CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Dare divided his concentration between her and the road. “How long have you known?”
“How long have you?” she countered.
“Last night.”
“Less than an hour ago.” And she was still processing.
If that’s what you could call wondering how in the hell chemistry, biology or fate—maybe all three—forged this connection between them.
She could deny it all she wanted, make herself believe the whole mate thing was Vaughn’s problem, but her heart wouldn’t hurt so damn much if their bond was only one-sided.
“I think I need a drink,” she mused aloud.
“He’s not that bad.”
“Not that you’re biased or anything.”
Dare shook his head. “Drinking is not a good idea.”
“Neither of us would be here right now if good ideas got the job done.”
Dare said nothing for a long while. “So that kind of looked like a panic attack back there.”
She wasn’t sure how it looked, but it felt like her world was being torn out from under her feet. “Maybe,” she admitted. Dare was the keeper of her biggest secret right now, what was one more? “My sister used to get them when we were kids.” Not long after their mother walked out on them.
And her mother’s abandonment was the last thing she should be thinking about when her mate was in the midst of doing the same thing.
“I tried talking my sister through them, and then I realized that getting into trouble, and dragging her into it with me, was the fastest way to pull her out of those moments.”
“And the habit stuck.”
“For a while anyway.” But not anymore. Now Emma had Cian and the gargoyle was doing a damn good job of looking out for her sister.
For the first time, she felt a pang of envy for her sister’s life. Emma knew she wasn’t alone, knew Cian would always have her back, would hold her through the rough times, would fight for her.
She and Vaughn would never have that. Their fate had been sealed the moment Piper’s kidnappers shifted their focus to Elena.
If Vaughn went through with the trade, would she really be able to forgive him for it? But if he didn’t and Piper died, she knew he’d never forgive himself. And every time he looked at her, he’d be reminded of that.
But how many more would die if she let herself be handed off, powerless and without a clue why they wanted her in the first place? She was at a distinct disadvantage on every level and yet she sat there petting the wolf that had put her in this situation to begin with.
She wanted to be mad, but all she felt was the loss of something that she knew could have been amazing had things gone differently.
They fell into a long silence, broken only by the low hum of the radio. It wouldn’t last long though, she knew the pup wasn’t done talking just yet.
A few more minutes passed, then he said, “You need to tell him the truth.”
No, she really didn’t. Telling Vaughn that she was the one either praised as brave or mocked for being so reckless could only make things worse. Especially if Piper’s kidnappers found out.
If Alrick wanted revenge for his daughter’s death and really was coming for Elena, then there was already one dangerous immortal who knew she was the Shadow’s Angel. She couldn’t let it go beyond that.
“And what about you,” she prompted, needing to change the subject. “When are you going to tell Vaughn the truth? Like the real reason Piper was abducted.”
“It’s complicated.”
“Yeah, there’s a lot of that going around.” And while that was true there was no way she was letting him off with that explanation. “What happened? Come on, Scrappy. You know my secret.”
“Piper wasn’t taken. She was caught.”
“Caught?”
“You and Vaughn weren’t the first ones to go after the crown. It’s rumored to belong to—”
“A dead Fae queen with a wicked roundhouse, I know.”
Dare’s brows crashed together, but before he could ask her what she meant by that, she nudged him back on topic.
“What was Piper doing in the vault looking for the Iron Crown?”
“Piper is…” Dare winced. “Piper is also part of the rebellion.”
“And Vaughn doesn’t know,” she guessed.
“He spent years hiding his involvement in the rebellion from his sister.”
“And somewhere along the way she figured it out, and instead of telling him, she secretly joined up.” Apparently she and Piper had something in common.
“Rutger sent her to retrieve the crown—”
“Isn’t he full of surprises these days,” she interrupted.
“—and something went wrong. She disappeared.”
“And no one told Vaughn what she’d really been up to.”
Dare shook his head. “Rutger didn’t want him to know. Vaughn always felt it was his job to look after her, and if he knew she was working for the rebellion, putting herself in harm’s way, he would have tried to stop her.”
“So you kept it from him.”
