The Cursed (League of the Black Swan) (40 page)

Rio had listened silently while the tragedy unfolded in his words as if it were happening all around her instead of being the story of her past, a quarter of a century distant. She, Rio, had been
assumed dead
, after her mother’s own family had hounded Berylan to an early grave. Her father had disappeared, which meant he was probably dead, too. Shock, rage, and sorrow buffeted her, nearly driving her to her knees, but Luke put his strong arms around her and held on tight while she weathered the storm.

Ultimately, Rio’s heart was too full to hold anything but the pain, so the rest of it broke on the rocky shore of her numbness. Too much, indeed. She wondered if this was what a mental breakdown felt like.

“How did you not know any of this? You were here in Bordertown then,” she said to Luke.

He shook his head. “I was in and out, and I was keeping a very low profile back then, avoiding both courts entirely. When I had anything to do with demons or Fae, it was with the lowlifes. I never heard any gossip about the royal families, that’s for sure.”

“You didn’t know Alice yet, either, so you weren’t nearly as informed as you are these days,” Maestro said.

“True,” Luke agreed, but then he glared at the man. “Is there
anything
you don’t know?”

Maestro sighed. “Every day that I am still alive, I realize that there is more and more that I do not know. Like what’s going to happen tonight at midnight, for example, when Rio will either inherit unimaginable power from both lines of her heritage or be slain when both of her families conspire to kill her.”

Luke snarled at the man. “I will never let them harm her, and if you’ve got any balls left, you’ll help me protect her.”

“I’ve been trying to protect her,” Maestro snapped. “Why do you think I’m trying to recruit her? The League is neutral; she’d be safe from both families for a short time.”

“
She
is right
here
,” Rio told them. “Stop talking
about
me and start talking
to
me.”

Luke leaned over and rescued a wrapped sandwich from Kit, then broke pieces off it and started feeding them to the fox. “What do you want to do, Rio? I’ll support you in anything, so long as you don’t plan to leave me behind.”

Maestro shook his head, but they both ignored him.

“They drove my parents to an early grave, and I grew up in a convent orphanage because of it,” she said, standing up and brushing off the seat of her jeans. “I need to learn everything about them, so I can decide whether to forgive and forget or find a way to pay them back.”

“Revenge isn’t a goal worth building a life around,” Luke warned her.

She nodded, accepting the statement as true without committing to it, and then she held out her hand to Maestro. “I’ll give the League one year, if you can keep my families from going to war. I won’t kill anybody for you, and I won’t break any laws, or even any ethical guidelines. If you can live with that, I’ll sign up right here and now.”

Maestro stood and they shook hands on the strangest and, probably, the most dangerous deal she’d ever made.

Luke figured Rio had about twelve hours left to be part of her old life, and he was determined to give her every opportunity to do exactly that. He managed to sneak in a few phone calls, and by the time they’d walked up and down the length of the Bordertown side of the High Line park twice, everything was in place.

“We have plans,” he announced.

“I know,” she said glumly.

“No, not midnight plans. These are
spend the rest of the day having fun
plans,” he said, grinning.

She sighed, and the desolation in that sound was enough to break his heart. “Do you really think I’m in the mood for plans? Or fun? After what I just learned?”

Luke stopped walking and pulled her into his arms. “I know you’re devastated. I also know that you’re going to have the next year to sort through facts and fictions, and we’ll figure all this out together.”

“But still—”

“Clarice said to tell you dancing, O’Malley’s, and the gold dress that matches your eyes,” he said, but then he thought about O’Malley’s, and about how beautiful Rio was, and he scowled. “Although maybe not that, exactly. I don’t want Sean O’Malley or any of his brothers anywhere around you.”

“Sean O’Malley is a great-looking guy who needs to find the right woman, but that woman is definitely not me,” Rio said.

He could tell she was thinking about the idea of going out, but after a minute or so, she shook her head. “I just can’t do it. All I want to do right now is sleep and eat and gear up for tonight. I wish I had some idea of what might happen or how to prepare.”

“I tend to carbo-load in preparation for a major magical event,” he said, tongue firmly in cheek, and was rewarded with a glimmer of a smile.

“I can’t imagine how I could make it through this without you, but I can’t believe how selfish I am to say that, or even to feel it,” she whispered. “What if the stress of tonight activates your curse?”

“Then we’ll be cursed together, and your families in both Winter’s Edge and Demon Rift had better watch their asses, because we’ll be coming for them.” He knew he’d probably ruined the atmosphere of lighthearted fun he’d been trying to create, but just the thought of taking on the assholes who’d ruined Rio’s parents’ lives was enough to make his entire damn day.

She flashed a menacingly deadly smile, and he almost started to worry. Maybe being around him was teaching her to be bloodthirsty. Next thing he knew, she’d be blowing up cars and hurling fireballs.

“Why would I want to blow up cars?” She looked puzzled, and then her eyes widened and she gasped as she looked up at Luke.

