His tone invited no other response but the
one I gave him.
“I’ll just go get Jo.”
He straightened.
I started on my errand trying not to look
like I was moving as hurriedly as I was.
Something made me stop when I’d come
alongside Dax (not
close
alongside him, just alongside him,
I had something to say but I was no fool).
Slowly, he stopped scowling at Noc and turned
his scowl to me.
“She’s the most delicate thing you’ll ever
hold in your hands. You’ll win her. She’ll reward you for the
effort. But mark my words, if you ever hurt her, I’ll fucking
annihilate
you.”
He no longer looked fierce. His chin had
jerked back into his neck and he looked stunned.
He likely wasn’t used to being
threatened.
I did not pause to take in the incongruity of
the fact that, even stunned, Dax Lahn was immensely attractive.
I hurried without appearing to hurry to
collect Jo.
* * * * *
I dashed up the steps of Valentine’s home in
my spiked, red heels.
“Frannie,” Noc called after me.
I didn’t say a word or slow my gait.
I kept charging up the stairs.
“Goddamn it, Franka,” Noc clipped.
I made the upper landing and stomped angrily
to Valentine’s magic room.
I had collected Jo at the restaurant. We’d
driven to Circe’s. Even if we’d seen the lights on from the
outside, we’d gone into her apartment building. There we’d
ascertained she was quite all right when Noc knocked on her door
and it burst into a sheet of magical, golden flame that caused no
harm to the door but blew a wave of heat in our direction that
needed no words to share Circe wished us to go away.
We went away.
The drive home was silent.
Noc took my key to Valentine’s house and let
us in the front door silently.
And I’d made my ascent to her magic room
quickly, but also silently.
I flipped the switch and a charming lamp with
a jade-green glass shade lit on the table that held her crystal
ball.
I went directly to it and touched my hand to
its cool surface.
Imbued with her magic but being touched by
mine, a striking, if obviously confused, drift of teal smoke formed
inside it.
“Franka,” Noc said from the door.
“Valentine,” I snapped at the ball. “Come.
Now.”
I touched the crystal again feeling the
emotion swell in my breast, the rush of power wash over my skin,
barely keeping hold on the guilt clawing inside me.
A waft of cyan smoked the orb.
My magic was winning.
If anyone touched my crystal and filled it
with their magic, I’d lose my mind.
I was hoping Valentine felt the same.
“Valentine,” I hissed. “Come to me.
Now
.”
“Frannie, sweetheart,” Noc said from close,
his voice now calming.
I looked to him and was not surprised to see
the entire room colored blue.
“My magic, at this moment, is not under my
control therefore it would be safer if you absented yourself,” I
told him.
“Baby, you need to calm down,” he
replied.
“You do indeed,” Valentine declared and both
our eyes went to the sound of her voice.
She’d arrived and the minute I saw her she
lifted her hand, waved nonchalantly, and the blue cleared away as
did the residual emerald smoke that heralded her arrival.
“You also need to explain to me why you
interrupted me in what I was doing and practically
pulled
me
away,” she demanded irately. “Calling to me on an astral plane is
one thing, Franka. Dragging me bodily from my pursuits is
another.”
Now that was a shock. I had no idea I had the
power to do that at all, much less do it to a witch who had the
awesome power of Valentine.
I did not make a comment on that.
“I orchestrated a meeting with Dax and Circe
this evening,” I informed her.
She crossed her arms on her chest. “Yes, I’m
aware of that. I felt a disturbance in the force.”
Noc made an agitated movement at my side but
I was focused on her flippancy (and wouldn’t understand just how
flippant it was until Noc explained it by making me watch a very
fantastical, but quite excellent, film, wisely doing this sometime
later).
“I thought you said you were talented in
intrigue,” she remarked.
“And I thought I had a partner in this
particular intrigue,” I returned.
Her face shadowed. “You’re quite aware I’m
not available for this project at this time.”
