Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

Kellan

My body relaxed as I sunk into the chair across from Ernest and closed my eyes. I'd needed that second away from Josephine. I had too many things bouncing around inside.

The good, the bad and the ugly.

It felt raw and built in my stomach like a cement heart.

Her taste. The smell of her skin.

I wasn't one to believe in soulmates, but this was other-worldly. This was magic. The kind that blinded you from making logical decisions. The kind that pushed you toward whatever would get you closer to someone.

Never mind the consequences of your actions.

They are safe.

And that scared me the most. The unknown of what I would do to protect her. Lunge at a demon or let Deidamia into our realm.

Ernest cleared his throat after several minutes of silence, and I was thankful for it. I didn"t want to drown in my own thoughts. "You believe me now?"

I peeked one eye open as he rested his interlaced fingers over his belly and waited for an answer.

"Perhaps I believe you more than before, but I'm not sure what I'm doing. That is a little girl in there."

Ernest chuckled. "She's grown, Kellan. She's just not hundreds of years old and as wise as you are. You forget, not everyone is doomed to living forever."

"I don't need reminding, thank you."

Ernest tilted his head, a twinkle in his eyes. "What do you suppose we do?" he asked. "Deidamia is watching us. There is no use in running right now. We need a plan to stop her."

I shrugged. "I don't know anything about Deidamia other than she eats people to survive, and someone stole something from her. She let me go last time. I didn't escape. This time I caught her off-guard by showing up. I don't know how to kill her."

Ernest pursed his lips. "Maybe we don't."

"How on Earth do we defeat her without killing her?" I asked. "She can travel from realm to realm. Unless you decide to take her magic and trap her—"

Ernest sat up and pointed his crooked finger at me. "That ... is an excellent idea."

I sat up slowly, silently checking his pupils to make sure he was still here with me. "Do you know how to accomplish that? Fern seems to think you use your magic for good—"

Ernest sighed heavily. "I'm a fae, not a witch. My magic is used for good things because I choose that for myself. Deidamia's magic was given to her by someone evil. I was born with my powers."

"So, Deidamia's powers can be taken because she wasn't born with them. What did she do? Make a deal with the devil?"

Ernest's old gaze settled on mine. "More or less, son."

A dark shiver worked its way down my spine. I knew she was terrible, but I didn't realize she'd given away so much for the life she has now.

I sat back in the old chair, stretching my legs out wide with my mind running crazy. "How do we take it away, and I think a better question to ask is: what was taken, and why is it so important?"

Ernest stroked his long beard. "Give me a cookie and I'll tell you."

I jerked, forgetting the elf was in the house. Ernest had him in a small pet carrier, which made me laugh. "I'm not giving you anything," I said. "Tell me or you die."

The elf attempted to stretch his arms but hit the ceiling. "If I had some room ..."

"Talk, elf," I demanded.

Sighing, he laid on his stomach and rested his chin against his hands. "The only thing Deidamia had that is priceless is her spinning wheel. The spindle."

"A spindle?" I asked.

He nodded. Taking off his hat, he scratched his balding head. "Yes. It's how Deidamia stays young. It's magic. It spins golden string that keeps her young. She always has a piece of it on her. In her shoelace. The pocket of that ratty robe she always wears."

Leaning forward, I braced my elbow against my knee. "How do I know that you aren't lying?"

"Why would I lie?" he asked.

"Because you're locked in a cage, wanting out. Tell me how you know about the spindle?"

The elf rolled over to his back and crossed his feet. "I grew up in the forest close to the Dark One. My small village had been there for decades. We were very aware of Deidamia. We had to be. The thing our village did over the years to keep us safe was keep a close eye on her. The elves snuck into her castle on numerous occasions. They saw the spindle."

My gaze turned toward Ernest,

who looked unimpressed by his story.

"Fine," the elf said dramatically. "Don't believe me. Keep sitting around here with this old man hoping for answers."

Ernest chuckled. "I had planned to let you free."

The elf opened his mouth when Ernest flung a blanket from the back of his chair over the top of the cage. "Ah, come on!"

"What do you think?" I asked. "Why would she give me a potion that makes me live forever, but she can only live forever from some golden thread?"

"Good point," Ernest said. "However, making a potion for someone else doesn't mean that she can make one for herself. You can help someone else fall in love, but not conjure your own love. There are rules."

I sat back. "So, you're saying the elf isn't lying?"

"—I'm not lying."

Suddenly, something hit me. I sat up straight. "When I was in the , that crow followed me. There was one time he landed on my knee with a golden thread in his mouth."

Ernest stilled. "So, the elf is telling the truth?"

"—I told you!"

"Perhaps," I said, nodding my head. "That means we know what she's lost, and the reason she wants it back so badly is because it's keeping her young."

"Not just that," Ernest said. "It's keeping her alive. She's so old that if she doesn't get the spindle, she'll die when it wears off."

