What a fine fucking mess this is. I rub at the base of one of my curling horns in frustration. "Setting aside the supposed safe keeping of the first shard you stole from us and the fact that you're working with Khadyr fucking Blackmore, and not even considering what his intentions with such a powerful magic object might be... why are you here, Lucy?"
She slumps in the chair and shoots me a churlish glare. "Like I said, it wasn't intentional. I grabbed the shard and poof, here I am. Believe me when I say I would rather be literally anywhere else."
"Lie," Yaelyn lets me know in that silky, lulling voice of his.
"Hyperbole," Lucy growls, scowling up at the incubus. "Look, I didn't see a portal. I don't know how I got here. There were a few disorienting seconds of darkness and then–" She shrugs her shoulders.
Yaelyn regards her thoughtfully. "Shadow walking?" he suggests.
"She's not vomiting on herself right now. Unless she walks the shadow realm frequently, she'd be sick to her stomach."
She audibly swallows. "Actually, now that you mention it..."
"Oh fuck," Yaelyn mutters. "She's gonna spew." He releases her quickly, pointing in the direction of the bathroom, though she already knows where it is. She bolts, but not toward the bathroom.
I don't know how she managed to trick him into thinking she trulywasfeeling ill, but she succeeded. I snarl out a curse and slip through the shadow realm then back into this realm, cutting her off at the door. I catch the smirk on her full, pink lips before I catch the glint of the dagger in her hand. We collide and she jams the blade into my thigh. It plunges through scar, sinew, and muscle and, perversely, one fleeting thought registers before the pain does: she keeps her blades sharp, just like I taught her to.
Sense returns and the wound stings, yet she's the one who howls in anguish, letting go of the knife and dropping to the floor. She curls in on herself as pitiable little sobs escape her, pain wracking through her body.
I pluck the knife out of my thigh and toss it into the little tray on the hall table where Yaelyn and I keep our keys, then kneel down beside her, because while her sickness was a trick, I can tell this isn't.
I should leave her weeping on the hallway floor. She's a liar and a thief, and yet... "Fuck," I mutter, then pull her into my arms. She looks up at me through her tears and if she's deceiving me right now, fuck, I'll let her. I gather her close until she's curled up against me, soaking my shirt with her tears. I steadfastly ignore just how good she feels in my arms, small yet so strong. My spark, the barest flicker of light in the dark.
"I have a theory," Yaelyn says quietly as he crouches beside us. "But it's going to be a real bitch to test." He reaches out a tentative hand and at my nod and Lucy's hiccupping sob, he strokes her rust-red hair away from her tear-stained face. She settles at his touch, and he sighs. "I think we're caught in some kind of curse. My guess is that it's something you picked up in Iradil's tomb. It was so long ago that we set the spells and wards... Whatever it is, it's bound you to us. It's why we can't part without the pain you and Reznik experienced. I think it means we're unable to harm each other without that same pain as well."
She looks up at him and rolls her lower lip between her teeth, then slowly gives Yaelyn her hand. He plucks the dagger off the table with a grimace. "Just a little prick, Mischief."
"Said no one ever with you two in the room," she jokes weakly. "Make it quick. Also said no one ever when it comes to you two."
I shake my head, but I feel like I can finally breathe again. "You're feeling better, menace."
She nods. "A little. Yae, get it over with, please?"
He braces himself, squinching one eye shut and then pricks the tip of her index finger with the dagger. Blood wells from her wound and he drops to the floor, hands over his heart like it's trying to rip its way out of his chest.
"I. Fucking. Hate. Being. Right," he grits out between sharp hisses of pain. Lucy crawls out of my arms and over to our incubus, fitting her body around his, spooning him. She jerks her head in my direction, and I take Yaelyn's other side. I cup my lover's face in one hand, stroking his cheek with the pad of my thumb, taking care to keep my claws from scratching him.
"Helps," he breathes out. "More? Need you, Luce."
"Always," she murmurs, pressing a kiss to his neck. She rubs her hand soothingly down his arm from his shoulder to his elbow, then back up, and nuzzles into him while I kiss every inch of his handsome face. He stills between us after a few minutes. Fuck, Lucy didn't hesitate. She saw him in agony and immediately did as she used to when we'd soothe him after his night terrors.
"I think Yaelyn got it worse, and he did far less damage to you than you did to me," I say.
She meets my eyes over the incubus' shoulder. "Sorry I stabbed you. I panicked. Is your leg okay?"
"Spark, that was barely a bee sting to me. It's healed over already. Still taking all your weapons away."
"You can't, Rez. I can't stay here. I'm sorry, but I... I can't. Fuck, now I have to findanothershard for Khadyr. He'll kill me if I don't. You know his reputation."
"What happened to the shard youliterallyjust stole?"
"It's safe," she hedges.
"But not in a way you can give it to Khadyr."
"Bingo. The world's shittiest game of Bingo ever."
CHAPTER3
