A hissed breath escapes my lips, my eyes narrowing. “Don’t call me that.”
“I can’t call you ‘Tori.’ I can’t call you ‘my love.’ So many rules. It’s difficult to keep up.”
I try to stay calm, try to remind myself that I need Valen to keep Lucas alive. Though, dead Valen would be easier to take the unicorn hair from. But if he doesn’t have the hair, then I’m fucked. I glare instead. “You didn’t marry.”
“You say that so confidently and yet you were gone for so long. Maybe I did. It’s what’s expected of me.”
Keep calm. Do it for Lucas, who fucking needs you.I scan Valen and scoff. “Please. You want me back. You said so yourself.”
His smile has me questioning everything. We’re close, too close, his eyes barely in focus. He whispers softly into the sliver of space between us, “Are you jealous, my love?”
My jaw clenches, my chest expanding. His cologne is all I can breathe, his heat all I can feel.
His head tilts and he leans forward, my heart leaping and my eyes fluttering closed. His lips brush the corner of mine and I gasp, tingling awareness washing across my lips. It’s as if we are embracing, our chests brushing together, but his hands are still in his pockets. I sway, heady desire taking the last shreds of my sanity. I brace my hands on his chest, the lapels of his jacket sliding between my fingers.
His mouth is at my ear, and I tilt my head back in response. But he doesn’t speak. He doesn’t kiss. Instead, he breathes in like he’s missed my scent as much as I’ve missed his. It’s more devastating than anything he could’ve done and my hands fist in his jacket, gripping tightly and feeling something hard and narrow hidden in an interior pocket. I turn my head towards him, our faces pressed together as I gasp for breath.
Bergamot and neroli. That’s his cologne mixture. And the sweet, sensual spice that is Valentin Bauer the Sixth.
I feel his low voice, my body vibrating with it, as he murmurs five words that ruin my world. “I could never marry another.”
My breath stutters, my chest pumping, and my eyes burn. A long, thin tension builds in me, growing tighter and tighter, until it snaps, my voice cracking. “Valen.”
His hands leave his pockets, and I slip my fingers in along his jacket, collecting the long, hard metal rod I found within the interior pocket as I go, until I wrap my arms around him. I clutch his shoulders desperately, my face pressed into his neck to gulpin his scent. His arms wind around my middle and he holds me just as tightly, our embrace the first true thing we’ve done since reuniting.
My breath trembles. “I can’t. It’s too hard. I have to go.”
He nods. With the sleight-of-hand that Lucas taught me, I slip the metal rod into my sleeve before pulling back. I cup Valen’s face, my eyes searching his before I turn away and bolt through the monuments. I’m not sure what makes me flee faster, the fact that I robbed him of the unicorn hair or that I left my shattered heart behind with him.
I don’t look back until I get to the clearing where I left my transportation circle chalked onto a slate platform. A quick scan confirms Valen didn’t mess with it while I was gone. In the ancient language of magic, I whisper, “Travel.” The circle glows and magic cracks as I teleport back to the circle’s twin in the center of Peripetia’s entryway. The suck on my minimal energy stores and surging adrenaline swirls together, the magic of the circle making the effects worse until I collapse in a faint.
I’m awakened by Jinx slapping me soundly across the face.
I hiss, hand on my cheek, “The fuck?—”
“Do you have it?” Jinx’s eyes are too wide, even for her.
I sit up and nearly hurl, but there’s nothing left in my stomach. With weak fingers, I pull out what I stole from Valen. The thin, silver box glints in the light and the latch releases when I press. It clicks open to reveal a single, long iridescent strand composed of Creation magic.
My heart pounds, my breath fast. I lean forward to study the unicorn hair without touching. I breathe in deeply and the tingling warmth of magic caresses my senses in a playful dance. I can almost feel the sun in the open pastures, smell the meadow’s sweet grass with an array of wildflowers. I take another curious whiff and catch a familiar scent. White evening primrose. The hauntingly delectable aroma warms my frosted heart and littlethreads of tension ease away from my shoulders. Primrose only blooms from spring to summer in the wilds of Delornia. The source not only local, but fresh.
I fight with my slacks before ripping out my loupe. I fix the optical tool to my eye and lean down. Up close, I can make out the little shimmers of barely contained magic waiting to be used. “It’s uncut, thank fuck. No breakage and the follicle is smooth.” I beam. “Oh, it’s a good one.”
Jinx nods, her ears jiggling with the force of it. “How did you get it?”
“I stole it.” I laugh because if I don’t, I might cry. “Lucas will be so proud.” Tears pool in my eyes, but I only laugh harder. My body shakes, but I don’t stop laughing. My hands ball into fists to press against my forehead so I can bow forward.
A littlesnapwithin my soul sends me flinching and the enchantment that I keep on my short hair gives way. Long, red waves of hair cascade around me like a heavy curtain. I prickle from the exposure of my true self, but it’s too late to do anything about it. I sob, my shoulders shaking until I can’t breathe. Jinx doesn’t touch me, doesn’t say anything.
I nearly confess the truth, but I don’t. Instead, I replay Valen’s confession,I could never marry another, over and over until my tears run dry and my head pounds.
Are you jealous, my love?
My eyes flutter shut.Yes.
CHAPTER 7
The pearlescent potion sits in a shallow slate bowl and glows with the same pure light of Creation as the hair that made it. An aura of goodness, of wonder, wafts from it in tendrils. But none of the magic eases the heavy atmosphere in my back room. Not with Lucas doing his best impression of a corpse while lying unconscious on my worktable.