“And now I’m quite aware that affecting
schemes in this world might end in a woman operating a vehicle
while excessively agitated. Doing this rather than rushing from a
room to a sleigh or carriage, at worst, but usually to a fainting
couch where she can play out her drama, or in this case,
understandable emotion at what she perceives as a betrayal, without
putting her life in danger behind the wheel of a car.”
It was then I saw the real Valentine for she
looked stricken for a moment before she hid it.
“Perhaps we should allow some time to pass
before we again take up the reins on this endeavor,” she
suggested.
“Absolutely not,” I returned, shaking my head
and taking a step toward her. “The die has been cast. You weren’t
there. It could be the disturbance you felt wasn’t her upset at the
betrayal she thought was committed against her but instead the
moment she clapped eyes on Dax Lahn. Or it could have been the
moment he touched her.
Or
it could have been the moment
she
touched
him
. That was, before she fell apart and
rushed dramatically from a crowded restaurant. Oh, and this was
after
she nearly fell flat on her face the moment she laid
eyes on Dax. All of this, incidentally, happening over the
approximate expanse of thirty seconds.”
“It seems you
are
clever with
intrigues,” Valentine murmured admiringly.
Well!
It was safe to venture I’d had enough.
I took another step toward her, the manner in
which I did causing Noc to slide an arm around my stomach from his
position at my back and waylay me.
So I stopped.
“As difficult as the road that lay ahead of
us is, that
us
including Circe, we must carry on before she
uses the bleakness of her past to harden her heart to a future of
promise,” I proclaimed.
“I see what you mean.”
That was the only response Valentine
gave.
“Valentine, I would say I need you but
I
don’t.
Circe
does,” I snapped. “I’m aware the time
is not right for you but I’m afraid, my sister, you need to see
beyond your own sorrow in order to lead our other sister from
hers.”
I watched her mouth tighten and knew this was
due to the fact I uttered those words while Noc was in the room. I
sensed she was a private woman. The very idea of Noc understanding
her current plight would not be welcome.
I could not worry on that. She would
endure.
Circe, however, had had enough enduring to
last a lifetime.
“Respect, Valentine, what’s going on with you
is not my business, but you gotta know Frannie is right,” Noc
thankfully entered the conversation. “What happened tonight was
fucking brilliant and a complete disaster. You don’t strike while
the iron is hot, he’ll lose her. And I can tell you right now it’s
taking all that man’s got to convince himself not to call his
investigators to find her so
he
can find her. And when he
does that, drag her to his beach house or mountain condo or
whatever that guy’s got that’s remote so she can’t run away and
then convince her she’s the one not having the barest inkling he’ll
be scaring the absolute shit outta her. That is, if he hasn’t
already called his investigators.”
And the real Valentine made another
appearance.
“
Merde
,” Valentine whispered.
Finally.
We were getting to her.
“And, just sayin’,” Noc carried on, “he tries
that shit, it’s gonna be a lot of explaining on
her
part
when she makes her door a sheet of magical flame to ward him off. A
man thinks his drive for a woman has made him so insane he’s seeing
things, like doors bursting into flame but not catching fire, he’ll
back off
real quick
.”
“
Merde
,” Valentine said louder.
Excellent.
We’d gotten to her.
“I think it best at this juncture to let
Circe alone,” I declared. “For the night, at least. We cannot let
her retreat, but we need to allow her to lick her wounds. You,
however, need to see to Dax. He needs to be controlled. In case you
haven’t absorbed all we’re telling you, to say he’s taken with her,
and was upon clapping eyes on her, is an understatement. I don’t
know what Lahn felt when he saw his future golden queen walking in
that hideous parade. But I can now say I hold no surprise he chased
her down on his steed and claimed her on the rocks of Korwahk
before nary a word was spoken.”
“I’ll see to Dax,” Valentine stated. “You and
I will speak more tomorrow.”
I felt my body relax and replied, “Thank
you.”
“And I’ll say something now, Franka,” she
stated in a severe tone. “You must beware how you wield your power.
