Lothaire (Immortals After Dark #12)(93)

Thad took her hands in his. They were big and rough, warming her own. “But you’re safe now. No one will hurt you. We’re gonna protect you.”

Safe. Protected. How Ellie had longed for someone to tell her exactly that! At any time in the last five years.

But still she couldn’t seem to focus her gaze, not even to see what he looked like.

“When I was out of it,” he continued, “this really nice Valkyrie named Regin the Radiant and a dark fey called Natalya took me under their wings.”

Regin the Radiant, the one Lothaire stalked? Oh, boy.

I hate this world.

“Every day the ladies talked to me, about normal stuff mostly. And after a while, I felt comfortable enough to peek my head up.” He gave her hands a light squeeze. “So that’s what I’m gonna do with you. Talk. ’Cause I got nowhere else I’d rather be. I’m hiding out from my adoptive mom. She’s the greatest, but she thinks I’m in high school—and still

human—but I’m done with mortal school. So every day from eight to three, I gotta get lost. I hang with the Valkyries mostly, but not one of them plays football. They just like to get high with the witches, play video games, and shriek at stuff.”

This is better than the Book of Lore. . . .

“Hey, if you surface, I’ll tell you stories about Mr. Lothaire. About how he saved my life again and again.”

Had Hag briefly stopped stirring her potion at that?

“So what should I talk about now?” Thad mused. Ellie heard him snap his fingers as he said, “Oh, I know. . . .”

His voice a soothing balm, he told her about the Valkyries giving off lightning with emotion, lighting up the sky like it was the Fourth of July. He talked about how a fairy-godmother-type Valkyrie named N?x had set him up with a vampire tutor, one who was teaching him how to trace—and to call for blood delivery. He told Ellie how he and his mom and gram were now living in a grand New Orleans mansion.

And all the while he’d pause to remind her that he’d never let anyone hurt her, that she was safe.

As time passed, Ellie’s gaze began to focus on him. She could tell he was tall, muscular, and dark-haired. Handsome.

“You’re coming back, Ellie.” He grinned.

Oh, that smile! With dimples. So genuine, so open.

“You’ve just got to come back a little bit more. Not gonna let anything hurt you.”

She tried to speak, to move. Struggling . . .

I can do this. Mind over mind. Just like kicking Saroya offstage. Ellie began shoving her way through.

“That’s it, sweetheart. Come back to us.”

Fight . . . fight . . . deep breath. “Hi?”

“Welcome back!”

“Oh, thank gods,” Hag said, adding in a murmur, “Now we all get to live.”





38


When Ellie got out of the shower, Hag was waiting with a change of clothes. “Thad has refused to leave until Lothaire returns, thinking you might need some ‘watching over’ until his ‘bro’ gets back.”

“Clearly Thad’s never seen you wield a machete.” Ellie took the clothes—a T-shirt and a pair of cutoffs that she’d left over here.

“Not that the code would allow him to leave anyway. Without a portal or escort, no one but Lothaire can trace in—or out. I’d planned to hold him here until Lothaire decides what’s to be done with him.”

“Where did Lothaire take me earlier? What was that horrible place?”

“He accidentally traced you to the Horde capital of Helvita.”

“The one I read about. That’s where he was tortured?”

Hag didn’t confirm or deny. “Now, about this boy. If you tell him

anything about your current situation, Lothaire will kill him. One

word of it will equal his death decree. You can’t ask for his help to

escape.”

Ellie dragged on the cutoffs. “I won’t say anything.”

“I saw you look at Thad’s cell phone before you excused yourself to shower.”

“Yeah, well, I saw you see me looking at his phone.”

Hag crossed her arms over her chest. “Is that why you didn’t ask him to use it? Because you feared my reprisal?”

“True, I didn’t want you to cut off his hand. But I also held back for another reason.” At Hag’s questioning expression, Ellie said, “I’m Lothaire’s Bride, aren’t I?”

She abruptly turned to arrange a towel on the rack. “Why do you ask me this again?”

Ellie pulled on her shirt. “There was a moment in the fray when he seemed . . . dumbstruck as he looked at me.”

The last twenty-four hours had been a roller coaster for Ellie. Last night, she’d accepted her end. Now, something had changed.

How could Ellie believe Lothaire would condemn her after his obvious worry, his panic?

“It doesn’t matter whether you are or not, Elizabeth. He needs Saroya to claim the Horde crown.”

“Because he’s illegitimate.”

Hag hesitantly nodded.

“Why can’t he just use the ring to get it? Lothaire told me it could do just about anything.”

“You can only use it so many times before your wishes begin to go awry. Besides, without Saroya by his side, there would be countless rebellions.”