Chapter Fourteen
Marcus and Marise flanked me in the receiving line that my mother set up in the foyer. She and my father stood closest to the door. They were the first to greet our guests as they entered the house and guide them past us to the refreshment tables or out to the backyard where softly glowing lanterns decorated the gazebo.
It was a blur of faces, some surprised and others sinister, as they passed. I couldn't meet anyone's gaze. Instead, I stared at a spot on the far wall above eye level and murmured the traditional greeting.
"Well met, may End-of-Winter bring you joy."
Valentine had yet to arrive. Each time the door opened my heart skipped a beat. I needed the waiting to be done, but I was also desperate to never see him again. My heart was sick with the warring emotions.
The front door opened and I automatically gave the traditional greeting. I wasn't expecting the response.
"Cousin Helena!"
I blinked and met the bright eyes of my favorite cousin. She was suddenly in my arms and her taffeta draped body was like a buoy in an ocean storm. "Emily Anne." I hugged her tighter. "I'm so glad you're here."
"You're crushing me like a Georgia peach in an apple press." She pulled back with a laugh. "How you been, dahling?"
I squeezed her hands. "Great now that you're here."
Emily Anne Wayward-Bowman hailed from West Virginia. She was the same age as my brother, Silus, and her open honesty was always a welcome haven during family gatherings.
Her father, Willard, was a local legend in their small mountain town. He brewed up a moonshine so strong that it made a man think he could grow wings and fly like an eagle. Whether these were just potent hallucinations or something more mystical in nature was a question still up for debate. No one wanted to travel to West Virginia badly enough to investigate further.
"You look sick, Helena." She grabbed my shoulders and studied my face. "You don't have any makeup on. Girl, you might as well be out here without a face."
"It's fine," I murmured.
She grabbed my arm and propelled me out of the receiving line. "Let's go."
Leonora cast us a sour glance as Emily Anne pushed me up the main staircase but manners required her to stay silent. A guest was a guest.
Willard and Emily Anne were distant relations on my father's side. My mother called them our country cousins—not exactly a compliment—but Emily Anne had always been nice to me, sweet even. She and her father never acted as if magic gave them the right to hurt people.
She led me to the vanity table and I sank gratefully into it. Her whirlwind energy was exhausting. She stood behind me and my gaze met her glowing eyes in the mirror. My lips curved to answer her wide smile.
Emily Anne was larger than life—a true Southern pageant princess—with big hair, a big voice and an even bigger personality.
Her fingers ran through my hair, fluffing the tight curls. "You have such pretty hair." She dug in her purse, coming out with a small makeup case. "But your skin looks like wax paper."
I was silent as she swept shadow over my lids, the applicator brush a light tickle against my skin. Emily Anne was patting my lips lightly with gloss when she spoke again.
"Daddy and I heard about Valentine."
A sick feeling sunk deep into the pit of my stomach. How many different ways could I tell the same story?
"What about him?" The Bonham-Waywards declined to attend Bianca's wedding. All Emily Anne knew was the gossip spreading through family circles. It must have taken all her willpower to not blast me with questions the moment she walked through the door.
Our eyes met in the mirror. Her gaze was direct, mine solemn. "Will he be here?" she asked.
"I'd stake my life on it." And I was.
"Be careful." Emily Anne turned away. "That man is a devil in disguise."
"It's End-of-Winter." I regretted my next words the moment my lips moved to form them. "What's the worst that can happen?"
Her eyebrows shot up her forehead. "Dangerous words on a night like this."
Tension had built up in me for so long—my emotions like a pressure cooker—that there was no space for more. I had no more room for fear. "I guess."
Emily Anne regarded me cautiously. She must have seen the new resolve that hardened my features.
"I know who I have to be." I patted her hand as I rose from my seat at the vanity. "Wish me luck."
My confidence had waned by the time I wandered through the dining room, my eyes searching the faces in the crowd. It was pointless.
I would know if Valentine were there before catching glimpse of a dangerous smile. We had enough of a connection left for at least that.
Unease curled down my spine to settle in a lump at the pit of my stomach. I was like a virgin bride on her wedding night, the wait was far worse then anything that came after.
