Chapter 415

Jackson snarls down into my face, though I don’t budge an inch, completely unafraid. Because even if fear and anger ripple through him at that confirmation, I know that none of this is for me. For my grandmother, perhaps – but not for me.

“Hey,” I whisper, reaching a hand up and cupping his cheek in my palm. “This one? This stupid mate? I hate him.”

Jackson stares at me for a long moment before a laugh pulses through him. “Seriously?”

I nod vigorously. “He sucks, Jacks. He’s really mean, and he murdered his cousin tonight, and he punched me earlier –“

Jackson stands up straight, his eyes flaring. “He punched you?”

I smirk a little, turning my face to show him my bruised jaw. “The regicide is okay, but the punching is where you draw the line?”

He snarls, deep and true, as he leans close to me and wraps his hands around the bars. “Come on, we’re getting you out of here, and then I’m coming back to kill him.”

“Jacks,” I say, a little frantic, my hands covering his on the bars. At least, as much as they can. “Not – not yet.”

He whips his head up to look at me, again shocked. “What are you talking about? We have to go, Ariel!”

“No, please,” I beg, my wolf howling her desperation so he can see how deeply we’re feeling it. “I just – there’s so much more happening, Jackson. Can we just take a minute, and think about it, before we go tearing this cage apart and make our escape?”

“What else could we possibly want to do, Ariel?” Jackson asks, bending forward to lean against the cage, to bring his face closer to mine. “Than get you the fuck out of here?”

I bite my lip and shrug. “Um…destroy Atalaxia and end the war?”

Jackson just stares at me for a moment like I’m insane. Then he shakes his head, once, hard. “Nope. Not our job. I’m getting you out of here.”

He again tightens his hands on the iron and I smack at them. “It is my job! It is – these are my people and my nation that are being threatened by Atalaxia!”

“And my mate that they’ve got in a cage!”

“Please, Jacks,” I beg, shaking my head at him too. “Please, let me just…tell you everything. And then we’ll decide.”

He sighs and hangs his head. “You are…killing me, tiny.”

“I know, baby,” I whisper, reaching up and again cupping his cheek in my hand. He sighs and leans his face against my hand, filling my heart with joy. “That’s…also my job.”

Jackson huffs a laugh and then glances around. “Do we have time? Is anyone coming here?”

“I don’t think so,” I say, shaking my head. “They’re really busy tonight trying to solve a murder even though everyone already knows who did it.”

Jackson raises an eyebrow at that but lets it pass. “If anything weird happens, Ariel,” he says, his voice low and serious. “I’m ripping these bars apart and taking you out of here. Okay?”

“Okay,” I say, agreeing to these terms.

“Okay,” he sighs, sinking down to the ground and indicating that I should do the same so that we can talk. I grin as I do as I’m told, settling down across from my mate and beaming at him through the bars of my cage. “I hate this a lot.”

“Yes, but I love you for listening to me,” I say, reaching forward and taking his hands. “Amongst a thousand other things.”

Jackson sighs and raises one of my hands to his mouth, kissing it. And I begin to tell him everything.

The telling takes a long, long time, and the moons in the Land of Darkness crest all the way over the sky as I tell Jackson about Elias and Pippa, and Gabriel and his poor corrupted wolf, and the life of Atalaxian women, and of Faiza, and the cyanide, and Ben being here, and everything that happened tonight.

Jackson holds my hand in his nearly the whole time, staring at my palm as he listens, tracing over its lines with one of his fingers. He interrupts only a few times when he needs more information or I’ve skipped something over, but mostly my sweetheart mate just lets me talk and listens intently. As he always does, taking me quite seriously, considering my thoughts and observations and opinions. As I go, our wolves curl up together, his making a neat circle completely around mine. She stretches her nose over his paw, completely content.

“So…” I say at the end, studying the wide set of my mate’s shoulders, the top of his dark head. “What do you think about all of that?”

He takes a moment before lifting his lovely sapphire eyes to mine. “I can’t say I’m thrilled about the sudden appearance of a handsome new mate.”

“Handsome new murdery mate with very anti-woman leanings. Honestly, Jacks, he’s…not a threat to us. To our relationship.”

Jackson raises an eyebrow at me. “And yet you want to stay.”

