“I don’t want to do anything to cause a patient distress. Regardless of what happened in the past, you are pregnant now, and you don’t look so great. Please let me check your vitals again.”
“No need. You know how resilient I am.” My claws ached. “Do you think a single medic and his lies can slow me down?”
When my hair began to turn red again, Aric stepped closer to me. A warning not to use my powers? As if I could! Though my claws had sharpened, my vines still seemed to be dormant.
Paul exhaled a breath. “Lies? You think I would purposely withhold birth control from you? Why would I do such a thing?”
“You know I don’t want a child, and you know Aric does.” Paul glanced at him with a nervous look. Again, I wondered if they’d plotted this thing. Gran would believe they had. No, Aric could never do that to me. “You’re trying to drive a wedge between us.”
“You’re making me out to be evil. I’m not. I can only imagine the horror you’ve seen out in the Ash, but I’m not like the villains you’ve encountered. I’m not a cannibal or a mad scientist. I’m not a torturer living in a house of horrors.”
“That’s what makes you even more dangerous.”
“All my life, I’ve tried to look out for others. To help.” Paul’s blue eyes were guileless, his tone willing me to understand and be rational. “That’s my job, my calling.”
Calling. Gran had mentioned the dark calling. Had she been talking about Paul? I remembered her words: You have to kill Death. He will turn on you—they all will. Death is poisoning me!
What if Paul had hurt her, and she’d thought Aric was responsible? What if Paul was crazy?
He must have lost loved ones in the Flash. Had the apocalypse twisted him as it had every other survivor I’d met? “What exactly did my grandmother die from?” I would go back and study each word she’d written in the back of my chronicles. I would compile all she’d told me—even what I’d considered to be mad rantings.
“Your grandmother was sick, had been suffering from strokes.” In a tone that would rival a mental ward doctor’s, Paul added, “Evie, do you not remember that?”
“Of course I do. I want to know why she took such a turn for the worse on the one night I left the castle.”
“She’d been steadily declining.” He turned to Aric. “You recall her condition when she first came here. You told me you’d feared she wouldn’t survive the journey. I kept her alive for months more. When she passed, it was a mercy.”
Though Aric had in fact found her in dire straits, I demanded of Paul, “Did you show her mercy?”
Meeting my eyes, he solemnly said, “I would never hurt anyone under my care. Never.”
He was so freaking believable. So why didn’t I buy any of this?
Aric gazed down at my face. “Let us leave and discuss things.”
Paul stood, addressing him: “Sir, you’ve always been fair to me. What do you want me to do? How can I make this right? I need to make this right.”
God, he was good. Aric looked sympathetic. Not me. The tiny hairs on my nape rose. This is all an act.
“My wife and I will consider the situation at length. In the meantime, you’ll be confined to your quarters.”
My head whipped around. “What?” Not good enough. Aric had said he’d keep Paul locked up until I decided his fate. I’d decided.
Paul told me, “You’ve been through so much, Evie. If you need me to stay sequestered to feel comfortable, then I’ll gladly do it.”
Baring my claws, I said, “I need you out of our lives—”
Aric took my arm and squired me outside, then shut the door behind him. “I’ll install a lock on this after I escort you back.”
“Locking him up won’t be enough! If he’ll do this, what else is he capable of?”
“Sievā, I cannot fathom any motive for his actions.”
“What if he is crazy?”
“What do you wish me to do? Execute someone for mental illness? After the apocalypse?”
I didn’t want Aric to kill someone he believed was innocent or sick, but . . . “I know he’s acting. I sense malice in him.”
After a moment, Aric gave me a grave nod. “Then I will exile him. Once the blizzard passes.”
I ground my molars. “You expect me to wait for the weather to break?”
“It would be a death sentence otherwise. How dangerous can he be, jailed in his room? What will a couple of days hurt?”
“What will they help? If you believed me, you would cut him down!” Inhaling for calm, I said, “I can’t wrap my head around this. My husband, the one who applauded my judgment, is doubting me.” I turned back toward our wing.
In the den, Lark and Finn both sat up. “Well?”
I put my hands on my hips. “Don’t you already know, Lark?”
She shrugged without shame. Naturally, she’d used one of her creatures to spy on my confrontation. “What if Paul did get everything mixed up back then? This Arcana stuff would be a lot for any mortal to take in. Just a few months ago, he was in a coal bin, hiding from a rampaging troll.” Ogen.
“You want someone that messed-up to do surgery on your boyfriend?”
“Paul sounds good now,” she said. “Good enough to fix Finn’s leg.”
I stared the Magician down. “Don’t let him touch you. Please don’t.”
Eyes wide, he shook his head. “Wasn’t gonna.”
I looked from him to Lark. “Tell me you aren’t trusting one of Paul’s shots for protection.”
Finn’s face turned red. Lark glared.
Clearing his throat, Aric said, “Paul will be exiled once the weather clears. In the meantime, do not speak to him. Lark, you’ll bring him meals and take over his duties.”
She opened her mouth to argue, then closed it. Her gaze landed on me, her eyes tinged red.
Like a warning light.
_______________
Later that night, Aric and I lay side by side, staring at the ceiling in silence. The blizzard had strengthened, winds howling over the castle. Lightning flashed every couple of seconds.
Inside, flames crackled in the fireplace and warmth emanated from his skin. I gazed over at his flawless profile.
Before we’d gone to bed, I’d found the wedding ring I’d made him, still in my coat pocket. A startling thought had arisen: I’m glad I didn’t give this to him. I’d hidden it in a drawer beside the red ribbon Jack had saved from before the Flash. That keepsake had survived even my run-in with Sol and Zara.
Aric turned to face me and rasped, “Talk to me.” As I struggled to marshal all the thoughts swirling in my head, he said, “We agreed that if either of us needed something out of this relationship, we should talk about it.”
“Can you not understand how trapped I feel right now? Not only have I had this pregnancy forced on me—against my will—I have to live in the same place with the asshole who betrayed me.”
In addition to wanting revenge against Richter, I’d come up with four new missions: to find out if Jack lived, to somehow strengthen my powers, to uncover proof that Paul had harmed my grandmother, and to get him gone.
“I’m trying to protect you.”
“How?”