He blew out a breath. “She wanted to be the one to tell him.” He shrugged. “It was a lose-lose situation. If I told him, she would have been furious, and when he finds out I didn’t come to him with it…”
“Just so you know, there’s only enough room in the car for one of us to feel sorry for ourselves, and spoiler alert, it’s not you.”
Dare laughed.
The wolf stirred but didn’t wake.
How long had he gone without sleep? She’d assumed it was Dare who’d been moving around in the motel cottage during the day. Now that she knew Vaughn could control his shift to stone, he must have been the one who’d stood in the hall but never opened the door even though she’d heard him grip the handle more than once.
He probably hadn’t slept much in days and his injuries weren’t healing properly.
And there she went again caring about what he was going through. If she wasn’t careful, she’d willingly sacrifice the lives of Morgana’s countless victims for one gargoyle.
Too many people still needed her help and she’d be useless to them if she couldn’t slam the brakes on her own abduction.
“And you’re welcome by the way,” Dare threw in.
She arched a brow.
“For saving your ass the other night.”
“Is that what you call taking a dagger to the chest when you were supposed to be getting that little girl out of there?” A little girl Morgana had no qualms about keeping prisoner until she grew into her full powers.
“I may have had a small fanboy moment when I saw you fighting one of Morgana’s trolls.”
Now it was her turn to laugh.
“Rutger didn’t tell me who I was backing up until the last moment.”
“At least he told someone at the last moment,” she quipped.
“So I’m not the only one trying to figure out why he seems to want this trade to take place?”
Did he? Elena wasn’t so sure. If Rutger wanted the trade to go through, he could have brought her on board from the start. Instead, the rebellion leader let Vaughn kidnap his own mate, restrict her magic, ultimately forcing him to choose between his family and his future.
She rubbed at the brand on her chest, her skin no longer quite as hot as it had been. The constant headache she’d been living with since the glyph first appeared didn’t throb as much as before.
Those were either good signs or her body had given up on fighting the Fae magic.
“I saw you in Vegas, you know,” Dare said, “Vaughn told me to steer clear of you. Probably because he’d already fallen for you.”
“Just because I’m his mate doesn’t mean…” She couldn’t quite get the words out, her throat tight.
“That he loves you? No, it doesn’t. I’m pretty sure he fell in love with you before he even realized what you were to him.”
Part of her hoped Dare was wrong about that. She might be able to handle Vaughn giving her up despite knowing she was his mate, but if it went deeper than that, if he loved her…
“Elena?”
It took a second to let the sting in her eyes pass before she raised her head.
Dare bent and dug something from a bag on the floor up front. He offered her a bottle. “How about that drink now?”
She took the bottle, but he didn’t let go right away.
“I got caught in the middle of one secret between two people I care about. I’m not doing it again, no matter how badass you are. You need to tell him. Tonight. Or I will.”
***
Vaughn awoke to the sound of laughter.
Giddy, high-pitched laughter.
He opened his eyes, resisting the urge to press tighter to the comforting warmth next to him, the scent of his mate both drugging and exhilarating at the same time.
Ivy.
He stared up the sorceress who laughed again.
Sweet Avalon, he loved that mouth. Loved the way her lips curved, the tightness of them when she tried to hide how pissed she was, the sweet softness of them when they caved for him.
His brain tumbled over that thought.
Why was she smiling, laughing? He tried pulling his thoughts together, feeling half drunk.
She was running her hands through his hair, the gesture casual as if she wasn’t really paying attention as she chatted with Dare.
He must have moved because she glanced down and immediately withdrew her hand.
“Naked man is finally awake.”
Naked man?
Vaughn bolted upright, realizing he’d shifted back without realizing it while he slept. Sweet Avalon, he couldn’t remember doing that since he’d been a cub.
“Not much point in playing the modesty card at this point, Barkley,” Elena said, a sing-song quality to her voice as he clutched the blanket someone had tossed over him.
“Where are we?”
Dare was grim. “Almost there.”
Elena sighed. “I hope there is more alcohol wherever we’re going.”
Vaughn studied her, paying particular attention to the slight flush to her cheeks. “You let her get drunk?”
