Page 19

Chapter Nineteen

H is name was Charles Linton, and he owned thirty percent of the electronics manufacturers on the east coast. He had excellent taste and therefore couldn’t possibly let me walk away from him until he’d charmed me into giving me his number. He’d also dressed as a shrimp.

I held onto my smile with the skill I’d honed to a keen edge for fifteen years. Unfortunately, I’d gotten out of the habit of subjecting myself to self-important bores in the last few months.

We stood on the promenade above the sloping lawns and the grassy central space where the performers frolicked. Zephin Clay had pulled out all the stops. It was a verifiable circus here, but tasteful, everything bedecked in heady roses while the fire dancers and dancing bears spun and twirled in carefully controlled abandon. The light flickering from sconces lining the promenade added to the feel of carefully orchestrated wildness.

“As the most beautiful woman here, you must know that no man could resist you,” Mr. Shrimp said, looking pointedly at my cleavage.

I followed his glance down at the deer costume that wasn’t any more revealing than his shrimp outfit, which revealed a great deal of leg. He’d been following me since the train, where he’d sat across from me, telling me all about his business acumen while I tried to be polite because his costume was so embarrassing. That was a bad move. Then again, I deserved to be tortured by the shrimp after what I did to Cross.

I’d woken up in his bed without him this morning, and spent the rest of the day trying not to think about him. I was clearly successful considering the way I kept looking past the shrimp towards the bridge leading to the shadowy train station as guests arrived, searching for the tall silhouette of my landlord.

He’d said he loved me.

I shook my head and focused on the familiar form of Letitica Marin and gave Mr. Shrimp a bright smile as I cut off his long-winded lecture about how smart he was to be able to value my beauty in spite of my apparent lack of expensive jewelry. He was a treasure, to be sure.

“I see an old friend I must greet. Enjoy the evening,” I said before slipping around him.

He grabbed my arm and spun me back to him, a frown on his thin face. “Before we’ve danced? I’d be a fool to let you go.”

“You don’t let a woman stay or go.” Cross stood behind me, melting out of the shadows, looking more lethal than he usually let the senator appear. “Particularly when she’s engaged to a very possessive man.” He slipped his hand around my waist and over my stomach exactly like he had last night, and then bent to press a slow, lingering kiss to my neck.

My heartbeat skyrocketed, while goosebumps ran over my shoulders and arms. He was here. Finally. And he’d said he loved me.

“I b-beg your pardon!” Shrimp said, still holding onto my arm. “She isn’t wearing a ring.”

“Do you want him to hold on to you, my love?” Cross murmured, lips brushing my ear in a way that made me shiver deliciously. I melted against him, forgetting about the rest of the world as he wrapped me in his arms.

It felt like he loved me.

“Like I said, she is otherwise engaged,” Cross murmured, smooth as silk and twice as deadly. No, more than twice, because silk wasn’t very deadly, unless we’re talking about strangulation with silk cords. Doubtless, Cross could manage to kill this person in hundreds of ways with silk. I take it back. Deadly as silk was one hundred percent correct.

Shrimp finally dropped my arm, but his face was twisted into a disagreeable scowl as Cross spun me away from him. Cross kept his strong arm around my waist, but stepped to the side so we could walk more comfortably along the promenade beneath the rose garlands and flickering torches.

“Imagine running into you here,” I said, sounding breathless and idiotic, like I’d been swept away by the most romantic figure imaginable.

He’d said he loved me.

“I think that it was a spell,” he said, voice intent, with a hint of threat that made me shiver. Maybe it was the feel of his hand over the thin fabric of my dress. He wasn’t handling me the way a standoffish elf should. He was being possessive, protective, and aggressive. My wolf liked it so much. Fine. Even my elf thought it was hot. He’d said he loved me even though I’d staked him to a chair.

“The shrimp costume?” I asked.

“The fear spell. The anger spell. The beast spell at Bram’s wedding. You’re being targeted. It could be unrelated to the monster and Lynx, but it’s statistically unlikely.”

