The Shadows

SIXTY-FOUR

They held hands all the way home.

As Trez drove the Porsche back to the compound, he kept contact with his queen, thumbing her palm, playing with her new ring, bringing her hand up for a kiss.

“Everyone has been so kind,” she murmured, her head back against the seat rest, the flaring lights from the streetlamps at the highway junctions giving him blue-tinted hints of her face.

“Yeah. Good people.”

He thought of his brother. Rhage. Rehvenge. He’d even gotten a text from Tohr—who had walked a different version of this path. And then there was Doc Jane. Manny. Ehlena.

“All of them trying so hard to help,” she said.

“Yeah.”

“Doc Jane and Manny have been working around the clock, attempting to find solutions.”

“Yeah.” He kissed her hand again. “They have.”

“And Rehvenge went up to his people.”

“He did.”

“And iAm went to the Territory—”

Trez ripped his head around. “What?”

She turned her head to him, her eyes half-lidded and sleepy. “iAm went to the Shadows—” Abruptly she frowned. “Ow, you’re hurting me.”

Shaking himself, he let up on his grip. “Sorry. I—what did you say?”

As she repeated it for a third frickin’ time, his heart started to pound. Keeping his voice deliberately calm, he asked, “Do you know when he went?”

“No, Doc Jane just mentioned it when I went to see her. You were having your migraine. Trez, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” He brought up her hand for yet another kiss. “Nothing at all.”

The rest of the trip home was a Sybil experience, one part of him connected with Selena, the other half hunting down iAm and screaming in the male’s face something along the lines of, What the fuck were you thinking, you asshat motherfucker, putting yourself in danger like that!?!

Or something to that effect.

“. . . changed before we go up there?”

“I’m sorry?” He took the right-hander that led up the mountain. “What did you say?”

“I’d like to get changed. This cooking thing is going to get messy.”

“You could do it naked. I’m just saying—cleanup would be a breeze, because I could take you directly into the shower. Plus I could lick off cake batter if it landed . . . you know, anywhere.”

She laughed. “Might be cold.”

“Then I could keep my hands on you the whole time.”

“I won’t get any cooking done.”

“Don’t underestimate the power of takeout.” He leaned in and kissed her shoulder. “But that’s fine. Whatever you want.”

When the great gray mansion came into view, he parked the car in front of the steps as Manny requested, and then went around to open his female’s door. As she reached her hand out, the diamond caught the light from the house’s security lamps and flashed a rainbow.

“I love it so much,” she said.

“Good. That was the plan.”

Once inside, he took Selena up to their bedroom. Fritz and the doggen had moved clothes into his closet for her, and he had to admit he loved all her shit mixed in with his.

Thank God she needed to change, he thought as he acted as nonchalant as he could.

“So listen, I’m just going to go next door,” he said, keeping his voice level. “For a second. You know, to check on iAm.”

“All right,” she said, smiling.

The instant he was out of her sight, he bared his fangs and ditched the all-cool act. At his brother’s door he didn’t bother to knock; he just whipped the thing open.

“iAm!” he barked, even though he doubted the guy was there.

Not waiting for an answer, he took out his phone and hit the guy up. One ring, two rings . . .

“Yeah? Trez? What’s wrong—”

“What the fuck were you thinking?”

There was a pause. “Excuse me?”

“You went to the fucking Territory?” He tried to keep his voice down. “Are you out of your fucking mind!”

“Trez—”

“What the fuck are you doing!”

“I am not discussing this with you over the phone.”

“Then get your fucking ass home now.”

He hung up and marched around. Then, snapping himself out of it, he masked up and went back to his room. “Hey, Selena?”

“Yes?” she said from the closet.

“I’ve got to hang here for a little bit. Not long. If you want, you can head on up and I’ll be there quick?”

He knew in the back of his mind that he wasn’t thinking right—she shouldn’t be alone—but he was seeing red, his brain locked on his brother’s idiot move.

