The Cursed (League of the Black Swan) (37 page)

“I apologize for my friend’s actions,” Rio said carefully. “I promise you he will pay for the damage. He buys people new cars all the time, so replacing a guardhouse shouldn’t be any big deal.”

Chance, who was lounging on a benchlike couch across the room from her, snorted. “Are you sure you know what you’ve gotten yourself into with this wizard, little sister? He seems a little dangerous.”

Rio didn’t know whether to laugh or just fall off the bench. “
You’re
talking to
me
about dangerous? When you just took me on a tour that included regaling me with the stories of all the challengers you defeated over the years in that ring? I’m surprised there wasn’t a box filled with hacked-off arms and legs somewhere in a corner, just so you could admire your own prowess.”

The king laughed, and Chance scowled at her, but then he tilted his head, as if considering the idea.

“It is true that it would serve as a deterrent to hopeless challenges in the future,” he began, and she jumped up, shaking her head.

“Don’t even think about it. It was a stupid comment, and I will not be the one responsible, as my first act as a new member of the family, for beginning the body-part box.”

“And yet it is an idea fit for a demon princess,” her grandfather rumbled, looking proud.

Her grandfather. The king. She still had no idea what his name was because demon names did not translate out of the demon language very well. They’d given her a suite of rooms, complete with a library and tutor, and expected her to begin studies of their language, culture, and traditions as soon as possible.

She took a deep breath and asked the question for which she’d been building up her courage for the past three hours. “What were my mother’s and father’s names?”

The guards lining the walls of the huge dining room all seemed to turn into stone simultaneously, as if they wished to be anywhere else but there.

“We do not speak their names,” the king roared, and it took a few minutes for the walls to quit shaking, but Rio had had enough of being intimidated by arrogant men.

“Then find me somebody who will, because I want to know about my parents,” she shouted right back at him.

This time, even Chance looked like he wished he could disappear. The king, however, drummed his fingers on the tabletop—apparently it was a gesture her entire family shared—and stared at her as if she’d finally become worthy of his notice.

“You dare stand up to me? You truly are my granddaughter, are you not? Of course, I’ll have to throw you in the dungeons for a week or two to teach you a lesson,” he mused out loud.

“More ale,” Chance called out, and the servants in the room ran out, probably glad to have an excuse to leave. The guards, however, stayed where they were.

Rio tried not to panic. “I’m sorry for shouting at you. All of this is very overwhelming. I can’t stay here, in the dungeons or not, although I’d like to return to visit quite often.”

Chance shot a surprised look at her that she couldn’t interpret, and the king started laughing.

“You’re not going anywhere. We have no idea what powers you might inherit at midnight on your birthday, and you are far too deadly a weapon for us to allow you anywhere near Winter’s Edge. You will stay here. Permanently. You are the princess of Demon Rift, and you will behave accordingly.”

Before Rio could argue, or flee, or start shouting at her grandfather again, Kit magically appeared on the bench beside her. The
Yokai
was back to being enormous, and she wrapped her tail around herself and sat calmly, as if she’d always been there, and stared at the demon king.

The king shouted something in his own language, and suddenly two lines of spears appeared in his guards’ hands, all raised and pointing at Kit.

Rio jumped up and put herself between the guards and her fox.

“No,” she shouted. “You leave her alone. She’s my friend.”

The king grumbled but gradually settled himself back down in his seat, never taking his eyes off of Kit. “She is friends with the
Yokai
?”

Chance, to whom the question had been directed, nodded. “Wizards,
Yokai
, goblins, ogres, and even humans. It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. I heard a rumor that there was a mountain troll claiming Rio as a friend.”

One of the guards muttered something and shuddered, and the king’s sharp gaze snapped to him.

“You. What did you say?”

The guard bowed, and his face flushed a hot, dark purple. “My apologies, sire. I was just mentioning that Alice put out the word that she claimed Rio as friend.”

“Alice? Alice!” The name swept down the line of guards like a hailstorm, and Rio was bewildered to see so many enormous, terrifying-looking demons tremble at the name of the woman who’d spent part of her day making chili for Rio and Luke.

The king narrowed his eyes. “She may become the first demon in our history to create connections across species, perhaps, but be that as it may, she cannot leave until we have finished her education. Perhaps in two or three years’ time—”

“Years? Are you out of your mind?” Rio realized she was shouting, but she couldn’t help it. “You can’t keep me prisoner here after you’ve admitted that I’m part of your family.”

“Actually, he can,” Chance said, frowning a little. “I have a cousin who has been in the dungeon for nearly twenty years for offending the king during a formal dinner.”

“You can’t start out our relationship like this,” Rio pleaded, pinning her hopes on Chance. “You’re my brother, and we said we’d try—”

“I serve at the king’s pleasure,” Chance said, icily cold, cutting her off. “If your
Yokai
wishes to visit the dungeons with you, she may.”

