And with that dramatic lecture, he spun around on his heel and slammed the door behind him.
I rolled my eyes. That was so typically Avalon.
The silence that followed Avalon’s departure became heavy and uncomfortable. I didn’t know what to say to Sebastian, so I chose not to say anything.
I realized that Avalon was right. We did need to reclaim the Citadel and the throne, but I didn’t want to admit that I had been wrong. At the same time, there was no way in Hades I planned to abandon the mission now. If we were going to attack the Citadel, I wanted to be a part of it.
End of story.
“You’re not going to go home, are you?” Sebastian broke the suffocating silence sounding painfully disappointed.
“No, I’m not.”
He closed the space between us and took my hand gently in his. “What if I promise to come to you as soon as we’re finished? I haven’t seen your Seattle home. I’d like to.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “Why?”
He shrugged casually and swiped his thumb along the center of my palm. “It’s something of yours I haven’t seen. Touched. I want to do both.”
I swallowed a cough. I didn’t know if he meant his words to sound so sexual or not, but they did. I felt a slow heat sear through me, from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. Had I also hit my head during our escape?
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
He took a step closer to me. “I didn’t say that it was.”
Heady butterflies soared through my belly and I had to look away from him. I eyed the door, knowing there was safety just on the other side of it. My friends would be out there. They could talk some sense into me.
I hoped.
“I’m not leaving, Bastian.”
He let out a long sigh. I could feel his frustration and disappointment, but when he used his pointer finger to tilt my head toward him, I saw only heat and something deeper in his warm expression. “Then be prepared to get sick of me.”
“Why?”
“I’m not letting you out of my sight. If you want to go with us, then so be it. But you’re going to have to put up with me the entire time. That is non-negotiable.”
“Maybe I’ll call Andrei to join me.”
The look he gave me should have scared me. It definitely should not have sent a shivering racing down my spine. “I thought we’d established his inability to keep you safe. He didn’t even try to fend me off from a dance. He’s a joke. He’s a coward. And he has no place with you.”
“He’s-”
“Seraphina, I wouldn’t push me on this if I were you.”
I snapped my mouth shut. It had been an idle threat anyway. I hadn’t even thought about Andrei since I called him in Italy. I just wanted to piss Sebastian off, but now that I’d succeeded, my victory didn’t feel nearly as uncomplicated and petty as I thought it would.
Instead, my stomach felt fizzy and my pulse started racing.
“Why are you doing this? Why are you so protective of me?” My voice was a raspy whisper.
My heart stuttered in my chest and my stomach flipped again. This was what I wanted from him a year ago. I wanted his protection and I wanted his partnership.
What I hadn’t wanted was to be left behind while he went on mission after mission. And now he planned to give me what I wanted. But it was too late, so why was he doing this to me?
What was the point now?
He answered my question a second later, when he said, “I know that you think I stopped caring for you when we broke up, but Sera, that isn’t true. I will always care for you. I’ll always want the best for you, even if you disagree with me about what that is.”
I felt a prickling of paranoia raise the hairs on the back of my neck. He was being too sweet, too perfect. He was up to something; I just didn’t know what it was. I wouldn’t put it past him to lull me into a false sense of security and then have me tied up and shipped back to the States. Such was the true nature of his deviousness. “I can live with that as long as you know that I don’t mind disagreeing with you. Actually, I kind of like it.”
He grinned at my stubborn response. He leaned in until we were that tempting inch apart again. His nose brushed against mine and I closed my eyes out of instinct and overwhelming sensation. “I kind of like it too.”
I swayed when he pulled away suddenly. I opened my eyes just in time to see him yank open the door and step through it. “Get dressed,” he ordered. “Roxie’s been almost worried about you. It’s been traumatizing for her frozen heart.”
The door slammed behind him and rattled the thin roof. I collapsed on the bed and dropped my face into my hands.
It was useless to fall for him again. We were over. We were so over.
And yet, I couldn’t get my rapidly beating heart to agree.
How inconvenient.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sebastian
I fled.
I could admit that. I fled that room, that woman, that moment.
I’d made up my mind about her. Then there we were, alone, with her nearly naked and those beautiful blue eyes closed, her luscious mouth parted and expectant.
I could have kissed her. I could have pressed my mouth against hers and she would have been ready. But then she would have eventually come to her senses and pushed me away.
I had to force myself to wait until she was not just ready, but willing. When I kissed her again, I would make sure she fisted her hands in my shirt and pulled me closer. Not pushed me away.
Because when I say that I made up my mind about her, I meant that I made up my mind permanently. I wanted her.
I wanted her back.
I wanted her forever.
I had treated her poorly in the past, but not again. When I made her mine again, and I would, I wanted to do it right. I wanted to treat her the way she should be treated.
I wanted to make this permanent.
And I wanted to make myself permanent in every part of her life, heart and soul.
