He put his own head in his hands, and I finally understood. This wasn’t grief for his cousin, but for something else.
“And Crawford was carrying a seed,” I said.
Cooper nodded without looking up. “The South Seed. They’ve got it.” He sighed. “One down, three to go.”
“But I still don’t understand. What happened to you? Did they track you down again, after they killed Crawford?”
He met my eyes, his own brimming with rage and something else, something that looked an awful lot like disgust. “You have to understand. My clan has been guarding these seeds for centuries. Successfully guarding them. The Wicks have caught and killed Blackwoods before, but only rarely, and never anyone who was carrying. They’ve never so much as touched one of the seeds. Until now.”
I frowned. “So you feel like you’ve failed your duty, is that it? But you can’t blame yourself for Crawford, surely, if it was Talon who was hunting him—”
“It’s not that,” he interrupted.
“What is it, then?”
“I’m just trying to explain why I… did what I did, when I found out. I went kind of crazy, I guess. Remember I told you before, things are different lately, and I don’t understand why?”
I nodded. “You said Kestrel knew you had a seed, and you couldn’t figure out how she knew the things she did.”
“Right. So I was already… jumpy… I guess. And then Crawford…” He got up with so much force he almost knocked his tea off the table, and walked over to the window, his back to me.
Almost like he didn’t want to look me in the eye.
Which was when it dawned on me. The disgust in his face was real—and it was self-disgust. “You were afraid,” I said. “And you hate yourself for it. And you’re thinking I’m going to judge you for it.”
For a few seconds he just stood there, back and shoulders rigid, and didn’t answer. Finally he said, “I told myself it was caution, not fear. They know I have a seed. They got to Crawford. There was nowhere I could go, nowhere I could be safe—”
“So you came back here. Looking for sanctuary, I’m guessing.”
Balls. And here I’ve failed to provide it.
I thought of the night before, the hungry faces of Madeline Underwood and my father. The spiders. And suddenly I felt a wave of hopelessness I prayed he wouldn’t turn around and see in my face.
“Not right away,” Cooper said. “I knew they’d look for me here, and I didn’t want to lead them straight back to you or Bristol, even as strong as you are. Not without doing something first.”
“Doing what?”
“Getting off their radar. Erasing myself from their plans. At least for a little while.”
The last piece fell into place, and I was chilled to the bone.
“All that blood,” I said softly. “Your broken body. Your guts. Your car sort of blowing up a little bit? Balls, Cooper, you did that to yourself?”
He turned to face me again, his expression almost sheepish, and shrugged. “If you want to fake your death, you can’t really do it halfway. It had to be messy.”
“But you could have died for real! You almost did!”
How could you do that to yourself?
How could you do that to me?
“I’ll admit, it got a little messier than I anticipated,” was all he said to that.
“And what if it had gotten so messy that you lost the seed?”
“It’s indestructible,” he reminded me. “All I had to do to keep it safe was make sure I could crawl away with my underwear intact.”
I shook my head, and marveled that he could be kicking himself now for being afraid. Because it sure seemed like bravery to me, to willingly, deliberately put himself through that kind of pain to protect his secrets. So much pain, and so much risk. He had no way to be sure that injuries of that magnitude wouldn’t kill him faster than he could heal them.
But that was just it: he hadn’t been sure of anything. Because he hadn’t thought it through. He’d acted from sheer panic, and that was why he was so angry with himself.
I wanted to kiss him and punch him and scream at him and put my arms around him and never, ever let go of him. But as I had no idea which of those things I wanted more, for the moment I refrained from doing any of them.
“Anyway, it was all for nothing,” Cooper said. “Because after all that, I couldn’t manage to sneak in here without being seen.”
“Speaking of which…” I told him about my conversation with Rosalie, but he didn’t seem surprised by any of it.
“Lance told me pretty much the same thing, when he came by. So that’s what? Five people, that we know of, who know I’m here?”
“Besides the two of us, yes. We know we can trust Lance, Agatha, and Wendy. And I think Rosalie got the point. I don’t know Jamie very well, but he seems like a nice enough guy, and he likes his job here. I think there’s a good chance word won’t spread too fast.”
“But it will spread, at some point,” said Cooper. “One way or another. Maybe it turns out that someone overheard Rosalie telling Wendy in The Witch’s Brew. Or maybe she accidentally lets something slip again. Maybe one of Jamie’s buddies doesn’t care if he gets fired.”
“I’m not saying you’re wrong. But you did buy us some time. And it cost you dearly, so we’d just better use it wisely.”
“I just need somewhere safe, until I figure out my next move,” he said. “How close are you on the sanctuary thing?”
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I thought I figured out a good way to word the spell, but…”
I trailed off, suddenly struck.
But I was wrong. The trees weren’t what I should have been focusing on at all.
“What’s your face so bright about, all the sudden?” Cooper asked.
“I have an idea.” A laugh popped out of my mouth of its own accord, born of surprise as much as anything. “And I think you’ll like this one, for a change.”
He returned my smile with one of his own, and I was suddenly, but utterly convinced that we could win. Bristol, the Blackwoods.
We could win everything.