He stared, hard, at Kit, and Rio almost thought he was trying to tell the fox something, but she didn’t have much time to wonder. Kit suddenly jumped up off the bench and nudged Rio’s hand until she automatically lifted it and scratched Kit’s ears. Chance, the king, the guards, and the dining room itself all vanished, and Rio found herself standing on shaky legs in the middle of Luke’s living room, watching him methodically hurl blasts of blue flame at his scorched walls.

Kit’s voice rang in her mind.

It was time to leave. I would like some sausage now.

Luke thought he was having a hallucination when giant-sized Kit bounded past the corner of his eye toward her food dish.

“I’m going to need to start buying a lot more fox-friendly food if you’re going to stay that size,” he began, turning toward her, but then he stopped.

Stopped talking, stopped thinking, stopped breathing.

Rio was back.

He crossed the room in a half second and then she was in his arms and the world’s colors started to return, little by little. He was shaking, or she was shaking, or both of them were, with relief and fury and too many emotions to name, let alone feel.

“You came back,” he said, and then words weren’t enough, could never be enough, and he kissed her.

He captured her mouth like a conquering warrior, staking out his claim. Invading and possessing. Drinking her in, inhaling her essence. He needed more and more and more of her, and the beast inside him truly began to calm only when he realized she was staking her own claim on him.

“I came back,” she finally said, when he released her mouth from his kisses.

“We should talk about that stunt you pulled, but I’m too glad to see you to even think about arguing with you,” he growled in her ear.

Kit yipped somewhere behind him, and he waved a hand at her. “Yes, yes, you are my hero, now go take a nap while I have a chat with Rio, unless you want to see my furry naked ass again.”

Rio offered up a ghost of a smile, and not the laugh he’d hoped for.

“What is it?”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it yet. Is that Alice’s chili I smell?”

He nodded. He hadn’t paid much attention to it before, but it was true that the aroma was tantalizing, now that he thought he might be able to eat again sometime in this lifetime.

“Maybe we could eat some of that while we talk?” She was too quiet and listless, and Luke’s concern grew when she pulled away from him, stumbled over to the table, and practically fell into a chair. “I wish I knew what to do next, Luke, I really do.”

“What did they do to you?” He followed her and lifted her head so he could check her pupils. “Breathe on me.”

She pulled her head out of his hand. “They didn’t poison me. They’re not subtle like that. The king—who happens to be my
grandfather
; imagine trying to wrap your head around that—threatened to drop me into the dungeon for a couple of weeks to teach me a lesson.”

“He did what?” Luke looked wildly around for something to incinerate, but Rio touched his hand.

“No blowing up cars. I heard about the guardhouse, you idiot. I told them you’d pay for it.” A grin touched her lips. “It was an interesting conversation. Alice has quite some reputation, by the way.”

Luke bent to kiss her again, and then he strode over to the kitchen to yank bowls and utensils out of cupboards and drawers.

“Kit would like some sausage,” Rio said, folding her arms on the table and putting her head down. “You know, I’m suddenly as exhausted as if I’d been running a marathon. I wonder why that is?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you’ve been run through the magical and emotional wringer lately? Finding out you’re related to not one, but two royal families? It makes sense that you’d be tired.”

Luke spooned chili into bowls, then filled a plate with sausage and gave it and a bowl of fresh water to Kit, who had returned to normal size.

He put the chili down on the placemat next to Rio, but she didn’t even move, and he realized that she’d fallen asleep, right there at the table. He deposited his own bowl on the table and then gently lifted her into his arms.

She barely opened her eyes, but she frowned at him. “I won’t be able to keep you, Luke. The curse—it’s too dangerous now for you to be with me.”

Luke’s heart turned over in his chest, right there in the middle of his dining room, as he held Rio in his arms and she slipped into a deep sleep. He’d spent hundreds of years not getting close to anyone, for fear of what being near him and his curse might do to them. Now, for the first time in his long, tortured existence, this amazing woman was worried about any pain that being with
her
might cause
him
.

“Time to rest, Princess El’andille,” he whispered. “Too bad I’m not Prince Charming, but I have to warn you that I’m never going to let you go.”

He held her in his arms for the rest of the night, never once falling asleep himself, and plotted ways they could escape the potentially deadly consequences of Rio’s newfound heritage. By the time dawn’s first rays of sunshine tried to peek into the room, he thought he’d finally worked out a workable plan.

Now he just had to persuade Rio to agree to it.

Rio woke up in Luke’s arms—a new habit she’d grown to love far too much.

“I need you,” he said, and his blue eyes shone with heat and hunger.

“I need you, too,” she whispered, and it was all the answer he needed.

In seconds, they were both undressed and lying wrapped together, and he was seducing her with long, slow kisses that began with her mouth, moved down to her breasts, and then began to fall all along every inch of her sides and belly and arms and legs. She caught her breath when he approached too near to her center and hot breath passed nearby.
She needed him.