Page 43 of The Coveted
“You have before,” I said, and I knew right then we’d reached the point of no return.
He flinched as if I’d hit him.
Why stop there? “You came back last night and didn’t tell me. Even though you knew how worried I’d be. But you saw Renata, which she proudly announced… followed by the fact that you agreed to take her to the ball.”
“You know I had to!” He took a deep breath, visibly calming himself down. “You can’t keep holding what I have to do to survive over my head like this. Or we’ll never make it.”
That didn’t explain why he didn’t come see me or at least shoot me a telepathic message. I wanted to scream in frustration. Even though I wasn’t fully recovered, my power still wanted to throw some punches. I clenched my fists closed tight. “We’ll never make it if I still feel like you’re betraying me. If I still feel like you’re hiding parts of the truth.”
“You’re right. We won’t.” He slammed his glass down on the bedside table.
“That’s it. You need to leave.” The din of a great rumble rose as all the furniture rattled and shook.
Even though it was I who demanded it, something about him actually standing up and turning away from me just made it worse. My lips parted as I watched my dresser, bedside table, chair, and wardrobe levitate off the floor. They all rose higher and higher until Daelon began to chant, raising his hands out to the side. I felt his magick fight against my own, and I let it win. The furniture dropped back down, and he was gone.
I practiced my breathing exercises, my palms hot and itching to unleash more, until Taryn appeared in the doorway.
“Sorry for the intrusion, but I heard your tantrum all the way from my chambers,” she said slowly, narrowing her eyes. “You all right?”
I shook my head, but my power had at least cooled off. “It’s nothing.”
“Daelon?” she tried. “He can be a real dick, yeah? And hate sex can getold, trust me. But you have Sebastian now, and I’ve heard he’s excellent in bed. He does this thing with his tongue—”
“Right. Um, Taryn, I don’t want to talk about men.”
She perked up. “Excellent. I much prefer it that way, myself. Want to finally steal some of Daelon’s precious wine and get drunk in the gardens?”
I opened my mouth to say no. This is what she’d offered me the first time we met, when Daelon’s betrayal was still fresh and all-consuming. I looked at her for a moment, thinking. “Yes, I would.”
She bounced up and down like a child about to get candy. It made me laugh in spite of myself. “Yay. Okay, so here’s the plan…”
Chapter14
The plan was basically for me to use my power for a wine heist, which made Taryn so giddy and delighted that I couldn’t help but have fun with it too. We sat cross-legged against the wall in a back corridor, our hands clasped together and raised between us.
“What in Aradia are you two doing?” Nathaniel asked as he appeared before us, but his tone was more bewildered than insidious. His sandy blond hair contrasted sharply with his midnight black uniform.
My grin faded at the sound of his sneering voice, and I almost lost my precious concentration.
“Keep going,” Taryn giggled. “None of your damn business,” she snapped at Nathaniel.
I closed my eyes again, focusing my intent. I opened the wine cellar, found the vintages Taryn desired, and then I followed the castle map she held in her mind. I held fast to my visualization, my free hand lifted palm up.
“Answer me, girl,” he spat, agitation rising. “What are—”
Soon two bottles of wine were bobbing up and down midair through the hallway, trailed by another confused guard. I recognized him as one of the men Lucius favored—Simon—whose job it had been toclean upthe woman Lucius had murdered. Momentarily distracted, I lost my grip.
“Áine!” Taryn yelped, but I managed to catch the bottles before they fell.
They traveled safely into our hands, and the look on the men’s faces made us burst into laughter.
“Stop that,” Nathaniel said, but the other man appeared to fight back a grin of his own.
“Come now, Nathaniel. There’s no need to spoil their fun,” Simon said. He looked a bit like a thinner and shorter Abraham, with short, wiry black hair and medium-dark skin. His facial hair was trim and tidy.
So not all the guards were completely insufferable. Though I would not soon forget the time they backed up Lucius when he pulled a Darth Vader on me in the astrals.
“Watch yourself, girl,” Nathaniel said, but backed down and away from us. “I do hope you and Daelon recover from your little lover’s quarrel.”
