Chapter 37: Stay With Me

Aria’s POV

What’s happening to me?!

The only explanation I could figure was that Knox had managed to petrify me with his touch when he’d grabbed my throat before Jericho had come in. I willed myself to shift, to help end this bloodshed, but I was unable to do anything but move my eyes.

My gaze flicked from the dueling men toward Elle, cowering in the far corner, between the kitchen and hallway, trying to stay out of harm’s way.

“Elle!” I tried to whisper, but my voice was as frozen as the rest of me.

She sat in her cubby, eyes closed with almost a serene expression on her face.

My vision must be skewed. I’m hallucinating with the gargoyle paralytic.

I didn’t understand why Knox’s touch had affected me this time. He hadn’t even been in his gargoyle body when he had burst into my house. A hazy confusion affected my mind, and I stared pleadingly at Elle.

Her eyes popped open, and she smiled at me.

Why is she smiling?

Gnashing teeth and a terrible grunt again stole my attention away from the fae, my eyes exhaustedly moving back to the fight in action.

I was dying in place, but Jericho didn’t seem to be aware of my plight.

“Jericho!” I cried out to him.

Like the rest of me, my vocal cords were frozen, but the silent plea to my mate seemed to affect him. His head jerked around, and I gaped at him, willing him to understand that I needed him more than he needed to kill Knox in that moment.

My mate froze, blood dripping from his jowls as Knox panted and moaned beneath him. His eyes fixed on me, pupils dilating as they locked into my panic.

He fell back, moving to nudge me with his snout, and tears burned behind my eyes but didn’t fall.

Knox, badly hurt and bleeding in several places, took the opportunity to escape while he still could. Dragging his wounded leg behind him, he pulled himself toward the door as I watched, but Jericho didn’t seem to notice.

“Knox!” Elle screeched, jumping up from her spot to chase after her partner, the pair disappearing into the night, leaving a trail of red in their wake.

I caught the disgruntled expression on Jericho’s face, but his immediate concern was me. He didn’t go after the pair and instead turned, his hands cupping my face as he searched me over.

“What happened to you?” he rasped, looking me up and down for injury.

Slowly, I began to regain feeling in my legs and arms, my chin able to move. I tried my jaw, and relief flooded Jericho’s face.

“I thought he’d petrified you,” he choked. “Is that what happened?”

I shook my head slowly, unsure of how to answer.

“I don’t know,” I sighed, confusion overcoming me. “I don’t know how he could have, but I don’t understand what else could have happened.”

He fell back on his haunches, a mild suspicion clouding his vision.

“If he had, you would still be paralyzed,” he reminded me. “Did you just act hurt so that Knox would get away?”

Appalled, I pushed his hands away.

“Of course not,” I sputtered furiously. “He came here to kill me!”

Jericho studied me pensively for a moment, and I huffed, curling my knees up to my chest.

“I could have ended him,” he grumbled, sitting back to find his discarded clothing. “Now I have to go finish what I started.”

I swallowed thickly and reached back out for him.

“Do you, though?” I asked imploringly. He eyed me, locating his tattered pants just outside the front door. I rose unsteadily to my feet, my head still unclear. Jericho was at my side instantly, his arm at my waist.

“Do I what?”

“Do you have to finish it?”

He grunted and withdrew his arm, eying me sternly.

“You can’t be serious right now, Aria. Do you think that Knox isn’t going to come for you again?”

“No, of course he is,” I agreed quickly. “But you and I—we don’t have to be here.”

His face softened. Adjusting his jeans around his perfect hips, he ambled toward me, peering down to look at my face.

“If you’d just stick with me, nothing will happen to you, Princess,” he murmured.

“If we get out of here, nothing will happen,” I exploded. “Why won’t you just listen to me? All we have to do is pack up and go. Tonight!”

He stared at me pityingly, and it made me angry.

“Stop looking at me like that!” I barked. “I’m not a glass doll!”

“I know you’re not,” he replied softly. “You’re also not someone who’s going to sit back and let Knox traffic women.”

He stared at me meaningfully, and I hung my head, shamed that I was still angry at him.

“Don’t do that,” I muttered, conflicted. “You’re choosing against me again.”

Jericho’s jaw twitched, and he shook his head, taking my chin between his finger and thumb.

“I always choose you,” he insisted. “You just need to stay with me.”

His grip on me tightened, the intensity in his eyes growing. “I will always protect you, my love, but you can’t keep shutting me out. I’m not going anywhere. You have to stay, too.”

A low moan escaped my lips as I looked toward my broken door, fear again overcoming me.

“He’ll come back for me,” I whispered.

“He won’t tonight,” Jericho insisted. “He’s hurt. And you’re not staying here.”

Biting on my lower lip, I nodded.

“Will you come back to the suite with me?” he asked, still holding my face, his stare wilting my doubts as it always did. “You’ll be safe there.”

I pondered the request, licking my lips. I wanted nothing more than to do what he asked, venture off into the protection of my mate, the man who I knew would do everything in his power to keep me safe.

