Chapter 379

“No,” Midnight snarls. “I’m not taking you back.” When Jesse turns back towards her he sees that she’s glaring at him with those soulless empty eyes, her arms crossed. A shiver runs through him completely, his entire self.

God, fuck, what was the Goddess thinking giving him this as his mate?

“I’m never taking you back there,” Midnight snaps, shaking her head, her voice dropping deep as shadows – shadows just like his, but darker and more menacing – start to swirl around her. “Not to that whore. Not to that terrible nation where women run wanton and commit their sins and get paid for it. I’m keeping you here, where I can be your good mate and give you eighteen babies. And we’ll be happy.”

Jesse just continues to stare at her, a string of desperate curses running through his mind in an endless refrain. What…what the fuck is he going to do?

Taking his shock as acquiescence, Midnight straightens her shoulders, her face returning to normal. “Good!” she says, perky again. “Come on, I’ll take you to my house.” She offers a cheerful hand.

Jesse just blinks at her before he leans far down so that his eyeline is even with hers. “Midnight,” he whispers. “I’d rather fucking die than go to your shit house in this shit world. Now take me home to my fucking girlfriend.”

He watches, almost interested, as the finality of his words settle into Midnight’s mind, as her face shifts from eager happiness to shock, and then anger, and then rage. Energy crackles through her hair, her fingernails edging into talons at the curved points of her fingers. Each of her breaths grow deeper with her violence.

But Jesse doesn’t back off or even straighten up. Because even if he hates her – and he does, absolutely, just…hates this tiny person in front of him – he knows her. Knows her to the depths of him already, knows she’s not going to strike out at him – that this is all just her temper flaring deep.

And so he smirks, and laughs a little, and shakes his head. “You’re not going to hurt me, Midnight,” he murmurs, allowing himself to be a little cruel. “Stop fucking around. Take me home.”

Her anger fades almost instantly when he calls her bluff.

“I won’t hurt you,” she says, her eyes clearing, her words almost a purr. Fear races through Jesse as those eyes shift, looking behind him, to someone standing there. “But he might.”

Jesse spins, and then stumbles back, terrified, when his eyes focus on a man standing there.

A man he horribly recognizes. Corporeal this time, when he was only shadow before.

“Hello, little shadow Duke,” the God of Darkness says, striding forward. Jesse gasps as the God comes close but doesn’t touch, instead passing him. Jesse spins to watch as the God of Darkness moves to Midnight’s side, slipping an arm around her shoulders. “I very much hope that you’re being kind to my girl.”

“No, papa,” Midnight says, leaning against the God and giving a very nearly ridiculous pout. “He’s been very cruel.”

Jesse just…stares, realizing that his life is dancing on a very, very thin string.

“Now now, Sinclair,” the God of Darkness says, tugging Midnight mockingly close to his side, making it very clear that this is his girl. “We musn’t be mean to my little Midnight here. Not when she’s waited so long to meet you.”

Midnight lifts her chin towards Jesse, glaring, righteous and proud.

Jesse just stares between them, not sure if he’s supposed to apologize or…grovel…or…

“But girl,” the God says, snapping Jesse away from the question as he turns his face to frown down at Midnight. “You did not follow the timeline I gave you. You have caused a great deal of trouble for me.”

“But,” she gasps, shaking her head and holding a hand out towards Jesse. “He was with the whore! He was going to give her his mark!”

The God of Darkness glances Jesse’s way again, amused, before looking back at the girl. “Regardless, Midnight,” he says, stern, shaking his head. “You were impatient, which is a sin. You’ve claimed your mate earlier than I told you to, causing a sincere disruption of my plans.”

The God clicks his tongue shamefully and Midnight hangs her head as Jesse goes pale.

“Now,” Darkness snarls, “I have to move up my plans in Atalaxia and we no longer have a spy in the midst of the royal family of Moon Valley.”

Midnight sighs and murmurs a formal apology, but Jesse can’t even listen as he finally begins to understand.

The spies.

The spy.

This whole time he’d been wracking his brain trying to figure out how Atalaxia was getting information about them – about Ariel, and where she would be that day of the battle – what she could do –

This whole time it wasn’t Perry Gibson being some kind of spying savant, it was…him. Midnight, lurking in the darkness in the shadows through some sort of power she controls, watching…him.

He, Jesse, was the leak.

He groans, putting his head in his hands as the pieces finally fall into place.

“No need for that, boy,” the God of Darkness says, letting his hand drop from Midnight’s shoulders as Jesse again raises his head, his face agonized. “You’ll be very happy here with the girl, I am sure. You,” he snaps, turning his head sharply to the girl as Midnight jumps to attention before him.

Something about how she does it – so eagerly, like a dog starving for scraps – sets Jesse’s teeth on edge.

