Cadence drew in a deep breath before she even began to formulate a sentence. Christian sat across from her, someone else’s cluttered desk between them. He was no longer bleeding, but the signs of Cassidy’s attack were still there. Besides the blood all down the front of him, the Healer hadn’t been that talented. Christian’s face would scar if Jamie didn’t get back in time to fix it correctly. She thought it served him right to a degree but didn’t bother to voice that now. Instead, she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. “Tell me what you know.”
He ran a hand through his hair and looked away. “Not much,” he finally said. “Only that there is a book in the archives that mentions a Blood Moon Portal. I don’t really read ancient Scottish Gaelic, but I thought it said it had been sealed. Maybe that’s not what it said. Maybe it only said they don’t use it anymore.”
“Who doesn’t use it anymore?” Cadence asked, simultaneously wracking her brain for the name of anyone who might read ancient Scottish Gaelic and getting nowhere.
“The Vampires. From what I could decipher, they used to use it as a doorway, a quick way to get from one place to another. That wasn’t what it was meant for, though. The book said it wasn’t meant for their kind but for those darker in nature.”
“What could possibly be darker than a Vampire?”
“Demons,” Christian replied, as if she should’ve known that. “I gathered it was meant for demons to travel back and forth to hell. I don’t know that, though. Cadence, like I said, I didn’t think it was a threat.”
Her patients was waning. “But didn’t Aaron ask you specifically about this topic—a Blood Moon Portal?”
“Yeah, he did. But....” He couldn’t look her in the eyes again. He was looking at the floor, and it seemed like there was no conclusion to that sentence.
“So you kept it to yourself—why? What if you’d been one of the Guardians she was targeting?”
“I knew better than to....”
“You knew what to look out for?” She had to dig into her palms with her own fingernails to keep from jumping across the table and taking his neck in her hands.
“Not exactly. Just reflective surfaces. From the jumbled mess of artifacts we collected, it doesn’t seem like Stewart knew what he was doing either.”
“And it never occurred to you to tell Aaron this information?” She couldn’t understand his thinking at all. “Why not? Why not just... mention it? ‘I don’t think there’s anything to worry about, but there might be a portal, so watch out for mirrors.’ Would that have been so hard?”
“No, it wouldn’t have been hard. I just... didn’t.” He glanced back at her briefly then before he dropped his eyes to the floor, and Cadence realized the conversation was over, other than the fact that she needed to order him back to Kansas City to get that book. He couldn’t be trusted to go alone, though. She needed someone she still had faith in, someone who would do whatever it took to get Aaron back, and preferably someone who read ancient Scottish Gaelic.
So she wasn’t expecting the next thing he said to come out of his mouth.
“I’m in love with you, Cadence.”
For a moment, she thought maybe she’d heard him incorrectly, but she went back over it a few times in her mind. He still wouldn’t look at her, his eyes studying the tile floor intently. Despite all of the evidence that would’ve supported his statement, going back to when they first met, it was still nearly impossible for her to hear. She was sure it would all make sense once she weighed through it. They’d had an intimate moment once, a long time ago, when Aaron was furious at her. But Christian had started the whole mess that made Aaron break up with her. He’d made Aaron think it was okay to use the Retransformation serum before it was ready, which temporarily killed him. She should’ve known then that wasn’t just a mistake. They’d been at odds ever since she’d brought Aaron back to life, and despite her husband’s ability to stay calm in nearly every situation, Christian knew how to push his buttons. So it shouldn’t really surprise her too much that Christian had let him be sucked into a portal.
All of that was too much to regurgitate at him right now, and even though she couldn’t trust him and currently hated him almost as much as she hated Holland and Stewart, the only words that would come out of her mouth were, “I’m married.”
Christian finally looked up at her, slightly, though his eyes never reached hers. “Not yet,” he mumbled. “I mean... the wedding’s not for a couple more days. And now.... I guess... I’m sorry, Cadence. I shouldn’t have ever let this happen, you’re right. I guess I have a dark side, and that part of me imagined that, if Aaron and Elliott were both gone, you’d have to turn to me. It’s psychotic, I know.”
“It is. It’s psychotic,” she said, standing. “I want you to head back to KC, but I’m sending Hannah with you. Do what you can to figure out what that book says. We need them back, all of them. And if you can’t do this, Christian, I’ll find someone who will. I’m not sure where I’ll send you, but it’ll be far, far away.”
All he said was, “’Kay.”
Cadence took a step toward the office door but froze before her left hand reached for the knob. It was missing something. She quickly dug into her jacket pocket and pulled out her wedding ring, the one Aaron had given her in Vegas. It wasn’t the same as the one he was supposed to be putting on her finger in just a few of days, but it was better than nothing. “And, by the way, it’s already too late, Christian. Aaron and I are already married.” She left the room, letting the door slam behind her.
