Dark Promise by Annika West
27
Ithrew up my hands. “Does anyone have any sense of privacy anymore? Fucking hell.”
Willow followed, keeping a wary eye on the stranger in the room. She glared at me, and I could practically feel her metaphorical hand clapping over my mouth.
The Winter Court dude said, “Now, explain to me why you implicated me in a war that I had no intention of involving myself with?”
Adair gave his best impression of innocence. “Elias, now, now. You know me better than that. I did not declare war at all.”
Elias rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “I’m older than you, Adair. Don’t play me for a fool. You know this sets you up against the Autumn and Summer Courts alike. Word of this meeting will spread quickly, and your beloved daughter,” he spat the word like it was a curse, “is now at the forefront of the movement. They will come for her first.”
“They will not lay a hand on her, Lord,” Hux interjected.
Elias stared down at Hux. “Do not address me, stranger.”
Hux didn’t skip a beat. “I will address who I please. You are not my king or my lord, and yet I offered you a title of respect. Be content with that.”
The tension in the room fizzled and crackled.
Elias’s eyes blazed with fury as he turned on Adair. “Twice, now, I have been insulted and disrespected by your guests. Will you offer me recompense?”
“Elias,” Adair sighed. “Do you truly expect me to take responsibility for the words of two Earthlings? One of them may be my child, but she’s hardly a Faery subject.”
“You certainly made sure of that,” Elias snapped.
Adair sighed. “Please, do not pretend you’re happy with the state of Faery. You know this must be done. You must.”
Elias turned his face away.
“Don’t tell me the stars have not shown you what is true.”
Elias’s voice was flat when he replied, “There are too many possibilities. Too many that end in the death of our magic. Opening the doors to Earth will revive our power. Yes. You are correct about that.”
Adair swelled with purpose. With righteous victory. He puffed up like a certified hot air balloon. “Then you know —”
Elias seethed, “And half of the possibilities afterward come with the destruction of our land.”
Adair wasn’t put off by this at all, however. He stood taller. “And what of the passive future? What of the future in which we do nothing and maintain our current direction?”
“Faery dies. It will not happen immediately. It might not even happen for another thousand years. But the fates are clear on this. If we do not do something, we will all perish.”
“It will happen sooner,” Adair said. “I have seen it as well.”
Elias’s jaw clenched. “You have, I know. However, your…” He sighed. “Wraiths or disaster? You never revealed.”
“Wraiths.”
Elias cursed.
How did he even make sadness look impressive and strong?
“I am with you.”
A shock wave of energy rippled through the room.
All eyes went to me.
“I didn’t do that,” I defended, hands up.
Elias’s eyes narrowed. “Is there mud on your mouth?”
“Fuck!” I exclaimed, wiping the chocolate. “Does no one care about my appearance?”
Adair said, “Intruders are currently attempting to break through my wards. I sense the Summer Court’s magic. Huxley, if I may call you that, can I trust you to ensure my daughter’s safety?”
Hux gave Adair a bored, very CEO-like stare.
I actually can’t breathe with the amount of testosterone slamming round these walls.
“Good,” Adair stated. “Elias, gather your people. I have protected rooms for them, and they may stay there until the intruders have been dealt with.”
But before anyone could spring into action, Adair ran his fingers through his hair, a disbelieving grin on his face.
“Excellent. The battle has already begun.”
* * *
The attack was sudden and easily fended off by the Spring Court guards and Adair’s magical protections.
I wasn’t allowed to see the action, since some idiot men were treating me like a baby china doll.
I’ve stumbled through the L.A. County Fair piss-drunk with a turkey leg in my hand and managed to not get murdered or kidnapped or lost.
For the most part.
The point was that I could handle anything.
Willow babysat me while Oz went off with Adair to assist in patrolling the borders, and Hux guarded this side of the manor, patrolling. With the worst of the threat battered back, they just had to make sure the attack was truly over.
Having Hux keep watch over the manor was probably the smartest strategy for keeping me in place, because if he decided to be here with me, I’d disappear.
My cheeks flushed at the realization of what had happened tonight.
Not the announcement Adair gave. I didn’t give a shit about that.
It was Hux, and what we’d done. What I’d wanted him to do.
Where were my standards? Can’t a girl survive one week without hate-orgasming in a faery garden?
Honestly. The universe better be disappointed with me right now. It’s what I deserved.
“Is this what you meant?” I asked, biting into a purple cookie. It tasted like flower petals, but it had sugar, and that’s all that mattered.
Willow broke out of her vampire-stillness to glance at me. She was sitting in a chair by the window, watching through the curtains. “Great. The idiot of the hour wants to chat. What I meant about what?”
I threw one of my cookies at her.
She batted it away, and it shattered against the wall.
What a waste.
“About leaving ‘for you,’ or whatever you said.”
Her nose crinkled. “Specify yourself before I die of boredom.”
I groaned just as a dragon roar made my blood freeze. Shaking my head and ignoring my now-pounding heart, I said, “I did what you told me to, and now look at the mess I’m in! I thought leaving was supposed to fix all the things! But Hux is here, and I don’t feel better, and I don’t know what to do next because no one is making any damn sense!”
Willow’s flat stare was all I got.
I nearly sent another cookie flying at her when she said, “Leaving is the first step, Cut. And it’s the easiest part.”
My jaw dropped open. “Excuse me, but you need your marketing tactics regulated. I didn’t read that anywhere in the fine print!”
She tucked her heels onto the chair, resting her chin on her knees.
It made her look… little. I could almost imagine a teenage Willow deciding to make a scary jump into her own sewer while a monster chased her.
Am I going to shoehorn that dramatic experience into every metaphor I can find for the rest of my life?
Maybe.
It is a pretty good one.
“I never said it was easy. Leaving is a matter of removing yourself from the shit. But then you have to hold strong when you miss the people you leave. You have to spend a lot of time feeling alone. Displaced. Lost. You have to learn a new way of life and learn to be happy apart from the things you loved before. You might leave the pain and the struggle, but there are beautiful things you leave behind too. It’s up to you to decide what’s worth it. What’s important to stand for. You have to know something real about who you are. What you need.”
“So, what’s the right answer?” I begged, feeling more and more miserable. Tonight sucked dick.