Текст книги "The Shadows"

Автор книги: J. R. Ward

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Текущая страница: 42 (всего у книги 42 страниц)

EIGHTY-SIX

Queen Catra vin SuLaneh etl MuLanen deh FonLerahn sat alone in her quarters, the silence around her one that she had created by asking her maids and servants to leave her.

She was not moving into the former Queen’s suite of rooms.

No, she was having those turned into a nursery for the young of those who served in the palace. That way those precious little ones would be close to their parents, and for the first time, servants would not have to leave their sons and daughers with relatives or in the cold, dark jail-like facility near the poor housing area.

That had not been her first decree, however.

No, the first thing she had done, after accepting the mantle of leadership over her people, was to abolish the Anointed One curse.

She had set iAm free.

Not that he knew it. Everyone else in the s’Hisbe did, however, so at least he wouldn’t ever have to worry about seeing her or the Territory again.

Every breath she drew in hurt.

Stars above, that so much damage had been done by one so greedy.

The good news, she supposed, was that she, in concert with s’Ex, whom she had elevated to a position equivalent to King—even though, obviously, they would not be mated—would see to it that no one else was ever treated so capriciously and carelessly.

And as she would never have young, she didn’t need to worry about some kind of latent evil gene popping up.

Indeed, with iAm out of the picture, she was prepared to be celibate. Who else would she want, anyway? She had met her match—it was even decreed in the stars.

That he didn’t want her?

Well, one’s fate was not another’s, no matter the emotions involved—

As the door slid open, and a waft of food smells preceded a servant, she frowned and looked at the time on the ancient windup clock by her dressing table. She had been sitting here for hours.

“I am not hungry,” she said without looking over. “But I thank you.”

When she sensed the figure had not moved from the doorway, she glanced over at the farshi-dressed male.

“Thank you,” she repeated numbly. “But I am not as yet hungry. Please return it to the kitchen—no, wait, offer it to your fellow males and females?”

Instead of bowing and ducking out, the male came in further, the door panel sliding shut behind him.

Then he slowly lowered himself to his knees, put the tray down in front of him, and stretched his torso out flat on the marble floor toward her.

And that was when she felt the echo of herself in his blood.

Unless she was mistaken?

Wait . . .was this truly—

“iAm?” she whispered hoarsely. “iAm, is that you?”

The male figure straightened and removed his hood. And as she clasped her hands to her face, she prayed she hadn’t fallen asleep and was only dreaming.

Because his eyes, those almond-shaped, beautiful black eyes, were shining with love.

“So,” he said in that wonderful voice of his. “I heard I got demoted.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“s’Ex called me. Told me I’ve been demoted. Guess I’m not the Anointed One anymore, huh.”

iAm got to his feet and walked over to her, his big body causing the robes to shift, his scent that of dark spices.

When he was close to her, he lowered himself back to his knees. “You saying you don’t want this anymore?” he drawled, indicating himself. “Really?”

She closed her eyes, and turned away from him, the pain too great to bear. “Please . . . do not torture me.”

He clasped her hands. “Look at me. Come on, look at me . . . maichen.”

As he used the name she had first given him, she opened her lids and glanced over. Her vision was wavy from tears, and he brushed her cheeks with his knuckles.

“You saved my brother,” he said.

“No, I didn’t. I was too late.”

“He survived.”

“It nearly killed him. This whole nightmare . . . nearly killed him.”

“You were not the cause, you were the solution I had been begging for.”

“I lied to you.”

“And I forgive you.”

“How?” she choked out.

He leaned up and brushed her mouth with his. “You’re easy to forgive. You risked your life to go find out the truth. You were the one who found the lies and turned everything around. You are the savior I’ve spent my whole life praying for, Your Highness.”

She shook her head. “Do not call me that. Please. I picked maichen because I don’t believe I’m better than anyone else. With beating hearts and open minds, we are all the same.”

“See,” he whispered. “You just keep getting more beautiful.”

She looked at him for the longest time. Then, with a shaking hand, she reached out and touched his face. In response, he pressed his lips to her fingertips.

