Page 105 of It's You
Jack’s mother and Tombeur stood as Saint Germain turned to them.
“This is so?”
Tallis and Tombeur nodded solemnly, and Jack expelled a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding.
Saint Germain’s eyes narrowed as he looked back up at Lela. His voice was falsely light with strong undercurrents of irritation.
“Lela Beauloup. You waste my time,louveteau. You cannot bind yourself to an already-bound man. You should know this.” He turned away from her dismissively.
“Wait!” she exclaimed, and Saint Germain turned back to face her. “None of us have everseenhis mate. Not in twenty years. If he can’t produce her, I submit that she must have died. I want him to spark to me.”
The crowd murmured, taking in this new information and processing it.
Saint Germain wrinkled his forehead and turned to Jack. “Can you produce her? Your mate?”
Jack’s nostrils flared, thinking of Darcy. “Not now. I?—”
“Perhaps she is ill. Can you produce her within one week? One month?”
Jack took a deep breath and finally answered through clenched teeth. “I cannot.”
“You say you have a mate, but you cannot produce her. I don’t doubt youhada mate. I would never question the word of Tombeur Lesauvage or Tallis Beauloup, honorable council members. But perhaps she died, as Lela Beauloup suggests. Perhaps a new woman is too much work, and you prefer to remain unbound?” He waggled his finger at Jack and smiled merrily. He tapped his finger against his lips, considering the case for a moment before gesturing to the council table with a flourish. “I am skeptical about your claimed binding. You will join Lela Beauloup in the council ring, and you will let her spark to you to see if you may be bound to her.”
Lela had been holding her breath, and now she released it, looking up at Jack with a happy smile. Jack sneered at her, his face sour. Not only was this a waste of time because she wouldn’t be able to bind to him, but it was drawing attention to his situation. A situation he’d successfully kept private and silent for all of his adult life.
He reluctantly followed a bouncy Lela down the stairs and onto the floor, directed by Saint Germain to pass through the narrow walkway in the open horseshoe of the table, into the center of the council ring.
They stood before each other.
“This is madness, Lela,” he whisper-growled. “You know I’m bound.”
“Ah, ah, ah! Our male doesn’t appear too pleased!” Saint Germain teased to the delight of the crowd.
“It’s the only way I’ll know for sure.” She breathed, her eyes wide and hopeful, burning for him, even as his stayed a dull, neutral brown.
“Let’s just get it over with,” he muttered through clenched teeth. “Close your eyes.”
She complied, closing her eyes and leaning her face toward him. The crowd quieted down immediately.
Saint Germain waited until the room was silent before reciting the ancient words, “If she be for me, let my heart stop beating. If I be for her, let it be born again.”
Jack took a deep breath and sighed, looking at Lela’s upturned face, then gently pressed his lips to hers as the crowd watched in breathless anticipation.
After a moment, he stepped back from her, and her eyes opened in disappointed brown to regard his.
“I told you,” he said quietly, sorry for the shattered, confused look in her eyes. “I’m already bound.For what is bound cannot be broken.”
The crowd grumbled in disappointment. There would be no passionate kiss in the ring today. No binding to celebrate tonight with catcalls and pranks.
Jack turned his back to walk away from her, out of the council ring, when her voice stopped him.
“I demand a re-binding!” Lela demanded in a loud, desperate snarl that reverberated off the rafters of the old hall.
Saint Germain, who had been watching the proceedings with stunned interest, furrowed his brows at Jack, motioning him to return to the center of the council ring. The crowd went wild with buzzing noise, both at the spectacle that Lela had created and Jack’s reaction.
Jack strode to his mother, whose face registered regret and grief, her fingers curling into fists on top of the table. “What’s a re-binding?Maman? What’s a re-binding?”
Tallis lifted her head and held Jack’s eyes. He could see that whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good for him and Darcy. She stood up, and the crowd noise dimmed so that she could speak.
