“I'm not leaving her.”
“Cooper,” Arianna said gently. “I can feel the love you have for Ruby, but you must understand that if Gavin says you can do nothing, he is right.”
Cooper turned his sad eyes to me.
“But that's how she and I roll. We're down for each other until the very end.”
“She's right, Cooper. If you can't help me, then at least help Alan. Gavin said trouble is coming to town, and we still don't know if there will be any fallout from what he and I did in Virginia.”
“I am not attempting to dismiss you, Alpha,” Gavin added. “I have always approved of your and Ruby's relationship, but to stay here would be to choose death, and that will cause Ruby more pain than she has already endured. Do this for her. Keep the detective and his family safe. Arianna and I will do the same for Ruby.”
The battle being waged inside Cooper could be seen in eyes. When I looked over my shoulder at the others, the same fight was apparent in theirs. They wanted to stay, even though they knew it was a death sentence. But they also knew that Gavin's words were true. Watching them die would be more than I could bear. Gavin was trying to spare me that pain.
“What about Sean?” Cooper asked, grasping at straws. “We don't know that he can't do anything.”
“He cannot,” Gavin said confidently. “His hands are as tied as mine in this.”
“We don't know that. Not yet,” Cooper argued. “I keep trying his phone, but he's not answering. Maybe he's onto something.”
“Go,” Gavin said not unkindly. “Say your goodbyes and leave.”
Cooper shook his head.
“We never say goodbye.”
I took Gavin's cue and wrapped my arms around Cooper's waist, trying my best to stifle the tears that threatened to spill over.
“I'll see you soon,” I whispered, my words muffled by his chest. His chest that pumped wildly.
Before he could say anything, I pulled away from him and made my way around to the others, holding them each tightly and repeating those words. Finally I came to Lyla. The look of pained understanding that she wore nearly undid me. It was she who reached out and hugged me. There was genuine caring in her embrace.
“Take care of him for me,” I whispered into her ear, the words barely audible to my own. “Take care of them all.” The tightening of her arms around me let me know that she would.
Once she released me, I turned to face Cooper.
“Keep Alan safe, Coop. If whatever found us in Virginia comes for him, you will have a battle on your hands.” He nodded tightly. The strain in his face appeared to be anger, but I could feel the doubt and sadness behind it. He didn't want to speak because he feared what emotions would accompany his words.
With a jerk of Cooper’s head, the others slowly headed toward the door. The parade of sad faces that slowly walked past me nearly broke my heart. I hoped Arianna could do something to keep Deimos from succeeding in his mission. I didn't want this to be the last time I saw my pack.
Once the rest of the pack had disappeared through the door, Cooper lingered in the doorway to the apartment for a second, glancing back at me for what I prayed would not be the last time.
“Love you, Rubes.”
I choked back a sob.
“Love you too, Coop.”
And with that, he was gone, leaving me with my other family―my blood―in hopes that they could do what he could not: keep me safe from that which hunted me.
After the silence that Cooper's departure left in its wake had settled around us, I finally spoke.
“So now what?” I asked. “No more running? No more packed bags and fleeing town?”
“Would you go if I told you to?” he countered. “No, I think not, and I'm disinclined to continue down that road with you. Instead, we stay and fight.”
“We? Does that mean you're putting yourself on the chopping block as well?”
He looked at me curiously.
“If only you knew all that I've done for you over the years.”
“There's a simple remedy for that, Gavin. You could actually just tell me. We presumably have some free time before Deimos shows up to collect me.”
“That is hardly an event to make light of.”
“It's how I cope,” I said with a shrug. “Get over it.”
He sighed heavily.
“What do you want to know?” he asked, heading deeper into the room.
“How about the obvious, like how in God's name you brought Arianna back. I mean, seriously, if you knew you could do this all along, why didn't you? What were you waiting for? I don't understand...”
He paused for a moment.
“You need to tell her, Gavin,” Arianna gently pressed.
“Very well, Sister,” he agreed, sighing heavily for theatrical flair. “It's very simple really. You located the box that I had asked you to find. This is what it contained.” He gestured to Arianna as though that would make his words crystal clear.
Unfortunately for me they were still muddy as hell.
“You're telling me that Arianna was in that tiny wooden box?” I asked incredulously. Then it hit me. I hadn't been dreaming. Sean really did come to my room—and the box was the reason why. “Oh my God. That's what I could feel.” My eyes were wide with disbelief. “She really was in that box.”
He shrugged.
“In a fashion.”
“Do you see what I've been dealing with this whole time?” I said, turning to Arianna. My blood pressure was nearly through the roof, but at least she got to witness Gavin's evasive nature in full swing.
“Perhaps this is not the time for your games, Gavin,” she suggested.
“Fine. Her essence was in the box. All fey have one, and because of it, they can be reborn in a sense, providing there is some part of them―their DNA specifically―that can be used in the magic.”
“You're saying that you took what was in that box and remade Arianna?”
“Yes,” he replied simply.
“That's some necromancy voodoo,” I muttered.
