Page 67 of A Moth to the Flame (Utopia #1)

Chapter

Forty-Six

DUKE

This has been the longest six weeks of my life, and that’s saying something.

The month when I was living in Cordie’s body seems like a lifetime ago, even though it felt like a lifetime when I was going through it.

As it turns out, time is a really hard thing to pinpoint when you don’t know how much you have left.

“Come on, come on,” I mutter, staring at the car that’s been parked in Cordie’s driveway for way longer than any of the others.

I’m actually starting to sweat out here, even though it’s the middle of the night. Then again, there’s a reason that August in West Virginia is known as the dog days of summer. There’s no escaping the humidity, and rain only makes it worse.

I sigh at the weight of my soaking wet clothes sticking to my skin. I’ve learned how to cloak myself, but no luck on shielding yet. Being fae kind of sucks. It’s a lot of fucking work to learn everything that most of my kind are taught from the time they’re born.

I’m playing catch up after thirty years of living a lie.

Cordie? Is everything okay? Has he been there all night because you want him to be ?

Like every goddamn time I’ve talked to her in the past month, there’s no response.

A flare of pain at my back is a pretty good sign that my wings are out. My mate doesn’t owe me shit, but that doesn’t stop my feral side from clawing to the surface whenever I imagine another man’s hands on her.

Luckily, no one is likely to notice me hiding in the tree line that surrounds the park on the opposite side of the street.

Even if they could see me, this is a decent neighborhood.

Random people aren’t roaming around instead of being tucked up in their beds.

Maybe it’s because there’s nothing for them to really do at this hour.

This is one of the nicer suburbs, with plenty of parks, shopping centers, and restaurants. Nothing open past midnight, though.

It's Charleston, not New York City.

I can’t be here too often during the day. When I do manage to make up a believable excuse about needing to drive here for car parts, it seems like Cordie is enjoying her new life.

I’m really starting to worry that I’m as shitty of a mate as I guessed I’d be.

Cordie swore to me that she could handle playing the witches’ game. I promised I’d never let her go, never let her fall so far that I wouldn’t be able to catch her.

After over a month of no-contact, she feels more like a filthy fantasy than ever.

What if I imagined everything? What if my fucked-up mind is so far gone that I’m finally losing touch with reality?

“Duke,” Cornelius says on a low growl of warning. “I can see your wings. Control yourself.”

I blow out a breath of relief that I’ll never admit to out loud.

I didn’t hallucinate all of it, at least. The proof should make me feel a hell of a lot better, but it doesn’t.

What if I just heard what I wanted to hear the last time I saw Cordie in person?

Cornelius wasn’t there when she’d said I remember everything.

I thought it was a signal meant just for me.

What if it wasn’t? What if Cordie wasn’t acting like she forgot everything?

What if the coven has been winning all this time without us even realizing it ?

I watch as the guy who went into her house closes the front door behind him. I push off the tree I’ve been leaning against all damn night. He walks toward his car, whistling and playing toss with his keys like he just had a real good time.

My lower back seizes. That would be my tail appearing.

I step forward, but Cornelius digs a claw into my ankle to remind me that I can’t murder the thirteenth guy who’s walked out her door, just like he’s had to remind me about all the others.

It’s his job to keep me from killing these poor suckers who have no idea they’re being used.

They don’t know that they’re helping Cordie keep up the appearance of forgetting all about me and dating again.

She keeps them inside long enough to make it look believable to anyone who might be watching her.

Cornelius tells me I should pity them. Sounds like he’s reading from a script every time. I’m betting he is.

All because Cordie roped her familiar into our plans and ordered him to be my handler.

She figured I’d need someone to keep my fae nature under control.

She fucking thought of everything, right down to making sure we signed the magical deed to the McCoy place in our mixed blood.

Someone has to inhabit every witch house that surrounds the town, and the coven prefers blood relatives.

Since Cordie is the last of her line, I’m the last defense to protect the library that her granny didn’t seem too eager to share with her witch sisters.

There’s no way Cordie had time to read about any of that the day she was trapped in the basement library, especially since she was afraid to handle the books with my monster claws.

