Yew Queen Trilogy, стр. 19
Good God. That was not even close to correct.
A memory of Aunt Viv hit me. She’d said that people will tell themselves the most unbelievable stories just so they don’t see what is right in front of their eyes.
“Can we do like a double date thing tomorrow night? I can grab Ezra. That would be fun. Let’s do it! Lucus, you up for a double date?”
Lucus frowned, looking to me for help on an answer as he dried the second plate and set it on the counter.
I began shoving Hekla toward the door. “Maybe you should go. I bet Ami is freaking out.”
“Sure. Sure. But text me.” She cupped a hand at her mouth. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Lucus! Enjoy your hot stuff!”
“Oh my God, please stop,” I hissed.
“I meant the soup, silly!” She waved and left.
The house was far too quiet without her.
I whirled to face Lucus, who had finished up in the kitchen and walked back out to the living room/dining room.
“How did she see you?” I didn’t want to ask if he might be able to lure and feed on her now too. I didn’t want to give him any ideas.
Lucus chewed the inside of his cheek and crossed his arms, studying me. “I don’t know, but now I’m even more curious about your blood. You must have shifter blood.”
As he trailed off, thinking, a really dark thought seeped into my head. If I died—and with me any chance of breaking the curse, not to mention a desperately necessary meal—the immortals in the castle would die too. Problem solved. But I liked life. I really didn’t want it to be over so soon. What if I could lock them in the castle and make it impossible for them to fulfill the curse’s required sacrifice? At the end of the month, they had to give up one of their own to keep the rest alive, but if I kept that from happening, I assumed the curse would end all of their murderous lives.
A twinge of unease seeped through my chest. I remembered the look in Lucus’s face when his younger brothers had run to him during the Mage Duke’s attack.
I had to do this though. It was me or them. Humans or fae. I chose humans. I couldn’t let Lucus’s tragic backstory affect me, or I’d die. Literally.
Okay. I had a plan. I would freeze my heart, ignore the weird feelings I was having for Lucus, and figure out how to shut the castle door for good. Or at least for the period of time when they usually provided the curse’s sacrifice. I had no clue how to accomplish it, but at least I had a goal.
Chapter 14
I locked up the house, then trailed Lucus to a stand of oaks that provided a modicum of privacy between me and my closest neighbor. A few steps in front of me, Lucus reached up to touch one of the dark, lobed leaves. His glamour shimmered like a bubble around him, and the faint outline of his wings and horns reflected the gold of the morning sun. I stopped, taken again with his incredible and exotic beauty. In the trees, free like this, he looked like the one who belonged here instead of me—or any other human for that matter. A creaking and shuffling noise broke the morning quiet as the oak reached its limbs toward Lucus like an invitation to climb. I gawked, mesmerized. He spread his hands, and sapphire blue flowers burst to life at his feet, rising to waist-level and swaying in the sharp, autumn breeze. Vines crawled from the ground and brushed over Lucus’s legs like Hekla’s cat did to me when I visited.
Hekla. Oh, my dear friend. Why were you so wonderful and kind? If she had stayed away, she would’ve been safe. At least for the time being. But now?
One fear chewed my brain so insistently that I had no attention to spare for anything else. Could the fae now lure and feed off Hekla? Lucus hadn’t brought it up, and I sure as hell wouldn’t, but I was dying to put this worry to bed. He would’ve done it right then and there if it had been possible, right? Or maybe he was hoping I hadn’t thought of that and when we returned to the castle, he’d be all Hey bros, I have a nice brunch set up for us later.
I swallowed bile, my fear for Hekla as bitter as the taste on the back of my tongue.
Through the thick cover of the trees, I spotted my neighbor’s patio door sliding open and their adorable but still obnoxiously loud dog padding outside on his squat legs. I barely knew my neighbor, Raven, so I had no idea if she would be joining the dog. For now, she had remained inside.
I reached Lucus’s side, doing my best to ignore the subtle, luring waves of come-hither pouring off him. I tried to breathe in the fall air, but all I could smell was Lucus’s pine resin, spring leaves, and that spicy herbal scent I was beginning to think was specific to him.
Lucus’s gaze was on the dog. The pup walked to the border of the small forest and stopped, its large, floppy ears going flat against its head and a growl building in its throat.
“Can everyone and everything see you now?” I asked.
“Unlike humans, animals are open to more than what their eyes see.”
“So no.”
His gaze narrowed, and he flexed his fingers at his sides. “I don’t think so. Let us test it.”
Before I could argue or grab his arm, he sped through the trees with a grace I envied and walked onto the neighbor’s patio. The dog began barking, his paws coming off the ground with every punch of noise.
Raven must’ve seen us, because she was at the sliding door pretty quickly. She slid it