Evermine: Daughters of Askara, Book 2 (2 page)

“You knew he was going.” Of course she knew. Mates shared everything, and Harper couldn’t have gone without clearing the trip through Clayton first. “And you didn’t tell me.”

The worst part was, as much as her betrayal stung, I’d done the same or worse to her where Clayton was concerned.
Forgiven and forgotten
. We always hurt those we loved the most.

“He knew you’d be upset. He made me promise I wouldn’t say anything.” She ran a hand through her hair. “He had no choice—Nesvia summoned him and Clayton. They both had to go.”

My chest tightened as fear snuffed out my anger. “Why summon them specifically?”

Maddie bit her lip, as if deciding how much to tell me.

I stood and stalked toward her. “Why, Maddie? What’s happening?”

Her gaze slid over my shoulder. When she saw Harper sleeping, she shut the door behind her and guided me into a chair at the foot of his bed. “Nesvia has been confirmed. She is now the Queen Ascendant of Askara.” Maddie took my hands in hers, and they trembled. “She’s done it.” Her eyes gleamed. “She’s freed the slaves.”

My mouth fell open.

Our sister was now queen. Our kingdom was now free. Our lives were truly our own.

“But why ask for Clayton and Harper?” It made no sense. “Why not you, or even me?”

Her smile lost some of its brilliance. “She knew Clayton wouldn’t allow me off realm until he was certain her peace offering wasn’t a ruse. And I think…” her cheeks pinked, “…Nesvia assumed you wouldn’t go without me.”

“Oh.” In other words, she still viewed me as a slave who dared not leave her master.

“Besides, her proposition was meant for them.” Maddie shifted in her seat when my hands tightened. I loosened my grip so I wouldn’t hurt her. “Clayton and I have been exchanging letters with Nesvia for the past several weeks.” I nodded along. She’d mentioned it to me before. “And during that time, we outlined how the earthen colony operates. How it’s funded. That sort of thing.” She leaned closer. “Since Marcus Delaney founded this colony, and Nesvia has ties to him through me, and you, she’s asked that one of his sons found a new colony…in Askara.”

“No.” The chair I’d sat in toppled onto its side when I got to my feet.

“Clayton can’t accept her offer. This colony depends on him. They trust him to care for them and head up the legion.” Her gaze lowered. “He’s also afraid of what might happen if I returned. Like it or not, I’m still a princess, and Nesvia’s coup has swirled a lot of controversy.”

My back hit the wall, and I slid to the floor. “What did Harper say when she asked him?”

Maddie rubbed her arms as if she were cold. “He said he would consider her offer.”

“Of course he did.” I hid my face in my hands and braced my elbows on my knees.

Harper
. He had locked the horrors of his imprisonment in some mental vault and buried the key so deep, his confusion was genuine if you asked him about what had been done to him.

Sadly, his loss remained razor sharp in my mind. Our separation burdened me, pressed on my shoulders, miring me in dreck from where we’d come from, where he’d have us go yet again.

Chapter Two

Harper’s eyes cracked open on a white room.
Emma
. He jackknifed off the bed.

“Whoa there.” A firm hand pressed into his chest. “Doc said for you to take it easy.”

“Emma?” His mind whirled, and he let her guide him back down to the mattress.

“Hey, you do remember me.” Her tone was warm, but her eyes ran cool. “I wondered.”

“What’s wrong?” He frowned, scratching his scalp and finding a neat row of stitches crisscrossing the back of his skull as if it had been cracked wide open, explaining his migraine.

“Why would anything be wrong?” She laughed; the sharp sound cut his ears. “I mean, it’s not like you left town without telling me.” She rolled her shoulders. “Or, I don’t know,
Earth
.”

Pain set up camp behind his eyes, dimming his vision. “I don’t need your permission.”

He blinked and Emma was in his face. “I’m not talking about permission. I’m talking common courtesy.” Lavender runes crept across every pale inch of her skin. “You showed me
none
.” Her glamour crackled, and her slave markings glowed in reminder of how he’d failed her.

He reached for her, but she slapped away his hand.

