Consort of Thorns

by Eva Chase

  “Hey.” He walked up to me and set his hands on my shoulders. “It’s not a problem. What happened?” His eyes darkened. “Who made you feel you weren’t safe over in the house?”

  “It’s nothing you need to fix,” I said quickly. “There’s just so much… I’m feeling a little overwhelmed—not knowing if Kyler’s okay, and Derek just found the ‘proof’ I tried to plant and grabbed it before Dad could see it. And now Dad’s leaving for at least a day, because apparently he knows where my stepmother is…”

  “Is there any way you can stop him?”

  “Not without revealing my magic, and all the consequences that’ll come with that.” I drew my spine straighter. “It might not even be a bad thing. My spell on her should hold. It doesn’t seem like he’s in on their plan. There’s just too much I’m still not sure of.”

  A flicker of some emotion passed through Gabriel’s eyes. “I’m here,” he said. “Whatever I can do to keep you safe. You can be sure of that, at least.”

  His hands were still on my shoulders, the heat of his body flowing from them into me. A pang of desire ran through my chest and down to my core. I closed my eyes against it.

  I couldn’t have him like that. But there were simpler things I could ask him for.

  “Can you just talk to me a little before I go back?” I said. “Anything that has nothing to do with witches or getting married would work.”

  Gabriel laughed under his breath. “All right,” he said. “I can do that. Come sit down, and tell me when you’re ready for me to shut up.”

  I followed him over to the sofa. We sat a short distance apart, but he reached out to curl his fingers around my hand, his gaze bright as it held mine.

  “Do you remember that time—we were maybe ten or eleven?—and we found that stray kitten hiding out by the hunting cabin? Kyler ran to read up on how to handle feral cats and Seth snuck us into the kitchen to steal some fish—Damon acted like he was too tough to care about some cute kitten so of course he was the only one it really warmed up to.” Gabriel grinned. “Not that we were successful enough to keep it around for more than a few days before it went looking for new adventures. But that experience was actually useful a couple years back when I ended up sharing a hostel room in Costa Rica with a resident cat that might as well have been feral. The thing I realized…”

  I sank into the sofa cushions, letting his warm voice wash over me, feeling my nerves settling even more. Knowing I was never going to be ready for him to stop. I wished I could listen to him talk all night.

  When we’d finished our second round of euchre, Derek set down the cards. My body tensed. After listening to Gabriel talk about the mountains and the ancient ruins he’d explored, I’d been able to return to the house calm and collected—and not the least bit regretful that I’d made Derek wait a half hour for that card game I’d promised. But now he clearly had something else in mind.

  “Why don’t we take a little time just to talk,” he said, but he immediately scooted his chair closer to mine. A jitter ran through my nerves. Somehow I got the feeling talking wasn’t exactly what he had in mind.

  “Maybe I came on too strong the other night,” he said. “We don’t have to move quickly. I’m not asking you to let me into your bedroom. But it would be to our benefit to start getting to know each other a little better before the consort ceremony, don’t you think?”

  He set his hand on my knee, sending a shiver of revulsion up my leg. I shifted away and stood up. Dad had already left for his flight. I didn’t have to pretend I was still planning on getting consorted to this snake.

  “I think we know each other exactly as well as we need to,” I said crisply.

  “Come on now, Rose,” Derek said, getting up too. “What is it you need to feel more comfortable with me?”

  I needed him to not have been plotting against me and sleeping with the staff and saying horrible things behind my back. Since I wasn’t going to get that, he was shit out of luck. But I couldn’t say anything about that.

  As I turned over my possible answers in my head, Derek seemed to take my hesitation as giving in. He touched my shoulder. “Wouldn’t you like a little taste of your spark?”

  Without waiting for an answer, he lowered his head to kiss me.

  It was a soft kiss, meant to be gentle, but the brush of his lips made my stomach turn. I jerked my head to the side, and my hand shot up in a burst of anger, with a quick snap of a magicking just out of Derek’s view.