“I like the bright face, anyway,” Cooper said. “But don’t tell me you finally want to go on offense, just when I came here for a little defense.”
“Not exactly. But I think I see a way we can have both.”
“I don’t get it,” Cooper said. “You smuggled me down here in a laundry cart to look at a safe?”
“It’s a bit more hardcore than a safe. And I thought it might be more effective for you to see it for yourself.”
We were in the basement, in front of Madeline Underwood’s iron vault. I punched in the key code, then grabbed a towel from the aforementioned laundry cart, and used it to open the heavy door.
“You need a potholder?” he asked, nodding at the towel. “Is it magically heated, or something?”
I shook my head. “I’m allergic to iron. Look.” I gestured inside, but made no move to enter.
It was the size of a small room, and it was fully iron: floor, walls, and ceiling. The effect was impressive and disturbing at the same time. The magical potential was palpable. Iron is a powerful metal, and it was obvious Madeline had built that vault with power in mind. Power I meant to take.
Cooper whistled low. “You aren’t exactly allergic to it, by the way. That’s your phantasm side. There’s something about iron burning them, or them not being able to cross it, or something.”
“Like fairies?”
He shrugged. “I guess.”
“Another fun fact about my father’s race that you know and I don’t. How do you know so much about phantasms?”
“I dated one once, for a few weeks. You know, when you’re not human, you’re kind of drawn to people in the same situation. So what are we doing with the vault?” He smiled. “I know I can be a pain in the ass, but you aren’t thinking of locking me in there?”
“Not you,” I said. “Just the seed.”
“I told you—”
“That you’re supposed to keep it on you, I know, but clearly you guys need a new strategy. And the seeds are the answer to everything.”
“Seeds? Plural.”
“Nice catch. I thought it was smart to focus on the trees, but this is even better. We can give the seeds sanctuary. Not just in Bristol, but in this vault in particular. Iron is the best possible metal for building wards and protective spells. Even if it does make me break out in hives.”
“So you want to put all the seeds in here, and cast the sanctuary spell on just the vault?”
“Not quite,” I said. “We’d still weave the sanctuary around all of Bristol.”
I’m not giving up a piece of my soul for any less.
I wasn’t quite ready to mention that part, yet. Not until he was sold on the rest of the plan.
“But the vault could be sort of like a sanctuary within a sanctuary,” I went on. “Double the protection. If the seeds are safe where the Wicks can never touch them, then nothing can ever happen. The Wicks are basically neutered.”
Cooper looked interested, but not convinced. “They’re still powerful enemies. And you have others, in this town. They’d never stop trying to break your spell, for one thing. Your father’s sanctuary was broken. Maybe yours could be, too.”
“Which is where your offense comes in,” I said. “If you didn’t have to worry about the seeds anymore—I mean any of you, all of you—then you could stop running. The Blackwoods could be free. To concentrate your energies elsewhere.”
“On fighting the Wicks, you mean.” Now he was outright grinning, and I loved that I’d put that look on his face. “On ending the threat for good.”
“You could unite your clan, instead of always keeping yourselves isolated and vulnerable,” I said. “You could take your stand and fight your war.”
“Why, Verity Thane,” Cooper said, in a voice that made me melt in places that had no business being melty when we were talking about war. “Do I detect you embracing a cause?”
“And all you had to do was blow yourself up,” I said, returning his smile. But then I shook my head. “I’m as serious as ever about protecting Bristol. I’m not asking anyone here to fight your war. But the Mount Phearson is mine. I can use it to protect your seeds. And your clan.”
“That’s a generous offer.” Cooper cleared his throat and looked at the floor. “I was pretty hard on you, before I left. And it wasn’t fair.”
“You don’t have to—”
“I kind of do. I have a little more appreciation of how much I was asking of you. Now that Crawford…” He met my eyes. “But I would protect you. No matter what.”
The hard sincerity in his voice made my heart turn over. I couldn’t help myself: I closed the distance between us and brushed my lips against his.
“We could protect each other,” I whispered. “That’s the whole point.”
He took in a ragged breath, and then his arms were around me, and we were kissing for real.
But only for a moment, before we heard the service elevator whirring and clanking.
Cooper pulled away and swore.
“Get back in there!” I shoved him into the laundry cart, and piled towels over him as fast as I could.
A maid came out of the elevator, pushing a cart of her own.
“Debbie!” I said, too brightly. “Hello!”
“What brings you down here?” she asked.
“Oh, I needed to check the vault. You know, we change the combination once a month.” I closed the vault door (with my bare hand, which would sting for the rest of the day because of it) and turned back to her. “And I’m taking this cart of towels upstairs, if you don’t mind. I need them for a… project.”
Debbie looked at me like I was nuts, but she wasn’t one to argue. She just shrugged as I pushed the cart with Cooper in it back toward the elevator.
Once we were safely in my suite again, Cooper wasted no time pulling me back into his arms, trailing kisses down my neck.
“So,” I said with a soft laugh. “I take it you like my plan.”
“I love your… plan.” But Cooper dropped his arms and sighed.
Woops. Note for next time: men do not find talk of plans sexy.
