Page 76 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 1

“I think it’s time to move forward with the Gwendoline situation.”

“The Gwendoline situation?” Evangeline muttered to herself at my side.

“We’ll send out announcements about your engagement to her within the month,” my father said. He raised his glass to his lips, took a long, slow sip, and wiped his mouth carefully with a napkin. “Enjoy your dessert,” he added mildly.

24

EVANGELINE

Engagement. Engagement. Engagement.

I looked up at Gabriel, and he just seemed… tired. Resigned. There wasn’t even the tiniest trace of surprise on his face. Blood rushed in my ears, but my hands seemed like they were a million miles away, even as I watched my fingers clench around the stem of my wine glass.

At the head of the table, Gabriel’s father looked at his son with calm smugness, as though he’d won a game he’d always known he was better at, and was pleased with how elegant his victory had been. Gabriel’s mother was taking precise, delicate spoonsful of her blood sorbet, her eyes focused on the middle distance.

“Excuse me,” I said abruptly, pushing back from the table and leaving the room as quickly as I could without breaking into a run.

I’d been so goddamn stupid. I’d thought the fragile, sweet thing that had been building for so long between Gabriel and me was real. It had thrown me a bit, waking up alone that morning, but I’d written it off. Gabriel’s clumsy attempt at breakfast, the way he’d kissed me… I’d thought it actually meant something.

But all this time, he’d had Gwendoline. Gwendoline, who he’d never so much as mentioned to me. I realized suddenly that I hadn’t actually seen Gabriel’s bedroom. Were there drawers set aside for her clothes? Was one side of the bed hers whenever she spent the night? I had the sudden mental image of whatever fancy vampire version of a toothbrush holder Gabriel used, with two goth toothbrushes side by side, his and hers.

Engagement. The rings Gabriel and I had worn to the ball seemed like a sick joke now. The part that pissed me off the most was that I knew better. There was a reason I didn’t do real relationships, and the fact that I’d thought this might be different…

God, I’d been such an idiot.

I found myself in some sort of fancy sitting room, filled with so much austere woodwork and brocade, it all blurred together into refined monotony. Flopping down onto a high-backed sofa, I rubbed a hand over my face wearily. I didn’t have time to focus on my own stupid feelings. I needed to tell Gabriel about what I’d felt since we’d arrived.

As soon as we’d stepped through the front doors, I’d felt a faint, steady hum of magic. It was a kind I’d only felt twice before. One time had been in the cave beneath the Umbral Village, and the other time had been in Nanny Murk’s house. A piece of the ascendancy array was somewhere nearby.

“Evangeline,” Gabriel said softly from the doorway. He was standing awkwardly on the threshold, one hand braced on the doorframe like he wasn’t sure of his welcome, which was pretty fair at the moment. “Please, let me explain.”

I gave him a tired look. “We have more important shit to worry about,” I said flatly. “There’s a piece of the artifact here.”

Gabriel’s forehead creased. “What? No.”

“What do you mean, no?” I said, my voice getting incredulous. “I’ve been able to feel it since we got here. That’s what I was trying to tell you in the garden before your mother snuck up on us.”

“That’s not possible,” Gabriel said. “You must be confused. It’s probably just another magical artifact.”

I stood, balling my hands into fists. “I know what I’m feeling, Gabriel.”

He raised his hands in a placating gesture that made my blood boil. “My father tends to be a somewhat abrasive man, but he’s not capable of the sort of scheme Damien is wrapped up in.”

“Really?” I said coldly. “It seems to me like he’s pretty capable of using people as pawns. He’s definitely comfortable with using you.”

Gabriel’s face shuttered. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m his sole heir. I have responsibilities. I have a duty to him.”

“Loyalty is supposed to go both ways,” I huffed. “But I guess I shouldn’t expect you to understand that. I’m going to go try to find the piece of the artifact with or without you.”

“Perhaps if you have so little faith in my judgment, you should do it without me,” Gabriel said.

“Fine,” I snapped.

“Fine,” he said.

I stomped past him and down the hall while he stayed, standing rigidly. With the way he walked quietly here, I couldn’t tell if he walked away. I told myself I didn’t give a shit, but I wasn’t very convincing.

The building was full of weird, twisting hallways, many of them ending in dead ends, so it took me a while to find a path through to where I was feeling the magic. I kept having to double back, getting more and more frustrated until tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. That just pissed me off more, and I wiped my eyes roughly.

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