The house was full but I moved through it in an impenetrable bubble. If there was some new tension in their eyes, it didn't stop my relatives from ignoring me as they always had. Before I was invisible. Now I was little more than a featured exhibit in the world's most dangerous petting zoo.
I sensed Darius behind me before I spun to face him. He stood so close that the hem of my dress brushed his legs as I turned. The smile that stretched his face was predatory.
"Save your threats," I said before he could speak. "I can't help if your man's a no-show."
"Valentine will be here. I merely wanted to offer you blessings for End-of-Winter." His voice slid down my spine like a trail of ice. "You're going to need them."
My eyes never left the seething crowd. "You sound as if you expect me to fail."
"My master will swallow you whole," Darius replied with a snort. "But before he does, Valentine might reveal something that helps me destroy him."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence." I thought I caught a shock of copper hair but when I blinked it was gone. "What's stopping me from telling him all about his treacherous second-in-command?"
Darius slid even closer, until his breath left a trail of goosebumps on my skin. "Because, then it would only be a matter of which one of us kills you first."
"Enough." I waved him away. "Unless you've got something useful to say, stop distracting me."
He cast me a mocking smile before turning away. I caught his murmur as he disappeared into the crowd. "Perhaps you should stop looking with your eyes."
There was an energy to the room, subtle but palatable. Everyone here used a bit of themselves to unconsciously cast a small aura of protection. They all surrounded themselves with a shell of power, slight and fragile as a soap bubble.
The crowd thinned as a I moved past. Party guests sidestepped gracefully out of my way, the look in my eyes was enough to make them wary. The force of them tickled along my every nerve as I moved through the house.
I reached out with my senses. Almost every inch of the house and grounds oozed with power. The magic was an electric cloud, sparking and hissing on the edges of my mind.
There was only one place I felt nothing.
Outside, a thousand lights twinkled on the gazebo. I could see it glittering dimly in the night as I stepped off the back porch and into the yard. I walked as if in a trance. Distantly, I felt the grass tickle the sides of my feet through the openings of my sandals and the dew settle on my skin like a cold kiss.
Maybe the garden was empty or perhaps the guests milling in the dim light slid carefully out of my path. I only saw the lights growing brighter as I walked forward. Every step moved me closer to the inevitable.
I followed the fence line to the end of my parents' property. The lot backed up to a small copse of trees that protected it from nosy neighbors. Noise from the party faded into the hum of cicadas and wind whispering through the trees.
My shoes sunk deep into the wet grass. I slipped them off next to a wilted rose bush, still yellow from the melting winter frost. The cold sent a shiver up my spine.
When I reached the gazebo, heart beating like a trapped
bird, my gaze scanned the shadows. I mounted the stairs slowly and winced as the wood creaked beneath my bare feet. My head turned on a constant swivel, waiting for the smallest hint of movement.
The gazebo was deserted.
I wanted to scream in frustration. All the waiting and the terror, the build-up to some epic showdown between good and evil was more than I could take. I wished Valentine would swoop down like a crazed night terror and finally get it over with.
With a sigh, I slumped onto the curved bench built into the wall of the gazebo. The wood was warm beneath my feet and I rubbed my toes absentmindedly against the grain. Harsh laughter carried from the house and I shivered in the cool breeze. There was no way I could go back.
I could run again. They were all distracted. It would be too easy to sneak upstairs and pack a bag; the last bus out of Los Angeles couldn't have left yet. The coward's way out was tempting.
My blood price had been paid. Despite all his posturing, even Darius couldn't undo that. Cynthie's family had obviously already spent the money. Without Ceres's murderous relatives dogging my steps, I might manage to find some measure of peace. Valentine wanted nothing to do with me. Not my fault.
With a mental shake, I stood up and leaned against the gazebo rail. Cool air blew across my skin, raising goosebumps. The trees swayed in the wind as if alive. This wasn't the sort of night to be alone in the dark.
There should have been a creak of the floorboards or a shift in the wind to mark his presence. I was alone and then a familiar voice wrapped around me like a death shroud.
"Well met."
My body froze. My gaze locked on the tops of the trees as they danced in the breeze. "Greetings for End-of-Winter," I whispered. I turned to meet him, his eyes obscured by the darkness, unfathomable as black ice. "Valentine."
