7. Stella

7

STELLA

“You’re going to rot your teeth,” the woman introduced to me as Francesca says to the lizardman with green scales wearing a suit tailored around the tail he currently wraps around his bar stool.

“My fangs are fine, thank you for your concern. Life is too short for that cardboard you prefer.” The lizardman’s name is Silas. I faintly remember that he acted as my husband’s best man in my wedding yesterday.

He’s Stoneheart’s second-in-command and much nicer than his boss. Which he demonstrated by asking me if I slept well as he ushered me to the kitchen and got me coffee.

Anyone giving me coffee is obviously a friend in the making, even if his boss is a dick.

His sugary cereal of choice contrasts with the very serious, if polite, persona that he projects with his wireless reading glasses and the laptop he’s practically attached to.

Francesca narrows her eyes and continues to eat her whole grain toast which doesn’t resemble cardboard. I should know. She made me a couple of slices to go with her own. I’d declined the eggs and sausage that she’d made for herself.

She’s just as well dressed as Silas, but instead of a staid black suit, hers is a sharply cut burgundy. I’m glad I took my time in getting ready this morning. If I were in my usual leggings and baggy crop top, I’d feel unbelievably grubby in this crowd.

I’d donned a simple black sheath dress after artfully applying my makeup and blowing my hair out to sleek perfection without much thought. Perhaps I shouldn’t have chosen a color used for grieving to mark the first day of being married to Stoneheart, but I gravitated toward the solid color. Being put together helps me feel more stable.

And it stems my envy of the other woman’s composure. Francesca’s movements are full of a power and grace that has her low, sleek ponytail flicking. From that and her large breakfast, I’m willing to bet that she’s a feline shifter of some sort.

I may not be capable of being as calm as she is right now, but I can at least appear my best in the face of the unexpected.

This morning is not going how I assumed it would be. For one, I didn’t know that there were other people living in the penthouse of this building with Stoneheart and I. Not that it bothers me. I like being around people and have a good feeling about these two.

Anyone who acts as a buffer between me and Stoneheart is practically BFF material.

Despite what he’d told Ben, Stoneheart did not meet us here last night.

When Ben dropped me off, Silas had been here to show me to my room and tell me where everything is. He’d only narrowed his eyes at Ben for an instant, but that was all it took for Ben to step away from me and bid adieu.

With his task complete, there was no reason for him to stay any longer.

That’s why I’d given him a nod to leave me in this strange penthouse. This is my home now. I need to get used to it.

The less I involve Ben, the better it will be for him.

The entertainment between these two has been top notch so far. Maybe that’s because I haven’t seen Stoneheart today. He still hadn’t returned by the time I went to bed last night after scrubbing my skin so hard it turned pink.

“Where is Fiona?” Silas asks.

“Don’t ask questions about my sister that you don’t want answers to,” Francesca says in sing-song while scrolling through the news on her phone.

Silas’s brow furrows in frustration. “If I didn’t want to know, I wouldn’t have asked.”

Francesca shrugs. Her presence exudes an icy confidence that doesn’t affect Silas at all going by the lash of his tail. “She’s checking out the underbelly of the territory.”

Silas stiffens. “Alone?”

Francesca gaze turns bored. “This is a shifter territory, Silas. We’re shifters. She’s fine.”

Silas’s mouth opens, but Francesca cuts him off with an eye roll like she anticipated his concern. “She took one of the guards with her. Connors, I think?”

Silas’s scaled lips press together.

“You’re not her father, though if you wanted to be her mate, she’s certainly teased you enough to warrant it,” she muses.

Silas throws one of his pieces of cereal at her, and she dodges it easily, her amusement not breaking.

“Careful now. Someone may think you’re protesting too much,” Francesca says, her brows high.

Silas glares into his breakfast. “Fiona is too young for such things.”

Francesca’s laugh burbles up with charming disbelief. “She’s going to get you if you’re not careful.”

Silas glares before shifting topics.

“Do you know what you want to do today?” he asks me. “Fiona and Connors will get a good read of how the Leonids are taking the territory takeover, but their report probably won’t be done until later today.”