“When Clayton…” She took a steadying breath. “When you came back, you said we owed ourselves a second chance.” Grief cast shadows in her eyes. “I didn’t want it. I was hurting, and…” her voice broke, “…I was afraid. This—what just happened—is what scared me most about giving us a shot. I knew the second you healed you’d take over missions for Clayton. This will be Askara all over again. I’ll be left behind, keeping an eye to the sky while you traipse off realm and save a world that tried to kill you.” Her tone hardened. “I can’t endure that again. Not after I lost you once.”

“I’m still a legionnaire.” His was a calling he wouldn’t ignore. “That hasn’t changed.”

“According to you, nothing’s changed.” She frowned. “But to me, everything has.”

“Let’s not argue.” He caught her around the waist and reeled her against his chest.

“Who’s arguing?” She shoved him lightly. “I’m speaking at a volume you’ll understand.”

“There are other things I’d rather do with my mouth.” He kissed the edge of her frown.

Her resistance melted in slow increments as he worked his way from corner to corner. Then she opened for him, and he took her bottom lip between his teeth, a small hurt, before sealing their mouths. Emma moaned, and he tangled his hands in her hair, forcing her head back and her gaze to his. Her eyes widened, and he knew his must have gone silver with desire for her.

She broke their embrace, panting. “I can’t,” she whispered as her forehead met his.

“Yes, you can.” Weeks spent in a painful state of arousal made his words harsh.

“No.” She withdrew and turned from him. “
I can’t
.”

He adjusted his erection with a hiss and gave standing a try. “The past doesn’t matter.” He placed hands on her shoulders, massaged tense muscles. “You did what you had to.”

She shrugged him off as if she couldn’t bear his touch while her guilt rode her so hard.

Survival was instinct. You did what you had to do to make it until the end of the day. The things she’d done to ease her sorrow? They meant nothing to him. She was his. She had always been his. She always would be his. Nothing she’d done during his absence changed his feelings.

He gritted his teeth. The things he’d done, though… Yeah, he understood survival.

His hands ached for the softness of Emma, but his stomach roiled. He made fists and dragged in harsh breaths. The mental box, where his lost years resided, rattled a coy reminder.

You accepted the worst of her,
it taunted,
but she’ll never accept the worst of you.

“She’s not like that.” He spoke aloud before he caught himself.

Emma faced him. “Are you…okay?”

“Yeah.” He cursed as his fucked-up conscience chuckled.

“You don’t look so hot.” She stepped toward him. “And…you’re talking to yourself.”

“I’m not talking to myself.” He had absolutely spoken to himself. “My wings feel like they’ve been sandpapered.” He twisted to the side and extended one. “They still work, right?”

“Doc wants you walking everywhere for the next week. Otherwise, you’re good.”

He released a grateful sigh. Life without flight…he didn’t know how Maddie endured it.

“Look, I know this isn’t the time or the place, but we have to talk.” She modulated her tone, which was not Emma’s way. Her speculative stare had him checking himself for damage.

Nothing showed but scrapes and bruises, unless you counted what lay beneath his skin.

He needed her attention focused elsewhere, before she saw more than she bargained for. More than he could explain away with a shrug. Already she wanted answers he couldn’t give her.

“We’ll talk.” He sounded like he meant it. She smiled because she believed him.

Talk all you want. Tell her everything. Assuming you never want her to touch you again.

Grinding his teeth, he slapped the lid on his mental box shut tight and envisioned it locked. It wouldn’t hold long. It never did. It would give him time to regroup, though, and get out of Emma’s sight before the next batch of reminders of his ruination popped into his brain.

“Do you have plans for tonight?” he asked to change the subject.

“I was going to hang out with Maddie and do the girls’-night-in thing.” Concern darkened her azure eyes. “But after you guys crash-landed, I’m thinking that’s out of the question. So, I’ll probably be at home alone. Why?” She sounded hopeful. “Did you have something in mind?”

He ran a hand through his hair and hit the same train-tracked seam, winced, then lowered his arm. “I’m working on it.” Clayton had a talk coming, and Nesvia’s offer had to be addressed.

The young queen had made her offers clear. Land outside the city of Feriana would be granted to one of the brothers Delaney, along with a five-year stipend to get the colony started. In addition, she required a consul of their mutual choosing to act as liaison between all parties involved. The position would likely go to an Askaran, which muddied things.

After all, what were the odds they’d agree on a single person to hold so much power?