“Do not demean our kind with such a lowbrow comparison. What we do is hardly anything of the sort,” Gavin spat with every ounce of his haughtiness intact. “A fey's power and being lies within that essence. As long as it remains unmarred, the fallen can be enlivened.”
“So you can just take the essence and a lock of hair, do a little hocus pocus, and poof, you have your dead family member back? Sounds pretty voodoo to me,” I maintained, much to Gavin's irritation. “Wait—are you saying that you've known Sean has had Arianna's essence all along and you did nothing?”
“I did not wish for the potential exposure. I knew that, when the time was right, I would procure it one way or another,” he explained without apology. “Knowing that it would be enough to drive you from your beau, it seemed a fortuitous time to have you retrieve it.”
“Ha!” I scoffed. “I didn't retrieve anything. Sean brought that to me late in the night that Deimos came for me in Boston.” Admitting that out loud made me realize the gravity of his actions. He'd brought it to me, knowing that I was likely to fall into the hands of Persephone. Was it his way of making amends? He'd seemed so detached that evening—unreadable—that it just hadn’t seemed like he cared at all. My mind reeled at the implications.
“I'm sure he had his motives for doing so,” Gavin said, breaking me from my ruminations.
“Yeah. I'm sure he did....” I tried to refocus, still working through this whole bringing-the-dead-to-life thing. “So what happens if you don't have any DNA to work with or the essence has been damaged somehow?”
“If the essence is even slightly damaged, it is rendered useless. That fey is gone for eternity. If there is no DNA to work with...” He trailed off, leaving me to wonder. When I pressed him to answer further, his reply was simple. “It's complicated.”
Then, after processing all that he had just told us, I came to the most horrifying realization.
“My parents,” I said sof
tly, the bile rising in my throat as tears viciously stung the backs of my eyes. “I—I had them cremated.”
I gagged, the contents of my stomach threatening to come back up at any second. Arianna's hand was on my back in an instant to soothe me, just as she always had when I was growing up.
“Their bodies were too damaged, Ruby. Their essences were destroyed that night. Please don't punish yourself over your decision. They could not have been brought back regardless,” she said gently.
Though I did not doubt the veracity of her claim, I was still overcome with guilt. What if they could have been saved and I had ruined that single chance, all because my crazy uncle couldn't be bothered to actually help me instead of waiting until the last possible second to make his presence known? And even then he didn't really do that. He just became a seemingly unmitigated dickhead, who made my already complicated life infinitely more so.
A burning rage overtook me, a rage that had Gavin's name all over it. It was well-deserved and long overdue, and there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that he was going to riddle his way out of the verbal beating I was about to lay on him—or let Scarlet lay on him in my stead.
“You,” I spat accusingly. “You let this happen. Let Arianna die. Let my parents die. Let me be attacked. If you expect me to believe that you've been watching out for me this whole time, then why did you leave us all to our fates and return later only to clean up the mess when it was nearly over?” I charged him, shoving him as hard as I could. He faltered only slightly. “You're a coward! A motherfucking coward! Even now, with Deimos coming, you're still hiding behind someone.”
I was punching him. Somewhere in my blinding hatred of him, I'd lost all sense of my surroundings and actions. It was as if no one else was there, just him and me. In a flurry of pointless punches, I tried to beat the pain I'd felt over the past two years into him. He needed to feel some of it.
I knew he was capable of sadness; I had seen it plainly written on his face when he had learned of Ginger's death, but even then it was tainted by revenge. What I didn't know if he was capable of was true, unabashed remorse. Until I saw something from him, my futile beating would continue.
“My death was not his fault,” Arianna said, catching my flying fists and pinning them to my sides. “I chose it. And I would choose it again if I had to do it over.”
“What did you do?” I whispered.
“I capitalized on an opportunity,” she said, her eyes distant for a split second. Whatever she had endured, the memory of it broke her aura of happiness momentarily as well. “My recognition of Sean garnered his attention at the hospital that day, and once I had it, I used that to draw him out of the building and away.”
“But why? If he had been after me, he would have just come back!”
“Yes, he would have,” Gavin agreed. “But he would have come back to an empty room. You would not have been there.”
For a minute, a nagging sensation buzzed in the back of my mind, unwilling to be ignored. A memory, one of my own, was trying to surface, but my time after the incident in the woods had been such a medicated blur that I could hardly remember where I had been or what had been going on around me.
“What are you saying?”
“I'm saying you were relocated to a different facility.”
“By whom?”
He paused for a moment.
“Me. But not a version of me you would recognize.”
“How?”
“When I drew the PC out of the hospital,” Arianna explained, “I quickly called Gavin and told him what was happening. I needed to know you would be safe in my absence.”
“You mean after you were dead!”
I choked on the last word.
“Yes. After I was dead I needed to know that you would be taken care of and safe, though I had expected a little more transparency from Gavin throughout the process.”
“This is making my head hurt,” I declared, gripping my forehead tightly while I made my way to the sofa. “What happened to you, Arianna?” My words were merely a whisper.
