Aris
Roman steps into the light of the kitchen, scanning Posey from head to toe before turning his sights on me. “I’ve been calling like mad for a day straight. Where’ve you been?”
Posey shuffles her feet before stepping past me, but I stop her, setting one foot after the other, and let my shoulders hang, turning my skeptical expression to that charming smirk I’m known for. I have it down to a fucking science, after all, even if it feels strange wearing it now after so many days of just being… me. With her. Just us.
Roman’s presence feels like an enemy has entered my territory and is currently threatening the woman trying to shrink into the shadow of the stainless steel refrigerator. I have no choice but to bite those feelings back.
“We went exploring on the boat and got caught up in that storm a few days ago. I took her to the hunting cabin up north to ride it out.”
Roman nods, the tension in his shoulders easing. “Yeah, I got swept up in that, too.”
“Why are you here?” Posey says with a squeak, and Roman looks at her like he’s already forgotten his own sister is standing mere feet away. “You said you were coming back in ten days–”
“Well, that was the plan, but when I finally got back to Veiled Valley, planning on spending a day or two in the city before returning home, I heard rumors.” He looks at me. “A fox? Have you heard anything about that?”
Posey goes perfectly still. I notice the way the color drains from her face. It’s such a sharp contrast to the rosy blush she normally wears.
“You came all the way back because you heard a rumor there was a fox in the Gem Lake districts?” I lean over the kitchen island with my elbows braced on the surface, arching a brow. “Seriously?”
“I had Posey to think about, so of course I came back at the first mention of it. I didn’t even bother confirming it. Hadn’t even set foot off the ferry when we reached Veiled Valley, actually. I overheard two deckhands going on about it and made the decision to come back. I came straight here.” He runs his fingers through his hair and snaps his fingers at Posey. “Go get your things. We’re going home.”
“Wh–” Posey looks at me. “What?”
“You’re not staying here with a fox around.”
“Nothing has been confirmed,” I urge, but Roman rolls his eyes.
“It doesn’t matter. When I finally got here after two days stuck in a storm, having to weather it out in some run-down, half abandoned village north of here, it’s all anyone was talking about. Shops are shuttered. Hunting parties are gathering at night. I’m not putting the burden of her safety on you. You’re not family. She’s not your responsibility.”
I can feel Posey staring at me. I can see her out of the corner of my eye, wondering how I’ll react, what I’ll say. No doubt she believes I’m about to spill our secret. I hate that. I hate it almost as much as what Roman says next.
“I don’t care if there hasn’t been a confirmed sighting of a fox shifter in over a century. I’m not risking it. The thought of one of those devils–those disgusting beasts–anywhere near–”
“Roman,” I say with as much calm as I can manage, “fox shifters have been extinct for a very long time. It was likely just a wild fox.”
“Posey,” Roman says, snapping his fingers again and the noise… gods, I have to brace myself for impact, force the clawing sensation blooming deep within me to settle. “Go get your things. We’re catching the noon ferry.
“It’s unnecessary–” I try to say, but Roman turns to his sister, smiling and dripping with sudden brotherly affection I can see right through, his love, or lack thereof, as transparent as glass.
“Do you need help packing?” he says with a bit of a bite in his voice.
“No, I–”
“I’ll help,” I murmur, brushing past Roman and taking Posey by the arm. He doesn’t even notice how I’m gripping her, leading her away from him… because he trusts me with her life.
I fucked his sister, and he has no idea.
I claimed her as mine, and I doubt she knows that, either.
When we get to her room, I shut the door behind us, ignoring the nest that now feels foreign without her fresh scent on the pillows. Snapping out of her heat haze had felt like a hangover, like all I wanted was another drink, just one more bite of her. She looks exhausted when she turns to face me, shaking her head, her lips parting, but I hold out a hand.
“I don’t want you to go with him.”
She stills, blinking up at me. “Aris, I have to!”
“You don’t. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you for three days. Stay with me. Forget about the convent. Come to Veiled Valley with me. Your family will allow it–you know they will. Even Roman wouldn’t be able to argue about his sister marrying the prince of Veiled Valley, and you know that. Our friendship be damned.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not? I know you don’t want to be a priestess–”
“Of course I do!”
“You didn’t say a word about it the entire time we were gone. For someone as passionate and dedicated to the Goddess,” I nearly snarl and realize too late where I’m going wrong, “you didn’t act like it.”
She gasps. “Aris!”
“Stay with me,” I tell her again. “I’m not going to get on my knees and beg you, but you already know you’re throwing your life away. I’m offering you a way out.”
“So you can be unhappy with me for the rest of your life?” she says with a cruel laugh.
Shellshocked, I quickly reply, “What about the last three days makes you believe I was the least bit unhappy?”
“It doesn’t matter. You’ll get bored of me within weeks, Aris. It meant nothing, remember? It was just sex. You do that all that time. People do it all the time.” Her bitter words are a sharp contrast to the suddenly terrified look on her face. I watch her unravel, spewing venom while her eyes fill with tears of… dread?
It doesn’t make any sense.
“Was it just sex to you?”
“I was in heat! I barely knew what I was… wanting until it was… until you–” Tears glisten along her lower lashes. “I’m so sorry. I should have never led you believe that I could–that I wanted–”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying!” She is lying. I can taste the lie. Feel it in my bones.
“Then why are you doing this?”
“Why do you care?” Her voice breaks. “Aris, we can't do this. What happened between us–what you did for me… I…” She closes her eyes, tears dribbling down her cheeks. I resist the urge to reach out and swipe them away, but I’m worried that if I so much as touch her, I won’t be able to let go.
