I slapped his hand away, but he didn’t even seem to be surprised by the move. It was like he’d taken my measure and prepared himself for how this was going to go. Rue was also on his feet now, but when he reached for me, I side-stepped him.
“I knew it,” I hissed, my teeth grinding so hard I was surprised not to find myself choking on bone dust. “You told me you were filing paperwork, but instead, I find you out on a date! How fucking predictable.”
“Love, it’s not—”
“No!” I shouted, cutting him off before he could start in with the excuses, uncaring of the heads turning to look at what the commotion was. “I don’t want to hear how it’s not what it looks like, that there’s nothing going on between you two. How naïve doyou think I am?”
My face grew hot, my pulse pounding in my temples until I saw red. Everyone who’d ever hurt me, lied to me, turned their back on me. My parents, supposed friends, lovers, the very clients who came to me for help. I let every betrayal rise to the surface, bubbling out of me like a volcano spewing red-hot lava.
A hysterical laugh bubbled out of me as I shook my head, tears threatening to spill down my cheeks. “I should’ve known better than to trust a smooth-talker like you. So charming, right up until the very end… all so you can get away with whatever you want.” I choked on a sob at the expression on Ruadan’s face; I might as well have slapped him for how betrayed he looked.
“Uly, please,” he begged, and his voice broke. He took a deep, steadying breath, then pinned me with a look that carried such grief and agony… and hope. “We’re supposed to be in this…together.” That one word broke me, and I had to look away. “Remember?” This time when he reached for my hand, I let him take it. He entwined our fingers, and I took strength from that touch, squeezing his hand just once before I let him go.
I swallowed thickly, steeling myself for what needed to be done. “I was never going to be enough for you,” I whispered, the belief that had haunted me my whole life. And then I put the final nail in the coffin. “I reject you, Ruadan.”
His face crumpled as I turned away, and distantly I heard the click of a camera shutter. The paparazzi would always get their story. Good, I thought. I hoped they shouted this story from the rooftops. Leteveryoneknow what he did.
Cameron followed me out, silent support at my back. He didn’t say a word, and when I came to a sudden halt two blocks later, he simply opened his arms and let me fall into them, my tears soaking into his shirt.
Who could have guessed, after everything I’d been through in my life, that I would ever let myself fall in love again, but… As much as it hurt, I knew it was something that had to be done. I pressed my hand to my stomach, where a perfect, precious life had begun to grow. I refused to regret it for a second.
Chapter 22
Ruadan
ThistimewhenIopened that unmarked door in the dark alley downtown, it didn’t open into a restaurant kitchen. Part of me had still been expecting clattering pots and bickering staff, fragrant steam and structured chaos. Instead, I found myself face to face with a deathly silence and clinging darkness that seemed to breathe with a living pulse all its own. My heart was racing, palms sweaty where I clung to the doorframe, staring down the rough stone steps descending into shadows.
Love made me a desperate man, and that meant risking it all, no matter the cost.
When I first accepted this case, it had seemed such a simple thing, to track down a criminal and see them punished. But now, here I was, with a much different outcome. I was here to ask for her help…
Everything inside me screamed that this was a point of no return. I knew that if I fucked this up, I would never see Ulysses again. And it was with my mate in mind, held tightly in my heart, that I forcedmyself to descend the carved steps. The door slammed shut behind me with a chilling sense of finality. One way or another, I would not be walking out of here today.
The air grew damp the deeper I descended, and somewhere in the shadows I heard the scuttle of claws on stone as unseen creatures scurried to hide. Torchlight flickering ominously across the bare stone surrounding me, but the goosebumps that pebbled my skin had nothing to do with the bracing chill. It was the sense of wrongness that raked its claws over me—intome. I could feel her there, digging ever deeper and taking my measure. And as if she could sense the desperate man I’d become, I could feel her rippling pleasure.Yesss, she seemed to intone,come closer, come to me. You’re mine now, you belong to meeee…
My steps nearly faltered, but somehow, I kept going. I had no earthly clue where I’d been transported to as soon as I crossed through that threshold, though it was obvious I was no longer in Valleywood. Was this the underworld, some private level of Hell?
At the bottom of the stairs, the ground flattened into an uneven stone terrace, broken by stalagmites reaching for their counterparts above, glistening in the firelight. And across the terrace… I swallowed my gasp.
Apate was a sight to behold, sitting on her throne, dressed as delicately as any doll, and yet her power battered at me like a fist. Even now that I’d been granted access to her hidden cave, there was no point in fighting her. There was no way I could win against her, not if she could simply poof me straight back out of here.
Her face was disguised beneath a black lace veil, revealing only the sheen of her eyes, clever and assessing. “I’m so glad you accepted my invitation, Ruadan,” she said, her voice echoing through the vaulted chamber, rough and otherworldly. “It was fated to happen sooner or later, though I bet these were not the circumstances you wereanticipating.” She reached over to a small delicate table beside her throne and picked up a copy of the dreaded magazine,The Mischief Daily, and fanned herself with it. “Quite the little mess you’ve made for yourself, juggling two men. I never knew you had it in you.”
I didn’t need the reminder. I knew exactly what that trashy paper said about me. I’d seen the story splashed across the city about Valleywood’s hottest bachelor, the district attorney turned homewrecker, and the messy public breakup. Since last week, the story had been picked up by several online celebrity news sites.
“I didn’t do anything!” I snapped, fists balling instinctively at my sides as rage flared inside me. “I would never betray my mate like that, could never eventhinkabout touching another man, but he… he left me anyway.” I shut my eyes tight, hating the words as they passed my lips. “He won’t give me a chance to explain, won’t even answer my calls.”
“And so here you are,” she drawled, throwing the magazine aside. “What would you like me to do about your little dilemma?”
“Please, I need your help,” I rasped, my throat tightening, threatening to cut off both my words and breath. “I need him. He’s everything to me.” Not a single word of what I said was a lie.
“I could fix it, make it so he takes you back…” Even though I couldn’t see her face through the veil, I couldfeelthe smile twisting her lips, cruel and scheming. “And what will you give me if I do this for you? I’m not a charity, I don’t do anything for free.”
“Whatever you want. Anything!” I dropped to my knees right there on the stone floor, crawling forward to set my hands upon her feet. “Name your price.” I just hoped it was within my power to pay it.
She leaned forward and ran her hand down my cheek in a tender caress that had my stomach threatening to empty itself right here in her lap. “So handsome,” she cooed, “and so powerful.” It tookeverything in me not to flinch back from her touch. “I would have a taste of it. That is my price, consider it a small snack. You will need to let me in, of course, just temporarily. And by the time I’m done, your mate will once more be yours.”
“H-How?” I stuttered out.
