“Don’t put it past her to find a way to break the curse just to have you for herself.”
I resist baring my teeth. “Good luck to her. I’ve spent centuries looking for an antidote. The Gowdies are the most powerful coven of animators on the planet. They’ll be pulling her strings the moment she bares her fangs.”
Cassius nods, turning serious. “Just be careful. There’s something about Valeska. I don’t trust her.”
“Considering she likely murdered her predecessor....”
“More than that, Damien.” He narrows his eyes, upper lip curling in disgust. “I sense she’d kill every last vampire in her own coven to reach her goals. She has no loyalty to our kind and values nothing beyond herself.”
The shadows in the room shift and rearrange with our shared tension. “I felt that in her presence too. I’ll be careful.”
“Excellent. If you want me to introduce you to the Chicago coven master?—”
“No. Night Haven is home.”Plus, it’s closer to Eloise.
“Understood. Still, you’re welcome to stay for a few days if you think it will help get you out of sight and out of mind. This city is brimming withnightlife.”
“I will stay, but I’m not here because of the queen.”
“No?”
I tell him about Eloise —everything from how she came to have the candle in her possession to the taste of her blood —and then I command the shadows to paint the tattoo on her back in the air between us.
“It’s definitely a sigil. I recognize several of the arcane symbols.”
“But not the figure itself. It’s not a witch’s bloodline. I know that much.”
“Morpheus didn’t have any insight?”
“No. Not exactly. Recently I’ve learned that Diana Harcourt was hired to paint Bad Witches Club. She was a local artist, and several vampires suspected she was magical, but no one ever knew what she was. She claimed she was human but a friend to the supernatural.”
“Maybe that’s it then. You say, aside from the effect her blood has on you, Eloise seems human.”
“Yes… but...” I scrub my face with my hands.
“What is it? You look tortured.”
“I’m falling in love with her, Cassius, more deeply than I’ve ever loved anyone, in this world or the last.”
“Fuck.”
“Right, fuck.” I stand and pace the room. “At first, I assumed she was a witch, binding me with some new spell I hadn’t yet encountered. But the more I’m with her, the more I’m convinced she’s human. I’m not sure which terrifies me more. I need to know if it’s real.”
He sips his drink, delivering a thoughtfulhmmmfrom his glass. “Tell me, Damien, what do you love about her?”
I rub my jaw, trying to put it into words. “The first time I saw her, I thought she looked like a typical human. The worst kind.”
“Entitled? Wrapped up in her own little corner of eternity?” Cassius fills in.
“Exactly. But then I noticed more. She’s young but living in this house that doesn’t even have a television in the parlor. And I can smell death in the place. She’s soaking in it. The more I learned about her situation, that she’d left her abuser and given up a wealthy lifestyle to help her grandmother die, the more I came to respect her. She’s afraid. The scent of her fear burns in my nose often when we’re together. But she fought for my help, desperate to save her home, not for herself but for her grandmother’s sake, a woman who is dying anyway.”
“You love her because she’s selfless.”
“No.” I take a deep breath and blow it out slowly. “Selflessness and stupidity are too often bedfellows.” I think back to my interactions with Eloise. “She smells human. Her heart flutters like a human’s. The Gowdie witch confirms she is human. Aside from the sigil, which is in the wrong place to be a sigil, there is no reason for me to suspect she has magic. But that tattoo belied everything else about her. It’s a sign that there’s more inside her, a flame that can’t be extinguished.”
Cassius scratches the back of his head. “Why do I feel like you’re going to break into a stanza of ‘Candle in the Wind?’”
A laugh bubbles from deep within me. I’ve come to the right place. “I’m not drawn to her because she’s selfless. I love her, Cassius, because she’s brave in the way of a warrior. That thing I saw in her that first day, she’s shown it to me again and again. She’s a fighter. She dauntlessly pursues what she feels is right. She’s smart. Reckless perhaps at times but she knows her odds and overcomes her fears to protect the people she loves. In threehundred and eighty years, she is the only candle bearer who ever asked for my name, the only one who cared if I wanted to do as she commanded. She is one of a kind. To have a mate like that. To not be alone anymore....”