“You did it again, didn’t you?”

She nodded. “Just that snippet about next I’d be blowing up cars and hurling fireballs. I’m so sorry! I’m not trying to intrude on your privacy or your mind. It just . . . happens.”

He frowned down at her, while humans passed them by on both sides, barely sparing a glance at the couple standing stock-still in the middle of the path.

“What am I thinking now?”

She closed her eyes, and then she inhaled sharply and her cheeks flamed a vividly hot pink. “You—you—is that even possible?”

He leaned closer, so he could whisper in her ear. “I think if you are very,
very
flexible, and I—”

“Luke!” She cast a scandalized glance around. “Stop it immediately. There are people walking here.”

He clasped her hand in his and started walking, ready to leave the park, retrieve his Jeep, and head for home so they could eat, sleep, and maybe try out the idea that he’d just been thinking about. Or an even simpler one, that involved Rio naked, bent over the back of the couch, and him driving into her until she lost her mind and screamed his name.

“Luke,” she said, gasping, and he realized she’d done it again. She must have pulled the visual right out of his mind because she was blushing so hard her skin was practically on fire.

“Oh, Rio. I am so going to love this new skill of yours. Do you want to know what I’m thinking about now?”

“No! Kit, bite him,” Rio commanded, but Kit laughed her little laugh, changing back from dog into fox as they walked down the stairs into Bordertown, and then she trotted about ten paces ahead of them all the way back to the parking lot.

Luke called Clarice back and postponed their plans and asked her to organize a birthday bash for Rio—for tomorrow night. He and Rio both might be dead, but if they survived tonight, they’d be seriously in need of a party.

“Luke,” Clarice said, stopping him just as he was about to hang up. “Take care of her. Whatever is about to happen tonight—and I don’t want to know—but please. Take care of Rio for me.”

“I swear to you that I’ll either protect her or die trying,” he told her.

“I’d prefer option A,” she said dryly. “You wizards are pretty dramatic.”

“I think we’re going to be great friends,” he said, grinning.

“You still owe me a car.”

When he hung up, he was still smiling.

“She has that effect on men,” Rio said, rolling her eyes.

“Would you like to know the effect you have on me? Why don’t you read my mind again?” He leered cheerfully, and she burst out laughing.

The sound was like balm to the cracked and scorched places in his soul.

Mine, mine, mine, mine.

“Yes, yours,” she agreed. “Now give me the keys, I’m driving.”

For the entire way back to his place, Luke couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.

Twenty minutes to midnight

BLACK SWAN FOUNTAIN SQUARE

“Here’s the thing about the easy times. They sweep by in life far too quickly,” Rio said, smoothing the sides of her dress with her hands. “I can’t believe I’ll be twenty-five in twenty more minutes.”

“You look spectacular, and I enjoyed every minute of today. There was no sweeping,” Luke said, and the gleam of honest appreciation and even more sincere desire in his eyes—in spite of all the ways they’d tried to quench their hunger for each other all afternoon and evening—was enough to warm her up all the way to her icy cold toes.

“I’d feel better in my jeans and boots.”

Clarice had insisted on stopping by with The Dress, telling Rio that if she wouldn’t wear it on her own twenty-fifth birthday, then there must be something wrong with her. Rio had sat her down, poured her a stiff glass of whiskey, and then told her everything. It had taken longer for Clarice to quit saying “You’re a princess?” than it had for her to stop saying “You slept with Luke Oliver?” but she’d finally moved on.

After that, she’d held Rio’s hand while Rio had cried about losing her parents before she’d ever been able to know them, and Luke had gone outside and incinerated Helga’s new van.

“We need to get you a new hobby, by the way,” Rio told Luke, but then she handed him another bottle of water. Preventive medicine, in a way. “This one is costing you a fortune. Helga told me that she’s looking to trade up again, and this time she wants a better sound system.”

Luke grimaced, and Rio started laughing. Only in Bordertown would people be so sanguine about a neighbor who regularly detonated their automobiles as a bizarre kind of stress relief.

Anyway, The Dress. It was a shimmery gold silk that matched exactly the amber flecks in her eyes, or so Clarice had told her, but even fashion-challenged Rio had to admit that when she’d put it on, she felt sexier, more beautiful, and more powerful than she’d ever felt in anything she’d worn before.

And Luke loved it. He’d been reduced to stuttering incoherence when he’d first seen her, in the dress, with actual makeup on, and with her hair framing her face in gentle waves. Clarice was a miracle worker, and Rio’d needed to fight Luke off to keep him from ripping the dress off her, right there in the dining room. They’d discovered, though, that silk slid up legs and hips really easily, and at least one of Luke’s fantasy visuals from earlier in the day had been fulfilled.

“You
look
like a princess, so maybe the people who don’t know you well enough to see your inner royalty will pause, at least, before they try to pull any tricks,” Luke said, folding his arms over his chest in his best bodyguard impersonation.