Page 71 of What did you do?
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, moving to get behind Tarani. Ever since arriving in Seelie, Tarani had done nothing but push my buttons, and I had had enough.
“It means no one wants you here. You’re just her puppet anyway,” Tarani bit out, stepping into me to put her nose into mine.
Had she not been jeopardizing my stay here, I would have really liked her bite.
“Enough!” shouted Eli as a blaze of gold emanated from his skin. His golden wings flared out from his back. “Iwant her here, and we all know Mother wants her in the family—probably more than she wants you, Tarani.” Eli winked at his sister to soften his words, pushing back in between us.
“Trust me, I know. It’s only because she will be the only Artemi not to ascend in history, and the Seelie will dominate the other realms,” Tarani snapped.
“Look, Tarani, it’s no secret that I wish for Caly to be my wife and a part of this family one day, and if Mother has her way, it will be soon, whether you want it or not. Either way, you willnotspeak of her like that in front of me, unless you want to be expelled from the castle with the Fallen,” Eli boomed at his sister.
My belly flip-flopped hearing him say he wanted me as his wife. It sounded just like I had once imagined it would.
Tarani glared through narrowed eyes, looking like she was ready to shout back, but instead of responding, she closed her mouth and stormed off into the forest.
“I’ll go back to the castle. You go get her,” I said. “She’s just being protective of you.”
“It’s fine. She just needs to cool off a little. She knows how to get to the hills on her own. We’ll meet her there once she’s calmed down,” Eli said, taking my hand in his.
Oh god.
What if Mendax was watching? If he saw Eli touching me, he would kill us both.
I pulled my hand free and gave a tight smile when Eli looked at me, puzzled.
“Eli, you know we can’t really get married,” I said with an airy laugh.
“Why not?” He guided us under a large oak, into the shade, giving my skin a much-needed break from the sun.
“I’m not going to accept that deal with your mother. At the ceremony to get my heart back, the smoke will still come. Mendax is still alive. He and I are bonded, and that’s why I still have the smoke. That isn’t going to change once my heart is repaired. I’ll form a new plan to get my heart back from her, but I can’t marry you. I need to find another way. I can’t hurt you,” I said as I traced my fingers over the deep grooves of the oak’s bark.
“You hate the idea of marrying me that much?” he asked, looking surprisingly wounded. “Cal, I love you. I always have, and I always will. Having our lives tied together doesn’t matter to me when I was never going to leave your side anyway. I would do anything for you. Let me take care of you,” he whispered.
My eyes could have bugged out of my head. It was as if my teenage fantasy was coming to life—except…
“It’s not that?—”
“He really is here, alive, isn’t he?” he asked as he grabbed my arm and turned me around to face him.
“Yes. I told you he was.”
“And that is why then?” He began pacing in front of me. “You cannot love him. He is evil! How could someone as good and sweet as you love a monster like that?” he shouted.
“That!” I shoved my finger at him. “That is why I could never marry you. You stopped being my best friend over ten years ago! A letter here and there doesn’t keep things the same. You don’t even know me, not really.” I switched places with Eli and began pacing while he stilled. “How could you? Because I don’t tell you anything about who I really am.”
“That’s not fair, and you know it! I was barred entry after what happened with Commander Von—after I found out what he was doing,” Eli said.
“Don’t put this on me. I never told you to fight him and get yourself banished! I was handling him just fine on my own,” I spat out.
“From where I stood, he was the one doing all the handling,” he snapped back. “I’d have killed him if mother hadn’t sent him to Malvar.”
My chest tightened remembering the day Eli had shown up to surprise me, and instead found my trainer taking certain liberties with me. I barely remembered, I had become so good at flipping a switch and going numb. Sometimes I think it might have been the best training I received from him; other times, I wondered if I had ever turned the switch back on.
“You have no idea what I’ve had to become.” I stopped pacing, having lost all the steam from my rant. The Seelie prince walked a few steps from the shade to stand in the sun, turning to face me with a hard look in his eyes as he reached between his shoulder blades and grabbed ahold of the neckline of his shirt.
“I’m sorry I didn’t know you were Artemi sooner, Caly, but even if I’d have known, I wouldn’t have told you. You’re not from this world. You don’t understand how dangerous it is for an unascended Artemi to be found. There is no way you can understand my reasoning. You have no idea how much I fought my mother on taking your heart when I thought you were a human. Now, I think it was the probably the best move, for your safety. I’d never even known you could take half of an Artemi’s heart. Before he passed away, my father was best friends with your father. I believe that’s how mother knew to save you before Queen Tenebris could get to you.”
He finished pulling off his shirt, and for the first time since we were kids, I saw his bare chest.
