KDBookOnline
Share Us
He’d read my juvenile record. He’d guessed what was missing from those reports, what I’d been through, how far I might go to protect myself. He’d put a gun in my hand before. He’d been testing me since the first day we met—seeing how far he could push me, honing me into something different, something dangerous.
Something lethal.
A weapon.
Realization dawned on me. He hadn’t asked me to move into the Avalon to keep his sister company. He needed me there. Because the other courts were in attendance, the other heirs. This was all about the bargain. “You don’t want an alliance,” I gasped.
He went rigid. His left hand curled around my wrist, tattoos flickering, like I might turn that gun on him. But I yanked away, and he didn’t stop me as I ducked out from under his arms, gun still clutched in my right hand. “You want me to kill one of them.”
A mask descended over his face, and the ink on his body settled.
How had I not seen it before? “The test. You wanted to see if I could pull the trigger—if you could use me—because you can’t do it yourself. Not without being marked by the Wild Hunt. That’s what you want out of the bargain.”
For a moment, we stared at each other in stony silence. Blood hammered in my head until it was spinning. The gun felt slippery in my palm. Bile rose in my throat as I looked at it. I dropped it, backing away a step but not daring to let it out of my sight. “I’ll never do it,” I swore and finally lifted my face to his. “Release me. The bargain is broken.”
A muscle worked in his jaw as if he was fighting to hold on to that magic binding us. He looked toward the bayou, but I caught a glimpse of something unrecognizable moving behind his eyes. “I know plenty of killers, princess. I don’t need you to do my dirty work.”
I felt a twinge at the back of my neck, as though the magic was taking his side and burrowing deeper to prove I was wrong.
“You were ready to shoot me that night.” The words were strained as he continued to peer into the distance. “The test was to see who you were.”
“And you think you know me?”
His head snapped toward me, nostrils flaring. He took a step in my direction. “I know who you are.” I couldn’t move as he prowled closer. “You chose nursing because you crave that adrenaline rush that was stolen from you. You told yourself it would keep you safe, but you never feel that way. But you are a survivor. There’s only one problem.” I stopped breathing as he bent and picked up the gun. “You’ll only survive if you can protect yourself. Because you won’t let anyone else take care of you. So you will learn how to take the shot. You will be prepared. You will know that you have that power—that no one can make you a victim.” He engaged the safety and held the weapon out to me. “You can pull the trigger.”
My gaze snagged on the weapon. “I don’t want to.”
His fingers tightened over the barrel. “I hope you never have to. I hope I’m always there whether you like it or not,” he added when I started to protest. “But my family protects themselves. I will not lose anyone else.”
His chosen words dragged my attention from the gun to him. I refused to let them grow roots as I scrounged for proof that he was lying—about his family, about me. It was another trick meant to lower my guard. He’d already proven that he knew me, knew secrets I refused to admit even to myself. “Ciara doesn’t—”
“What do you think she carries in those ridiculous purses she buys constantly?” he cut me off. “She can handle herself like you’ll be able to.”
“I’m not comfortable carrying a gun,” I admitted softly.
“Not yet, but you’re a natural.”
I ignored the forbidden pang of pride that swelled in my chest, focusing on what he didn’t say. I wasn’t comfortable today, but I would be. Because this wasn’t a one-time lesson.
But what was the point? “When I break the bargain—”
“You won’t. It’s been weeks, and that was your best guess.” He closed the remaining space between us. “Face it. You don’t want to break our bargain any more than I want to.”
The reality of what he was saying sank in as we stared at each other. That my life might have taken a different path if I hadn’t stumbled upon his world. Maybe none of this was an accident. Maybe I’d simply taken a detour on my way to him.
Lachlan thrust the gun into my hand as if he already knew all of this. My fingers skimmed the metal before I shoved it away—and stomped off. Back in the direction of the car, back to the safety of what I knew, back to the life I knew.
And left him standing there.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The ride to the Avalon was tense. I turned my attention out the window, watching the streets pass by in a blur of color and life. Lachlan stared at the road ahead, and I wondered if he saw any of it. If he saw the city he ran but barely knew. A king outside his kingdom, trying to hold on to control while the world changed, and it slipped through his fingers like grains of sand.
My hands remained in my lap, my index finger stretching as I tried to ease the vibration I still felt from the gun’s recoil, but it was nothing compared to the bruising ache in my palm. I hated the reminder that the barrier between life and death was so thin. I hated how violence kept seeping into the cracks between my two worlds. I hated knowing what the decision to pull the trigger felt like.
And I especially hated that part of me wanted to feel it again.
Twilight had fallen when we reached the exposed parking lot attached to the Avalon, overhead stars winking between the thick storm clouds rolling in. He pulled past the gate to a private area where a dozen sleek cars like this one were parked. Range Rovers and Mercedes and Audis, each one of them black. A fleet of vehicles for a shadow court. A single yellow Porsche was the only spot of color in the lot.