  His expression twisted, his arm coming around his belly. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I think we’ll have to briefly postpone any—”

  He scrambled around the table and dashed toward the nearest bathroom.

  Philomena strolled past him with an amused glance. “Thank the heavens you got rid of him. What did you do to him?”

  “Just made him feel even queasier than he made me,” I said. Maybe I’d let him stay that way until he decided to leave here for good.

  Phil laughed and clapped her hands. But my small flicker of triumph died when I turned and saw Mrs. Gainsley standing in the room’s other doorway. A rush of cold shot through me.

  Had she seen me do that magicking? Forcing Derek away from me?

  Her expression gave no sign either way. “Miss Hallowell,” she said, “since it appears your father will be gone for tomorrow, I wondered if you wanted some say in the kitchen’s meal planning.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Yes, sure, that would be nice. I’ll go down and talk to them directly in the morning, though. I’m sure you’ve got enough keeping you busy without that too.”

  She nodded and turned to go, leaving my skin prickling. I made a quick motion behind my back to dissolve any trace of my spell from Derek’s body. As satisfying as the idea of laying him low with some magical illness was, another witch would be able to sense my influence. Might even be able to trace it directly back to me.

  I had all the magic I could have wanted in me, but until I could use it openly, I couldn’t rely on it to save me.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Rose

  The second I saw Kyler standing in the middle of Jin’s gallery, I threw myself into his arms.

  “Hey!” he said, hugging me back. “It’s okay. I’m here now. No worse for wear, either.”

  “I was so worried.” I pressed my face into the soft fabric of his cotton tee. He was here, lean and solid in my arms. The tension in my chest that hadn’t quite ebbed even when I’d gotten his text this morning finally released.

  “All’s well that ends well?” Jin suggested.

  “Nothing has ended yet,” Seth said.

  Damon was rolling his eyes when I drew back from Ky. “Thank you, Mr. Gloom and Doom. We all needed that reminder.”

  We’d gathered here in the gallery before, but somehow it felt more ominous today with the shade cutting out most of the spring sunlight from outside and the tang of paint faint but sharp in the air. Maybe because Ky’s smile at seeing me had already fallen into a frown.

  When even my normally cheerful guy looked a little gloomy, something was really wrong. He hadn’t told us anything about what he’d found out in Seattle yet—or why he’d gotten so nervous he’d decided it was safer not to contact any of us until he was back in town.

  “Is Gabriel coming?” he asked. “I think he’s involved enough that he should hear this too.”

  I nodded. “He left a little earlier, but he was going to take a round-about route so it wouldn’t be obvious he was coming into town at the same time as me. I’m sure—”

  A knock on the door came before I had to say he’d be there soon. Jin leapt to let Gabriel in.

  Gabriel came to join us in our loose circle—a circle closer and more at ease than the one he’d entered a week ago, but still off-balance with him in our midst.

  He didn’t seem to let it faze him. He turned to Ky right away, with his familiar easy confidence. “So what did you dig up in Seattle?”

  “Yes,” I said, refocusing on that urg
ent concern. “What happened?”

  Ky grinned crookedly. “Nothing really. Mostly my own paranoia. I think your Assembly must have some kind of magical detection system in their computer network. Right after I got into one of the more secure sections, they kicked me out and sent some guys to take a look in the coffee shop where I was working. But I got out of there fast. I waited to come home until I was sure they hadn’t connected the unexpected activity to me. We should be safe.”

  “You went all the way out to Seattle and came back with nothing?” Damon said, folding his arms over his chest.

  “Hey,” Gabriel said mildly. “It’s not like any of the rest of us would have gotten anywhere with that network, let alone far enough in to scare them. That’s fucking impressive.”

  Kyler shot Gabriel a smile and cut a look toward Damon. “And I didn’t say I got nothing.” But then he hesitated, a shadow crossing his face. My gut knotted.