I sniffed as I glanced at him in his wolf mask that made him look more dangerous than usual. “You took the time to run statistics? You’re such an elf.”

“Being impaled by a living branch in a library does sound distinctly Elven.”

I inhaled sharply, glancing around at all the masked and bejeweled Singsong City residents who might hear the man at my side’s shocking declaration.

“Senator Silverton, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Mm. Miss Era, will you dance with me?”

“I…” The last time we’d danced was at my brother’s wedding. He’d saved me from death by humiliation. And he’d said he loved me. I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there, staring at the most beautiful man in the universe who wanted to dance with me, even when no one else wanted me.

“Delphi, is that you?” Forsythia asked, breaking the spell. She came towards us wearing ostrich plumes with her heavy purple and teal makeup. Somehow, she didn’t look garish.

I smiled and took her hands, but Cross kept his arm around my waist, not letting me go. I liked that so much. “Forsythia! How are you? We only just got back home.” Oh. That made it sound like we were very together. Which we were, at least at that moment, and I’d slept in his bed last night. Was I blushing? Probably, but gnome cheeks were notoriously rosy.

She arched a perfect brow while her eyes glimmered. “I hope you two enjoyed your time away. Now you’re engaged to the Senator. Congratulations!” She took my left hand and gave a pointed look at my fingers before looking up at me, all polite sweetness. “Where is it?”

“I…That is…We aren’t engaged.” My throat felt weird, and I had to swallow twice before I could continue. I didn’t seem to want to tell her that we didn’t have a real relationship. “That was a misprint that needs to be retracted.”

“A misprint? Are you sure about that? Well, in that case, the announcement must be coming soon. Senator Silverton, you’re so lucky to have the affection of our beloved Delphi. No one in the world is sweeter and more charmingly simple than our precious girl.”

My wolf was starting to growl in the back of my mind. She made me sound like a child, a doll, or one of those tiny dogs that wanted to rip out your throat. I didn’t like telling her that I wasn’t engaged. I didn’t like the light in her eyes as she looked at him, knowing he was available. My beast wanted to take her permanently out of the equation as viciously as possible.

I gave her my sweetest smile. “Excuse me, Forsythia, but we were going to dance.” I pulled Cross away, noticing Leticia down the promenade, speaking animatedly in her flamingo mask. She kept taking it off to peer at the man she was with. Was that the mayor or someone dressed up like a butterfly? Did she really have ties to the mob?

A path on the left led to the African display. I pulled Cross into the shadows away from the party, veering around a couple who had come there for some privacy. Making out. How awkward to do that in masks.

I took a deep breath and Cross’s scent was everywhere, hyacinths and wind through the woods with an undertone of spicy carnations. Once we were far enough on the path to have complete privacy, I turned and looked up at him. Those eyes. So soulful and beautiful. He was so perfect. And he’d said that he loved me. After I’d staked him in his chair. Clearly, his confession had been part of the spell.

Oh.

Suddenly, the night didn’t seem so gloriously magical anymore. Of course it had been part of the spell that made me lose control and try to kill him. That’s why he’d let me.

I cleared my throat. It was time to stop feeling disappointed that Cross didn’t love me. What would I do with the love of some fancy lord heir of the night court? Try to kill him. Obviously.

“You think I was under a fear spell? And you think it’s connected to my beast coming out at Bram’s wedding? That makes a deplorable amount of sense. How would you set up such a spell? Would you need physical contact with me, because if so, I can tell you exactly how many people touched me.”

He frowned slightly. “Physical contact could work, but really, you’d just need to set up the spell somewhere a person was walking through.”

“Like a trap spell?” Why couldn’t it be as simple as counting the people who touched me?

He nodded soberly. “Yes, but you couldn’t have been infected by someone who wasn’t there. Someone had to infect you at that party.”

