Page 14

Chapter Fourteen

“N o one has your way with difficult people,” Nannette said, trying to lure me back to the city before I had to go to Bama for my brother Bram’s wedding.

“I’m still working on my big article. It’s taking more time than I thought.”

Actually, I was kneeling in the garden next to Cross, trying to commune with the sapling between my knees. For four hours. After that, it was knitting with Marv the Gnome Cross had brought in while Lynx worked hard to tangle all the yarn. Cross would also be there. For four hours. After that was working the beast with Harold. Cross would be there too. He wasn’t the charming Senator Silverton here. He was the Head of the House of Mercy, which means that I saw him at his core. His core was tireless, meticulous, perfectionist, and demanding. In my particular case that meant he saw clearly what the possibilities were and would push you until you reached them.

I’d been sleep deprived and physically, mentally, emotionally drained for the last three months. But I was starting to see progress.

I focused on the sapling, breathing in the air, feeling it vibrate as I tuned in to the magnetic pulses around me, the music that wove through natural magic. I sank my fingers into the soil and pushed the roots deeper. You didn’t focus on growth up, but down. Build the roots and the branches would flourish.

“You could send a photo, a little teaser for when you give me the article.” Nanette’s voice was harsh against my nerves, making the beast stir.

No. I had to maintain the beast’s peace, or I wouldn’t be able to touch the Elven magic. It would be much easier without the call, but of course the call’s purpose was to help me work with jarring, irritating distractions. Like Cross himself wasn’t enough.

“Mm. I’m still working on all the details, like whether I want to publish in a larger paper first. I’ll let you know.”

She sighed. “The senator’s rubbing off on you. I suppose it’s good that you’re learning to be a bit more clever.”

Cross flashed me a look with those intent eyes. What would I do with Nanette’s offhand insult?

I focused on the sapling, relaxing against the wolf as I cleared my irritation. The roots strengthened, thickening as they pierced the earth, down, out, spreading, growing, securing to the earth before it shot up and out, growing, thickening as quickly as I could without losing the balance between the roots and branches.

The trunk was spindly, a quarter inch, as it shot up a foot, then two.

“Thank you,” I said calmly, maintaining my focus with the precision Cross demanded.

She laughed. “You sound like an elf. He really is rubbing off on you. Don’t let him make you too proud. A society reporter has to know how to make everyone else feel like they’re the stars.”

I closed my eyes and felt the tree roots, listened to their hypnotic song as they spread beneath me. I was going to start singing with them in a minute.

“The Senator always keeps me humble,” I said with a slight smile.

She laughed and hung up, leaving me with my work. I sang from my core, a song that wasn’t anything close to as beautiful as an elf or as merry as a gnome, but it was my voice, meeting the tree’s song, and that’s what mattered.

I sang with the perfect tension between my stomach and my throat, working the strings of my vocal cords like the instruments they were. I was.

I felt the tree nudge my knees and opened my eyes to see that the trunk was over a two feet across with branches that stretched two stories high.

My voice gave out. I stayed there, panting, resting my forehead against the trunk while the familiar exhaustion and physical weakness left me limp.

“What are you going to do about the exposé?” Cross asked, resting a hand on my back between my shoulder blades. His strength soaked into me, gentle, warm, filling me with his magic and power as he did after every exercise I attempted. Otherwise, I’d have to wait a week before every training session. He had reserves of strength and power that I’d never dreamed someone could have. And he never fully tapped out. Without his personal assistance, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve more than the barest accomplishments, like singing a flower into fuller bloom, never something like this, turning a seed into a tree in a matter of minutes. I would have said it was impossible before I started working with Cross. He knew what it took to bring out someone’s potential. Basically torture.

I glanced over my shoulder and grinned at him. “What will the bindings allow?”

“Anything that isn’t related to the House of Mercy. Why are you smiling? You must not have worked hard enough.”

I giggled a jolly laugh that was tuned into my gnome. I turned and put my hands on his cheeks. I pressed against his iron will with all the softness and joy I could imbue into that touch. I watched his eyes soften, relax as he was wrapped in an echo of my happiness and well-being. He didn’t have a lot of either on his own. He was most content when he was communing with his garden at night, but that wasn’t very cozy. He needed more coziness in his life, and I’d been force-feeding it to him the way he forced hug-therapy on me.

“I’m just looking forward to my vacation from torture. Bram’s wedding, you know. And then back to work, being a beacon of cheerfulness and contentment to all around me. I’ll have to find a cute apartment and fill it with yarn.”

He mumbled, “You will be safer at my house. I’m still your protector.”