  “What is it, Ky?” I said.

  He looked at the floor and then at me. There was so much pain mixed with the affection in his gaze that the knots inside me pulled achingly tight.

  “I don’t think you’re ever going to be able to tell anyone about our consorting, Rose,” he said quietly. “Even if there are people who’d be okay with it, the ones who aren’t… I only managed to recover one of the most secure records, but it was about a witch who got involved with a guy who wasn’t one. Someone in the Justice Division of the Assembly arranged to have them killed.”

  In the wake of that word, silence blared through the room. It took me a few seconds to find my tongue. “Killed?” I repeated. “You mean they just…”

  His mouth pulled into a grimace. “They used magic to make it look like it was a couple of separate accidents, her and the guy. But there wasn’t even any debate about it, as far as I could tell. Standard procedure, as soon as they found out. Eliminate the problem and the evidence.” He dragged in a shaky breath. “There were two names on the report, signing off. One of them is Eliza Hammersmith, one of the women in the Assembly that Mr. Cortland was talking to.”

  A sharper chill washed over me. “You think he’s involved in… in murdering people?”

  Ky shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m not sure how many people even in the Assembly are in on those kind of… operations, or whatever you want to call them. I had to do a lot of digging just to find those records. Very few people were on the approved list, and that area of the network was set up so you wouldn’t know it was there at a glance. But if Cortland suspected you’d started seeing us—any of us—and mentioned it to Ms. Hammersmith, we’d still be in just as much trouble.”

  My knees wobbled. Seth was at my side in an instant, his hand on my back. Jin came up on my other side, slipping his arm around my waist. They both bowed their heads close as the shock of that information rolled over me.

  “Hey,” Jin said. “It’s just one case. That’s all you have, right?” He glanced at Ky, who nodded.

  “I’ve got no idea what the other records in that section were about,” he said.

  “You’d never heard anything about the Assembly resorting to violence?” Seth asked me.

  “No.” My voice came out small. “If it was necessary, because a witch was being violent and they had to subdue her in self-defense, but otherwise… We have due process. We have lawyers and trials like anyone else.”

  Except when a witch dallied with an unsparked man, apparently. Spark help me, what had I dragged the guys I loved into?

  I tried to catch my breath and slow my spinning thoughts. I’d thought no matter what happened with my father, I’d be able to present a case to the Assembly, show that a consorting like this was possible and fruitful… So much for that. So what options did that leave me with?

  “You didn’t see anything in your searching about my dad, did you?” I asked Ky.

  “Just what looked like standard stuff, his witnessing of your engagement, that kind of thing. Nothing that made me think he’s involved in anything… murderous. But the way your stepmother was going to manipulate your ceremony isn’t something they’d officially report anyway, right?”

  “No. But so far, with everything I’ve seen, it looks like he has no idea what Celestine and Derek were planning. Maybe I can go to him, and he’ll have some idea of where to go from here, how to keep the Assembly from finding out.”

  “Are you sure you’re ready to trust him?” Gabriel said. “I know he’s your dad, and I know Celestine isn’t trustworthy, but he has made… questionable decisions before.”

  He had, and particularly when it came to my guys and their families. I bit my lip. “I don’t know. Maybe when he gets back from trying to talk to Celestine and I see how that’s affected him, I’ll have a clearer idea. Or I can go back to my original plan.” I could conjure another paper like the one Derek had stolen. Push Dad toward it more insistently.

  I couldn’t risk opening up to him about what I’d done when not just my life but all four of my consorts’ were on the line.

  “And if it seems like I can’t trust him… I’ll figure something out. I just need time to think.” I glanced around at my guys. “I promise I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe.”

  My consorts eased closer around me. Seth dipped his head right against mine, his breath warm against my cheek. “You know we’ll do the same for you,” he said.

  Jin kissed my shoulder. “We’re in this until the end, Briar Rose, brambles and all.”

