The Blood Spell (Ravenspire, #4)(92)

“Lucian, could you come here, please?” she called. When he joined her at her counter, she gathered all the vials except for Kellan’s and Nessa’s and showed him the labels. “I need these delivered to each of the head families. They should be expecting them since they willingly gave up a strand of each girl’s hair three days ago.”

Lucian packed them into his bag, but before he could leave, Blue pulled him close. “Remember what happened to Ana. Don’t go anywhere with anyone. Not even for a job. Promise me.”

“I promise,” he said, and Blue’s heart ached.

She’d told him about finding Ana when they’d first entered the shop. Asked him to warn the other street kids. Held him while he cried and shed some tears of her own.

“Hurry, now. And stay safe,” she said as she sent him on his way.

As soon as he left for the long trek to each head family’s home in Falaise de la Mer’s nine quarters, Blue packed up the other two vials and locked the shop. Then she hurried through the city streets toward the castle. She’d give the necklaces to Nessa and ask her to pass Kellan’s along to him. It was better that way. If she didn’t see him, she wouldn’t be tempted by what she couldn’t have.

The sun hung heavy in the sky, a ripe orange waiting to be plucked. Soon dusk would fall, and Blue didn’t want to be alone on the city streets after dark. Not after seeing the wraith come for her. Not after hearing it scream while she was surrounded by the bones of the children it had devoured.

She picked up the pace and was nearly out of breath when she approached the guards at the castle’s entrance. They nodded respectfully to her and let her pass. The advantages of being a frequent visitor.

She didn’t want to be a frequent visitor once Kellan married someone else. Didn’t want to see him walking arm in arm with his chosen bride and imagine all the things she wished she’d said to him. The things she wished she’d done with him when she had the chance.

The butler informed her that Nessa was in the royal garden, and Blue opted to skirt the south side of the castle rather than walk its halls, where she might run into Kellan. She reached the garden’s main path soon enough and ducked beneath the hanging roses that twined around the raised arch that spanned the entrance.

The path wound through regal oaks, large iron pots with cheerful collections of flowers in riotous colors, and small groves of cypress and shirella trees. She hadn’t found Nessa yet, and nerves sparked as the shadows stretched longer, and the sun dipped closer to the horizon.

She’d just entered a grove of gently swaying shirella trees, their branches laden with the pale blue fruit, their glossy green leaves blocking out all but fragments of the sunlight, when she heard footsteps on the path. Turning to face the way she’d just taken, she said softly, “Nessa?”

Something rustled behind her, prickling the hair on the back of her neck. Whirling, she ran straight into Kellan. His arms shot out to steady her, and he tipped his face down to look at her.

“Blue? What are you doing out here? Are you all right?”

“You aren’t supposed to be here.”

He cocked his head. “I live here.”

“Not in the garden.” How was she supposed to avoid the longing she felt for him when he was standing right in front of her? “You should leave. Or I should leave. I’ll leave.”

She stayed exactly where she was. His hands ran down her arms, and the fizzy feeling exploded through her. She narrowed her eyes.

He really was making this impossible.

“I’m leaving.”

“So you said.” He leaned closer, until all that stood between them was the faint, hazy glow of the sun sifting in through the shirella trees. “But here you are.”

“Kellan.”

“Blue.” His voice was soft with longing, and his hands found hers, pressed close, and held. “Just stay here with me for a moment. One moment where we pretend nothing else exists. Will you do that?”

“Yes.” She breathed the word against all her better judgments.

Two more days, and he would belong to someone else. He wouldn’t hold her hand or show up for breakfast at the farmhouse. She wouldn’t ride horseback with him or sit with him on the shoreline while he trusted her with his heart.

His skin was warm against hers, and she tilted her head up to look at him. He smiled, though his eyes were sad.

“I’m not coming to the ball,” she said quietly, the decision made as the words left her mouth.

“But—”

“I can’t.” She met his gaze, begged him to understand what she didn’t want to say. What she had no right to say. “It will be hard enough without being there to witness it myself.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, his fingers still tangled with hers. “I’ve made a mess of this whole thing. I shouldn’t have spent so much time with you. I shouldn’t have told you my secrets. And I shouldn’t have asked you to stay here with me. I had no right. I thought it was only my heart on the line, and that whatever time I spent with you would be worth the heartache afterward. I didn’t consider the possibility that your heart was on the line too. Please believe me. I didn’t mean to fall in love with you.”

Love. The word pierced Blue’s heart with all of its pain and possibilities. Two more days of possibilities with Kellan was all she had.