“So, any excursions better be planned well?” I ask.

He nods in acknowledgment.

The walls creep in. No casual walks mid-workday or spontaneously trying different restaurants like I usually do. Visiting my best friend will probably require a whole safety setup because she’s Kalos’s mate, and I’m…no longer a harmless witch.

I’m not a prisoner, but the terms of this new life will be stifling if I let myself think about it. Perhaps it will get better as the Leonids accept our place here.

Or perhaps the chaotic parts of me will be trimmed down to fit this role… Another cost I hadn’t considered, but wouldn’t the peace of a whole territory be worth that?

From my understanding, there hasn’t been any bloodshed with this takeover after Kalos left the power gap when crushing Lorenzo, but that hardly means there won’t be.

“For now, the Leonids are waiting to see what type of territory leader Stoneheart is. Small testing of boundaries will be expected.” Silas gives voice to my assumptions. “There are a few individuals who didn’t fall along with Lorenzo when Kalos struck that could muster enough backing to make a claim.”

“But none of them have a clearer claim than I do,” I say.

“Correct. There are exceptions, your brother, Leo, and uncle are presumed to be alive though they haven’t returned to the territory, so we aren’t concerned about them yet, and your other brother who is currently in Thailand has abdicated any claim.”

I nod, thinking. Everything leading up to the wedding was planned by others. This is the first day after signing the engagement contract that I get to decide what happens next.

The witch part of me aches to commune with magic and wants to set up a space to act as my workshop to make charms. Even if my business has closed its doors, charm making pulses in my being. It’s a large part of who I am, and I’ll still need to make time to indulge in it if only to refresh my own charms.

But I’m not only a witch anymore. I can’t afford to stick my head in the sand to craft all day when the people of this territory must be feeling unsettled. I don’t know much about how things have functioned here since I lived in Kalos’s territory, but I’ve heard troubling whispers. Whispers that I now have the resources and the responsibility to check.

I steel my spine with that conclusion.

“I’d like to catch up on any information you have on the goings on of the territory,” I say.

Silas tilts his muzzle with approval. “Very good. We’ll get you the reports.”

“I won’t be much help,” Francesca says, though there’s a lightness of approval in her voice as well. I think I’ve passed a test. “I’ve been given the responsibility of managing the rest of our holdings while Silas and the boss handle this one.”

She must be as high of rank in Stoneheart’s organization as Silas to be given such a large task to manage. Her bearing makes sense now.

“Where is Stoneheart?” I voice the question I’ve put off all morning.

It’s embarrassing to not know the whereabouts of my husband, but neither Francesca nor Silas seems to think that.

Francesca shrugs. “Who knows? Remy does what he wants. Anytime Silas has tried to arrange an itinerary, it’s useless within an hour.”

I’m taken aback at her using his first name when no one else I know has, but she does work closely with him. Familiarity is to be expected.

Silas sighs, his annoyance clear. “He doesn’t like constraints on his time. He’d prefer things to be flexible, so he has the most strategies open to him at once.”

That doesn’t sound conducive to a relationship. It’s appearing more and more that this will be a marriage in name only.

I should be happy about that. It will allow me to focus on what my role here is.

Silas continues. “The library is where we set up our office for meetings and where you’ll most likely find him if he’s in residence. I’ll give you a tour after breakfast.”

“And this is the library,” Silas flourishes a clawed hand.

The room is beautiful. The décor of the whole penthouse has an understated classiness somewhere between elegantly modern and cozy, but the library is where the minimalism dies. It’s full to bursting bookshelves are made of intricately carved wood. What walls don’t host shelving are painted a deep green. The furnishings are large and lushly cushioned. There’s even an electric fireplace.

This place is somewhere I’d be comfortable curling up for a nap, but there’s evidence that others are busy at work here.

A large table in front of the balcony doors looks to act as a shared desk. A map of this part of the city is spread over it. The boundaries of Kalos’s territory and Stoneheart’s previous holdings are marked out around the area we are currently inhabiting. The Firefly is directly in the middle of this territory.

