Chapter 163 Final chance
I sat in that hotel suite and stared right at a century back. It did not feel like very long ago when we crushed Tarek, the Syrian farmer.
Even now, I could still hear the scream that tore out of his throat with stark clarity. That gutted scream at the sky as he held Flore in his arm, still bleeding out even if she had long died.
And there was also that disaster that happened right after.
I muttered a curse, squeezing my hands tightly. I could not think of one single way to break the news to the twenty six year old he had returned as. So deciding to tackle the one thing I had control over, I straightened up.
“Now that her identity has been made public, Aionis will come for her.”
Hale turned from the desk, drops of blood running from his fist to the carpet. “I fucked him. I fucked the man we broke. The man we drove to suicide is now my boyfriend.” His eyes were wet and furious. “You could have warned me. If only you thought to tell me the exact moment you found out...”
“For fuck sake,” I growled at last, feeling the ground tremor beneath us as I rose to my feet. “Work trip. That was what you called your voyage to Japan. I never stalk any of you, or break into your thoughts. How did you expect to know you insisted so damn much on taking him with you because it was going to be your little honeymoon.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, we both froze.
There. I just did the same thing I scolded Lys for. I just stuck another knife in his chest for starting a relationship he had every right to.
I cursed and turned towards the French windows. I grabbed the weighty drapes and yanked them apart. Staring out at the night-city, I felt the strongest ache I have ever had to fly. I had come to love this body, but I missed my real form.
I missed what it felt like to be so big I blocked out the sun when I flew over a city, to send poorly made buildings crumbling to the ground just from the flap of my wings. To look down and know that I could burn a town to the ground with a single breath.
Placing balled fists on the window’s ledge, I hunched over, trying to remember all the reasons why I had to think like a human now more than ever.
The reasons I could not simply shift back to my real form permanently, and run away from these emotions and feelings and all the other complicated abstract things that came with being like them, part human. Things that hurt more than a battle wound.
I jerked my head up again and stared at the city. I will have to remain the villain. They would never shake out of their own emotions early enough to make the logical decision we needed to avert this looming war, to save the queen and her guard. It was my duty to avert it, even if it meant I died with the knowledge that the man I loved most of my life hated me in the end.
“We cannot tell him.” I said with a much calmer voice.
“What?”
“Finn heard you at the party, so maintaining the lie about Nymphaea is no longer an option. We will let them know they are soulmates, and that he was Konrad in his previous life. But we will never say a word about Julien or Tarek.”
He was quiet, and I glanced back to find him staring at me like I had just laughed at a funeral.
The silence stretched between us, shrinking the room to the hum of city traffic far below.
“They are soulmates,” I repeated, “Two for one deal at this point. If we separate them, both of them die. If one dies, the other dies too. If Finn finds out the truth, he will hate me, and he will leave. But if I let Lys leave with him, I will be unable to protect her from Aionis, and then they will die.”
“What the…” He stopped. “This is not our decision to make. After everything we did, we deserve his hate. But he, only he, gets to decide whether he would tolerate us just to protect her.”
My eyes narrowed as flames flared at my spine.
I had not doubted it for even one moment that he would always do what was right rather than what was needed. That when the time comes to choose between the woman we love or do the right thing, he will not choose her.
But confirmation of it still...
“Her life is in danger,” I repeated unnecessarily, to make sure that he had not somehow glossed over the fact. I closed the distance between us. “If she dies now, neither of them will return. This is the final chance.”
LYS
I was an abnormal sight, running through the streets of Seoul in the elaborate ballet dress I had just performed in, my hair flying like a kite in the wind.
But I apparently could not run fast enough for Finn. His hand held mine in a firm grip as he spurred me on. If he was not always on that blood fast that weakened his abilities, he would probably have teleported already.
But we were running at the speed of a power bike, so fast the city was a blur.
I did not understand the urgency, or why we simply had not ridden back to the hotel in our car.
I found him waiting backstage after my performance.
He had not let me even change out of my dress, neither did he let me say a word to anyone. And no matter how much I asked him what was wrong, he made no response.
My heart was racing from more than the exertion of running. Something was awfully wrong, my nervous system was blaring alarms.
That was the moment Finn swept my feet off the floor. I gasped as he hauled me into his arms. It was easy to forget how thick his arms were, how broad his chest was, because he never took his shirt off.
My body jostled in his arms as he ran all the way to the hotel. That scent of musk and cedar wood filled my lungs as I hugged his neck while distance collapsed before us.
And then he hopped. I closed my eyes as we ascended past the floors of the hotel and finally stopped.
We were on the balcony of our suite when I opened my eyes, my heart was slamming against my chest. He carefully lowered me to the ground.
“You okay?” He cradled my cheek immediately, those aqua-colored eyes searching.
I nodded, clutching his wrist as I stared up into his eyes. Then we turned to look through the glass screen and froze at the scene.
The men were in an argument.
This did not look like the usual banter, I could feel the heat of it from where I stood. Finn caressed my cheek with his thumb absent-mindedly, and reached a hand out to knock on the glass.
Both men froze, another sign that they had been caught up in whatever this fight was. They could sense a person a mile off, and should have known we were standing here.
Hale glanced at the door and looked away immediately, but Mordaine walked over, tugging his hair loose as he unlocked the door.
Finn led me in, still holding my hand, and my skin came alive when I met the dragon’s eyes as we walked past him.
He was staring at me with an emotion I had never seen. But when I glanced at Hale, he seemed to be studiously avoiding my gaze.