and if I do that—”

  “I know.” He ran a hand through his dark hair. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

  “Are you serious?” His expression was answer enough, and Arden snorted derisively. “Wow. Okay, I definitely have to go to bed now before this gets any worse.”

  He reached for her and she pulled away. “Don’t. I have literally just had one of the worst nights of my entire life. I can’t handle you jerking my em
otions around, playing with the crush I’ve had on you.”

  “Crush?” he practically sneered the word. “It’s more than that, and we both know it.”

  “Whatever.” She held up her hands and backed toward the hallway. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

  “You made a promise to stand by my side when you agreed to the Tithe, Arden,” he said darkly, a note of pain just beneath the surface of his ire. “Why do I feel like you’re pulling away from me? We’re so close.”

  Arden wanted to ask him about Everett, but in doing so she’d have to confess about Eskel. Instead, she sighed. “I know. Just one more month and this whole thing can be over.”

  “Settled,” he corrected, “not over.” He held her gaze. “Never over.”

  She wouldn’t allow herself to read too much into his words. She’d had enough disappointment for one day after all.

  “Let me in.”

  Arden stood with her hand on the brass knob of her front door, debating. She’d spent the rest of the weekend traveling between Tabby’s home and her own, ignoring her cell phone. It wasn’t too surprising that Eskel was now parked outside her front door, persistently ringing the obnoxious bell.

  “I know you’re there,” he called, “I can see your silhouette through the glass. Come on, Arden. I’m not leaving until you give me a chance.” He exhaled heavily. “I didn’t mean to mislead you. It just sort of happened that way.”

  As much as it irked her, Arden had spent a lot of time thinking about Eskel this weekend. About how they’d met and how he’d used her for information. At least it explained why he was wary to be her friend in the beginning. She needed to be in control, and both Mavek and Eskel made her feel unbalanced.

  What’s more, Arden didn’t even want to think about Cole right now. She’d spoken with him a few times at Tabby’s. He’d stayed there, not leaving his cousin’s side. For the most part however, they slipped into an uneasy silence while they waited for signs of improvement from Tabby.