  I held out my hands, taking Kyler’s and Damon’s. “Right here with you,” Ky said firmly.

  “Yeah,” Damon said. “It’ll take an army of witches to get rid of me now.”

  My thudding pulse slowed with their presence all around me. My gaze drifted from them to the one guy now completely outside our ring of devotion.

  Gabriel was watching us, his expression rigid, his normally bright eyes darkened with emotion. When they caught mine, the heat in them seemed to leap from him to me, sweeping through my body from head to toe. My heart skipped a beat. Then he was wrenching his gaze away with a clearing of his throat.

  “I’ll still be keeping an eye out around the house,” he said. “I can try to chum up to Derek more and see what he’ll spill. However I can help, I will. It’d probably be better if I get back to the estate well ahead of you, though.”

  “Gabriel,” I started. What was wrong with me that I ached to call him over to join us, after what I’d just learned?

  What was wrong with me that I couldn’t find the words to do it, as much as I wanted to?

  His jaw worked, but he smiled. “I’ll see you at the house,” he said, and ducked out the door.

  My throat tightened as the lock clicked back into place behind him. Kyler studied my expression.

  “He should have been here,” he said.

  The words echoed my thoughts so well that for a second I could only blink at him. “What?”

  He tilted his head toward the door. “Gabriel. He should have been here when you first got back. He should have been part of this. You know he’d have wanted to be.” He paused, his gaze searching mine. “And I think you’d have wanted that too.”

  My hands tightened around his and Damon’s.

  Jin stroked my side soothingly. “It’s all right,” he said. “We all know we wouldn’t have been a group in the first place without Gabriel. He’s one of us, even if in some ways right now he’s not. We don’t have any right to be jealous.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Damon muttered, but his expression softened when I looked at him. “You deserve all the love in the world, angel,” he added. “I’m not going to say I like sharing you, but I wouldn’t get in the way, if that’s what you want. I’m here, aren’t I?”

  “I shouldn’t want to bring him any more into this mess than he already is,” I said. “If I took him as my consort too, then he’d just be in more danger.”

  “And you’d also have more magic to fight that danger,” Seth said. “Is it possible to take anoth
er consort after you’ve already done the ceremony with us…?”

  A choked laugh spilled out of me. “I wouldn’t know unless I tried. I didn’t know it was going to be possible to take all of you as consorts in the first place. But… it feels like it should work. If he and I decided we wanted to. If I was okay with putting him in that kind of danger too. And if you all were okay with it. You’re my consorts. My loyalty is to you first. You have to know that.”

  Seth hugged me to him and then leaned in for a kiss. “He’s one of us,” he said. “Even if not that way yet. I don’t have any problem with completely reuniting the group.”

  “No argument from me either,” Jin said. “The more the merrier?” He winked at me.

  “I don’t think you should need our permission,” Ky said. “But if you want to have it first, you’ve got it from me too.”

  Damon shrugged, his hand still clasped around mine. “I’ve told you how I feel, Rose.”

  “Thank you,” I said. Relief rolled over me, washing away the guilt I’d felt over my stirring feelings. One less thing to weigh on my mind. One less uncertainty hanging over me. Whether Gabriel and I came together as something more than friends or not, at least I wouldn’t have to feel I was betraying my consorts by simply thinking about it.

  No, I had much more to worry about from the guy who thought he was going to be my consort but wasn’t.

  “I think I need to do something about Derek,” I said. “He’s gotten… pushy. And there’s only so much I can do to put him off without having to justify myself to my dad.”

  Damon bristled. “Pushy how?” he said, his voice dark.

  “Just… trying to reinforce his position as my fiancé, I guess,” I said. “Wanting us to be more intimate, not really taking no for an answer.” I shuddered at the memories. “I can get rid of him in the moment with magic, but I don’t like using it when I’m not supposed to have it yet. When someone might see. And just telling him I’m not interested isn’t working.”