A smile brightened my face, and it felt foreign to me. "Then we know what we need to do. Keep her away from the spindle and thread."

Ernest agreed. "She will come looking for us," he said casually. "When she gets here, we'll keep her hostage."

"For how long?" I asked. "We don't know how long the thread lasts."

Ernest slowly stood to his feet. "Tomorrow I'll try to find out what I can. Tonight, we all need to rest. All of us."

The pressure of a night's sleep weighed on me. I wasn't the one to give in to sleep. When I wanted to know something, I wanted to know then.

Ernest stopped at the doorway to his room. "Go to sleep, Kellan. I think you'll find it very peaceful."

I didn't realize what he meant until I stood up and walked toward the room. I halted next to the door, my hand on the handle, my gaze settled on the worn wood.

I can't do this. I have to sleep in the same bed as her. This time with no guards or boundaries between us. The warmth I knew we'd cause under the blankets, and the smell of her skin so close to mine ... just the thought had me reeling.

I ground my teeth to keep myself together. My body was ready for this. It'd been so long since a woman took up part of my bed. So long since I'd wanted one to.

"Are you going to go inside?"

I have no privacy ...

"Fern," I snapped, looking down at her faerie face. She was smiling a half-smile with a twinkle in her eyes. "I don't need any commentary from you. I'm ... going."

"You've been standing there for five entire minutes. Do you need help inside?"

"Stop pressuring me," I said over my shoulder.

She wrapped her palm around her mouth to stifle her giggle. "She's waiting for you. I can hear her trying to stay awake."

I could too. Her soft sighs and moving around on the mattress. The temptation was a dark siren.

"Go," Fern said loudly, shoving me into the door.

I attempted to grab her as she ran down the hallway, but she slipped from my fingers. Now I had to go inside.

Opening the door, moonlight streamed into the room, brightening Josephine's face as she sat up in the bed. "I thought I heard whispering," she said.

"I was telling Fern goodnight," I said, walking over to the opposite side of the bed. I felt her eyes on me as I fiddled with the things in my pocket and the hem of my t-shirt.

Should I take it off? Was it too soon?

Josephine's laughter filled the room, and she leaned back against her pillow, a dark halo of hair surrounding her head.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"Are you scared to lay with me? I won't rape you, I promise."

Smiling, I turned back the blankets and laid on top of them. She turned to face me, waiting on me to do the same.

Her breath hit my mouth as I turned, and it warmed me. "Did you two figure anything out?"

My fingers itched to reach over and touch her in every way she would let me. I wanted it. Needed it. Her gaze dropped to my mouth as I spoke. "We think someone stole her spindle with magic thread that keeps her young, but the elf told us that, so we're not one hundred percent sure—"

Josephine's eyes widened. "He's telling the truth."

Unable to stop myself, I reached over and laced my four fingers around the back of her neck. "Why do you say that?"

"Because I found a spindle necklace on my bed before Deidamia took me."

"And I saw the crow with a golden thread in its mouth. Do you know who would have taken that from her?"

She shook her head. "No."

I nodded, brushing the pad of my thumb against her bottom lip and listening to a moan slip from it. "What are we going to do?" she whispered.

My other hand involuntarily gripped her T-shirt and tugged her closer, her body heat raising my temperature quickly. "If she needs that to live, we're going to strip her from her powers and trap her here."

"How?" she asked, squirming as I braced my thigh between hers.

"That's a good question," I answered, lowering my mouth to hers.

Josephine whimpered at my kiss. The urgency in her body fueled me. She wrapped her leg around my waist, grinding down on my thigh and making my head spin in circles.

The taste of her mouth and the pressure of her heat against me had every dominant part of me on high alert.

I rolled her underneath me, surprise written all over her face like a schoolgirl. Biting the side of her jaw, I soothed it with a lick.

"Ooooo," she whispered, wrapping her other leg around my waist and digging her fingers into my deltoids. "Does Ernest think we can keep her from the other realm?"

My hips rolled into hers, and she stalled beneath me.

"Ernest has high hopes," I whispered.

She swallowed nervously. "If you don't plan to hammer me into this mattress, please stop. I'm one movement away from exploding."

I tightened my fingers into her hair and the sheets beneath us. "I want that," I said, licking her bottom lip. "But not with Fern sitting outside the doorway listening to us."

Fern gasped from the other side and hurried down the hallway. She wasn"t as quiet as she thought she was.

Josephine laughed, and it warmed me. I rolled off her, and she came with me, laying her head on my chest and playing with the hem of my sweatpants.

"I need you to shoot me straight, Anti-hero," she whispered.

"What's that?" I asked, sliding my palm down the curve of her back.

"Do we have a chance of defeating Deidamia?"

I closed my eyes, knowing she couldn"t see, and nodded. "We're going to defeat Deidamia. I refuse to leave her to roam this Earth to wreak havoc on the innocent. Deidamia is going to die one way or another."