“My death was not intolerable,” she said with a smile. “And I am back now. That is all that matters.” She came to sit next to me, once again taking my hand in hers. “My job―my duty―has always been to keep you safe, Ruby. I met my end knowing I had fulfilled that duty. If I need to meet it again to keep you safe from Deimos, I will.”
“And that fate is likely, Sister,” Gavin said tightly. “Regrettably, there is something I must do now; I can put if off no longer. If you should survive the predicament that your red-eyed wolf has gotten you into, Ruby, I must take steps to insure your future safety from those I warned you about earlier. I will not be long.”
“Seriously? You're going to leave right before Deimos gets here?”
“Were you not listening?” he asked, frustration evident in his tone. “Always so ungrateful.”
“Can you blame her, Gavin? Truly? If even a fraction of what she claims is true, she has no reason to be anything other than spiteful and angry.”
“Yes. I can,” he retorted.
She muttered something in the same obscure language they’d spoken in earlier before she came to stand beside me, her shoulder resting against mine.
“Do not condescend to me, Arianna.” His tone was commanding and forceful, and it cowed her instantly, her eyes widening with surprise.
“As you wish,” she said with a slight bow. “I will see you soon, Brother.”
“Did I just miss something?” I asked, my eyes darting between them. “I don't understand. After all he put you through—put us both through―why would you just let him abandon us?”
She cocked her head to the side curiously before looking at her brother, a realization settling into her expression. One that had not yet unveiled itself to me. “He is not abandoning us, I assure you. I am his charge, as are you. Though I understand your frustration with him because of the past you two share, you still owe him your allegiance, Ruby. He is the one who brought me back―the only one who could. He has my trust.”
I stared at her in disbelief, waiting for the inevitable dropping of the other shoe to occur.
“And why is he the only one who could?” I asked slowly, as though the answer might not be worth asking for. When it came to information about Gavin, some things were better left unknown, or so I had learned.
“Because I am not only your uncle,” Gavin said coolly, leaning toward me. When his nose was only a hair's breadth from my face, he whispered his final words. “I am your king.”
Before I could even begin to process his words, he walked out of my apartment. He slammed the door behind him for good measure. Perhaps that was a familial trait.
“Holy shit,” I uttered. “I'm royalty.”
And with that, what was left of my sanity shattered.
Chapter 37
My mouth snapped open and shut several times, no sound ever escaping. I was stunned mute. Arianna stood beside me, waiting for me to process all I'd just heard. She was a patient being, if nothing else.
It looked like she was going to be there for a long time.
Then, finally, I managed to formulate a sentence.
“So, you and my father, you were heirs to the throne, so to speak?”
She laughed gently.
“It doesn't work quite that way, but yes, in a sense. Your father was Gavin's right hand man. Had anything ever happened to the King of the Fey, your father would have stepped in and reigned over our kind.”
“And my mother?”
Her slightly amused expression fell.
“Your mother was complicated, Ruby. You need to know that. Though your father loved her dearly, he loved her to a fault. Your mother was toxic to him. She was the cause of almost all the turmoil in your home.” She paused for a moment. I could see the struggle apparent on her face while she thought about how best to explain the enigma that was my mom. “I don't wish to speak ill of the dead, but your mother was terribly selfish. When sh
e found out she was pregnant with you, she tried to end it because she had seen what had happened to the others—the ones that had given birth to the Rouge et Blanc. She did not wish to meet her end. Your uncle, however, would hear none of it. He forbade her to terminate the pregnancy. He believed he'd found a way to keep the infant safe, and given his gifts of coercion...”
“He essentially made her keep me.” My words were cold and empty. They accurately depicted how I felt inside.
“Please don't take their initial reluctance to mean that they did not love you. Even your mother did, in her own way. To be honest, I think they feared you. Your blindness seemed to help assuage some of that fear, though it created yet another reason to resent you at times.”
“And Gavin sent you to make sure that I was well taken care of?”
“He knew that it required a lot of his power to keep your parents compliant. He feared that, if something else were to happen, that power would waver just long enough to allow your mother to harm you. I swore my protection to you the day you were born to ensure that never happened.”
“And with your gifts, you were able to help keep the peace.”
“Precisely. It worked well for a very long time. And the older you got, the less my abilities were needed.”
“Until they were,” I whispered, not meaning to say those words aloud.
Her eyes closed for a long moment before opening. There was a glassy quality to them that had not been there before.
“Regrettably, that is true.” Her voice was tight when she spoke. She clearly tried to fight the swell of emotions she felt. Guilt. Sadness. Shame. They all assaulted me. “Gavin called me that night. He was agitated about something, so I stayed behind to calm him. I left late to join you and your parents at the campsite. The rest, well, the rest does not need to be rehashed.”
I crashed down onto the couch, resting my head in my hands. It was all just so much. So many answers to questions I'd long asked. Answers I never thought I would receive. Now, having gotten them, I wondered if it was for the better or not.
“Gavin? What had he been agitated about? What had the guy with all the answers on edge enough that you had to work your magic to talk him off a ledge?”
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