“Jeni can see you for who you truly are,” said Ariadna. “You cannot trick her. You cannot use your powers to manipulate her will. And you will learn from her.”
The king. Learn from a meek, twenty-three-year-old woman who just last week was afraid of her own shadow?
“Father,” Ariadna said sternly, “the only reason you are getting this chance is because I made a promise to Mother.”
“What promise?” After all the lies, and how my sweet Mia must’ve suffered upon her death, having to watch our son executed, I deserved whatever punishment was coming.
“She said to tell you that she loved you and that she forgave you. Her only regret was that she couldn’t save you from yourself.”
“What did you promise her?” I repeated.
“To give you one more chance. Don’t waste it.”
I blinked and found myself staring into Jeni’s brown eyes. “King? King? Are you okay?” Her head whipped around. “Where’d it go? Where’d that thing go?”
“Fuck if I know,” Serina said, reaching for the door.
My conversation with my daughter had ended abruptly, but I knew what had to be done. If I ever wanted to cross over and see my wife and son again, I had to make things right. I had to pay for all my sins.
“Serina.” I righted myself and stood tall. “Not so fast.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
JENI
I wasn’t sure what had happened to King in that living room, but he didn’t say much after the shadow thing appeared. Then disappeared. All I knew was he’d muttered a few curses, and the room turned into a churning gust of wind. Then Serina dropped dead right where she stood. No fanfare. No struggle. Just…dead—a testament to King’s power.
A moment later, the gust stopped, and the house was empty. The eyes I’d felt on us were gone. How or why? I didn’t care.
“Dad!” Tears streaming down my cheeks, I rushed outside to Serina’s red sports car—some expensive-looking Italian thing. Please let him be okay. Please! The thought of what she’d done to him broke my heart.
I found the lever next to the driver’s seat and popped the trunk. I rushed to the open compartment and gasped. Oh God. Oh God. I covered my face, unable to look. He was dead, like she’d said, lying there like a lifeless ragdoll.
“Let me help you bring him inside.” King appeared with a blanket. He covered my dad and carried him inside to the big white couch in the living room. Serina’s body had already been removed, probably chucked down the basement stairwell. That hellhole was the perfect place for her. Evil to the core. It was probably why she’d been able to take control of Ten Club after King left. Zero redeeming qualities.
I unwrapped my dad’s limp body and brushed my fingers over his soft sandy blond hair. His eyes were closed, like he was sleeping, but his skin had a light gray hue. The image would haunt me forever.
“I’m so sorry, Dad. Please forgive me.” I didn’t see any marks, but I knew what Serina had done to him. I felt like it was all my fault.
“Come.” King’s warm hand gripped my shoulder. “Take a moment to gather yourself while he heals.”
I didn’t want to leave my dad’s side.
“He will wake soon,” King pushed. “He should not see you like this.”
King was right. Dad didn’t need to witness me in hysterics on top of everything else.
I slowly got to my feet and followed King to the kitchen.
“Here.” He handed me a white piece of cloth.
A handkerchief? Who used those anymore? Holding it in my hands suddenly made everything feel real. King was not from this time. He was not from the world I’d been born to. He was something altogether different. I didn’t know why it took so long for that to sink in, but it finally had.
“Are you all right?” he asked, not sounding particularly sympathetic. Typical.
“No.” I shook my head. “Why? Why would Serina hurt him like that?”
“Do not worry. He will be fine.”
“I know he’s got your ring, but that’s not going to address his memories.” My dad would wake, totally fucked up in the head after what he’d gone through.
“I will take care of it,” said King. “He won’t remember a thing. It will be like nothing happened.”
That was a relief, but I still felt sick to my stomach, overwhelmed by everything.
“What just happened?” I stared at King’s beautiful face, noting a subtle shift in his eyes. The silvery gray had flecks of blue.
“Eventually, all debts must be paid.” His tone was even.
“Will Serina come back to life? If yes, I’d like to help her pay her debts.”
“She will not be returning, and you will never speak of revenge again. Leave the dirty work to me. On that note, you are no longer needed at the Ten Club gathering tomorrow.”
“No. I’m going.” The man who murdered my mother would be there, and I looked forward to seeing his life end.
“Your hands must remain clean. I will take care of him myself along with Ten Club. Here on out, they are my problem.”
After all his efforts to persuade me to kill Ten Club, that was a weird thing to say. “But how will you…”
My mind offered the answer before I could finish the sentence. That thing, the dark shadow that killed Randall and King, was actually him—a piece of King or something.
“Tell me what happened,” I demanded. King was keeping something big from me. I could feel him mentally pushing me back.
“It is time for you to return to Florida and move on with your life. I will give you enough money for graduate school and so that your father may retire.”
I frowned, feeling completely confused. One minute, I had been fighting for my dad, and the next, a big King-shaped shadow appeared and Serina was dead. And now I’m being sent home.
“I’m not leaving.” I didn’t want to go. I felt like I still had unfinished business, not to mention the fact that my feelings for King hadn’t changed.
“Jeni,” he pierced me with his eyes, “the woman I was fated to love is gone. There will never be another. I will never have feelings for you. Not even if I wished it.”
“I am not asking you to lov—”
He cut me off, showing me what he meant. That shadow was more than a dark assassin at his beck and call. It was his soul. Dark, bloodied, cursed.
Jesus. I inhaled sharply. How the hell was that his soul? And why was it running around protecting me?
“A topic for another day,” he said, listening in as usual. “But that is not the point. You now see I have been telling you the truth.”
He was not a good man. His soul was tainted.
Yes, yes. For fuck’s sake, I get it! You’re bad and evil and horrible and dangerous. But he was overlooking one important fact: I couldn’t help how I felt. I saw something in him. Something good. And I was drawn to it. His salvation gave me hope, because if he could be saved, maybe this fucked-up world wasn’t a lost cause. Maybe I’m not a lost cause.
I knew he heard me. And I knew it made no difference to him.
He came around the counter and placed a warm hand on my cheek, beaming down at me. “And you would be wrong, little Seer. It makes all the difference in the world.”