“Guess you should have left more specific instructions before you checked out,” Elena chirped, draining the last sip from the bottle of Absinthe.
“You’re feeling better,” he ventured carefully.
“Much.” She peered into the bottle in case she’d missed any, then dropped it at her feet with a dejected sigh.
He checked the clock, blinked. He’d slept for two hours?
Next to him Elena hummed along with the song playing on the radio, no trace of the trembling sorceress who’d been curled up on the ground a short time ago.
Elena sensed him watching her and responded without so much as glancing in his direction. “Your prize in the trunk,” she explained, pausing to tell Dare to turn the music up a little bit now that Fido was awake. “It made me a little nauseous.”
A little nauseous? That hadn’t been a little bit of anything earlier. And she certainly hadn’t had that kind of reaction to the crown in the chamber.
If anything, the object had empowered her, made her more unpredictable, stronger. Not weaker, fragile.
“The crown made you sick?” He couldn’t seem to wrap his head around that.
“What else could it have been?” she asked with an artificial sweetness lacing her words.
Vaughn wasn’t sure, but any man with a shred of common sense wouldn’t volunteer any theories when a woman spoke in that tone of voice.
Dare rolled his eyes in the rear-view mirror, but Vaughn had the feeling the gesture had nothing to do with Elena.
Exactly what had he missed while he’d been sleeping?
Apparently he’d spent too long tracking down Elena and staying awake during the day to watch over her. He hadn’t risked going to stone after Erec’s attack, needing to keep an eye on her. It wasn’t a surprise that the lack of sleep while recovering from his injuries had finally caught up with him.
But two hours? And while Dare and Elena bonded over music that should have been impossible to ignore? His wounds must have taken a bigger toll on him than he thought.
Elena fell silent, back to drawing in the condensation she created on the window. He imagined his sorceress drawing pictures or leaving sarcastic comments on grime-covered cars and sticking around to watch the reaction of the owners.
No. Not his sorceress.
Just his way of getting Piper back. His baby sister.
“Ooooh.” Elena faced him. “Did Scooby wake up on the wrong side of his doggy bed?”
Vaughn realized he was frowning and relaxed his face before she made another comment. Maybe he was better off when she wasn’t feeling well. Or maybe she was feeling a little too good and it had nothing to with the alcohol at all.
“Touch your nose.”
The good humor on her face dimmed before she turned up the wattage with a smile that was probably meant to irritate him as she grudgingly complied. “Before you ask, I’m not touching my boobs. At least not unless you’re going to touch your junk first. Oh wait, you already did that when you were done wolfing out.”
“Wolfing out?” Dare mouthed in the mirror.
“I should probably just be grateful,” she continued, “that I didn’t have to watch you lick your balls first. You guys do that right?” she asked Dare.
His friend made a choking sound. “No comment?”
Elena sat back as if her balloon had floated away and she wasn’t sure what to do with herself next. She turned back to Vaughn, opening her mouth.
“There it is,” Dare interrupted. He nodded to a building on a corner lot on the left. It was shielded by trees on the right and the left sides, a narrow driveway revealing the aged structure on the edge of condemnation.
Elena read the sign. “A library. Wow,” she drawled. “You guys know how to party.”
Dare drove past the empty parking lot that had grass growing up through the cracks in the pavement and parked in front of the wide double doors where gray paint flaked off the aged wood. Any minute a strong breeze would rip away the dangling pieces the way it had in a dozen places already.
The closed library wouldn’t have been his first choice for a safe house in light of the wraith attack, but Rutger had arranged everything.
“I need fresh air.” Elena gave him a pointed look, waiting.
“You can get out of the car, but stay close. Erec could still be tracking you.”
She shrugged but didn’t drift too far from the vehicle when she stepped outside.
The clouds drifted across the moon, casting her face in shadows. She turned away, making it impossible to get a better read on where her head was at. She could tell him she was fine all she wanted, but he had a feeling she was even better than he was at pretending the world wasn’t falling apart.
And if she was feeling even half as desperate as the wolf, it would make her more unpredictable than ever.
“Is the crown still in the trunk?”
Dare nodded.
“Hide it somewhere inside.” They would need to keep it close, and he wanted another look at it.
