Page 70 of Dark Night Golden Dawn
“Please do not call Arebos and Nox that when you meet them. They will be incredibly offended.”
She’d never heard those names before. “Who are they?”
Finn’s face closed for a moment, as though he might not tell her. Then, miraculously it opened, as if he’d just realized he didn’t have to keep it all a secret from her. “Knights, siblings. They call themselves Wraiths. They’re shifters, but only in the most technical sense.”
Her breath caught. “What does that mean?”
“They shiftintotheir surroundings.”
Harlow didn’t think he could possibly mean what she thought he meant. “They actually becomeinvisible?”
Becoming invisible wasn’t hard, in theory, if you only wanted to trick humans. But immortals had better eyesight, and a highly developed second sight. Becoming invisible to the other Orders was practically impossible, unless you could shift into the background noise of daily life. “Where in Akatei’s name did you find such creatures?”
“They found me. I’ll tell you the story another time.” He paused for a moment, as though considering whether or not it was a good idea to ask his next question. “Can Mark be compelled?”
Harlow took a deep breath. The multitudes of ways that Mark’s relationship with Olivia could go disastrously wrong played out in her head. It had been a long time since a human as much in the public eye as Mark Easton had been involved in a compulsion scandal. “It’s possible. I had a protective amulet made for him, but I’m not sure if he still wears it. He probably doesn’t think he needs it with Olivia.”
“Since the Anti-Compulsion Act passed, it seems like humans have gotten lazy about protecting themselves,” he mused.
Harlow nodded. It was true. Once, humans had practiced all sorts of rituals to make themselves less vulnerable to the Order of Night’s attacks, but now they felt protected by a law that was nominal at best. There were very few ways to prove compulsion.
“How did you get out of the car?” It felt a little like he was grilling her, but she understood. Her memory of the encounter might soften over time, and any tiny detail she could remember might help them see the shape of the new threat they faced.
“I made a handle and asked for it to be unlocked,” she murmured, shifting slightly in his lap. She sat up, swinging one leg around so she straddled him. His hands moved up the tops of her thighs, under the skirt of her dress.
“That was an elegant solution,” he said with a smile.
It struck her how close she’d come to harm. Her magic had not yet fully manifested, and she’d been alone with a vampire who wanted to hurt her. The afternoon could have ended much differently. Finn sensed the change in her mood.
“Do you want to start doing some training with your shadows? I could help you learn to fight with them, so you wouldn’t have to be afraid of monsters like Athan Sanvier.”
“Will we get all sweaty when we train?” she asked, deliberately playful. She desperately needed relief from all this tension and the residual stress coursing through her.
His hands were back in her hair, pulling gently as he nipped at her neck lightly. “We probably will. Don’t worry, I know all sorts of ways to get you clean again.” Finn kissed her face, pulling her into a tight hug. “I’m sorry about how things went today with your family. I didn’t want you to learn about the Knights that way, or Thea’s involvement. I thought I’d have more than one day to make sure things were okay with us before we talked about all that.”
Harlow relaxed into him, feeling the deep, purposefully steady rise and fall of his chest as she lay her head on his shoulder, nuzzling her face into his neck. “I’m not angry with you,” she explained. “I’m angry with my sister. She should have told me all this a long time ago.”
He didn’t say anything, but he hugged her tighter. It occurred to her that what they were doing felt like a relationship. He was comforting her. They were making plans. They were supposed to be pretending, but this didn’t feel like pretense anymore. They’d crossed over into the real thing. The beginning stages, yes. But a real relationship, all the same.
“You really murdered those vampires,” she murmured.
“As opposed to sort of murdering them?”
She laughed. “I know I should be horrified, but…”
“You’re not. And you shouldn’t be. They violated every rule we live by.” He was quiet, but she felt something lingering behind the silence. Something he was hesitant to say. “You know, what happened is probably enough to bring the vampires back in line… And I believe I can use the entire incident to convince my parents that their focus needs to be back on the Order of Night and away from the sorcière.”
She thought she knew where his line of thinking was headed and didn’t much like it. “And then what?”
“If you wanted to end things, we could. You could walk away. I have a feeling the House of Remiel pulled this today because of our relationship. I’m not sure why yet, but I’ll find out... Maybe you’d be safer if we ended this now.”
Her heart stuttered and she pushed away from him to stare into his face. “Is that what you want?”
Finn’s eyes softened. “No. It’s the last thing I want, but I feel like you’re in danger and I can’t stand it.”
She cupped his face in her hands. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