“You’ve been busy,” I remark. It’s an understatement. The penthouse is fully equipped and prepared as if they’ve been here for years rather than only just moving in.

The tour of the penthouse apartment included the hallway that leads to where Francesca and her sister Fiona live together and Silas’s own space. Along with different common areas that act as a gym, home theater, and living room.

Oh, and there is a private green space and swimming pool on top of the building that made me want to text my mom about the sad potted plants that she could remedy before I remembered she’s somewhere in the Caribbean right now and, more importantly, has no idea what’s going on.

Sad plants aside, Stoneheart certainly likes his luxuries. And balconies. There must be a balcony running around the whole building since every room seems to have access to one.

And I still haven’t seen everything.

“Where is Stoneheart’s room?” I ask.

Silas almost misses a step on his way to the large table. “That would be the room you woke in.”

The room and bed I’d woken up in this morning was as personalized as a hotel room. I’d assumed it was a guest room.

I suppose there is another closet that I hadn’t looked in before setting up my wards last night to warn me of intruders so I could get some sleep without being on edge and the shower in the bathroom is certainly sized for someone with giant wings. My cheeks warm.

I locked my husband out of his own room.

The bedding doesn’t even carry his dark scent of rain-soaked cliffs.

“He doesn’t sleep much,” Silas says, as if reading my thoughts.

“I didn’t think we’d be sharing a room,” I say.

Silas’s lips thin. “It would be better for the territory if you did. I understand why you wouldn’t want to…”

His eye twitches in a mix of guilt and discomfort. I try and push down the embarrassment threatening to rise in my throat.

He knows what happened last night. Or at least what Stoneheart told him. Which I can only hope didn’t include how easy it was for my husband to seduce me.

“But appearances matter,” I finish for him. I wish I could demand my own space, but I’ve already sacrificed, what’s a little more pain for the good of the territory?

Even if it’s going to be awkward as fuck.

I see him coming this time. A dark shadow blots out the light before my husband lands on the balcony.

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.

“Oh good, he’s home,” Silas says.

I wish I could muster a smile with how relieved Silas sounds, but the memories of last night are fresh. The heat of his mouth, the ice of the night air, and his countenance after the interruption.

His gray wings cut shadows in the morning light. It’s a breathtaking sight before they clasp around him like a cloak. Stoneheart catches my eye. The roll of his shoulders is almost smug before he moves toward the door.

This gargoyle enjoys making me weak.

What a dick.

“I assume you have wards around the building to hide from humans,” I say.

Silas snorts as Stoneheart enters through the glass doors. “And long-range spellcasters or anyone with a sniper rifle who wants to try their luck.”

Impossibly, that thought freezes my heart.

“Don’t look so happy to see me, wife. It would take more than a bullet to make me drop from the sky. The building has many protections on it. As do I.” He flashes the rings he’s placed back on his fingers at me and the knowledge that his jewelry must be heavily spelled has me relaxing.

“It would do me no good for you to be shot down with the territory the way it is,” I say.

His smile and accompanying low purr put me on edge because it would be so easy to relax in his presence, but I’ve already learned what a mistake that would be.

“Your worry warms my heart,” he says. “Has Silas shown you around?”

“Yes. He was just about to give me the records you have of the territory.”

Stoneheart only nods. “Good.”

The word holds no real approval like Silas and Francesca had. His expectations for me must be low.

“And what have you been up to?” I ask, keeping my wince to myself and hoping that my question doesn’t sound like I’m hounding him.

Stoneheart’s grin isn’t one that makes me want to relax this time. It’s one that says he knows something I don’t.

“I’ve been making arrangements to make your transition here more comfortable among other things.”

Why is that so hard for me to believe? Because he angrily ripped my dress off last night and scent marked me in a way that, while I’d enjoyed, left me feeling hollow and humiliated.

Because I can’t trust him.

Stoneheart picks up a cellphone from the table and checks his messages. “I have a surprise for you.”

“Oh?”