He hadn’t cared about the contents of the box when he stole it to get Piper back, but when they’d claimed she was dead so they could manipulate him further, he’d pried the damn thing open.
He couldn’t imagine how the slim crown had made Elena sick, but there was no way of knowing if her Fae half had reacted to the poisonous iron or if her sorceress side had been overwhelmed by the ancient magic.
Dare turned in his seat and stared at him.
“What?”
“You’re an idiot.”
Vaughn started to laugh, then realized Dare wasn’t kidding. “Come again?”
“You need to talk to her.”
“And say what?” He grabbed his pants from the floor of the back seat and yanked them on.
“She deserves to know what she means to you.” He gestured to where Elena stared up at the moon like it called to her the way it did the wolf.
“It doesn’t matter now.”
“She’s your mate. It matters.” Dare cocked his head. “Unless… You don’t want her to know because you want her upset. That’s why you won’t tell her. You think it will be easier to let her go if she hates you.”
Vaughn slid across the seat to get out. “Nothing about this is easy.”
“Then don’t do it. We’ll find another way. You swore to your parents to keep what was left of your family intact. Elena is your family now, too. You don’t sacrifice one for the other. You save them both.”
Vaughn dug his fingers into the seat to stop himself from taking his frustration out on his friend. “Don’t you think I’ve tried? Don’t you think I’ve tried to come up with some kind of solution that doesn’t end with one or both of them getting hurt or killed—”
“You didn’t ask Elena.”
“Are you crazy?” Maybe the Iron Crown was influencing more than just Elena.
“You said she responded to the crown. Maybe she can use it to help—”
“Even if I was stupid enough to give an ancient Fae object to a half-Fae sorceress, do you really think she wouldn’t turn on me given the chance after what I put her through?”
“Maybe you don’t know her as well as you think you do.”
Apparently the two of them had bonded when he’d been asleep. As if he hadn’t been struggling enough to keep Dare on board without Elena getting in his head.
“Telling her that she’s my mate won’t change anything. Not now. Not after last night.”
“Why?”
“Because that was my moment,” he snapped. He sagged back against the seat, defeat clawing at him. “That was my moment and I didn’t hold on to the light.”
“It’s not too late,” Dare began.
He gripped the door handle. “If I back out now, Piper is dead.”
“I know.”
“Do you? Because it’s not your sister that you’ll have to bury.”
Pain flashed across Dare’s face. “You know how important Piper is to me.”
“Then tell me how I fix this? Tell me how I save Piper without sacrificing Elena? Because I don’t know how to save them both, and if I lose Piper…”
“And what happens if you lose Elena?” Dare didn’t wait for him to answer. “Because we both know without your mate, the wolf will eventually take over and you’ll become one of the Forgotten. No more Vaughn. No more humanity, just the animal.”
“There’s no other way.” He shoved the door open.
Dare gripped his arm. “I get that you’ve spent years doing things yourself and you think you’re the only one responsible to Piper. And I know it feels like you’re backed into a corner, but you’re not on your own. I’m here and so is she.”
“Elena—”
“Just talk to her. Please?”
From the corner of his eye, Vaughn saw Elena stagger. “Ivy?” He scrambled out of the car and closed the distance separating them just as her knees buckled.
He caught her around the waist and scooped her into his arms.
Her lashes fluttered but she didn’t open her eyes.
“Elena?” Her name nearly stuck in his throat. “Come on, Ivy. Wake up and look at me.”
Dare was next to him. “Let’s get her inside.”
She still hadn’t stirred by the time Vaughn carried her through the entryway. He cradled her to his chest, willing her to wake up.
“This way,” Dare called out, waving for him to follow.
Down a short hall on the right, he found a small room that might have been used by library staff once upon a time.
Dare jerked the covering off one of the couches, and Vaughn laid her down, dropping to his knees next to her.
“Ivy.” He touched her faced, half expecting to find her feverish like before, but her skin was cool to the touch.
She groaned and turned her face toward him.
“Talk to me,” he coaxed. Tell me you’re okay.
“Have I mentioned that telling me what to do is getting old?” she muttered.
