15. Ben

15

BEN

Stella leans closer to the charm she’s crafting as if she’s alone in this workshop. Her pursed lips and the sharp movements attest to her frustration.

I bite back my trepidation and send a message to the one person I don’t want to.

Me: The meeting with Ariel didn’t go well. Stella is upset.

Knowing that Stoneheart wants to seduce me for my abilities is a relief, but with Ariel’s words, I’m warier about getting involved. My desire for Stella isn’t only physical. It would be difficult to go along with what they’re offering only to leave the couple to their marriage.

Stoneheart: What happened?

I’m surprised by the quick response.

Me: Apparently, Stella didn’t recognize who interrupted you on your wedding night.

Stoneheart: Shit.

I huff a laugh.

Stoneheart: That’s my fault. I forgot to tell her. I’ve been focused on the missing persons situation.

Stoneheart: Isn’t there anything you can do to sweeten her mood?

I inhale roughly at the tantalizing image of that. Touching Stella, maybe kissing the length of neck exposed with how she’s craning over the piece of jewelry she’s creating. The glow of that skin taunts me. The white scar of Stoneheart’s claiming mark halts my daydreams. The bite that symbolizes his hold on her healed quickly. Gargoyle saliva has healing properties, not that it’s a well-known fact.

Me: And increase my tab? That seems irresponsible, since I don’t exactly know how I’m paying for it.

This is dangerous, but it doesn’t stop me from picking up the phone again when he gives another quick reply.

Stoneheart: And you are nothing if not responsible.

Me: She’s working. If I interrupt her, I’m liable to get dismembered in her current mood.

Stoneheart: You’re being a coward.

In more ways than one.

Me: She’s scary. I’m not a big bad gargoyle.

Stoneheart: You think I’m big?

I shake my head and don’t respond, but I can’t help the smile on my face at another diabolical facet of the gargoyle, a hidden playfulness. My smile fades as I realize I hadn’t mentioned Ariel’s advice to make an heir.

He’s considered it. I explain away. That’s a better option than that I don’t want him to consider it.

The image of Stella round with Stoneheart’s child isn’t objectionable on principle, but it does represent that I’d be losing her permanently, which is ridiculous because I’ve already lost her.

She’d make a wonderful mother.

Her chaos and willingness to go to hell and back for the people she cares about whether it be to protect them or to avenge them attests how protective and nurturing she’d be if she ever chooses that path.

The pain in my chest is only from the jealousy that it wouldn’t involve me.

A clatter at the balcony doors of the library has me jolting to attention, thinking I’m going to have to perform my role as a bodyguard before I see the familiar figure through the glass.

I shush Stoneheart as soon as he enters, tilting my head to the sleeping Stella. The chill night air slips over my skin before he closes the door. It contrasts with the warmth from fireplace to the side of the sitting area.

Stoneheart frowns but whispers. “How long has she been out?”

“She missed dinner,” I say back softly. “I don’t think she likes to hang out in the bedroom.”

Stoneheart’s brows raise as he glances around the at the library ambiance. “The bedroom is rather…lacking. I figured she may want a say in picking the décor.”

But her workshop he meticulously designed. My curiosity itches, begging for me to dig. I want to learn more about this gargoyle, but the mystery would just be a trap. Already the dark cozy library screams with intimacy.

It hadn’t been strange to be in here while Silas worked. We’d discussed the possible fae involvement with the missing people in hushed voices before he’d departed for the night.

But now, the light from the fireplace caresses each sharp edge and odd curve Stoneheart’s face and kindles something uncomfortable in my chest.

I shrug away my curiosity and stand, adjusting my suit. “Whatever she was working on seems to have taken a lot of energy. I’ll come back in the morning.”

“Wouldn’t you rather stay?” The gargoyle moves to a cabinet. The clink of glass is the only sound other than his words. He pulls out a bottle of amber liquid before filling one glass.

He lifts the bottle toward me in a silent offer of a drink. A warming drink to go with the heat curling in my stomach even as nerves threaten to freeze me where I am. Stay longer and offer more time for this gargoyle to spin a web of strategy and seduction around me?