I hadn’t lied to her when I told her I wanted to see her house in Seattle.
What I’d really like to do is make it my home too, but I couldn’t tell her that just yet. I had a lot of time to think while she was unconscious and I was forced to wait for Avalon to come heal her.
It nearly drove me mad.
She’d been so sweet in her sleeping state. I hadn’t been able to tear my eyes from her.
Jedrec and I had wandered for hours last night until we’d come upon a larger mountain village. We found a kind woman who had let us use her cell phone. She had taken one look at us and offered any kind of help we needed. We told her we were mugged and because we looked so dreadful, she believed us. I called Avalon first and told him to meet us at the Gypsy camp. He gave me Ileana’s emergency number and I called her.
She’d been waiting for the call of course. The Gypsy Queen had answered with a terse, “What took you so long?”
I had no answer for that.
Then she went on to explain that transportation was on its way to pick us up.
We waited for another hour in the shadows of another rustic barn for our ride, which turned out to be a single horse and cart.
Gypsies.
We arrived at the Gypsy village near dawn. Avalon arrived two hours later.
During that time, I’d had a lot of time to think and marinate on the past, present and future. I’d had a lot of time to hold this stubborn, strong, gorgeous woman and think about her.
I’d come to a very important decision, one that would change my life and hers. I was done with our separation. I was done bickering with her about inane topics and struggling to stay away from her.
Seraphina was mine. She belonged to me. And I belonged to her. She owned my entire being, my soul, my Magic.
The time in Terletov’s custody had proved that. The last year that I had to fight with all of my strength to keep from calling her, to keep from finding her, to keep from kissing
her… had proved that.
I had been an idiot to try to live without her. A lonely, miserable idiot.
No longer.
When I convinced her to give us another try, and I would, I would do everything in my power to make it permanent and eternal between us. I wouldn’t let her leave again. I wouldn’t let us get in the way of this thing, this amazing, potentially epic thing, again.
While she was unconscious, I thought she might be receptive to the idea of trying one more time. I thought she had realized the same things I had while trapped in that room, tangled up in each other.
Apparently she hadn’t.
After the last few minutes of arguing, I didn’t think she was ready to admit any of her obvious feelings for me. She was still hurt from before and I couldn’t blame her. But there was something undeniable between us and I wouldn’t let her get away with ignoring it for much long. I would just have to take this slowly… carefully.
That didn’t stop the surge of desire for her or the need to stake my claim over her and all of her things. I wanted to see her Seattle apartment and leave my mark, my touch, and my presence. Unlike her Omaha apartment that was saturated with me, this new home of hers didn’t have anything Sebastian in it.
I wanted to change that.
Just like I wanted to do the same thing to her body. Her mind. Her soul.
She’d been without me for an entire year. I didn’t know if she remembered how we were together, how I loved to play with the ends of her long hair, or stroke my fingers across the nape of her neck. I didn’t know if she remembered the way we held each other through the night or gave each other long, seductive goodbye kisses, even if we were only going to be gone for an hour.
We were perfect for each other.
And I swore to myself that I would do everything it took to remind her of that.
The door to the house she’d been staying in opened and out she walked out in clothes Roxie had brought for her, black leggings and a black tank top. Apparently Roxie hadn’t doubted that she would be part of this mission. I should have known better than to trust that woman.
Seraphina had pulled her hair up into a high ponytail and left her face clean and fresh. She was mission ready and should have looked practical and utilitarian. But I had never thought she was sexier than just now. The bottoms hugged her glorious ass and thighs and the tight top left little to the imagination.
I knew the thoughts running through her head were on the mission and killing a very deadly man.
But mine were decidedly different.
“You mess everything up.”
The crackling voice ripped me out of my plans for Seraphina and back to the harsh plane of reality. I looked down at the Gypsy Queen and flashed my most charming smile. “My lady.” I bowed my head regally.
She rolled her sharp, purple eyes. “That crap doesn’t work with me.” Her accent was thicker than usual and she seemed… tired. Very unusual for the Gypsy, who was usually feistier than any of my peers.
“What does work on you?” Schmoozing was my forte. Everyone knew that. Even Ileana. I should have predicted her sour attitude, but she was the Psychic, not me. “Apprise me of your preferences and I shall but do everything in my power to appease you, Your Royal Highness.”
“Where is my cane when I need it? I should beat you like the others.”
I suppressed my smile. Laughing at Avalon’s misfortune would probably only make her angrier. She seemed cranky enough.
“Please don’t,” I pleaded gallantly. “I’m only trying to help.”
“If you wanted to help me, you’d marry that girl by now. Your future is wearing on my nerves. I have other things to think about.”
“I’m working on it,” I muttered, effectively chastised. “She’s not cooperating.”
“She would have cooperated a year ago, you fool. Of course, she’s not now. She’s a complicated woman. And you’re a donkey. I wouldn’t cooperate with you either.”