“But my father will be hard to convince,” he said. “The rest of the clan might be even harder. We’ve been doing things the same way for centuries.”
And never remind Cooper Blackwood of his mission if you want his attention.
“One thing at a time,” I said, as much to myself as to Cooper. “If we could get the spell to work, put the West Seed under sanctuary and show them the Wicks can’t touch it, surely they’d at least listen.”
“So how do we get the spell to work, then?”
“Yeah, about that. Piece of cake, really. I just need to figure out how to break off a little fragment of my soul.”
“Come again?”
I told him everything I’d discovered, or thought I had, about how Letitia had worked her spell around Bristol—and left a piece of her soul behind to do it. And about my botched attempt to cast such a spell the night before.
Cooper’s mouth got thinner and thinner as I spoke.
When I finished, he crossed his arms and said, “No. Absolutely not. It’s not even a conversation.”
I blinked at him. “I beg your pardon?”
“You’re not doing that. And what were you thinking to even try? You get this idea in your head and then just toss out a spell that same night? What is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked. “You’re the one who’s always telling me to stop being selfish and put myself on the line for something. I thought you’d be happy that I—”
“That you’re casually talking about throwing away a piece of your soul? That you actually tried to do it on what basically amounts to a whim?”
“Look who’s judging me for doing something rash, Mr. I-Just-Blew-Myself-To-Bits! I was trying to protect this place. And now I’m trying to protect you.”
Cooper shook his head. “Thanks, but not like that. It’s not worth it.”
“We’re not talking about a deal with Lucifer, Cooper. It’s not my whole soul, it’s just a part of it. I can spare that.”
“How would you know whether you can spare it?”
“Because, Letitia isn’t haunting her old house. There’s no ghost there. Which means her spirit—or most of it—has moved on. She’s intact. It’s just a bit of her she left behind. If I wanted to give a quart of blood or a finger to the cause, you’d be fine with that, wouldn’t you?”
“Your soul isn’t the same,” he said. “It doesn’t work the same way.”
“You don’t know how it works.”
“No, and neither do you, which is exactly why you should be taking this more seriously.”
I squared my shoulders and did my best impression of someone ten years older than I actually was. “Excuse me, but you have no idea how seriously I’m taking it. Do not mistake decisiveness for impulsiveness. We have to move quickly, and I am going to—”
I was interrupted by a hard knock on my door.
“And I am going to figure out how to work this soul magic, just as soon as I get rid of whoever that is.”
Unfortunately, it was Lance, and he wasn’t about to be gotten rid of. Cooper had promised him a meeting, and he meant to have it.
So we sat down and tried our best to have a normal conversation about menus, and the proper atmosphere, and staff uniforms. But it seemed what Lance really had on his mind was offering Cooper a job.
“So, Cooper, what would you say to cooking a meal for Agatha and I sometime?” he asked. “I understand you were… ill… it wouldn’t have to be this week, necessarily.”
“Meaning you want me to audition for the chef position?” Cooper asked. “Lance, I’m flattered, but I’m not even sure how long I’ll be staying—”
“But if what we talked about works, you’ll be staying quite a while,” I i
nterrupted.
“Yes,” Cooper said, “but I need time to make sure I’m thinking everything through.” He gave me a pointed look, which I just as pointedly ignored.
“Well, there’s still time,” Lance said. “I won’t interview anybody else until you tell me whether you’d like to give it a go or not, how’s that?”
“Sounds great,” said Cooper. “I’ll think about it.”
“We’re also still brainstorming names for the place, if you have any to add to the list,” Lance said.
Cooper smiled. “That one’s easy.” He glanced at me. “Call it Haven.”
“Haven.” Lance rubbed his knuckles across his cheek, considering. “You know, I actually like that.”
He left shortly afterward. When Cooper and I were alone again I said, “I take it that Haven business means you still think the sanctuary plan is a good idea?”
“If we can find a way to do it without this soul thing.”
“But you don’t even know this soul thing will hurt me,” I said.
“And you don’t know that it won’t,” he countered.
“Letitia went on to live a long life afterward. There’s no indication that it did any permanent damage to her.”
“And there’s no indication that it didn’t. You said yourself, you know almost nothing about her.”
“You know I don’t need your permission,” I said. “This isn’t just about the sapwood seeds.”
Cooper looked like he was going to try to issue another edict, but his stubborn look faded when he saw that my face was just as set. He sighed and put his hands on my shoulders.
“Just promise me you’ll do some research, that’s all I’m asking. Don’t make any permanent decisions until you understand this better.”
“I don’t have a choice but to do research,” I said. “Since I have no idea how to actually do it. But Cooper, we don’t have the luxury of time. You know as well as I do, they’re going to find out you’re here. And then everyone in this hotel will be in danger.”
“You’re right,” he said. “We need to be thinking about more immediate defense. Will your friends help? Wendy? Lydia and Phineas?”
“Yes, I’m sure they will.” But the mention of the Murdochs brought something else to mind. I swallowed, not liking the idea of another confrontation, but feeling I needed to be honest. “I’m not sure you can really call them my friends though, in the sense that I don’t know them very well. And the thing is…”
Grim Haven (Devilborn Book 1) Page 19