I shook my head, smiling at the adorable elf. He was so soft and snuggly from my gnome magic. He could definitely resist it if he wanted to, but he let me practice on him. When I first started, I could barely give him a buzz of contentment with all of my effort, but now it was almost easy.

His eyes closed, lids relaxed as he gave in to the cozy. Holding that feel-good aura, I let the beast stretch out of my left hand until my claws were curved around his pretty throat. I wasn’t quite touching his skin, and he was still relaxed, unaware of the threat.

“I can protect myself,” I murmured as I caressed his skin with my claws.

His eyes popped open, and the cozy was gone, replaced by cool calculation as he considered his position; at my mercy.

He finally smiled, slow, devious. “And think how much easier it would be to lure the beast if you weren’t hiding behind my walls. We’ll still be dating, as far as your exposé is concerned, correct?”

“You’re asking me? I thought Henrick was in charge of our relationship.”

He slowly slid his hand in mine, the clawed beast palm which was so much larger than his. “Henrick is in charge of my senator reputation.”

“And I’m dating the senator.” I curled my claws around his hand, pricking his skin without breaking it. My beast pushed against me, wanting to come out and take more of him. I relaxed into the beast, using my gnome contentment to flood it with delight at that touch. It was enough.

“Mm. Have you ever considered dating authentically?”

I’d wanted to date the elf I had such a big crush on in college, but there wasn’t anything authentic about him. I pulled the beast back and was left with Cross’s skin against mine, my softness matching his cool, slightly calloused strength. I tugged on my hand until he released it. “Yes. Once upon a time, I considered dating the most fabulous gnome in existence.” I sighed dramatically. “He was jolly, sweet, and obsessed with cheese. Obviously the perfect man. But alas, it was never meant to be. I went to college with a broken heart, sure I would never love again. And here I am. A triad of unlovableness to this very day.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Cheese?”

I snickered and stood up, tugging him up with me. “But here I am, part of an assassin’s guild, where everyone is as unlovable as me. Misery loves company, so we can all be miserable together.”

He stood too close, so I had to crane my neck to look up at him. “I’m not miserable when I’m with you.”

What did that mean? I blinked at him. He’d sounded almost sincere. Cold, sure. Factual, of course. But also sincere. He was a hard man who did hard things, but did that mean he should be miserable?

I smiled brightly while my heart pounded faster. “You’re trying to tell me that you don’t love my company? Too bad. You’re already my plus-one for the wedding. And I expect you to play the part of love-sick beau with enthusiasm.”

“The enthusiasm of an elf.”

“So basically no emotion whatsoever, but you will tolerate me and my siblings.”

“I will soak up the warmth, happiness and love that I’ve had to live without in my cold, lonely existence. I will try not to resent it too much.” He gave me a slight smile before he turned and headed towards the house, leaving me with my new tree, the breeze whispering around the trunk and leaves, like the echo of his voice, but he wouldn’t ever say what I heard on the wind.

I shook my head and let the wolf block out my elf. The wolf was unashamed of her obsession with Cross, but my elf wouldn’t ever forgive the monster who still hadn’t offered an apology for those months of torture. Particularly since he was the one she’d crushed on so stupidly in the first place.

I woke up the next morning with Lynx curled up next to me, in a glade next to a running stream, which was my favorite outdoor spot. It was filled with a variety of small flowers that weren’t conventionally beautiful, but smelled delicious, spicy, like Cross’s carnations.

Speaking of, Cross was leaning against a tree trunk beside me, eyes closed, seemingly asleep, but he never slept. I stared at him, studying the way the first morning rays hit his skin, bringing it to life with a luster you found in pearls, not flesh. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and all of him was a beautiful living sculpture.

I blinked and looked down at the fabric draped over me. He must have put it over me when he found me naked during the night. Rude. He should avoid me when I was naked, like a proper elf. How long had I been human? No idea. I needed one of those talismans that you could use, so your clothes shifted with you. Or I could hang around with elves like Cross who didn’t notice my nudity. No, he clearly noticed, or he wouldn’t have covered me with his shirt. He just didn’t like it. Doubly rude.

“You’re sleeping outside again,” he said without opening his eyes.

“You’re wonderfully observant. Have you ever thought of starting a career based on your amazing talents?”

He opened his eyes, and the sunlight brought the violet specks to life. “The plan is to go to your brother’s wedding today.”

“I know. That’s why I slept outside. I’m going to miss it.”

He smiled slightly. “Do you want to hear about the woman’s lab results?”

He smiled over the creepiest things.

“She has a name.”

“You’ve never used it.”