“Yes, master?” she says, looking up at the God adoringly.

“Keep him contained,” the God says, reaching out a hand to grasp her chin, turning her face side to side like he’s inspecting it and finds it wanting. “Do not, under any circumstances, take him back to the Earth.”

“Yes, sir!” Midnight says, her face bursting into her strange fake smile.

The God of Darkness nods once and begins to walk in the direction that he came, fading and then vanishing as he goes, leaving Jesse awe-struck and dumb with shock, and fear, and agony when he realizes that…he’s not going home.

He’s not going to go see Daphne today to comfort her, or help Ariel win that battle, not today, maybe not…ever.

And that all of this – all of it has been specifically constructed as some kind of trap. So that whatever Atalaxia has planned for his family tonight and in the war…

It’s big. And his family has no idea that it’s coming.

“Isn’t he amazing?” Midnight breathes, moving quickly to Jesse’s side and staring up at him, delighted.

“That – that guy?” Jesse asks, gesturing over his shoulder to where the God of Darkness went. “That guy is amazing?”

“Yes,” she says, nodding reverently.

Jesse hesitates. “Is he like…your dad?”

Midnight just laughs, shaking her head, her curls bouncing. “He’s not my father father – I mean, I’m not nearly good enough to be so blessed,” she says, even blushing at the idea. “But he raised me – and when I’m a good girl he lets me call him papa.”

Jesse’s face twists with disgust and confusion. “And when you’re a…bad…girl?”

“Then he beats me,” she says, blinking like it’s the obvious answer. “And makes me call him Master and Great One and Dark King.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Jesse murmurs, raising a hand to cover his face, agonized for this poor girl. “Who – who are your real parents?”

“I don’t know,” she sighs, dismissive of the point. “Who cares?”

“Midnight,” Jesse sighs, dropping his hand and frowning at her. “You should care – how – how long have you been here?”

“What?” she frowns at him like she’s confused. “I’ve been here forever.”

He balks at her, unsure how to believe that. “How old are you?”

“I’m twenty-three,” she says, beaming at him. “Just like you!”

He frowns at her. “But you’ve been here…forever.”

“Oh whatever,” she sighs, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. “Stop trying to trap me in my thoughts. Time is stupid.”

“Do you ever remember not being here?”

“No.”

“Do you remember where you’re from?”

“Stop being so boring,” Midnight groans, tilting her head back. “Let’s go – we’re in love! Start acting like it!”

Jesse is about to protest, again, that they’re definitely not in love but his wolf interrupts with a sharp bite to his soul.

Look at her wolf, Jesse’s wolf whispers, suddenly horrified. Jesse flinches, surprised that his wolf is interrupting so important a conversation, but then Jesse shifts his focus inwards. His wolf is peering across a dark space – a space where, Jesse suddenly realizes, their bond will be if he accepts it.

He gulps, wanting to rush away from it, wanting that bond to be with Daphne not this girl – not wanting anything to snap into place by accident –

But his wolf howls, and nips at Jesse, and insists – absolutely insists – that he look. So Jesse leans closer, peering in to the darkness where…where Midnight’s wolf suddenly appears.

Jesse gasps when he sees her, horrified, because the wolf is…she’s wrong. She stands still with her four legs splayed wide and unsteady in what looks like a huge puddle of oil. Her teeth are bared, and she’s panting but staring unseeingly forward into the void – not at Jesse, not at his wolf, just…into space. Her eyes shine darkly with a strange blue light and all over her fur drips with that oil. Like she’s soaking in it, like it’s…it’s pulling her down, begging her to collapse and to drown –

Jesse groans, stumbling back, eager to get away, his own hand moving to grasp his own healthy wolf’s fur. His wolf stumbles back with him, afraid, not wanting to touch her – knowing that he, too, will be sucked down into that oil if he does.

That he will become corrupted by it, as Midnight is.

“Come on!” Midnight says, snapping Jesse out of that inner space, eagerly holding out her hand to him. “Let me show you my house!”

Jesse just stares at Midnight, and then down at her hand, and then back at her face, completely blank.

Because if he takes her hand, it means he…gives into it. Into the reality that he can’t go back – can’t go to Daphne, the woman he loves.

But if he doesn’t take her hand…

What? He just stands here…forever?

“Don’t you even like me, Jesse?” Midnight asks, breaking him out of his trance.

Jesse just stares at Midnight as she bites her lip.

“Jesse,” she whispers, shaking her head softly, her curls shifting as if on the wind. “I’ve been waiting my whole life for you and…you don’t even like me?”

Jesse blinks his dry eyes and stares down at Midnight, at this poor corrupted girl staring up at him with such hope and sadness mingling in her eyes.

And his heart just…breaks.