There’s a knock on the open door of the library, and we all turn to see Francesca leading Ben in. It’s jarring to see him after my mental decree to keep my distance, but that doesn’t stop his presence from being…comforting. Like my body has determined that he’s my safe place as much as Stoneheart is an adrenaline rush. He looks as he always does. Buttoned up in a good quality suit that doesn’t call attention to the wearer.

His gaze catches mine before he focuses on the gargoyle on the other side of the table.

“He says that you requested his presence,” Francesca announces. “Perhaps you should have cleared him with the doorman if that’s the case.”

She gives Stoneheart a pointed look before taking a seat at the table.

Ben’s jaw is tight, and the comfort of his presence starts to drain away. Why would Stoneheart call him here?

“This should be interesting,” Silas breaths, his eyes narrow at my husband.

Stoneheart frowns. “I figured you’d just use your abilities to teleport here.”

“That would have been rude without an invitation to directly drop in,” Ben says stiffly. “Many people would kill someone on sight who randomly appears in their living quarters.

“True,” Stoneheart allows.

“Why is he here?” I ask.

Stoneheart is back to smiling like a cat playing with a mouse. “You pointed out that you don’t have anyone you trust here. Barnes has agreed to act as your bodyguard until the territory is more stable.”

I try and keep the shock from my face. I’m not the only one surprised. Francesca and Silas stiffen.

“That’s unusual,” Silas says. “And generous of Kalos to entertain such a request.”

Stoneheart nods to the demon who keeps his eyes on him. “Barnes reminded me that Stella is Kalos’s mate’s best friend. They have a vested interest in her comfort and safety.”

He hadn’t said quite as much as that in my presence, but it’s true.

“If Stella would rather someone else—” Ben starts.

“I wouldn’t,” I interject. Everyone turns to me, and I stumble over the responses available to me before finally shrugging. “I welcome this arrangement.”

I’m being dumb. I shouldn’t accept this. If not because of the temptation it will offer, for the reason Stoneheart arranged it.

Francesca gives me a look that says she agrees that I’m being dumb, but Stoneheart beams in a way that makes me suspicious.

How does he benefit from this?

“This is just a surprise,” I say. I’d told myself to stay away from Ben for his safety, but when given the choice, his presence is a steady support. Silas and Francesca have been friendly toward me, but they are Stoneheart’s people, not mine, not yet.

“Am I to understand that we will be open with all our information with Kalos at this time?” Silas asks tactfully. Anything Ben learns here can technically be used against the gargoyle.

Stoneheart shrugs. “Kalos has an interest in staying on his side of the territory. I hardly think we need to start keeping secrets from him. If Stella is kept safe and happy, he won’t interfere.”

“You should be careful in leaving your scent on her,” Francesca addresses Ben, her tone pragmatic, tapping her nose and turning to Stoneheart. “The Leonids will be looking for any reason to take issue with your mating, Remy. I don’t know what your plans are, but this could cause issues.”

Ben opens his mouth, but Stoneheart makes a sound of disagreement.

“Lions aren’t monogamous, Francesca,” he muses.

What the fuck?

She shrugs. “And Stella is a witch. We don’t know what expectations they’ll have for her. I’m not warning him away or anything. Far be it from me to judge.”

Silas and Francesca share a look and seem to come to the same conclusion. They’ll accept the intrusion of Ben because Stoneheart has decreed it.

I’m not quite sure what exactly he is decreeing. As of last night, he didn’t want Ben touching me. And now it almost sounds like it’s his plan. The whiplash of this gargoyle.

“I’m sure Barnes will behave.” Stoneheart’s eyes dance. “And I’m sure my wife will enjoy my generosity.”

“That depends on your motives,” I snap. The eyes of the room are on me with mixed emotions. Silas for one, looks sympathetic. I clear my throat, unused to being diplomatic. “But thank you. I do feel better having Ben watch over me.”

I want to smack away Stoneheart’s smug look. I don’t know what he’s playing at, but it can’t be anything good if last night is to judge.

“Think of it as a belated wedding gift,” he purrs.