I sigh, moving closer to him, suddenly wishing desperately that Jackson would bend these bars so I could crawl though and curl up in his lap. “Jackson,” I say, quite seriously. He looks into my eyes. “At the end of this? It’s me and you.”

He blinks once, I think shocked.

“I’m serious,” I say, squeezing his hand, holding his gaze. “I’ve had time to think in here – time is the only thing I have – and when I get home? You’re the only mate I want. I don’t want Gabriel – and I don’t want Luca, okay? I just want you. Me and you – and that’s it – forever.”

Jackson swallows hard and I can see hope filling him.

I turn my head to the side, a little surprised by his silence. “Isn’t that what you want too?”

Slowly he nods. “But…I don’t want to hold you to it, Ari. If that’s not the destiny your grandmother wrote for you.”

“Yeah well,” I sigh, frustrated. “Granny and I need to have a chat. But what she said was that she wanted me to have my mate’s marks – not that she wanted me to live in some kind of bizarre foursome. And that’s why I don’t want to run right now, Jacks – because…” I bite my lip. “I think I need to explore the magical connection between me and Gabriel. I think that my grandmother gave this link not because she thinks he’s some great match for me – but because his magic can lend something to mine.”

Jackson sighs and looks away. “It would be easier if he were ugly.”

I laugh a little, squeezing his hand. “Nobody’s as pretty as you.”

Jackson raises his head and an eyebrow along with it. “I’m not sure I’m precisely pretty.”

“You’re very pretty.”

“Luca’s pretty,” Jackson murmurs, looking away and – I suspect – hiding a blush. “I’m…good looking.”

“You’re super hot, Jacks” I say, wrinkling my nose at him. “And rugged. And very sexy.”

Jackson tries to hide his smile and blushes a lovely raspberry red, making me laugh.

“Did you know Faiza just refers to you singularly as ‘the hot one?’”

“Stop, no she doesn’t.”

“She does!” I say, laughing. “Just like all the tabloids. I mean come on, Jacks, you’re gorgeous.” I grin at my mate and tug on his hand again. “So, Gabriel’s lesser attractiveness aside, what are your other hesitations?”

“Well, I’m not thrilled about you still not having my mark,” he says, sighing and scowling at me a bit, which just makes him…a thousand times hotter. I bite my lip, looking him up and down, tempted to throw my national duty to the wind and just let him take me out of here. And immediately to bed.

“Oh, I’ll get that mark soon enough,” I sigh, knowing that I have to be good. For the sake of the nation.

“Do you want me to just…give you the mark now? Through the stupid bars?”

I wrinkle my nose and shake my head, even as my wolf leaps to her feet and turns in frantic circles, yipping her approval of the idea. “You’d change my scent and then the ruse would be up.”

“But you’d have my magic,” he points out, tilting his head. “Which means you could blow the whole place up. And then there would be no need for a ruse.”

I grin at him. “There are people I like in there. Benny and Pippa and Elias.”

“Fine, fine,” he says, leaning back on one hand as he keeps the other firmly in mine. “Then on to the true thing that’s worrying me. You could die, Ariel,” he says, holding my gaze quite seriously. “If this Gabriel is as unpredictable and power-hungry and violent as you say he is? He could kill you, and then…the world would lose its flame. Its entire reason for being.”

My heart clenches a little at the centrality to which Jackson holds me, the idea that he thinks the universe would come to a grinding halt without me. And while I think that’s ridiculous – obviously, I can’t be that important – I see the true meaning beneath his words.

That he loves me, desperately. And he wants me to live a long full life at his side.

“I’m going to make it, Jacks,” I whisper. “One…one more day, and then we’ll go. Okay?”

Slowly, he shakes his head, hating it. Hating that he’s going to give me this bargain – that we both know he will, because I’ve asked it. “All of my instincts are telling me to take you now. To just throw you over my shoulder like I did in that Examination and carry you home, Ariel.”

I smile softly at him. “And you can do that…tomorrow.”

He groans, pulling his hand from mine for the first time in hours and burying his face against his palm. “You’re torture.”

“And you’re an angel,” I whisper, meaning it, beaming at him.

“All right, tiny demon,” he says, dropping his hand and pretending to glare at me. “What’s your big plan?”

I bite my lip and straighten up, pressing myself against the bars. “Okay, yes, help me out with this.” And then I begin, and my mate and I stay up until dawn fine-tuning a plan to end this war and get us all out alive.