I shivered. “No. Once someone dies and then comes back to life, names seem too small to capture the horror. What were the results? I mean, if you can tell me. You tell me too much.”

“You’re bound to me. I can tell you anything. That is, anything that you can personally handle. Such a delicate triad. She was altered in more ways than undead animation.”

I leaned forward. “How so?”

He furrowed his brow in a frown. “Genetic mutation. Her brain was developed in the areas where magical ability develops. She started out human, but it looks like they were seeing how much more she could be turned into.”

I wrapped my arms around myself and exhaled a long breath. Increasing natural ability would be huge in absolutely every magical circle. “That’s Lynx’s priority? Making super werewolves?”

“Super everything. It tracks with your wolf, your magic, all of it being more than you had before you were infected.”

I grabbed his hand. “You’re telling me that I’m a test tube baby?”

He blinked at me, mouth twitching. “Of course that’s what I’m telling you. Not that an experimental drug was used on you that has completely unknown side-effects. You were the first beast they made.” His jaw tightened. “They’ve been watching you, building on your survival to push further. The beast was in Singsong City, because that’s where you were.”

There were watching me? Creepy. Goosebumps ran up my spine, but I only tsked. “Seriously? Where’s my paycheck? Test subjects should be well paid.”

He cleared his throat. “I’m nervous about going back to the city. The beast’s been playing a game for a long time, but it’s getting more twisted, sick, personal. Your safety is not optional.”

I poked him. “That’s why you trained me so hard. The beast won’t see me coming until it’s too late. You only became my protector to use me as bait.”

He gave me a seriously annoyed look. “You are under the strangest misapprehensions, Miss Era. You’ve never been bait. You never will be.”

I batted my lashes at him. “You say the sweetest things.”

He stood up and started walking towards the house, his bare back a beautiful sight to see. “We’ll leave after breakfast. I hope that you got enough photos of me being adorabalized.”

“How could I possibly?” I muttered, watching his back flex and pull. Was he intentionally looking that gorgeous just to make me want to kill him? No. I really did have an extremely good selection of pictures to use for my article. Pity most of them were tangled with me. How could I publish photos of myself where I looked completely in love with the man?

I took a deep breath and rolled to my feet with Lynx snuggled against my chest. If we were leaving after breakfast to go home, I had things to do.

I made cookies for the first time since we’d gotten to the compound. The kitchen was weirdly empty without the dozens of people hanging out like usual. Maybe there was a big job going on somewhere that I didn’t want to know about.

“What about hugging?” Cross asked me as he had his lumpy shake for breakfast and I rolled out snickerdoodles.

“My mother will hug you a lot. My brothers probably will too, and it is a competition with them to see who can hug the hardest and longest, so you’ll probably have to reciprocate before it gets weird. Although you’re an elf, so you could probably stand there and look like an idiot while they have fun at your expense, and no one would think anything about it.”

He cleared his throat. “I actually was referring to you. If I should be cuddly with you.”

“Oh.” I stared at the cookies I was working on while my stomach twisted uncomfortably. How cuddly did I want the evil, vicious, manipulative monster to pretend to be? Very. Think of the torture. I flashed him a smile. “I’m so glad you asked. I am so cuddly, the most cuddly of all my siblings. They’ll think it’s so weird if you aren’t my first choice of chair, as well as being wrapped around me like a loufa every time I bake cookies. Which will be every day. And we’ll be staying with my parents. You’ll probably sleep with one of my brothers. They all snore and snuggle in their sleep, but you’ll get used to it.”

He nodded soberly. “I haven’t killed anyone in my sleep for years, so it should be fine.”

I turned to look at him, frowning darkly. “Don’t you dare put my brothers in danger!”

He kissed my nose, bending quickly so the shock of contact had me pulling away and scowling at him. His smile was very slight. “I would never dare. I will be on my best behavior.”

“While you’re sleeping? No, you don’t sleep, even here behind walls that should make you feel safe.”

“I sleep often enough, Miss Era.” His brows creased. “I should call you Delphi.”

“No, you’d call me Delphinia. An elf wouldn’t ever shorten something so exquisite. That’s what my father says, and I’d hate for him to be disappointed in my first and probable last Elven suitor.”

He tilted his head as he studied me. “Delphinia? It is exquisite. And I have permission to use your name?”

“Yes, senator. You’re supposed to be my boyfriend.”

“Then you will call me Cross.”

I shrugged. “Omar would probably make more sense.”

“It’s actually Omarsus, but Cross is easier to remember.”

I squinted at him. “You don’t like your name? But Omarsus is so delicately majestic, like a flying fish skittering over the top of the water in the moonlight.”