“Yes you would. You’ve always had a crush on me.” I winked at her and watched her finally crack a smile.
“Maybe,” she conceded.
We watched the courtyard full of Gypsies and Immortals as they prepared everything for dinner tonight. It would be a true feast, the celebration of a great battle to come.
“Are you here to tell me what to do with her?” I watched Seraphina track across the courtyard to Roxie. The two didn’t bother hugging each other, neither girl was the affectionate type, but they cared for each other like only good friends could. Roxie put Seraphina to work with setting up the dinner and Sera dove right in.
She’d matured so much from our teenage years. I’d loved her even then, but now… Now there weren’t adequate words to describe what I felt for her.
Ileana snorted, “No. You don’t need me to tell you what to do. You’re not nearly as dense as your King or the General. Thank goodness.”
“Obviously.”
“Obviously,” she echoed with no small amount of awe for my arrogance. “There is much happening in your Kingdom, Prince. Enough to make this old woman feel it in her bones.”
“What do you have to tell me?” Low pulses of fear surged through my Magic and put me on instant alert. This old woman could see the future. She had predicted enough for us to always take her word very seriously. And if she had sought me out specifically, then I would be involved.
“Tomorrow will not be the end.”
“We won’t win?”
“I cannot say whether the Citadel will be yours or not. I did not see that. I only know that whatever the outcome is tomorrow, win or lose, it will not be the end.”
I felt her exhaustion spread to me, to my ribs and spine, to every part of me. “I’ve just decided to change that,” I told her. “I’ll make sure that tomorrow is, in fact, the very end.”
She gave me a sad smile. “I would like you to try. But I can’t help what I’ve seen. You will have other priorities tomorrow besides winning the day.”
“What does that mean?” I demanded.
She didn’t answer but simply went back to watching the activity around us. The sun burned orange near the horizon. Soon it would be dark and the heat of the day would sizzle away into a sticky night. The smell of campfire drifted on the warm summer breeze and the plucking of instruments warming up for the coming festivities mingled with laughter and light conversation.
Tomorrow could end badly for a lot of us. Tomorrow could mean death. So tonight would mean life. We would celebrate this day and the lives we still had and we would push off the fears and uncertainties that the morning would bring for as long as we could.
“Two new lives to watch. Two more lives to add to the thousands and thousands of strands that sift through my blood. They take a lot of work, you know. Those tiny Immortals that demand so much of my mind. They’re so little but need so much.” She had to be talking about the babies, but she sounded so sad. I immediately didn’t like her tone and felt the need to defend them. She didn’t give me the chance. “They won’t be alone forever. One day there will be an entire generation of Immortals that they’ll lead. Twins and twins and twins and twins and more. The Magic is back, Prince. You must protect it and then you must add to it.”
Her words had become nothing but riddles now. I should have expected this, but I still raced to catch up with her. “Add to the Magic? How?”
Her smile turned devious. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” she said with a wink. “Now go to your woman before she forgets about you.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. It was impossible to tell if that was a real possibility or not. I didn’t think Seraphina could forget about me. I didn’t really think anyone could forget about me… but I also didn’t think it was worth gambling on.
I leaned down and pressed a kiss to Ileana’s wrinkled cheek. “You are a great woman. Thank you.”
She reached up and patted my cheek with gnarled, rough fingers. The sentiment moved me somewhere deep in my chest. “And you are
a great man, Sebastian Cartier, and a great prince. Go prove it to a woman that actually cares.”
I walked away laughing. Only the Gypsy Queen could get away with disguising a pointed insult with such a sweet compliment.
“Good evening, Lovelies.” I greeted the circle of women with all the false bravado I could work up. It was never easy walking into a company of women, more like a den of lionesses. These ones especially were intimidating enough on their own; each of them was a warrior and goddess in her own right, so together… whew. It took a brave man to face them together.
Thankfully, they all loved me.
“Bastian,” Roxie murmured in greeting. “We were just talking about you.”
That made me grin. Good. “I figured.”
Seraphina stepped back a pinch, embarrassed that she’d been called out.
Roxie leaned in and in a conspiratorial tone said, “It was very valiant of you to carry Seraphina across an entire mountain range and save her life.”
I looked across the circle and met Seraphina’s frightened gaze. She looked like a wild animal trapped against the wall. She looked flighty. I held steady. “There was never another option, Rox. I will always do whatever it takes to keep Seraphina… alive.” I played on the words purposefully and watched her big eyes grow even wider. She didn’t know what to do with my seemingly abrupt change of heart.
I had to admit, I kind of liked keeping her guessing. She was adorably paranoid.
“But you would do that for any of us, right?” Roxie pushed.
I cut a glance at her and glowered. “I’m not sure I could lift you, Rox. You’ve got all that muscle. You need a bear of a man to handle you.”
She glared back at me. “I don’t need any man to handle me.”
“Me either,” Seraphina piped up.