Really makes me wonder what she and Wallace talked about while I was passed out on the night we got back into our right bodies. The night she rode me for hours and let me drink blood straight from her sweet pussy.

She must’ve used another fucking bargain to swear him to secrecy, because the asshole won’t crack, no matter what I try. I refuse to train? He threatens to train my brothers instead. I threaten to tell everyone what he really is? He laughs at me.

That’s fair, I guess. Two months ago, I wouldn’t have believed me either.

My brothers might at this point, though. They know something’s going on with me. No matter how hard I try to act like everything’s normal, they’re worried about me.

I don’t blame them. They have every right to be suspicious. I haven’t seen my daddy in so long. Too long. I just…can’t. I can’t look the man in the eyes, knowing he’s not my father. I still don’t know if he knows, and if he doesn’t? I’m not gonna be the asshole to break what’s left of his heart.

Dude Thirteen finally unlocks his car. He opens the driver’s side door, not even glancing around to make sure no one’s waiting to rip his throat out.

He shouldn’t be so confident. Without the cat twitching his whiskers beside me, I wouldn’t hesitate to end the guy wearing obnoxious jewelry.

One of his necklaces has a giant horse pendant hanging from the thick chain.

The eye is made of a diamond that catches the streetlights.

Fucking ugly. What self-respecting man wears more jewelry than a woman?

“A kelpie,” Cornelius says, then sighs. “The signatures in the immediate vicinity remain unchanged. We should not try to enter. She is still being watched closely. We underestimated the coven’s resources.”

That was another thing Cordie had realized that I didn’t. Cornelius can detect magic signatures. Neither of us can. Not yet, at least.

I crack my neck and step out of the shadows. I’m done waiting for the dude to drive away. My patience is at an end.

Cornelius is hot on my heels as I stride across the street. “What are you doing, idiot? She planned for this! She recognized this initial phase could take considerable time. Do not dishonor all that she has sacrificed because you cannot control your animalistic instincts!”

“I’m in complete control,” I argue as I step onto the sidewalk. “You said that guy was a kelpie?”

“Yes,” he admits as he watches the loud sports car tear down the street. “There have been multiple magical creatures nearby since she moved in. I have identified all of them accurately.”

“And aren’t you the one who’s been teaching me all about every magical creature you’ve noticed in the past month? ”

“Yes. Cordelia asked me to teach you everything I know, since you cannot read the information for yourself!”

“Weren’t you the one who told me that kelpies are far more dangerous and violent than selkies?” I grit out as I pick up the pace toward her door. “Have you ever identified a magical creature leaving her apartment before?”

“No, I—dear gods. Cordelia.”

We don’t talk anymore. I don’t bother knocking. I just melt the door handle clean off, then walk in.

She’s not in the living room, not in the kitchen. I head toward a faint light coming from an open door at the end of the hallway.

I haven’t even seen the inside of her house before, but I storm into it like I have every right in the goddamn world to be here.

On the far side of the room, she steps out of another doorway that must lead to the bathroom.

She wears only a towel wrapped around her damp skin.

Her pretty green eyes widen, and she chokes at the sight of me.

“Duke? What are you doing here? Why are your wings out?” She tips her head and narrows her eyes.

“Wait. How are only your wings and tail out?”

I blink at her like she’s the most beautiful hallucination, before I snap back to reality.

“What am I doing here? What was that guy doing here all night? My wings and tail are out because I was a heartbeat away from murdering him! Did you know he was a kelpie? Fuck, Cordie!” I run my hands through my hair.

“I’m here because I needed to see with my own eyes that he didn’t hurt you! ”

She pins me with an unamused look. “First of all, if you really thought he was hurting me, then why would you wait until he left? You’d only have found my dead body for as long as he overstayed his welcome.

Secondly, thank you so much for your faith in me and the plan that we agreed to.

Thrilled to find out that you think I’m nothing more than a helpless damsel in distress. ”

Well…shit. She makes a fair point. A few of them.

I scratch the back of my neck, looking at Cornelius for backup, but he’s just sitting on the floor, licking himself like he’s bored. If he could talk into my mind, he’d probably be saying, “I told you so.”