“Oh, I was home.” He shakes his head as the words open a wound in my heart I thought had healed long ago. “That afternoon, my mother told my father that I was taking you to the ball as a date, not as a friend. He pitched a fit. See, up until then, he’d tolerated the fact we were friends because he never thought his son would dare slum it with a pixie romantically. The very idea was beyond his comprehension.”
My breath flows out of me as if he’s punched me in the gut.
“I stood up to him. Told him that not only was I going to the Yule Ball as your date but that I loved you.”
Now my breath catches, and I’m just confused. If that’s true, then—
“He poisoned me with blue iron, Sophia. I didn’t come to the ball because I couldn’t. I was locked in a room, completely drained of luck.”
ChapterEighteen
Going on tilt is not “mixing up your play.” — Steve Badger
Icy tendrils crawl along my skin and make the tiny hairs at the base of my scalp stand on end. “W-what?” I ask, unable to keep my voice from trembling. Blue iron is prohibited inside Devashire. If anyone knew about the small amount inside Kiko, I could get in big trouble. Poisoning another fae with it is grounds for imprisonment.
His jaw works and his eyes meet mine. “My father poisoned me and locked me up. In his words, he was keeping me from tarnishing the Delaney family name. I was so fucking sick. He drained me of so much luck I went negative and puked for hours. It was so bad, my mother couldn’t take it. Eventually, she packed her bags and left. Ended up divorcing him over it. That and other reasons.”
“Your parents are divorced?” I had no idea. All the luck in the world and they couldn’t fix their family or their marriage. I shake my head. “Wait, this doesn’t add up. I didn’t leave immediately. It was… weeks. Why didn’t you come tell me? Why didn’t you try to explain?”
His jaw is so tight, I think he might snap a muscle. A shadow moves behind his eyes. “Several reasons. First, we were out of school, on winter break. I had no excuse to leave the house and my father forbade it—forbade it in the sense I was watched twenty-four hours a day. He wouldn’t let me speak to anyone, so I couldn’t get a message to you. He took my phone. When I finally got it back, you wouldn’t answer my texts. You wouldn’t take my calls.”
“I left without my phone. Too easy to track.”
“Your mom eventually told me as much. Soon after, my mother moved out and left me behind … left me with him. My home life was in tatters.”
“Wait… your mom left without you? Knowing he’d poisoned you?” After what I learned about how she purposefully forgot him as a child, this doesn’t surprise me as much as it should, but still seems exceptionally cruel.
He brushes a hand over the sleeve of his suit, a disgusted expression twisting his lips. “She didn’t have a choice. My father is the most powerful leprechaun in Devashire. I don’t blame her, not really. She was trying to make it out alive. And that’s the second reason, Sophia. He’s too strong. What do you think would have happened if I’d found a way to get to you? What do you think he might have done to you if I’d tried to make things right back then? He’d poisoned his own son. He’s above the law. Even if I could have found my way out of his grasp, I couldn’t put you at risk by being seen with you again.”
For a second, I’m tempted to doubt what he’s saying to me. For years I’ve convinced myself that Seven was the villain of my life. Except I can see the pain etched into his face, and it’s real. He’s many things, but unlike me, he’s a horrible liar. Besides, what he says about Chance being above the law rings true. Chance isn’t just lucky, he’s rich and well-connected politically. A sick feeling swells inside me, and I cough again.
His gaze narrows on me. “After you left, I looked for you. I was barely eighteen when I got involved with the security division of Lucky Enterprises to have access to the systems I needed to search for you. When I became an adult, I amped up the search. I’ve got to hand it to you Sophia. You vanished. I started to think you’d died.”
“I was careful. I changed my appearance and used luck to secure a passport. Still, with all the luck at your disposal, I don’t know why you didn’t find me. I was good, but not that good.” It’s so weird. Donovan was able to find me, after all, and he’s human. “What does this have to do with what happened with your father tonight?”
“He saw me at the club with a pixie. You, but not you. He doesn’t usually come in, but he said he was there to meet a colleague. He laid into me. Threatened to cut me out of the Delaney Empire and leave everything to Evangeline if I didn’t check myself.”
I can’t curb my sharp intake of breath. I knew Chance was an asshole, but hearing it from Seven’s lips is still shocking. “Can he do that?”
“Unfortunately, yes. He owns a controlling interest in everything under the Lucky Enterprises brand. I might be CEO of the club and COO of the casino and hotel, but he can still have me ousted. My father is a greedy son of a bitch, Sophia. My mother got precious little in the divorce. Enough to keep her comfortable for the rest of her life, but nowhere near what she deserved. But it’s not the money that worries me. I don’t care about the money. I never did. What worries me is the man himself. If he wanted to hurt you…”
“He’s not going to hurt me.” I shake my head. “You said yourself he didn’t even know it was me there today.”
He rubs a hand over his face. “He saw you at the casino yesterday… Tonight, he blamed you being back for reviving my interest in pixies. He said he was disappointed that he hadn’t gotten rid of you back then for good.”
“Gods, he’s a dick.” I want to vomit. Never did I realize how deep Chance’s hatred ran for me and my kind. “Don’t worry about it, Seven. When we meet about the case, we’ll just be careful to meet where it won’t be an issue. I’ll stay on my side of Dragonfly, and he can stay on his.”
Seven closes his eyes and gives his head a hard shake. My words seem to have enraged him rather than comforted him. He strides toward me, sending the koi darting off as he stomps over their river to reach me. “What if I don’t want to stay away from you?”
I take a step back. “What do you mean?”
“Please say you forgive me, Sophia.” His voice cracks. “You have no idea what this has done to me over the years. Once I heard what happened to you, what he said to you, I tortured myself thinking about it. I couldn’t apologize then, but I can now. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“So you knew… before this. You knew what he’d said to me?”
He grunts. “River told me. Popped me one too.” He rubs his stubbled jaw as if he can still feel it. “I couldn’t explain to him what my dad had done. I was too embarrassed and afraid of what would happen next. This can’t get out. You know that, right? Not ever.”
I scoff. “You were a kid, and he was abusive. You should have been removed from his care. Your mother should have protected you. She should have taken you with her. People need to know what kind of awful man he is.”