He wrinkled his pretty nose. “Yes, that is the literal translation. Your elvish is admirable.”

“Passable, not admirable. Do you have any other notable names lurking behind that pretty face?”

“Several. Silvaniustro is one of them.”

“Ah, the Silverton has roots. Moonlit woods, but the ending has a slightly ominous tinge to it. Some kind of death in the wooded moonlit clearing?” I frowned at him as I went over the origins.

“Not passable. Notable, or you wouldn’t notice that tinge of death. Miss Delphinia, you are the most finely educated fluff reporter I’ve ever met.”

“High praise indeed. Stop distracting me from my snickerdoodles. That’s what I should call you.”

“As you like, Miss Delphinia.”

I pointed my rolling pin at him. “It’s begun. You say it exactly like my father does, rolling the ending bits, so it sounds like there are five extra R’s.”

“It’s a lovely name,” he said innocently.

“Mm. Like Omarsus Silvaniustro.” I twirled every R and L, giving the U’s an extra emphasis.

“The fish of moonlit death. Not quite as lovely as yours, but the way you say it makes up for it. I’ll make sure everything is ready for the trip and meet you out front.” He left the kitchen, leaving me frowning over his name. Elves didn’t hand over their actual birth names casually. Of course, he would have to tell my father his origins if he wanted to be considered an actual suitor. An actual fake suitor.

I shook my head and focused on my cookies. Everything else was too complicated for me and my triad.

The trip wasn’t very long, but it was in the style you’d expect from a wealthy senator. I knitted the whole way in purple cashmere. Bram’s fiance’s sweater was already finished and wrapped in paper I’d hand printed from plants around Cross’s compound. A gnome would appreciate such things, handmade, hand spelled, more time and attention than money.

Cross spent most of the flight on his phone. On the back roads of Bama, Cross drove, putting his phone down like he was focusing on the current mission.

We went over a bump and bounced alarmingly in the large black car.

“This is the wrong vehicle for these roads,” Cross said with a frown.

“It’s fine. Unless the bridge is washed out again. But then we’ll just call for someone to come pick us up. It’s not really on the beaten path. Come to think of it, the whole village is off the beaten path. My parent’s house is in the boonies.”

“Mm.”

“Exactly.” I kept knitting, mangling my project, but it didn’t matter, since it was for him. Not that I’d ever give it to him, but my gnome wanted to wrap him in coziness he could keep forever for giving me so many hugs. Ridiculous gnome.

Finally, we pulled up on the edge of my parent’s fenced front garden. It was twilight, and the fireflies were dancing in the flowers, the pale daisies catching the last light while the scent of jasmine hit me with nostalgia.

I stood there, took a deep breath, and then the front door burst open, spilling warm golden light out on the cobbles.

“Delphi? You actually came?” That was Pennwick, my younger brother who was the tallest, and wanted to be a researcher like my father. He vaulted over the fence and then hit me, knocking me back into Cross before he tried to suffocate us both with his long, brawny arms.

“Delphi’s home!” he cried, picking me up and dancing me around in a circle while I laughed and squeezed him back.

“You’re still a lunatic. How did you get so tall? Papa must be so proud.”

He kissed my cheeks and then put me down before turning and looking at Cross with all the cool aplomb of a snobbish elf.

Cross held out his hand, wearing the warm smile of a perfect politician. “How do you do? I’m…”

Penn ignored his hand. “Senator Silverton. Yes, we know who you are. The question is, do you think you deserve my sister?”

Cross’s smile faded. “Never. But she tells me that I’m very pretty.”

Pennwick squinted at Cross and then grabbed him in a hug that made Cross positively squeak, which was very satisfying. Unfortunately, I was looking at him and didn’t notice my other brothers sneaking up on me.

They grabbed me and lifted me in the air with the cries of true barbarians.

“Fen and Hook, ugh! Put me down!” I said as they carried me towards the house on their shoulders, bouncing every step, but not in time, so I was bumped and jostled more than the car over the road.

“Delphi’s home! Delphi’s back! Now we’re going to make her crack!” Fen sang in his booming baritone.

“Boys! Put her down this instant! Do you want to scare away her beau?” my mother said, coming out and waving her apron at them.

Penn picked her up and tossed her onto Fen and Hook with me, so we bumped heads.

“Delphi!” she cried and grabbed me in a hug, not worrying about being dropped while our precarious group veered around the bird bath in the garden. They were taking the long way to the front door.

“Hi, mama. It’s nice to see you,” I said, but it was muffled, because she’d pulled me into her bosom.

“And you really brought your beau. Boys, put us down! We need to greet Delphi’s beau properly.”