Still, Father had given his life for a free Askara, and this was what he would have wanted.

Harper rocked back to attention when Emma shoved his shoulder.

“I have to get back to work.” She knuckled her red eyes. “I called Marci and promised to relieve her and handle clean up.” Her jaw popped on a yawn, and he wondered how long he’d been out with his guardian demoness watching over his sleep. “Call if you need anything, okay?”

“What if I just want to hear your voice?” He caught her hand and twined their fingers. He’d soak up the sound before he made his choice and she learned it wouldn’t be Earth.

Pink worked across her cheeks. “Then you have my cell number and my work number.”

Before he could react, she leaned in and dropped a quick kiss on his mouth. She pulled her hand free and shot him a tired but hopeful smile that made his chest ache with regret.

The bell over my door rang welcome through a diner long closed. After wringing my mop dry, I leaned it in the corner, then straightened the kinks from my back. “We’re closed for the night.”

“It’s just me.” Maddie rustled the paper bags in her hands. Trailing fingers across the counter, she navigated through the dim eating area on her way toward the sound of my voice.

I inhaled and my mouth watered. “Tell me there’s General Tso’s in there.”

She dropped her bag on the counter’s edge and grabbed my chin. I was lucky she didn’t poke me in the eye. “You look like crap.”

Askaran royals suffered varying degrees of night blindness. With the main lights out, I knew she couldn’t see more than a few inches in front of her. With an arm’s length between us, I was all but invisible. I’d bet my dinner her sisterly concern was as blind as she was.

“Have you eaten at all today?” Her eyes, slightly out of focus, narrowed on my face.

“Um, a handful of jelly beans were involved.” I’d snitched those from Doc’s candy dish.

“You’ve got to take better care of yourself.” She snagged my upper arm and hauled me to a booth, which shouldn’t have been possible since halflings were stronger than most full demons.

“The day got away from me.” I grunted when she shoved me onto the bench seat. When she turned and made her way back to the counter, I rubbed Lysol-smelling hands over my face.

“You need to get something warm down you.”

My stomach agreed with her. More than that, my addiction agreed. Gaze sliding past her, I stared at the counter and the neat row of coffeepots behind her. Empty. All of them were drained dry. I knew, because I’d polished off every drop, even the sludge in the bottom. Burnt? Bitter? Grounds? Grainy? It didn’t matter. My hands shook so hard, I placed them palms-down on the table, hoping Maddie wouldn’t notice I’d had a hit of caffeine, or that I was already jonesing for another, and another, until those flashes of Harper bloodied and broken dulled to a bearable throb, one I could handle.

Caffeine was off-limits to demons, even halflings like me. Our bodies weren’t wired to handle it, and one taste sparked an instant addiction. Coffee did it for me, and I brewed pots day in and day out. Funny how I’d ended up running a diner, funnier that it had ended up running me.

Maddie was right to worry. I’d been foolish. Halflings could lapse into a coma unless we consumed enough calories daily, and my stomach’s grumble said I was nowhere near hitting that mark. No wonder mopping had wiped the floor with me. I’d been so lost in thoughts of Harper that I hadn’t noticed the hour or my hunger, only the craving that rode me harder by the minute.

“Eat.” Maddie dropped four Styrofoam boxes on the table in front of me. She didn’t wait for me, but popped open the first and stuck a fork in my hand. Her expression said,
Eat it or I’ll make you eat it
. But she needn’t have worried. Steam laced with hints of garlic made me salivate.

“Have I told you lately that I love you?” I grinned around a mouthful of crispy chicken.

“Yep. Twice. Today.” She propped a knee on the bench beside me and used her hairband to secure my mess of curls away from my face and from the sauce dying my blonde tips brown.

I shot her a sheepish grin. “You’re my
vinda koosh
.” My little sister. “I’m allowed.”

Rolling her eyes, she gave my head a pat. “Yeah. You keep on thinking that.”

After she cleared away the first box and set me up with the second, she slid onto the bench opposite me. “So, you and Harper talk after I left?” She toyed with crumpled plastic wrap.

My fork paused halfway to my mouth. “I guess.” We just hadn’t said much.

Her earlier excitement returned. “So who do you think should get the consul position?”

Rice landed in her lap when my fork hit the table. “Who should get the what?”