A long braid trailed over one shoulder. The soft fall of hair should have been feminine, but it only served to heighten the hard angles of his face and the cruel smile that played at the corners of his lips.
Valentine brushed the back of one hand lightly down the side of my cheek. "You seem well." His voice was smooth and hard like steel dipped in chocolate.
I was very aware of the wooden bench pressed against the backs of my legs and the forbidding forest that moved in to surround us. There was nowhere to run. "You as well."
His smile widened. "Do you often come out alone in the dark? These are dangerous times."
"Are the festivities not to your liking?" I slipped past him so the gazebo opening was at my back. "My mother will be devastated."
If Valentine saw through my bravado, he didn't let on. "I was surprised to hear that you would be here."
"News travels fast." I shrugged casually, though my heart felt like it beat hard enough for him to hear. "Did you come to see me?"
He cocked his head to the side like a bird of prey spotting a mouse darting through the grass. "Considering our last meeting, I should be quite upset with you."
I leaned back against one of the poles next to the gazebo stairs and my hands gripped the wood, tight enough to hurt. "But you're not?"
His gaze slid down me and stopped to rest on the cabochon pendant that hung in the deep V of my neckline. I looked down as he traced his fingers along the smooth surface and a shock of heat ran through me as the sapphire warmed to his touch. The star at the center of the stone moved and twinkled in the meager light.
My breath came in a soft sigh. His fingertips touched my chin and then slid down the curve of my cheek. My vision filled with his gaze. Fire licked and curled deep in the darkness of his eyes and I was mesmerized.
As his face drew closer, words spilled from my mouth in a rush.
"They want to kill you."
I was suddenly pressed against him, his arms wrapped around me like a vise. His face was inches from mine, cold and emotionless like a marble statue. He said nothing as his eyes bored into mine.
"You have enemies." I struggled to breathe as his arms tightened harshly around me. Stars danced on the edge of my vision. "They brought me here because they want you dead."
Valentine released me and I fell back on the bench, gasping for breath. He crossed to the other side of the gazebo and stood with his back to me. I lay frozen on the wood, terrified to move or speak that I might draw his attention back to myself.
He spoke without facing me. "And you? Are you a hunter or a weapon?"
I didn't answer.
"I cannot be slain." He turned and his gaze burned into me. "Did they plan to pit you in an epic battle against me like David to Goliath? Were you meant to be my undoing?"
"My father told me once that you were demon magic made flesh. Untouchable." Words rose from me, unbidden. "Are you?"
"Knowledge is never free, Helena." On his tongue, my name sounded like a caress. "What do you offer me in return?"
I shook my head forcefully. "I gave you a secret. You owe me."
"True." Valentine chuckled and the sound sent a shiver up my spine. He sidled closer, his movements graceful like a cat. "What would you ask of me?"
"I'm sick of running."
He made a neutral sound and gestured for me to continue. "And?"
I stood on the edge of a cliff, moments before the inevitable plunge. "I want your help."
Valentine laughed. The sound sent a shiver trailing down my spine. "You always ask for so much." He circled me and I waited, my body tense. "What will you give me in return?"
I knew it was the wrong answer as my mouth formed the words but I couldn't do anything to stop them from spilling from my lips.
"What do you want?"
"A drink," he replied casually and moved away. "Does your mother still keep that lovely Rioja in the wine cellar?"
I felt immediately bereft as the warmth of his nearness faded. He was on the path leading back to the house before my mind connected the fact that he left me alone.
My head cleared as he disappeared over the hill. The intoxication of his touch was only a distant memory. Valentine was like a drug. The further away he went, the easier it was to forget how he made me feel.
My father named him demon. Darius claimed he was impervious to silver and steel. I couldn't begin to fathom what it was they expected of me.
But I panicked and said too much. Valentine would never let me close to him again.
I leaned against a post and rested my head on the wood. My hand reached up and clenched around the star sapphire. I wanted to yank the pendant from around my neck and hurl it into the darkness, never to be seen again.
The stone was cool to the touch. The star in the center had dimmed to a mere shadow. I sighed and gripped it tighter until the metal setting dug painfully into the skin of my palm.
I stared up at the sky. Heavy cloud cover obscured the moon, dispersing its light into a dark haze.
Wayward Page 24