Allowing your emotions to control it rather than your mind can have
catastrophic consequences. I’ve told this to you before. I won’t
share it again.”
I made no response to that for she had shared
this thus her admonishment hit true.
“Is it all, erm, good up there?” Josette
called and the sound of her voice told me she was likely at the
foot of the stairs.
“All good, Jo,” Noc called back. “Be down in
a minute.”
“Right,” she yelled.
I stared as Valentine started to disappear in
a billow of green.
“Valentine,” I snapped, feeling we were not
yet done.
“I’ll see to Dax. Until tomorrow,” she said
and disappeared.
“Bloody
hell
that woman is vexing,” I
bit out.
“Babe.”
I glared at where Valentine had been for a
long measure then turned in his arm.
The instant he had my eyes, he asked, “You
okay?”
“What, pray, happened tonight, my dearest,
darling Noc, that would make you think I was even
near
feeling okay?” I asked back.
“Right, well that answered that,” he muttered
but did it watching me closely.
“I miscalculated,” I declared.
“Appallingly.”
Noc didn’t utter a noise.
“I thought, with Circe’s approach and,
well…activities with you at the Winter Palace, she was ready to
move onwards in healing. Valentine felt the same. It would seem we
were wrong.”
Noc remained silent.
“Unspeakably wrong,” I went on.
Noc did not confirm, or alternately make an
effort to appease.
He said nothing.
And nothing was
not
helping.
“Noc,” I prompted.
“You’re on that. You’ll sort it,” he stated.
“I don’t need to go over it because I can tell you’re upset and
anyway, there’s no need. You were there. You saw it play out.”
This was all true.
“But Circe lashed out,” he continued. “At
you
. Maybe understandable but still unacceptable. So shit
went south tonight with Circe. Whatever. Only thing I give a shit
about right now is, she cut into you. I didn’t just see, I actually
felt those cuts slice deep, so
are you okay
?”
His words the night I came to his world
rocked through my brain.
I know what you said to Maddie, right to her
face. Lo told me. He knows your story now, Frannie. Like everyone
else, he’s changed his tune about you. That said, he’s still pissed
about that and he’ll never forgive you for it because that’s the
guy he is. He loves his wife, you wounded her, he’s never gonna let
that go.
He loves his wife, you wounded her, he’s
never gonna let that go
.
And then…
So shit went south tonight with Circe.
Whatever. Only thing I give a shit about right now is…are you
okay?
I was Noc’s Franka, like Maddie was Apollo’s,
Finnie was Frey’s, Circe was Lahn’s, Cora was Tor’s.
I was Noc’s.
He had that woman to love we spoke about so
many months before, sitting at a fire, drinking whiskey.
And that woman was
me
.
“You really do love me,” I whispered, staring
into his beautiful blue eyes.
His head jerked, his brows snapped together,
and his look turned decidedly ominous.
“You doubted it?”
“No, darling,” I went on softly. “I’ll
rephrase. You love me, you
really
do.”
“Uh, well…yeah,” he replied.
I melted into him, wrapped my arms around his
waist and answered his question the way he wished it to be
answered.
“I cannot say that her words felt good. What
I can say is that she was on the defensive and feeling things I
cannot begin to know how they feel. Her attack on me might not have
been warranted, but in my estimation not only was it
understandable, it was acceptable. I made a grave error in
planning. It was her that suffered for it. So yes. It might have
hurt, hearing what she said, but I’m standing here in the arms of
the man I really love who really loves me in return. So I’m
okay.”
He examined my face, I knew, to ascertain I
was telling the truth.
His face and frame relaxed when it came clear
I was.
All but his arms, they tightened, drawing me
closer.
“One thing I can say for tonight, she put her
hand on his arm, thought that the windows in that restaurant were
gonna blow out,” he said.
“You felt it too?”
“Think they felt it in the parallel
universe.”
I smiled up at him.
“Means I’m in,” he stated.