Chapter 13

Izael idly scratched the cat's head while he kept shoving chicken wings into his mouth, crunching through the bones easily and swallowing them whole. The cat didn't judge him. The cat understood.

He hadn't meant to upset Alex. But she was just so stubborn. He'd hoped she would have understood the situation she was in and simply accept it. That would make the most sense, wouldn't it? She was trapped. Why keep struggling?

Humans.

They could be such bullheaded creatures. Wonderful things, capable of such amazing inventions—the "Chinese" food he was eating was a fantastic example of that—but goodness, they were capable of such self-destructive tendencies.

Why couldn't she understand that she'd lost? Why couldn't she understand that he would take such good care of her? She wouldn't be his slave. She would be his pet, sure—but he saw how humans took care of their pets. They were treated like gods. Spoiled beyond measure. Given everything they could possibly desire.

Sighing, he plopped his elbow on his knee and his chin in his hand.

"Oh, sweet—crab rangoon!"

The half-breed. Great. Izael shut his eyes. "I am in no mood."

"When are you?" Puck half-threw half-flopped himself down into a chair by the coffee table and began piling up a plate with the greasy fried food. Izael would hiss at him for taking what was his, but he had little interest in the non-meat items. And it seemed Alex had lost her appetite.

"I see you've pissed off Alex again." Puck smiled. "Not like I'm shocked. You're good at pissing people off."

Izael bit his tongue. There wasn't a point in arguing with the thing that sat across from him. Usually, he'd relish the dance regardless, but he had enough of arguing for one night. Or two, for that matter. "She does not understand. She will. She must."

Puck sniffed dismissively. "That's not how it works."

"It has to be."

"And this is why she's pissed off. By the Morrigan, you Unseelie can be so thick." Puck leaned back with his plate of food and started stuffing his face with fried vegetable rolls. "Alex is about to lose her whole life."

"She complained of not having one when I arrived. You think she'd be grateful to have anything interesting happening to her at all." Now he was simply being bitter. But he couldn't help how he felt. Which was, coincidentally, how he wound up in this situation.

"Thick. Like I said."

"Oh? And how would you fix the situation?" Now he was bitter and angry. The last thing he needed was some self-righteous half-breed who was likely even more insane than he was, and twice as manic.

The half-breed answered, talking through the food in his mouth. "I dunno, maybe I'd actually think about her for a change."

"All I have done, everything I have tried to do, has all been for her. She wears that collar to keep her safe. She is here because she asked for it. She agreed to all of this!" Izael snarled. Being lectured by Puck was beyond insulting.

"And you've done all of that from your point of view. Think about what she's going through for a change. You're asking her to take on a lot, and all at once. It's one thing to lose your soul. It's another to lose your soul and damn two worlds. To top that off, your dumb ass is now trying to convince her that forcing her to love you is a good thing. And you're actually confused as to why she's upset?" Puck snickered. "Thick and stupid."

"If you have simply come here to run your mouth?—"

"I came here to fill my mouth, actually. Abigail has tasked me with keeping an eye on you two lovebirds while you're on Earth. And who could say no to this greasy feast?" He gestured widely with his hands at the coffee table which was overflowing with the stuff. "It's vile. It's amazing."

In that, at least, they were agreed. And it was good to know that the iron collar was still very much necessary. Though if Puck were spying on them, it was only a matter of time until he learned of Izael's second bargain with Valroy—and that the secret of Alex's magic was very much out of the bag.

"As far as I can tell," Puck continued. "This winds up a few ways."

"You're a time traveler, aren't you? Can't you already see where it goes?" He arched an eyebrow at the smaller creature.

"Mm, yeah, but also no. Doesn't work like that. I can visit all the options. Multiple possible timelines are funny like that. Sometimes there are big branches, sometimes small ones. This is a big one. Lots of choices." He fanned his fingers out in front of him, visualizing the splits. "And it's like—infinite doors in a hallway. Just because I've been to some, doesn't mean I've been to all of them. Fuck, I can't even tell you if I'm the same Puck that was here before." He laughed, a sharp and wild expression in his eyes. "Or if this is the same version of you that I was dealing with before."

Puck had a reason to be as deranged as he was. The half-Seelie half-Unseelie monstrosity could pass through not just space but time, which was far more complicated than a simple linear point-a-to-point-b situation that most mortals might imagine it to be. Izael did not envy the creature. "Then tell me my futures, oh soothsayer." He was curious, he had to admit. He'd gone and stepped in shit with Alex, and it would be interesting to know at least some of the ways it could possibly play out.