Sticking her head out, she smiled and said something that didn’t sink in. Going by her nod, though, she was going to leave. He went over and kissed her, and then shut himself into iAm’s bedroom.

It felt like it was an hour until his brother showed up, but it was probably five or ten minutes. And as the guy walked into the room, a strange scent on him dimly registered: It was female. But whatever.

“What the hell, iAm?” he demanded. “Like I don’t have enough problems?”

“You need to back off. I went there because I wanted to see if there was any record of the Arrest in the healing journals. It was just a trip in and out—”

“How. Who did you make a deal with.”

“Myself.”

“Bullshit.”

“Trez, no offense, but why are you wasting time with this? I got out—”

“Was it s’Ex? Did you use s’Ex?” When iAm didn’t reply, he threw up his hands. “Oh, come on! Are you kidding—”

“Calm down—”

“Calm down! You don’t think that it might be seriously fucking nuts for you to turn yourself over to the Queen’s executioner? Who I’ve spent the last nine months buying off with a supply of prostitutes? That doesn’t strike you as irresponsible, considering they want me to go back there?”

“You know what? I’m not doing this with you. I’m not—”

“The fuck you’re not! You exposed us both going there! They could have used you as leverage—”

“They didn’t—”

“—to get me back there to service that fucking Princess! You told me I had ’til the end of the mourning period—that’s only three days and I’ve got shit I need to deal with here! I don’t need you wild-carding—”

“Trez, I know you’re caught up with Selena. I get it. But you’re outta line here—”

“Out of line? What if they’d kept you? What if AnsLai had come to me and been all like, ‘I got your brother, time for your mating’? Did you think for even a second what kind of position that would put me in? Either you and a life of imprisoned fucking for me—or not being here for Selena at the end of her life! What the fuck—”

For some reason, iAm’s abrupt change in affect registered: The male had frozen in place and was staring over Trez’s shoulder, his expression instantly going blank.

Trez clamped his mouth shut and closed his lids. Even before he turned around, he knew what he was going to find in the doorway to the bedroom.

Yup. Selena had opened the way in and was standing between the jambs, pale as a ghost.

“You’re to be mated?” she said in a thin voice. “In three days?”

iAm cursed under his breath. Just exactly how this didn’t need to come out.

And worse, as Selena came forward, her gait was off, like her knees or maybe her hips were giving her bother.

“What are you . . .” She stopped in front of Trez. “Are you going to mate that female in three days?”

Time to go, iAm thought. This was definitely something the two of them—

“No,” Selena said as he went to head by her. “Stay.”

Like she wanted him available to fill things in if she felt her male wasn’t being straight with her.

“What’s going on?” she demanded.

Even though Trez had been rip-shit only moments before, the guy looked as composed as an inanimate object: “It’s not important.”

“That’s not what I just heard. And before you accuse me of eavesdropping, the two of you were yelling so loudly, I could hear it next door.”

Trez rubbed his short-cropped hair and walked around. “Selena—”

“Are you going to be mated?”

“This doesn’t affect us.”

“It most certainly does.”

When there was a tight silence, iAm decided, Fuck it. “He was sold by our parents when we were infants to the Queen of the Territory—as a mate for the heir to the throne. It was decreed by his astrological chart. He’s done everything possible to escape from it, and the reason he’s pissed at me is because I’m his Achilles’s heel. He’s just freaking out at a close call, probably because the real thing he’s worried about is you and he can’t do anything about that.”

As they both looked at him, he shrugged. “Whatever. I’ve been watching Dr. Phil with Lass downstairs when I can’t sleep.”

“Is this true?” Selena asked.

“Yeah.” Trez went over and sat on the bed. “I didn’t talk to you about it because, honestly, like he said, no matter what they do in three days, I’m not going to mate some female I don’t know and don’t care about and give her the second in line for the throne. It’s just not going to happen—and that’s true whether or not you’re in my life, and whether or not you live a hundred more days or a thousand more years.”