“I’m going to tell you something, and I’m only going to say this once,” I begin, curling my fingers into fists. “I’ve never felt this strongly about something. What you’re doing is wrong. It feels wrong to me. It has felt wrong since the day I found out you were planning to sign your life away. If I had any notion that you were serious about this, that you actually wanted to pledge your life to the Goddess, Posey, I’d support it. But I look at you and see…”
“See what?” she says bitterly.
“I see someone lonely enough to believe that’s all they’re allowed to feel.”
She scrunches her face, her lips pursed tight before she explodes, “You wouldn’t know a Goddess-damned thing about that, Aris. You have a loving, supportive family. You can do whatever you want. Be whoever you want.”
“And that’s where you’re wrong,” I grind out. “I’m a Shadowsynger. The most powerful since my grandfather, and I have a sacred duty to Veiled Valley as a whole to remain there for the rest of my days, to keep the lights on and the shields up, no matter what, even if it means I stay in those towers overlooking the city every day for the rest of my miserable, lonely life.”
She blinks up at me through tears.
I lick my lips, continuing, “I watched both of my sisters get their hearts torn out. I watched my cousin spiral into darkness and another get kidnapped and thrown into hell. I watch my parents and my aunts and uncles try to juggle the world they inherited while threats come from all angles, and I am not allowed to do anything about it. It’s never my name that’s called to come to the front. I was a forgotten middle child. My parents love me. Sure, they do. Wholeheartedly. But I was the one they didn’t need to think about. My path was carved in iron, Posey. If you think you’re lonely, you know nothing about it.” My throat nearly closes around the admission. “And… and another thing, something I… when you were in heat… I’m not just–” Not just a wolf, I almost blurt. There’s a part of me that tried to crawl to the surface when she was in my arms. The part I keep locked away for good reason, especially now, when the entire Ruby district is up in arms about the idea of something else like me being around.
“Posey!” Roman shouts from downstairs, and both of us jump.
She wipes her hand over her face. “I have to go. I know you don’t understand, but this is best for everyone.”
“It’s not what’s best for you.”
“Please,” she whispers. “You don’t have to act like you actually care anymore, okay?”
“Do you really think I’m that dense? Of course I care!”
“You’re acting like I belong to you know!”
“Maybe you do,” I say and effectively silence her. She looks at me, and all I see is my reputation flashing behind her eyes. Maybe that's what this is about. I find it hard to believe, however, knowing Posey. She’s never seen me like that.
She looks suddenly out of place against a backdrop of creams, baby blues, and taupe. Her features are too bright here. Too soft. I want her like she was at the cabin, her skin alight with silver and my shadows dancing over her curves.
Roman calls out her name again, and she turns, hastily dragging her larger suitcase from under the bed. “I have to go, Aris. Please don’t make this any harder than it already is.”
I watch her toss her belongings into the suitcase. She throws her textbooks like they mean nothing, which is the confirmation I need to know I’m right.
“Stay with me. Marry me. Let me fix everything.”
“No,” she says, shaking her head. “I can’t!”
“Our future children will be set for life. They won’t want for anything, and they will be so loved. They won’t grow up like you had to!”
“I can’t give you children,” she hisses, her eyes so cloudy with tears I nearly fall to my knees at the sight of it. Her voice breaks, that earlier ice shattering. “I can’t. Why do you think I’m throwing myself into a convent? You’ve offered me the entire world, and I can’t give you what you really need in return, okay? This is over.”
“Posey–”
“Stop,” she says tearfully, the one word I told her to say when she wanted it to end. She knows it, too, because she holds my gaze, waiting for me to step past my own boundaries, and I can’t.
Half an hour later, Roman carries her suitcase out to his car and doesn’t even help her into the front seat. This is where I should put an end to this idiocy. I should grab Roman by the neck and shake him. I should refuse to allow Posey to leave.
But instead, I stare at the tire marks in the white gravel until the sun sets. She’s long gone, and I’m left feeling so removed from myself that I can’t even rise from the front porch, even when the nearly full moon rises, riling up both my wolf and the fox within.
My fox is especially upset by her absence.
***
It’s well after dark when I finish closing my summer house down and snap my fingers, Gem Lake swirling into the aether, replaced by familiar onyx stone and stained glass lit by moonlight.
I drop my bag on the smooth stone tiles, and the sound carries to the rafters, echoing down each corridor that branches off the grand foyer. I don’t expect a welcoming committee. Those days–the warm days when the castle was full–ended a few years ago. Mom and Dad split their time between here, Moonrise, and the Deadlands. Grandpa Ryatt is constantly being called away to far-off lands, and more often than not, Grandma Ella goes with him.
The man who greets me tonight is unseen but familiar. His excitement riles the massive smokey quartz chandelier hanging precariously over my head. It’s a gnawing, impeccably masculine presence. He’s always been that way, whoever he is. The jokester. The mischievous poltergeist who thinks rattling Soren’s nerves to the point he won’t return to this castle unless Maeve twists his arm is the greatest of achievements.
But his presence is quickly swept out of the foyer by another force. Calm. Warm. The same feeling as being gently picked up off a couch as a child and tucked into bed by a beloved parent. She realizes something is wrong before her ghostly companion does, and while he drags my bag away into the darkness, she remains while I slump to my knees and hang my head, her unseen hand clasping my shoulder.
“It’s nothing,” I lie, and the chandelier rustles in answer.