"Option one." Puck picked up a fried chicken "finger"—it was not a finger, and Izael did not understand why it was called such a thing—and placed it down on the coffee table in front of him, leaving a smear of grease on the surface. "Alex agrees to use her wish to love you. She surrenders, broken-willed, and becomes your pet. But while her heart and soul are yours, her mind remains her own. Unable to defy you, Valroy uses her gifts to destroy the Seelie and wage war on the humans."

"I—" Izael's eyes went wide. "You?—"

"Yeah. I know. I'm not a fucking moron." Puck rolled his silver eyes. "But Abigail doesn't. And I'll keep it that way. For now, anyway."

Curling his hands slowly into fists, Izael debated whether he was able to kill Puck. He could shatter the creature's bones, eat him whole—but if there were multiple Pucks in multiple places at once, he might as well be trying to murder a fruit fly. There would always be more. Therefore, he had no option but to…take the half-breed at his word. For the moment.

"Anywhoozle," Puck kept going with option one. "Alex, watching the destruction of the Seelie race and the invasion of Earth, takes her own mortal life out of grief."

Izael's shoulders slumped. "But she will love me."

"Yeah. She will. But some things are more powerful than even that. You're fascinated with humans, but you don't get them. You never will." Puck half-smiled at him sadly. "It's your curse."

"Then…I will ensure that she does not kill herself." Izael grimaced. "I will keep her under lock and key for the rest of her mortal life."

"Like I said. You don't get humans." Puck reached out and picked up another chicken finger. "So that's option one. You win, she dies. Here's option two." He put the finger down next to the first one.

Izael wanted to talk more about option one, and find a way around her death, but that was his problem to solve. Not Puck's.

"Option two is, Abigail finds out that you told Valroy about Alex's magic. Abigail rushes to Alex and convinces her to surrender her power. Alex agrees, and she becomes a normal, mundane, harmless human." Puck paused. "And then, in a rage, Valroy kills her. You keep her soul, but you never see her again."

"He—he agreed—" Izael stammered.

"And he wasn't lying. But things change. And with her power gone, you would have no bargaining ability. In some versions, he kills you, too. In some, you survive. For a while, at any rate." He shrugged. "If you can call becoming a recluse, clutching the glass bauble you put her soul in, and slowly becoming a full-scale raving madman ‘surviving.' I'll let you be the judge of that."

Izael stood. He had to pace as he listened, trying to deal with the sudden anxiety that flooded him. "And how do I know you're not lying to me? This—this could—just be a ploy."

"Option three." Puck kept going, ignoring him. A third chicken finger joined the first two. "She wins. She doesn't make a wish, she stays on Earth with fae magic. And just like you threatened her with, either Valroy, Abigail, or some other random fucker tries to either remove her power or steal her for themselves. Either way?"

Izael shut his eyes. "She dies."

"D'aw, and everybody calls you stupid."

The growl that left Izael was feral. But Puck was, ostensibly, doing him a favor. "Why are you telling me all this? If she's doomed to die, why tell me?"

"In hopes you, or she, find a fourth version I'm not seeing. It's happened before. It's unlikely, maybe impossible, but you never know." Puck plopped the three chicken fingers onto his plate and sat back. Taking a bite of one, he hummed. "Option two is tasty. Or is this option one? Whatever."

Izael wanted to scream. Wanted to break every lamp and piece of furniture in the house that he had gifted to Alex. But instead, he kept pacing. There had to be another way. There had to be. Or it was all a fabrication. "Abigail sent you here to tell me this. To fill me with doubt."

"Nope. I wish. Honestly? I'm not on your side here. I'm on Alex's. She's the one who's gotten the shaft in all this." He snickered. "Shafts, literally."

"If I ever, ever discover that you are playing me, you asinine half-breed, I will shatter every bone in your body and devour you. I will ensure you die a slow, painful death as you are dissolved and consumed." He bared his teeth at Puck, who for once, seemed to be taking his threats seriously. "If Alex is dead, I will have no reason to continue. I will invite whatever punishment might follow. And I will hold on to the fact that I made you suffer as my final warming thought before I greet my end. Understood?"

Puck might have gone a shade paler than he already was. "Understood." Clearing his throat, he went back to the food. "Good thing I'm not lying, then."

Slumping back down on the sofa, he put his head in his hands. "Go away, Puck."

"For what it's worth, I'm rooting for you two. I really am. You smile at her in a way I've never seen you smile before."

The tenderness in the other fae's voice was so surprising that it took Izael a moment to process it. But by the time he looked up to address what Puck had said, the half-breed was gone, along with his plate of food.

A fourth way. That was what he needed to find. Somehow. But he didn't even know where to start—the threads of game on top of game inside another game had become so tangled that it seemed impossible to unweave them from each other. Impossible to do one thing—love her, keep her, cherish her, without the other—death, and war, and stealing her heart.