He clapped his hands together as if he were closing a door. “And that’s that.”

Selena was quiet for a time. “You should have told me.”

“I don’t like to think about it.”

iAm rolled his eyes. “Truth.”

“And, Selena, I’m serious. I’m not going to do it in seventy-two hours or seven million.” Trez glanced over. “Did you see our parents while you were there?”

iAm shook his head. “I was only in the palace.” In a cell. “And they’ve lost their station so they were on the other side of those walls. I sure as shit didn’t look them up. They’re dead to me. I couldn’t give a fuck about them.”

“Me, too.” Trez looked back at Selena. “This is my life here. Here is my life—these people, this place, my businesses . . . you most of all. I’m not going to let anyone take it away from me, especially not because some astrologist looked at the stars in the heavens and decided they meant something.”

Selena wrapped her arms around herself. “I really wish you’d told me.”

“I would have if it meant anything to me.”

“And these businesses . . . do you still sell females through them?”

iAm stared at the door. Started inching his way to it.

“They sell themselves,” Trez countered. “I give them a venue to do so, but they are in charge of themselves. They choose who, how much, how often. My job is to keep them safe.”

“While you earn money off of them.”

“They pay the club. Not me.”

“But you own the club.”

“iAm,” Trez said sharply. “I want you to stay.”

He closed his eyes. “That’s not what I’m thinking.”

“No,” Selena spoke up. “If he has nothing to hide, let him say it in front of an audience.”

Great. Just what he was looking for. A job as mediator.

Not.

And maichen was still at the condo.

“Actually, I really do have to go.” iAm glanced back and forth between the two of them. “I’ve never been in a relationship before, so I don’t have any advice for the pair of you. But, Selena, I think you should be aware of two things. One, his entire life has been defined by rebelling against the s’Hisbe and our parents. And two, he has not been with a single female since he got with you last year. He has been faithful to you even when you two weren’t together. So don’t crucify him because you think that the human women who work for him are somehow with him. I’m out.”

He didn’t give them a chance to reel him back into their drama. He had enough of his own. He’d left maichen buck-ass naked in his bed and he was worried she was going to take off without his getting back.

Rushing down to the foyer, he bolted through the vestibule, broke out into the night, and dematerialized to the Commodore.

As he assumed form on the terrace, he yanked back the glass door and rushed across to the corridor that led to the bedrooms.

“maichen,” he called out.

Just as he rounded the door to his bedroom, she said, “Yes?”

He took a deep breath as he saw her reclining against the pillows, her bare shoulders emerging from the cover of the duvet.

“Oh, thank fuck,” he said.

“Are you all right?” She sat up. “iAm?”

Kicking off his shoes, he didn’t answer her. He couldn’t. There was too much to say about things he couldn’t change and hated.

Instead, he pulled back the sheets and got in fully clothed. Her body was warm and naked and yielding as he brought them heart-to-heart.

As her arms came around him, and she stroked the back of his head, he shuddered—and realized that in all the years he’d had on the planet, this was the first time he’d had somewhere to go when he felt like the world was a shitty place and time was nothing more than torture to be endured.

It was so much better than even the sex.

This moment where he sought and was given haven? It made him understand why the Brothers lit up every time their shellans came into the room, and why those males would lay down their lives for those females.

“Thank you,” he heard himself say.

“For what?” maichen whispered.

“Being here.”

“Is Selena unwell?” she asked. Because he’d told her why he’d needed to go.

“Not acutely so. But she and my brother got into it.”

“Why?”

“There’s nothing like your fiancée finding out you’re betrothed to another while she’s dying. That is just such an awesome conversation to have.”

maichen stilled. “This has to end.”

“The shit with Trez and that fucking Princess? I agree—if you come up with any bright ideas . . . let me know,” he said starkly.