Everything but die. He can’t die for me.

Swallowing, I nodded.

“Yes,” I mumbled, falling into his embrace. “I’ll go with you.”

“Good,” he murmured. “Now let’s get the hell out of here.”

* * *

By the time we arrived back at the Sandstone, the last of that strange haze had faded away from my mind, leaving me thinking clearly again.

“It looks a little different from the last time you saw it,” Jericho warned me as we took the elevator to the thirteenth floor.

As we stepped onto the floor, the smell of dried blood hit my nostrils. The hairs on the back of my neck rose, and I peered at Jericho, but he didn’t stop, marching forward with my duffle bag on his shoulder until he stood in front of the door of the suite. It looked different, and I glanced at him questioningly, but he didn’t meet my eyes.

I gasped aloud when he opened the door, noting the bloodstains all over the entranceway and dining area. Broken furniture lay in piles, as if someone had made a half-hearted attempt to clean up, but it didn’t hide the horror of what had happened there.

“Oh, gods!” I exclaimed. “This is where it happened.”

“Never mind all that,” Jericho told me urgently, leading me toward the sitting area. “I need to talk to you about something.”

It was hard not to look at the destruction, not to ask what had happened. I suspected I already knew the answer.

“Look at me, Aria.”

Inhaling, I drew in and steered my eyes back to his face.

“I know how I came to be here now,” he told me.

I blinked, the fight in the suite forgotten for the moment.

“What?!”

Jericho nodded, sinking back against the sofa.

“After you left me downtown, someone showed up,” he explained.

“Who?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t get a name, but they knew enough about the Black Society to make me believe that they’ve been around for a while.”

I frowned, and more questions were ready to spring from my lips.

Jericho continued, stopping me from asking anything. “That’s who found me in Van Zanth,” he went on.

“Why didn’t they just come to you directly?” I demanded, managing a query after all. “And why now?”

Jericho sighed and nodded. “All questions I asked myself,” he reassured me. “Apparently, there’s a small resistance against the trafficking within the Black ranks already.

Mostly women, but there’s enough disquiet that someone had to take a stand. Everyone believed I was dead, but for this one being who was looking for potential descendants of mine.”

I was stung by the thought of Jericho having progeny running amok. He chuckled, patting my cheek affectionately before kissing my lips sweetly.

“There are no descendants, but the search did lead directly to me.” He paused. “It was obvious I didn’t have any memory of who I was. I suppose the hope was that the postcard would trigger my memory.”

I frowned, cocking my head to the side.

“So why didn’t they approach you when you came back into town?” I insisted, not understanding.

“The hope was that I would simply return and reclaim my territory, but I haven’t been working fast enough.”

No kidding, I thought grimly.

“If it hadn’t been for this encounter, Aria, Knox would have killed you. I came looking for you as soon as I realized you were in his crosshairs. I wish you’d been honest with me.”

“I thought I could handle things by myself,” I mewled, shamed by my own poor choices. “I’ve been handling things on my own for so long.”

His full mouth jutted into a partial pout, and I suddenly wanted to bite it. Despite all the tension and danger, he turned me on like no one else.

“I still think it’s best if we get out of town,” I added, but there was so much less conviction in me than there had been before.

His heart was set on ending Knox’s hold over the women of Amestris, and I couldn’t abide letting that happen if that was what was really going on.

“I was brought back here to set things right. It’s not just about you and me, Aria. We have to take this back from Knox. He’s out of control, and he’ll only get worse if we stand by and do nothing.”

I gnawed on the insides of my cheeks. Everything he said was right, and I still wanted to run and hide.

“He might be dead already,” I murmured, still perplexed by something.

A nagging tugged at the back of my mind elusively, but I couldn’t quite grasp what my subconscious was trying to relay.

“He’ll heal. That fae with him will help him heal faster,” Jericho growled.

“Elle,” I murmured.

Jericho looked surprised. “That was Elle?”

“Yes,” I sighed, turning my head to rub my temples.

An ache creeped up the back of my neck, the stress of the past weeks overwhelming me with exhaustion.

“I remember her,” he said. “I didn’t recognize her.”

I couldn’t see why he would. Before Knox had coupled with her, after Jericho had purportedly “died,” Elle had been a shadow, following on the fringes of our collective.

“You’re tired,” he announced, dropping the heaviness of the story.

Standing, he leaned down to scoop me up in his arms, and I didn’t protest as he laid my head against his chest.

“Don’t look at the mess,” he told me huskily. “Just rest, and when you wake up, this will all be gone.”

I did as he instructed, squeezing my eyes closed as we passed by the kitchen and dining room area, holding my breath to stave off the smell of lingering death.

I’m safe here, I promised myself, succumbing to my exhaustion as Jericho laid me on the bed, his strong hands sliding my sneakers off before tucking me tenderly beneath the blankets.

“Stay with me,” I managed to breathe before slipping off into a dreamless sleep, but I thought I heard him promise that he wasn’t going anywhere before darkness fell entirely around me.