“This is real,” he told her. “You can trust this. You aren’t going to wake up and have this be over. You and I? This is our beginning.”

“I love you,” she said in a rough voice. “I want no one else but you.”

iAm smiled and pushed in between her legs, bringing his body against hers. “And I feel the same way, my maichen. I love you, I love you . . . I love you. . . .”

As he started to kiss her, she found it hard to believe that it was really happening. That he had come back to her. That once parted asunder, they now were cleaved as a single whole.

Pulling away a little, she asked, “You’re sure this is real?”

He shrugged and smiled at her. “Of course it is. You and I were written in the stars. . . .”

With that, he kissed her lips again.

And she kissed him back.

EIGHTY-SEVEN

The meteor shower happened at midnight on the dot.

As Trez stepped free of the mansion’s warmth, and walked some distance past the courtyard and onto the descending drive, he got out of the lee of the exterior security lights, and that was when he looked up and saw the sky clearly.

Against a dense, velvety black and among the pinpricks of bright white stars, a sprinkling of flashes was cast across the sky, like gold dust let loose from an open palm.

He smiled sadly. “Thank you, my queen. I needed this.”

Watching the display, he felt both very alone and totally connected, especially as he reflected on that vastness above.

If anyone ever wanted to sense the infinity of time and existence, all they had to do was look at the night sky and feel their precious dead staring back at them. It was the great duality of union and separation.

It was just as his Selena had told him at the door to the Fade.

He wanted her beside him so badly that he’d woken up again with a wet face and a soggy pillow. But yet he was here, upright in his boots, prepared to somehow figure out how to breathe while the one who had made his lungs work was on the other side.

“I’m going to go now,” he said. “Come with me—”

Trez jumped and spun around.

Sure as he knew there was no one behind him, he could have sworn a gentle hand had rested on his shoulder.

He prayed it was the ghost of his shellan. If it wasn’t, he was probably losing his mind.

Short trip.

Wha-hey.

Closing his eyes, he had to wait a moment for the concentration to come . . . and then he was off, scattering his molecules through the cold, clear autumn night.

When he re-formed, it was in front of Sal’s Restaurant.

He supposed he could have gone around to the back, but no. This was a big night, a kind of reintroduction for him. He would enter through the front.

Going over to the keypad by the glass doors, he entered the code and then opened his way in. Instantly, the old-school Rat Pack decor sank in for him, the red-and-black flocked wallpaper bleeding into his retinas, the he’d-been-here-a-thousand-times sense seemingly both accurate and a lie.

Walking forward, he mounted the couple of steps and went by the hostess stand; then headed past the dining rooms and into the bar area in the back. The flap doors to the kitchen were over on the right, and he took his leather jacket off as he went, leaving it on the bar.

The place was empty as usual on a Monday night.

His clubs were closed, too.

He was going to go to them tomorrow night, though. Because . . . well, that was just what he was going to do.

Unless the Brothers needed him.

Jesus, and he thought he’d owed Rehvenge before? It was nothing compared to what he felt for the Black Dagger Brotherhood and their King.

Anything, anytime for those males.

Forevermore.

He found himself hesitating at the kitchen’s entrance, staring at the pair of doors, both of which had circular windows of Plexiglas in them so that the waitstaff didn’t smack each other around as they carried trays of food in and out.

Putting his palm on the one on the right . . .

 . . . he finally pushed in.

Right away, the smell of his brother’s famous marinara sauce hit his nose—and actually, for the first time since his Selena passed, he felt a pang of hunger.

iAm was facing the stove, stirring a huge pot with a spoon as long as an arm. “. . . proper amount of oregano. It’s mission-critical.”

Over on the left, at the far end of the stainless-steel counter, a small round table had been set up with a linen tablecloth, place settings, and flowers in the middle. And the Queen of the Shadows was sitting at the thing, her head and hair exposed, her beautiful, kind face tilted toward his brother . . . her eyes lit with such devotion and love, Trez took an instant adoration to the female.

She noticed his presence before iAm, Mr. Formerly Silent But Now Chatty Cathy, did.