They ignored her and kept dancing and swaying until we made it through the low doorway and into the main hall.

My father was standing at the foot of the curving wooden steps, looking tall and elegant, because he was an elf. He cleared his throat and my brothers let my mama and me slide down to the floor in a heap.

“Delphinia,” he said with a slight smile. “It is good to see you, my dear.”

I threw myself at him, because I hadn’t seen my dad for far too long. He caught me in the expected hug, swung me around and then set me on the floor gracefully before turning to focus on Cross, who stood just inside the door, behind my pack of brothers.

“Senator Silverton, it is a pleasure to have you,” he said with a nod to Cross.

“The pleasure is all mine,” Cross said, beginning the battle of manners that only elves understood.

“Enough politeness,” my mother said, grabbing Cross’s hand and dragging him down the hall, towards the kitchen. “You’re too thin, both of you. I’ve prepared my famous fig jelly that you’ll have on some of Penn’s bread. He’s the best bread-maker in seven counties. Delphi, come along. You’re going to tell me all about how you met. Erasmus, are you coming or will you hide in your study?”

“I have a few things to wrap up,” my dad said with a slight bow. “I’ll join you shortly.”

My mother waved a hand dismissively and then pulled Cross closer as she hugged his arm and looked up at him as adorably as a gnome could. “Then I’ll have you all to myself!”

“Mama, we have to challenge him before the hayride,” Fen said, tugging on the thin ends of his long mustache.

“Challenge him for what?”

“Well, weapons, mostly,” Hook said, glancing sidelong at Cross. “Do you duel?”

“Not regularly, but I don’t object to it,” he said and then was forced into a chair by the fire before my mother perched on his knees and beamed at him, her finest gnomish beam, weaving her magic of coziness thick and heavy.

I wrinkled my nose at her for being so familiar with Cross. I’d never sat on his lap like that.

“Delphi, stop that sour face. He doesn’t mind, do you?” she asked, her bright gaze at him.

He blinked at her, then turned to me. “Are you comfortable, Delphinia? You could take my chair.”

I sighed and then gave in to the inevitable and sat on Cross, leaning against his chest so my mother could rest her back on my side, forcing some distance between them.

“So, tell me how you two met,” my mother said, clapping her hands, delighted with our pile-up.

“We met at school, but I forgot about it until recently,” I said, glancing at Cross.

He smiled at me with warmth that left me glowing in spite of myself. “I never forgot about you. I remember the lecture you gave the elf who broke that sapling so carelessly about the need to preserve, protect, and never use one’s magic selfishly or wastefully. You were very eloquent.”

“She gets that from me,” my mother said, and then broke out in gales of infectious laughter. “Penn, do you have the bread and jam? Don’t eat it all before Senator Silverton gets a chance to taste it.”

“You may call me Cross,” he said as he took the pretty plate with hand-painted flowers around the edges from my brother.

“Cross? What is that from?” my father asked from the doorway. I hadn’t noticed him, but apparently he’d decided that he wanted to hear the story of our fateful meeting.

“Where is it from?” I asked, thinking about it. “Your friends call you Cross, but you really aren’t that bad-natured, particularly for an elf.”

“I am Kilmaran Rosanthius Omarsus Silvaniustro,” Cross said with a deep head-nod to my father that had to make do because any further formality would leave me and my mother on the floor. “The initials spell KROS.”

My father studied Cross with a flash of intensity that made me worry. “Silvaniustro, from the night court?”

“Mm. You’ve heard of it?” Cross said, his tone slightly cooler than before.

“Naturally. I’m Angustia Erasmus. Your father escorted me out of elfland when I was exiled.”

Cross cleared his throat. “You’re that Erasmus?”

My father looked coolly disapproving.

“Wait,” Penn said, pointing at Cross. “Your dad escorted my dad out of elflands? Is he a soldier or something?”

“Something,” my father murmured, giving Cross a very interesting look. “Something like the high lord of the night court. Bred for violence and darkness.”

The kitchen was suddenly very quiet while I felt a fluttering of protectiveness for Cross. I put my arms around his shoulders and snuggled into his neck while he stayed in the same position, like my father’s extremely unkind words didn’t affect him.

“Congratulations, Cross! You won the good manners game!” I kissed his cheeks, first one and then the other. “Come to the car with me to get all the stuff. We’ll be back,” I said, dragging Cross out of the kitchen, past my dad who was looking at my hand gripping his wrist.

“He can handle whatever I say,” my dad said in a low voice, slightly amused.

I bristled at him. “Of course he can, but he shouldn’t have to. Come on, Cross. Don’t say anything, just look pretty.”