Relief shot through him. “Hey,” he said softly.
She lifted a hand to her head, wincing. “Those really need to stop. At least she didn’t kick me this time.”
Dare shot him a questioning look, but Vaughn didn’t have a clue what she was talking about either.
She started to rise, but Vaughn kept her in place. “Don’t try to move yet. Water,” he said to Dare.
“No problem.” His friend vanished out the door.
“I’m good.”
Not even close.
She put her hand over his eyes. “Not sure how much more of that I can take, Vaughn.”
His stomach wrenched hard, what was left of his world derailing right in front of him.
She held his gaze for a long moment then let her hand fall back to the couch. “Maybe I will just chill here for a while.” Her eyes closed. “I might’ve had a little too much to drink.”
“Right,” he answered, autopilot kicking in at the last second and saving his ass. “I’ll be right back. Stay put, Ivy,” he added at the last second.
Her lips curved. “Good thing I already canceled my plans for the rest of the night.”
He retreated from the room, closing the door behind him only to turn and brace his hands on it.
Dare returned with a bottle of water. He gave him a thoughtful once-over. “You look rattled.”
Epic understatement. “She called me Vaughn.”
“Must be the Stockholm Syndrome kicking in,” Dare teased.
“She never calls me Vaughn. She calls me everything but Vaughn.”
“And?” Dare prompted, not understanding the significance.
“She knows.” Sweet Avalon. It took a moment to force the words past his tight throat. “Elena knows she’s my mate.”
***
“You can’t avoid her forever.”
When he didn’t turn at the sound of Dare’s voice, his friend walked into the small kitchen that complimented the lounge area next door.
Both rooms had probably been frequented by library staff before everyone went home one day and never came back. No one would have left dirty dishes in the sink—never mind the shelves full of books—if the library had closed under typical circumstances.
And if Rutger was involved, nothing about it would have been typical.
He could feel Dare watching him expectantly, waiting for him to say something.
But what the hell was there to say? He didn’t think the dark pit where his stomach used to be could get any bigger but it felt ready to swallow him whole.
He should probably be grateful that she hadn’t called him for not telling her she was his mate. Maybe he would be when he got past the inexplicable urge to shake the silence out of her. She should be furious with him, or at the very least demand some kind of explanation.
Instead she offered only a soft smile that nearly ripped him into a thousand pieces and wanted to rest.
Fuck. Vaughn rubbed at his chest, the growing ache gnawing a little deeper.
“Sympathy pains? Or is the guilt getting to you?”
The guilt had consumed him long ago. The only thing he had left were the nightmare images of losing his sister to the same fate as his parents.
Or so he thought until he watched Elena collapse a few hours ago. The closer they got to the moment when he would have to hand her over, the more vicious his thoughts became. If they hurt her—
“There has to be another way,” Dare said softly. “You know there does.”
He shook his head, but the arguments he’d been clinging to wouldn’t come. What if Dare was right? What if there was another way and he just couldn’t see it? What if there was a way to get Piper back without sacrificing Elena?
He knew better than to hope for that. How many times had he witnessed missions spin out of control because someone thought there was a better way at the last moment?
“I know you think Elena won’t help, but it’s not like that.”
“Because now she knows she’s my mate? It’s not that simple.”
He’d damaged her trust when he walked away from her in Vegas, but kidnapping and planning on handing her over to Piper’s kidnappers would have blown it out of the water completely.
“Even if she was willing to forgive me eventually, I took away her magic.” And the only edge they’d have.
Dare grinned like he was finally getting through to Vaughn. “I’m pretty sure she can handle herself without it. And if we could find a way to use that crown against those bastards—”
“Where is it anyway?”
“Upstairs. Hidden in the stacks.” Dare frowned. “You’re not still worried she’d turn on you, are you? Besides you told her to stay put. She can’t even open the door unless the wraith comes back, right?”
Dare’s words tumbled around in the back of Vaugh’s mind. Something about a door…
Shit.
Vaughn bolted from the room, skidding to a stop a moment later in front of the staff lounge where he’d left Elena. The knob gave way as he shoved the door open and rushed inside.
The room was empty.