With a quick flush, her face changed, tension tightening the features, squeezing out her smile.

iAm wheeled around. “Oh, hey, brother, you made it.”

“Ah, yeah.” Trez pushed his hands into the pockets of the jeans he’d worn. “I’m here.”

“Well. Ah, good.” iAm came around, and even though they weren’t normally huggers, he gave a good, hard embrace. “Ah . . . so, yeah. Thanks for coming.”

“Thanks for having me.”

They both looked at the Queen. Who slowly rose to her feet and smoothed down the shimmering robe she wore.

Diamonds. It was covered with a fine mesh of diamonds.

And for a moment, panic fisted Trez’s chest, the sight of those gems set in metal returning him to—

No, he thought. That was not necessary. That was no longer the reality they were all living in.

It was over. The nightmare was well and truly over, and he was going to need to trust that—because this female? She was going to be part of his family.

There was no way the two of them weren’t getting mated ASAP.

He could smell the bonding scent riding on the air over all those Italian spices.

Trez broke off from his brother and went over to the tall, slender female.

It felt really fucking bizarre, but goddamn it, he sank to his knees and prostrated himself at her feet.

“Oh, please don’t,” she said as he began to recite the proper greeting. “No, please. I’m . . .”

When he looked up, she had actually gotten down on her own knees with him.

“Please,” she said. “Call me maichen. That’s what iAm calls me.”

maichen. As in maid? Trez thought.

Huh. Now he had another reason to like her.

Sticking his palm out, he said, “Hi. I’m iAm’s brother . . . Trez.”

She started to smile. Then she laughed—and clasped what he’d offered back. “Hi. I’m iAm’s—what’s the word?”

“Wife. Well, soon to be,” iAm said roughly as he came over. “But ‘wife’ is what you’re going to be out here in Caldwell.”

She squared her shoulders and tried it again. “Hi. I’m iAm’s wife . . . maichen.”

Trez smiled back at her. “Nice to meet you . . . maichen.”

* * *

Some two hours later, the three of them were still around that little table. After an initial awkwardness, it was a shock how easy it was. Then again, even though she was a queen, iAm’s maichen was down-to-earth, funny, sweet.

And man, oh man, was she in love with him. She couldn’t seem to take her eyes off her man, and every time he looked at her in return, she blushed.

Jesus, if Trez could have picked someone for his brother? She would have been it.

“More cannoli?” iAm asked as he got up with his plate. “I need another.”

“No, thank you,” maichen said. “I’m so full, I think this robing is going to split.”

“I wish you’d met my queen,” Trez blurted to her.

As both of them froze, he shook his head. “No, don’t freak out on me. I’m . . . I just wanted to say it. I think Selena would have thought the world of you.”

maichen looked at iAm. Looked back at him. Then she put her hand over Trez’s. “I know I would have adored her. iAm spent most of this afternoon talking about her.”

“Really?” Trez said, glancing across to his brother. “You did?”

iAm came back with a couple of cannoli. “Yeah. I wanted maichen to know who her sister-in-law was.”

Annnnnd cue the eye sting.

Shit.

Looking away to the stove, Trez cleared his throat a couple of times. “I think that’s awesome. That’s just . . . really awesome. Thank you.”

When he was able to shift his focus back, he found the pair of them staring into each other’s eyes, as if they were so grateful to have one another, as if they knew just exactly how lucky they were . . . as if they had every intention of cherishing each night they had together.

May it be a hundred thousand more.

As Trez looked at them both, he thought his queen had been right. If he had stayed up in the Fade with her? iAm would not have this moment, that female, these coming years.

Selena had been one hundred percent correct.

Painful as it was to be without her, agonizing as some nights were undoubtedly going to continue to be . . . seeing his brother happy and in love gave him a sudden peace about it all.

Somehow, in the midst of the great infinite, and in spite of his mourning, he knew he was exactly where he was supposed to be at this point in time.

Guess it was fate.

As iAm leaned in to kiss his mate, Trez tilted his head back and mouthed, Thank you, my queen. We needed this.