I stared into those dark, mystical eyes and ached for him to kiss me and make me forget about everything else. I didn’t want to think about all that negativity. Someone at the school for light creatures had infected me, a person with gnome blood? Who could be so cruel? “Right. And someone would have had to know where I’d be to set a trap spell. I haven’t been many places since we got back, just your pool house and Zephin Clay’s office. The suspect had to be someone who wants you dead, and wants to reveal my beast publicly. What would anyone get out of ruining my life?”

He shook his head slightly. “I can’t imagine anyone not adoring you. Unless they wanted you to go completely mad at the wedding and infect and kill your family and friends. That would get attention nationwide. You lost control after studying for months. If that spell had taken you before your training…”

I shivered, and it wasn’t because he was so otherworldly gorgeous. At least not all because of that. He really was so pretty, though. “Thank goodness I’m not very good at being an assassin. You were researching that mysterious potion at school, right? Who were your suspects then?”

“Everyone was a suspect. I never made a great deal of progress on the case. In the end, I started to think it’s tied to Lynx.”

“What about Loren? She’s an investigative reporter, but she’s also the one with my sweet kitty, the one whose face was on the body.”

“She’s certainly involved, but whether it’s because she’s searching for the truth, or whether she’s involved in the plot, I can’t say. What do you know about her?”

I frowned, trying to dredge up any useful memories that would help me understand her secret nature. After a few seconds of that, I shook my head. “I only know her as a driven reporter who will do anything to uncover the truth. That’s the sum total of her personality. That’s not very helpful, is it? She did go to my school, though. I don’t remember her because she was older. I don’t think we were there at the same time.”

“But she may have come back for the party.”

“I guess so. Who else is a suspect? It has to be someone who’s lived in Singsong City for at least a decade, someone I know, and someone who hates you and gnomes.”

“Who hates gnomes?”

“Manny?”

He gave me an amused look. “Manny adores gnomes. He wants to cuddle them to death.”

“Ah. Ogres love gnome jam. What about Ridley? How was he involved with those missing girls? What about Zephin Clay? He was there all three times…” I winced. “That’s too big a coincidence for it not to be him, isn’t it?”

“I would say it’s too obvious. If Clay was going to do something diabolical, he wouldn’t stand there waiting for people to notice him holding the bag. He’d be as far from guilty looking as possible.”

I wrinkled my nose at him. “Fine. Who do you think is the beast?”

He shook his head. “If I knew, it would be taken care of.” Of course it would be.

I put my hand on his arm. “What about the idea of using me as bait?”

“No.”

I moved closer to him so I could frown up at him more effectively. “I’m very capable.”

He slid his hands over my lower back, pulling me against him as he bowed his head so I didn’t have to crane my neck. “Three months isn’t long enough to give you adequate training against this beast.”

I sighed heavily. “So we’re supposed to just wait for something bad to happen? Again? The next time, maybe I’ll target innocents.”

“Impossible. That sort of spell can only work with what they have. Your hatred for me was enough to turn you to violence, but you wouldn’t ever harm anyone else.”

I gripped his arms and sighed heavily. I didn’t want to apologize for trying to kill him. It just seemed like words were too small to cover the depths of my horrific actions. Still, I wasn’t going to wait fifteen years like he had. “I’m so sorry that I hurt you, tried to kill you, caused so much damage. I’m going to look at apartments tomorrow so you don’t have to worry about me, but I think your apology helped with the anger. It seems entirely replaced by shame and horror.” I winced and wanted to bury my head in his chest.

He smiled as the moon shone over his face, making him glow with otherworldly magnificence. “It did hurt more than I expected when you finally stabbed me in the back, but it was quickly displaced by the comfort and happiness you gave me while you healed me. I’m not sure healing should be so pleasant. I’m tempted to have life-or-death situations regularly so I can enjoy your sweet ministrations.” His voice was a low rumble at the end that made my skin prickle.

I smacked his chest. “Don’t you dare! I think it was actually the spell messing with your mind. That’s why you said all those ridiculous things about a night elf’s love being poison.” Also about loving me, but I was trying not to think about that.