I shake my head as I respond to his question. “That’s not a good idea.”

Watching Stella sleep should have been soothing, but it left me with time to contemplate just how unwise it would be to accept their offer.

“You must dislike me a great deal,” Stoneheart says on a hum as he puts the bottle away.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I’m sure my lovely wife has informed you of your options. The world can see the feelings you have for her, and I know you’re attracted enough to me… I can only assume your reticence is from dislike.” Stoneheart rounds the couch that Stella sleeps on. His graceful movement and the flickering shadows are as enthralling as his words.

“Are you used to the people you barely flirt with dropping to their knees for you?” I ask, even though I have no intention of playing this game with him. His arrogance galls me.

Stoneheart shrugs. “You want her. You respond to me. The arrangement could be very fulfilling for all parties involved.”

“Until I leave.”

“I’m not putting an end date on anything.” Stoneheart swirls the drink in his glass as if this was merely as simple as settling what to have for dinner.

Maybe for him, it is.

I glare at him. “I see your strategy.”

His smile is dangerous. “I doubt that.”

“Stella already told me you want my abilities.”

He nods with ease. “I do. It’s something I get access to as long as you stay enamored with my wife. I don’t need to have you pledge your loyalties to me. We can all be flexible .”

I swallow.

Stoneheart sits on the arm of the couch. Stella’s bare feet are curled in reaching distance. She’d kicked off her heels after picking a book from the shelf which lays face down on the floor telling the story of how she’d fallen asleep before finishing the first page. There’s a softness to his face that has me blinking. I’m caught off guard when he speaks next.

“If I hadn’t existed, would you have ever acted on your desire for her?” His pale gaze meets mine in challenge.

I don’t answer. It’s a question I’ve asked myself with little to show for clarity.

“You aren’t a fan of mine, but my presence has made you claim her as your responsibility, and responsibility is how you structure your life.” His brow arches. “You wouldn’t allow yourself to even breathe her air if it weren’t for me.”

He’s probably right, and I hate that. The underlying reason I should stay away from them isn’t only to avoid hurt. It’s to avoid causing conflict with my role as Kalos’s second-in-command. I have many responsibilities to my family. I can’t abandon those just because of a tantalizing witch…and a compelling gargoyle taunting me.

But he did say this could be flexible—I clench my jaw at my weakness.

What must it be like to notice the flaws of everyone and still take advantage of them?

Stoneheart makes an exaggerated sigh when I don’t respond. “This is hardly the gratitude I’d expect.”

“So you do want me to fall on my knees for you,” I quip.

If I thought his smile was dangerous before, it doesn’t hold a candle to the way his eyes glitter now. “I suspect there’s a part of you that would enjoy that.”

I take a breath, trying to not allow the tease to bring me back to the night he’d grasped my throat. Had that only been a couple of days ago?

Stoneheart tilts his head like a predator scenting blood. “When’s the last time you let yourself be selfish? Let yourself imbibe in something that feeds the Ben part of you. Not the satisfaction you get from doing your duty, from serving, but something solely for you?”

I jolt at his use of my name. I open my mouth but don’t have a clue what to say to that. Duty isn’t my sole function… Right?

Luckily, Stella makes a soft sound, and both of our attentions snap to her.

“Stoneheart?” she asks blearily. “What time is it?”

“It’s not very late,” he responds as if he hadn’t been weaving a spell over me. He moves to stroke her bare leg as if to soothe her but pulls away before contact. “Do you think you’ll want to head to bed yet? You’ve napped for a long time.”

I inhale, allowing my body to relax now that I’m not his focus.

Stella sighs and sits up. “I think I need to be awake for a little before I’m ready to sleep through the night. The energy drain hit me hard.”

Her eyes widen when they land on me.

“Ben, you’re still here. You watched me sleep?” There’s a crease across one of her cheeks, and her hair is fluffed up in an adorable way.

“I may have enjoyed it,” I joke.

