23. Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

Lumen

"How do you feel being out here?" I ask.

It's been about twenty minutes since Slate left, and I've convinced Vesperon to sit so I can tell him what I know. He looks awkward as hell sitting on one of the lounge chairs. He's knees are nearly at his ears.

"Better than the sun," he says.

"Does it rejuvenate you?"

"Not the way my realm would. Not the way sleep does, but it helps a bit. The heat makes it a slow process."

"Have you considered going back to your other schedule?"

"No, absolutely not," he says. "Sleeping all day means I do not spend time with my mate."

"So, you'd rather be tired all the time?"

"Stop stalling! Tell me what is going on."

"Sorry," I mutter, dropping beside him.

"It is bad, is it not?" he questions.

"Vesperon, I need you to do me a favor, okay?" He looks at me with narrowed eyes. "You trust me, right?"

"You, I trust. You have saved me and our mate many times. You have fought for us. You love our Lexia."

I grit my teeth at the word. Love. Do I love her?

I shake the thought from my head. Now isn't the time to be emotionally invested in anything. I can worry about putting a name on my feelings for her another time.

"Then I need you to remember that when I tell you what happened."

"Trusting you will not mean I trust him."

"But I trust him."

"Even after what he did?"

"You don't even know what he did," I argue.

"My mate being upset is all I need to know," he says firmly.

Talking to him is like talking to a loyal dog. And I say that in the best possible way. A dog doesn't care if their master is right or wrong. Whatever they do, the dog goes along with. Ves is the same way. He will stick by Lexia's side no matter what she does. She could go on a murdering spree and he would have her back. He can't help the way he is. It's how shadows are. Especially guardians. Loyal to a fault.

"If I tell you that Lexia will forgive him when she knows the truth, will that make you feel better?"

"How do you know this?"

"Because I know her."

"I do not know how to answer that question," he admits with a defeated shake of his head.

"Okay, then for now, I need you to at least promise that you will listen to what I have to say without freaking out. You will not go after him or anyone else. You will stay here. And when we are done talking, we will go back to bed, stay there until morning, when we can talk to Lexia."

"That is a lot of commands," he says with a frown.

"I have a feeling you'd find a loophole," I mutter. Then quickly add, "Can you do that?"

He thinks about it for a moment.

"Yes," he finally says.

I'm not sure I can believe that, but what can I do? I'm asking the guy to trust me, so I have to trust him. And if he goes back on his word, well, not much I can do about that. Slate was wrong, and it's not my job to stop others from reacting however they feel is right. I've done what I can to talk Ves down. It's more than Slate deserves.

"Slate was talking to a shadow."

"A shadow?" Ves asks, his brow furrowing. His confusion isn't what I expected.

"According to Slate, they have Lexia's father and have threatened to kill him if he didn't give them the journal."

"He gave them the journal?" he seethes, the air around us thickening.

Well, there's the anger.

"No," I say calmly, putting my hand on his thigh. "He did not give it to them. At least, he said he didn't, but I haven't actually che—"

Ves jumps up, the lounge chair scraping backwards, even with me on it, and storms inside, going right to the couch and throwing the cushion off. The journal is there, and I breathe a sigh of relief. I hadn't considered what would happen if the journal was gone. Not only would I look like an idiot, but Slate would likely be dead. I wouldn't have a leg to stand on for him in that case. Straight up lying is different from keeping something from us.

"As I was saying, he didn't give it to them," I say more confidently.

"He still put us in danger! He put our mate in danger! They have known where we are all this time. They could have come in here at any point. Hundreds of them!" he shouts.

"I understand that, Ves. I'm angry too. Trust me, I am."

"We cannot stay here," Ves says. "We must leave."

He storms toward the bedroom, but I grab his arm. "Do we really want to wake her?"

"They know where we are. They know the journal is here. If Lexia caught him with a shadow, the shadow is privy to what is going on here. He could get many and return. We are in danger," he growls out.

I sigh, hating that he's right.

"I'll stay awake," I say, not wanting to wake Lexia and bring her somewhere else. Besides… where would we go? I'm not leaving them here to go back to my realm and find a new place. Not tonight. I don't have anywhere else on my list of places to go to. The place in the mountains and the one I popped us into when the shadows came are the only two I know of. This one was given by the Master of Light because it was available.

"It is not good enough."

"I think if they wanted to come back here, they would have already, don't you? They are trying a new tactic. They want the journal."

"Why? Why would they go from wanting to kill us to only wanting the journal?"

"Maybe they learned we are needed. That they won't get what they want without us?"

"No. That is not right," he says firmly.

"How can you be sure?"

"Because it does not make sense."

"What about this makes sense?" I huff out a disbelieving laugh. "You and I should not be together. You should not be here in this realm in solid form. A grey should not have a mate. Lexia should not be living through multiple lives. Hades. The Underworld. A journal. A prophecy. Do you want me to keep going? I can, Vesperon. But my point is that none of this makes sense. It just is."

He groans, dropping to the couch and covering his face with his hands. After a moment, he asks, "Is her father alive?"

"Slate says yes."

"I knew he could not be trusted," he mutters, shaking his head.

"He made a mistake."

"I knew he was up to something." Sounds like he's saying that more to himself than me.

"And you were right, but that doesn't mean we can get rid of him. You know this, right?"

"Unfortunately," he grits out.

"We need him," I reiterate.

"Unfortunately," he repeats. "But when this is done—"

"When this is done, we will see where we all stand. Things change."

"Trust does not come back," Vesperon states.

"Vesperon, you never trusted him in the first place, so how can it come back?"

He frowns. "For good reason, it seems. I am going to bed."

And he walks off to bed. I have nothing else to do but follow after him.