Allegiance (Causal Enchantment #3)(59)

Sofie swooped in, shaking his arms loose from around my body. “Yes, you probably shouldn’t get that close until she’s cleaned up. You’ll need to be cautious with your affection for a while. That must have hurt …” She turned my face to feign investigation of my injury, all the while pleading with wide eyes. Sorry, she was saying.

In all honesty, I was so stunned, I hadn’t felt the pain of his kiss against my mouth.

Bishop squeezed the bridge of his nose. “I’m so sorry. I was just so excited to see you. I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever,” he whispered, pulling me into an embrace. That’s when I saw Caden standing behind us, glaring at Amelie, a slight shake of disapproval. Caden! Oh my God! Oh my God! I’m cheating on him, right in front of him! He watched Bishop kiss me! What would he do? What would he say?

Jade eyes locked onto my face.

He smiled.

What? What the hell was going on? I pleaded silently with my stare, to him, to Amelie, to Sofie. Why was Bishop like this? He was acting like we were together! I looked back at Caden in time to see him mouth, “Everything will be okay.”

No! Everything will not be okay! I felt my teeth grit painfully. This was wrong! All wrong! I must’ve had a wild look of panic because Caden turned away, squeezing his own eyes shut for a moment, a pained expression marring his face.

Great, I have to deal with another one, Max groaned. Do you want me to bite him?

I stared at him, thankful for our secret communication. “What do you mean, Max?”

Bishop believes you are a couple. The Fates have filled his head with all kinds of false memories. It’s their twisted way of giving Sofie what she asked while complicating things. It’s how they roll, Max said.

“But … why?” I asked, aware that my voice had taken on an annoying whine.

Bishop pulled away from me. “Why what?” he asked softly, his hand reaching up to affectionately graze my jaw.

“Oh … nothing. Max just asked me a silly question.” Another wave of anxiety tore through me with his touch. On instinct, I pulled away, taking two steps back. “I need to go lie down for a while. This morning took a lot out of me.” I gave a furtive sidelong glance to Caden. Follow me, please …

“That’s a great idea,” Sofie chirped, walking over to place a hand on Bishop’s forearm. “Bishop, do you think you could help Mage clean up the mess in Paris?”

“Yes, I definitely could use some help with that,” Mage stepped in without missing a beat. “It’s already made the news. Hopefully, we can make it blow over as a terrorist attack but we should head out now. We should be back in a few hours.” She looked at me. “Enough time for you to get cleaned up and take a rest.”

For days I begged Sofie to fix Bishop, and now I could kiss Mage for taking him away.

“Of course!” Bishop boomed happily, his famous crooked smile beaming. “Can we take Lilly’s car?”

Mage nodded. “I’m sure whomever she borrowed it from won’t mind.”

“Do you need me?” Amelie offered.

“No, you’ve done enough,” Mage answered quickly, giving her own look of stern disapproval.

Amelie had the decency to duck her eyes and look contrite for a second. Only a second, though, and then her expression changed to one of mischief as she glanced behind her at Julian leaning up against a wall.

“Come,” she beckoned, offering her hand. As they began walking down the hall, Amelie turned back to give me a sly smile and a wink. Her hand reached down and pulled out a strap from beneath her shirt. Black lace.

“Great … you managed to get that,” I mumbled to myself, my hand going to my forehead. A deep headache was forming behind my right temple.

I needed to warn Julian before Amelie ambushed him.

I needed to talk to Caden about this whole Bishop thing.

I needed to talk to Sofie about Lilly’s allegiance.

I needed to talk to Veronique to explain things, to relieve my guilty conscience.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get more complicated, my world was spiraling downward, out of control.

Bishop leaned over to lay a gentle kiss on my forehead. My back instantly stiffened. “Be back soon and we’ll pick up where we left off,” he whispered in my ear, and then he was off with Mage, sauntering out the door as lazy as a lion on a sweltering day. A voice screamed inside my head, Where did we leave off?

The second the door clicked into place, I let loose. “What the hell?” I screamed, wincing as a sharp pain shot through my jaw.

Caden was beside me in a second, pulling me to his chest in a tight embrace. “It’s okay.”

I shoved him back. “No, it’s not! What did you do to him?” I hissed, my anger directed at Sofie.

She sighed. “I told you what I did. Apparently the version of Bishop we get is a little bit different. It’s not me. It’s the Fates. But at least he’s not in the Merth, right?”

I was already shaking my head, looking at Caden. “I don’t want that. I don’t want him, I don’t—”

He silenced me with two fingers to my mouth, careful not to touch my injured jaw. “I know. I know. Believe me!” He paused. “It looks like this is as close to the old Bishop as we’re going to get.”

“But she erased all memories of—”