Finale (Caraval #3)(80)

Still looking at her, Jacks gave a lazy wave of his hand toward the table. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’d introduce you to my bride, but I think I’d rather kick you out so we can chat in private.”

Tella expected a few murmurs of protest, but Jacks must have been using his newly restored powers to control everyone’s emotions. There were no objections from the group, and within a minute, his court of half-naked gamblers was on the stairs.

“That was quite an appearance.” Jacks leaned into his winged chair and kicked one scuffed brown boot onto the table. “Have you come to consummate the—”

Tella launched herself at him before he could finish. His chair fell back, bringing both of them with it.

“You foul, heartless, wretched, cheating, manipulating, apple-sucking demon!” The curses were inelegant, not nearly as dirty as they should have been, and her blows were ineffective. He’d easily caged her wrists in his cool hands, so she didn’t even hit him, but it felt good to fight him. It felt good to wrestle against his grip.

“You tricked me into marrying you!”

“You begged me to help you.”

“I wanted you to take my emotions away, not make me your wife.”

“But I’ve been a good husband. I told you how to find the Vanished Market, I gave you that Fated map.”

“You also threatened to kill me! And you nearly did!” Tella panted as she finally ripped her wrists free from his icy hands. She would have tried to hit him again, but she needed to stop touching him.

She pulled herself from him, then she shoved up from the ground until she towered over him. He wasn’t even breathing heavily. He just looked up at her as if he were a misbehaving angel with gold hair hanging across his pale forehead.

“I want you to undo it,” she demanded. “I want the marriage revoked, and then I never want to see you again.”

“Why would I agree to that?” he droned. “There’s nothing really in this solution for me.”

“You want to be married to someone that hates you?”

“Maybe I like the intensity of it.” He grinned at her as he pushed up from the floor, leaving the chair lying between them.

Tella could barely breathe she was so furious. She would have walked out if she could have. But this marriage wasn’t something she could ignore or pretend away. Even now she could feel it in the way she hated him. Fiery and all-consuming, so much stronger now that he was standing in front of her like her own personal villain.

“If you don’t undo this, I swear I will kill you.” She stepped over the chair, until they were so close she had to crane her neck to look up at his sharp face. “If I remain your wife, I promise that I will make you fall in love with me. I will become everything you’ve ever wanted, and the moment you are mortal, I’ll stab the closest sharp object through your chest and end your heartbeat once and for all.”

“Don’t be so dramatic.” Jacks sighed. “If you want out of the marriage, there’s a simpler way to do it.”

He reached in his boot and pulled out a dagger.

Tella scrambled back, nearly tripping on the fallen chair.

“Don’t worry, my love, it’s for you to use on me.” He flipped the dagger in his hand and held the hilt toward her. “Immortal matrimony cannot be undone with signatures and pieces of paper. To sever our connection, you have to wound me.”

“And doing that will undo the marriage?”

“‘Undoing’ implies it never happened.” Jacks’s voice switched from sharp to dull in a flash. “What’s done cannot be undone, but it can be severed. All you have to do is use the knife and say the words: Tersyd atai es detarum.” He stepped over the chair until the space between them was gone once again.

Tella cautiously accepted the blade. It was the same jeweled dagger they’d used the night he’d taken her emotions, when he’d also married her. She slowly tipped it toward Jacks’s throat.

He didn’t flinch. He didn’t even appear to breathe, though his lips remained parted as he looked her directly in the eyes, his gaze the saddest shade of blue she’d ever seen. She didn’t believe it was real. And yet, the look on his face was so convincing, it made her wonder just enough to hesitate.

“Should I make this easier for you?” He spread his shirt apart, baring his chest of smooth, sculpted skin, like marble with a heartbeat. She could hear the rapid pulse of it as it moved in tandem with hers, pounding harder with every breath she took. When they first met, his heart hadn’t beat at all. Then it started again—because of her.

She gripped the dagger tighter, but didn’t make another move.

“Why are you hesitating, my love?”

“Why are you making this so easy?”

“You think this is easy for me?” Jacks leaned forward until his skin pressed against the blade. For once he didn’t smell like apples. He smelled like liquor and heartache, and when he spoke, his words were almost too soft to hear. “You think it’s in my nature to be kind?”

“There’s nothing kind about what you did to me.”

“You’re right,” he whispered. “What I did was purely selfish. So stab me before I decide to be selfish again. The longer we’re bound together, the more difficult it will be for you to fight it. You might hate me, but you’ll find yourself wanting and needing to be near me. So if you really wish to end this, do it now. Cut me and sever everything that ties us together.”