But there had to be a fourth.

But what? And how?

First, however, there was something else he had to do. Though he dreaded it with all his might.

Exhausted,Alex lay in bed, staring at the far wall. She was burnt to a crisp. Emotionally, physically, mentally. The reality of her situation before her was sinking in, and her mind was scrambling to make sense of it all.

Either way, no matter what, Izael would win and get her soul. And even if she somehow managed to keep from making a wish in two and a half days, the fae would still get to her. And she knew deep down that whatever they'd do to her would be far, far worse.

If she won the game and kept her soul, and had the option to surrender her magic—what then? Would they still come for her? Would Valroy, angry at losing his opportunity to destroy the treaty and Earth, come and kill her anyway? Or worse?

Or would some other fae decide to come abduct her to torment Izael?

Both options were very likely.

But more likely was that the moment she "won" her game with Izael, Valroy would abduct her before Abigail could take her magic away. Then, she'd be Valroy's personal bazooka. And that would be so much worse than losing her soul to Izael.

Izael loved her.

Valroy, not so much.

Winning was losing.

Losing was losing.

Never. Trust. The fae.

Gods above and below, she was a fucking moron. She deserved whatever happened to her. But limiting the situation to only her death seemed to be the best option before her.

She needed to find a way to contact Abigail. To tell the Seelie Queen about Izael's betrayal and beg the queen to strip Alex of her magic. Then, once she was a useless, pointless little mortal, it wouldn't matter what happened to her or how she died. It'd just be her misery she suffered, not everyone else's, too.

That was what she'd have to do.

Somehow.

Maybe Puck could help her.

But how could she contact the maniac without alerting Izael? She'd have to find a way.

A quiet knock on the door broke into her thoughts. "Alex?" Izael asked from the other side. "I…can we talk?"

"Pretty sure I'm sick of talking to you today." She shut her eyes. "Especially if you've come to gloat."

The door opened. She'd locked it. Clearly, that didn't do shit when he was involved. Fucking fae. She heard him walk across the room, steps muted on the carpeted floor, before the edge of the bed behind her depressed with his weight. He placed his hand on her side. "I want to apologize."

That surprised her enough to get her to roll onto her back to meet his gaze. He was watching her, sadness creasing the corners of her eyes. He was serious.

"I…you are more to me than just a bauble. Just a plaything." Reaching out, he hovered his hand over her cheek, but pulled back. "But I am who I am—what I am. I am Unseelie. I am the Duke of Bones. Asking me to treat you like I am a fellow mortal is…I fear I'm not capable of it."

"And expecting me to think and act like a fae is just as impossible." She sat up, the sheets falling around her waist. "I'm not capable of just dooming two worlds and shrugging it off like it's no big deal. I'm not. I can't just—I can't surrender. I can't give in. It's not who I am."

"And I love you for who you are, my songbird. But I am a greedy, covetous thing. The idea of losing you—" When his voice cracked, he looked away, clearly embarrassed. "I lost you once already. I cannot survive it a second time."

Fuck.

That hit her like a ton of bricks.

He was a laughing, evil, devilish thing. Seeing him like this twisted a knife in her gut and spun them around like spaghetti. Reaching out, she pulled him toward her, wrapping her arms around him. He fell against her as if he had been holding himself up by will alone, his head resting against her shoulder.

"I am so sorry, Alex." He sniffed. Shit. Was he crying? No, she couldn't handle him crying. That was a step too far. "I love you."

Tipping his head up to her, she kissed him. It wasn't like before—passionate and hungry. This was about emotion. She didn't know what to even name the swirl of messy nonsense that was rolling around inside her heart. It wasn't clearcut. It wasn't simple. But it was real.

When she broke away from him, he straightened and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. She let him compose himself and regain his dignity. No point in adding insult to injury.

Finally, she broke the silence. "I believe you. On both counts. I can't forgive you, at least not right now. I—I still have to cope with all this and figure out how we can possibly go forward."

His shoulders slumped like a great weight had been removed from him. He suddenly looked very tired. "We have a mess to untangle."

"Yeah. We do." She took his hand, threading her fingers through his. "Can we do it together this time?"

"I would like that very much." He squeezed her hand. "But for the moment, I think I am in desperate need of a nap."

"You and me both."

Not long later, he was under the sheets with her, lying at her back, his knees tucked into the backs of hers. His arm was draped around her, and he held her close, her head beneath his chin. His slow breathing and the warmth of him there lured her into sleep, breaking through her worry and desperate thoughts.

I'll get Izael to bring Abigail here. I'll give up my magic. Then…I'll use my wish to love him. For however long we have each other, at least we'll be together. That will have to be enough.

Who needs a soul, anyway?