“Command it of me,” he growled. “Then be gone.”
The promise of violence saturated the air, a vow that vengeance would be his for this insult.
“I used your name to get your attention.” She strained toward him. “I don’t want to force you to comply. I want you to cut the crap and bargain with me so I can get back to the people who need me.”
Silence lapsed while Ruel considered her, and then he crossed his taloned legs.
“I will give you the sight,” he said slyly. “I will give it to your mate as well.”
“Leave Midas out of this,” she warned. “This bargain is between you and me.”
“Give me back my name, let me erase it from your mind, and I will open your eyes.”
Midas had to admit, as far as bargains went, this was a straightforward one. On the surface. But fae were masters of exploitation.
“The bargain is struck,” she said before Midas could warn her to slow down, to think his phrasing through.
Rising with sinuous grace, Ruel approached them. He knelt at Hadley’s feet in a mockery of subjugation.
“This won’t hurt.” He raked his fingers through her hair, his claws scratching her temples. “There we go.” He smiled at Midas. “I’ll just take what’s owed.”
Black motes glittered on his fingertips when he lowered his hand, and he blew them across the room with a long breath, scattering them like seeds from a dandelion, his name lost on the wind.
“But this will.” Ruel chuckled as he stabbed her between the eyes with his fingernail. “Awaken, little shadow. See the world as it truly is and be seen as you truly are.”
The scent of her blood raised Midas’s hackles, but Ruel impaled him in the next instant with the same claw.
“Awaken.” His cold eyes laughed at Midas. “See the beast you’ve claimed for your own.”
The fae rose and prowled from the room with delight sharpening his cruel beauty.
Neither he nor Hadley so much as breathed while the lush room transformed around them. The sight, gift or curse or both, burrowed into their minds, fading the lies and revealing the truths. But the décor wasn’t the only shocking change.
“Hadley?” Midas gripped her arm. “What’s happened?”
“I got what I wanted.” She heaved a sigh. “But then, I always do.”
Midas shot to his feet and circled around to find another woman in Hadley’s place.
And at her shoulder lurked a shadow that no longer bothered to mimic her shape but fashioned itself into a tall man that stared at him openly with its blank face.
Her build was almost identical to Hadley’s, but their features set them apart enough they might have been distant cousins rather than sisters. Her eyes were a startling blue, and her hair was a luminous gold. A key-shaped tattoo dominated her left forearm, and hints of more ink peeked out from her clothing.
“Amelie Pritchard.” He leaned in, filled his lungs, but smelled only Hadley. “I don’t understand.”
She had been Grier Woolworth’s best friend since they were kids. He recognized her from Savannah. She had been under house arrest in Grier’s carriage house for the crimes she had committed, the murders. As a dybbuk. A creature of darkness that fed on energy, on magic, on innocent people.
“This might help.” She removed a silver ring from her finger. “Now do you get it?”
A different scent filled his head, darker and richer. More potent. It made his stomach tighten, with want or sickness, he couldn’t tell. The stronger her essence grew, the fainter Hadley’s became, until it vanished beneath the tide of misery and grief this woman carried in her.
The fae had tricked them. That must be it. But how he twisted the vow to produce this, Midas couldn’t guess.
“Let’s get out of here.” She refused to look at him. “We can talk outside.”
All of a sudden, he regretted asking to know more about her. He should have been content with what he had, what they had, instead of pushing her. This fae bargain wasn’t his idea, but it still felt like his fault.
Eighteen
A lump in my throat made swallowing hard and speech impossible. Midas followed me out onto the sidewalk, and I was tempted to keep walking. I couldn’t outrun my past, but I could prevent it from catching up to me for a few more seconds.
That was cowardice talking, though. I had known this moment was coming, and I should have done more to prepare for it. Truthfully? I hadn’t wanted to waste the time I had with Midas on imagining our end. It had been rocketing toward me since I agreed to the courtship, and I knew that. I knew that. So why did it hurt so frakking much?
Midas pivoted on the top step and cast a frown back at the building. “It changed.”
“The sight shows things as they truly are,” I reminded him. “This address exists under a glamour.”
The switch between perceptions had freaked me out the first time I had my eyes opened too.
The boutique hotel was gone, and in its place sat a cottage missing from a fairy tale. In my role as village idiot, I had wandered into the forest teeming with monsters and begged one for a favor. Then I had the nerve to be shocked when, wrathful and petty, it bit the hand I extended toward it.
Cautious, Midas prowled up to me. “Who are you?”
The pain behind my ribs swelled until my heart no longer fit in my chest, until I wished the worthless organ would burst and spare me from the next few minutes.
“You got it in one.” I started walking. I couldn’t help myself. The urge to flee was too strong. “I’m Amelie Pritchard.”
“That’s not possible.” Midas whipped his head toward the cottage. “What did he do to you?”
“Nothing.”
“This is not nothing.” A growl twitched his upper lip. “Explain this to me.”
Not enough, not enough, not enough.
The balance was tipping away from me, and I couldn’t hold tight enough to stop the seesaw of his emotions, let alone mine. I tried to answer him. I did. I opened my mouth and everything. But nothing happened. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t wreck this unexpected and beautiful thing between us. I might have to bear the fallout, but I refused to pick up the sledgehammer and smash through it on my own.
Midas palmed his phone and punched in a number I didn’t have to see to anticipate.
“Linus,” he snarled into his cell after he mashed the speaker button. “Explain this to me.”
“You’ll have to elaborate.”
“Amelie Pritchard.”
The two words hit with the force of a hurricane and swept away all my silly hopes and dreams. I really ought to know by now not to pin my happiness on anyone other than myself.
A long pause lapsed before Linus asked, “Can I speak to Hadley, please?”
“Hadley doesn’t exist.” Midas squeezed the phone until its case cracked. “What have you done?”
“Hadley will want to tell you herself.” His voice went soft. “Harm her, Midas, and I won’t be forgiving.”
Shock zinged through me that Linus thought Midas would hurt me, but it fused my lips together instead of loosening them in Midas’s defense. I had betrayed him. I hadn’t meant to hurt him, but I had known it was going to happen eventually. Only I was too selfish to carve him out of my life before I got cut too.