His eyes were so focused on me, I felt like he was watching each breath I inhaled and exhaled, capturing the vapor tendrils of my soul. “Miss Era, I wasn’t under a spell. I spoke the truth as I saw it. A night elf’s love is typically destructive. That’s why I’m here instead of elfland, running away from my guilt, brought on by love. You are loved by me quite emphatically and have been from almost the first moment I saw you. If you wish to pretend otherwise, I won’t speak of it again, but if my love could ever be useful to you, it’s yours.”

I stared at him while my heart lurched precipitously in my chest. “Love? Since the first moment you saw me?”

His eyes were dark pools of mystery as he slowly nodded. I saw the truth, the certainty in his eyes. He absolutely thought that he’d loved me from that first time he saw me fixing a little tree.

“Irrational, mad love would make it difficult to kill someone who clearly wasn’t going to survive transitioning. You kept me alive because you couldn’t help yourself.” I spoke slowly, feeling the words, the weight of the truth of them. It hadn’t ever made sense, why someone would prolong the pain from what should have taken a day or two and stretched it out to months, but it wasn’t because he hated me or liked to watch people suffer, but because he wasn’t capable of thinking rationally around me. Love at first sight wasn’t an elf thing. They didn’t have true mates the way wolves did. He’d been under a spell for a long time, and it had successfully gotten him to forget about his undercover assignment, distracted him from looking into Lynx, and he’d put off really investigating the beast because he thought it might be me.

I sighed heavily as I looked up at the most beautiful elf in the world whose heart had been stolen and given to me, a gnome-elf, who they’d promptly turned into a werewolf, because that first combo wasn’t devastating enough.

He frowned slowly, brows lowering over those lovely eyes. “You shouldn’t pity me.”

I couldn’t help it. Poor guy had been tortured by unrequited miserable love for ages. I threw myself into him, squeezing him in the tightest hug I could manage.

He hesitated for a breath and then wrapped me against him, snuggling me like someone desperate for affection. Poor Cross, desperate for affection from a monster like me. And he’d been under this spell for years? How had he not stalked me after he let me out of his cage? That must have nearly killed him to let me wander the earth without him, not knowing if I was alive or dead after he worked so hard to help me transition.

It explained so much, like why he’d taken one look at me on his doorstep and offered me a place to stay without asking for any rent. And why he’d brought all those super powerful creatures to back him up so he could be my protector. And why he’d spent months being there for me, giving me his strength and magic without me having to ask, without asking for anything in return while he trained me.

Back home, how he’d struggled when dancing with me, trying to maintain a respectful distance when he was finally given permission via his role of suitor to get much closer. How do you play a part you aren’t playing?

I squeezed him tighter, accidentally summoning my beast until his ribs creaked. Poor Cross, cursed to love someone who hated him. Did I still hate him? How could I hate someone who’d read to me while he let me kill him? He couldn’t help torture me to keep me alive. He’d suffered right there with me, maybe more, since his love bespelled soul would hurt even more out of empathy.

“Don’t worry, Cross. It’s going to be okay,” I murmured, snuggling into him. He smelled so good. Could I take advantage of his weakness for me? No. Maybe a little, but I wasn’t going to hurt him worse than he already suffered.

I’d take care of this. He couldn’t pursue justice while he was tangled in these feelings for me. He couldn’t use me as bait. He couldn’t focus on hunting down the monster when love was the worst monster of all. How awful to be compelled to love against your will. That was much worse than being compelled to live through a world of pain. I needed to step up and get to the bottom of things once and for all. No more Mr. Nice Gnome. Or Mrs. Nice Gnome. He’d probably marry me if I told him to. For real. He’d probably do anything for me that didn’t involve me dying. I had to break his curse and find the monster who had left a trail of dead girls behind before they struck again. The monster wanted to destroy Cross in absolutely every way. I wasn’t going to let that happen. Not anymore.