“Do you want a drink?” Stoneheart asks as Stella blushes and tries to surreptitiously wipe away any drool.

She winces. “Just water. Didn’t Silas say there’s a mini fridge in here?”

I half expect that he’d bark the order at me, but the leader of multiple territories with a fearsome reputation puts down his drink and goes to the mini fridge, bringing back a bottle of water along with a granola bar from the snack stash.

“A little birdie told me that your aunt upset you,” he says.

She glares at him even as she accepts the items. “No thanks to you.”

“My apologies, I was distracted this morning. I should have warned you.”

The anger that had plagued her after the meeting returns now, threatening to whip her into a fury.

“I have something to help cheer you up.” Stoneheart makes an odd sound between a purr and a hum, as if to distract her from the dark emotions. From a pocket in his kilt, he withdraws a jagged dark shape, capturing one of Stella’s hands and placing his gift in it.

I blink to make sense of the object. “You got her a rock?”

Stella looks down at the rock in her palm with surprise. The light catches one of the faces of the stone and flashes blue. She gasps with delight and drops her granola bar. “A labradorite!”

His gaze meets mine full of amusement while her attention is devoted to the stone. “It’s for charm making.”

A thoughtful gift from a gargoyle who has treated her thoughtlessly in the past. It’s another puzzle I should avoid.

Stoneheart waits until Stella has touched each edge of the rock. When she looks up at him, it’s with a touched expression that’s edged with confusion as if sensing the same puzzle I am.

“Forgive me, wife,” he says. “I have been focused elsewhere. I should have told you about your aunt.”

Her gaze drops back to her gift. Her anger seemingly a bad memory when she shakes her head. “It wasn’t even just that.”

“Oh?” he asks.

Stella rolls the rock between her palms and even more tension leaves her shoulders.

“Thank you for this,” she says like she wants to drop the subject.

I should go, but I don’t move. Instead, allow myself to watch the stilted intimacy in front of me.

The workaholic and the witch. There’s an apprehension between them that I’ve tried not to dissect. It’s not that they love each other. If it were that, it would be so much easier to keep my distance. It’s more that they circle each other like tigers who don’t know if the person opposite of them will fulfill their desires or lash out.

Stella has plenty of reasons to suspect Stoneheart of hurting her. He’s hard and driven. But why does Stoneheart seem just as leery of her?

Stella isn’t in a hurry to answer Stoneheart’s inquiry about what’s bothering her, but I have information to share.

“Ariel seems to think that because of the history of this territory, your current actions aren’t going to win the people over,” I say.

Stoneheart sits back, making the arm of the couch creak threateningly. “That topic does keep coming up. Lorenzo apparently was an even worst leader than we’d been able to gather.”

“I’ve actually done some research on that front,” I say. It had taken a while to pull together the details. “His ascension to the role of territory leader was a bloody one that most don’t talk about.”

Both of them stare at me now. I continue, “Frank is the second eldest Leonid sibling. They had a sister who was set to inherit the role. The same week their parents died in a boating accident, she, her mate, and their son were killed in a suspicious home invasion.”

Stella pales.

I continue, “Lorenzo claimed the position.”

“Wouldn’t Frank have been next?” Stella asks.

“It appears that he decided not to challenge his brother,” I say. “They could have arranged it all with the understanding that Lorenzo would be the one to take up the mantle.”

“This should have been common knowledge. How did they keep what happened from spreading to the other territories?” Stoneheart grits out.

I shrug. “They kept rumors of what had happened from spreading by force. Lorenzo married your mother, Stella, the next year. The Elderflowers were an influential witch family before the deal was made, and even they hadn’t known what had happened.”

“How did you get this information?” Stoneheart asks.

I shrug. “It pays to have multiple informants in other territories who have been around for a long time.”

Stoneheart’s eyes narrow as if he’s going to demand to know my sources, but he holds back. He’s a careful beast. I’ll give him that.

No matter how flexible the situation is, becoming enmeshed with them is a conflict of interest.