Chosen Thief (23 page)

Brann stood, lifting his empty plate from the table to come for seconds, and muttered, “She was telling the
truth
.” Amber eyes peered down at me, his back to the others and hiding his expression as he raised his eyebrows in silent question. “She’s not cold.”

Ah…I had said I was fine…and I wasn’t.

Perfect.

Sighing, I shrugged a shoulder at his inquiry, and he and I started loading up our plates side by side. I glanced to where Reese was sitting and leaned over, whispering, “Where was he that it took so long last night?”

Brann’s lips twitched, and he leaned around me, grabbing a muffin while whispering at my ear, “Passed out…inside a tree…twenty
feet below the ground…beneath the pond at the rear entrance of the grounds.”

I blinked, then I laughed so hard I almost dropped my full plate. I had no clue how Sin had managed that, or even how he kept oxygen flowing to Reese, but that was some funny shit. I gulped hard, sucking in a breath. My eyes twinkled across the room covertly to Sin, who winked at me. A few people at the table were staring,
my hilarity a bit loud for morning ears, so I choked back my laugh, clearing my throat hard, and glanced at Brann. His lips curled slowly, hiding his hilarity better than me, before he continued filling his plate. Moving past him, I grabbed an orange juice bottle and sat next to Sin where he had saved me a seat between him and London, a seat that was also horribly situated right across from
Leric, whom I hadn’t even glanced at yet.

I was carefully keeping my sleeves down as I started to open my orange juice bottle, attention steadfast on my action, when King Collins stated, “Leric, I’m sorry for the disruption. What were you saying before Caro arrived?”

“Ah, yes,” Leric purred quietly across the table. “I know we were planning to leave today, but I would like to humbly ask if my
group and I could extend our stay here.” Everyone at the table went quiet at the question. Honestly, I hadn’t even realized they were planning to leave soon. I had thought they would stay a while. And I wasn’t a hundred percent positive what I wanted King Collins to say now there was the option of him leaving. Leric had a way of unraveling me, and truth be told, it freaked me out a bit.

King
Collins cleared his throat. “May I ask for the reason for an extended visit? I believe we finished our business yesterday during our meeting.” King Collins was probably a bit torn, wanting Leric to stay to learn information from him but also wanting him to leave since the One had covertly threatened him with something last night.

I made myself glance up at Leric, knowing everyone else was more
than likely staring at him and it would look odd if I didn’t. So I sipped my orange juice slowly as I got my first look of him at the table. He appeared refreshed, casual in his Caribbean-style, white linen long-sleeved shirt, the top three buttons again undone to reveal a portion of his hard chest and his leather white necklace still tight around his throat. I couldn’t see what pants he wore since
he was sitting, but I could imagine it was a soft, white linen pant, possibly with his leather flip-flops. He had tied half his white-on-deeper-white rolls at the back of his head, showing his sharply handsome features in harsh relief, and his eyes pierced through what I had learned last night was black tattooing around his eyes since it hadn’t smeared one bit during our sweaty activities.

His
attention was on King Collins, and he casually shrugged a shoulder, resting further on his chair. He tapped his arrowhead diamond ring absently on the table in front of him. “If I can be perfectly blunt, my business isn’t done. I can’t go into great detail, or any detail for that matter, but I ask that you trust me. I believe I’m needed here.” He cleared his throat and stared down absently at his
ring, his eyes turning a bit glossy. Slowly, his gaze returned to King Collins, one eyebrow quirking. “Will you take the leap of faith to trust me?”

King Collins’s jaw clenched, and he glanced at Queen Ruckler, who was staring at Leric with an icy gaze. She nodded once curtly, stating he was telling the
truth
. Her eyes never wavered from him, pretty much like all the Rulers were doing. They were
not hiding their feelings for him today — they didn’t like him very much with whatever he had covertly threatened them with. And sadly, knowing full well what a spirit’s gifts were, it made me trust them less. It could be nothing, something harmless, but it could be worse. My own lips pinched as I stared at King Collins, even as he nodded once, telling Leric that he and his group could stay.

My brows furrowed as I evaluated the King as he began to eat again. Conversation had resumed around the table, but my own meal was forgotten as a sickness churned inside my belly. I was wondering what his secret was exactly. Who my King really was. I knew people in power always had the largest secrets to hide, but what was his? Who was the man I had decided to blindly trust?

Gnawing on my lip,
I ran a hand through my hair, my heel tapping under the table. I was actually feeling nauseous that I had been so stupid to live under the roof of someone I didn’t know. Just because he wasn’t outwardly evil like the Bossman, it didn’t mean he wasn’t evil on the inside.

“Caro,” Sin said softly, brushing hair out of my face and tilting his head to obstruct my view of King Collins. His eyes scanned
my face. “You really are looking pale. Maybe you should go and lie down.” He tilted his head at my plate. “You haven’t even touched your food.”

Realizing I was panting a bit, I nodded at him, decided, and I stated a bit too loudly, “Yes, I’m going to go lie down.” I stood even as Sin blinked, his brows quirking at me, but I ignored him.

I had gained King Collins’s attention like I wanted, and
he instantly stood, his expression worried. He started walking toward me, which was all the better; I wouldn’t have to go to him. He lifted his arms, placing them on my shoulders to stare down at my face. “I knew you weren’t well. Do you have a fever again?”

He placed his hand on my bare forehead, his own choice to touch me.

My eyes instantly flashed bright blue on his face as I pulled from
the heavens, from the galaxy, and opened my Core. A rush of interstellar darkness and stars blurred before my eyes, and for a moment it was all I could see. I focused on the hand on my head floating in the cosmos, tethering his life force, and I held the shimmering blue rope that linked his being on earth. I pressed it to my lips and whispered my request, “Your most valued secret.”

Staring down
at a pregnant belly covered in a golden satin gown, his hand reverently slid over its firm roundness. Leaning down, he placed a gentle kiss there, complete love and adoration filling his heart as he whispered, “I bet you’re a boy.”

Contented laughter brought his head up to stare at his love, Queen Cooper, as she smiled down at him from where she lay on a bed of gold. She was fingering the sapphire
necklace around her throat as she replied playfully, “And I bet it’s a girl.”

“How about we compromise. If it’s not a boy, we’ll try again for one,” he whispered as he crawled over her carefully, lifting her necklace. “Just don’t lose this in the interim, so we can use it again when your belly’s full of our next child.”

She brushed hair from his face lovingly. “That, my love, is not a compromise
when I’m the one carrying the child for nine months.”

“Care to see if I can change your mind?” he purred, placing kisses along her jaw.

She hummed softly, “Possibly a demonstration is in order—”

A wall of icy water slammed against my chest like a battering ram, breaking my connection and shutting my powers down abruptly. I grunted in pain, flying back through the air and landing on the breakfast
bar. Platters of food flew to the floor, porcelain and glass shattering loudly as I skidded across the bar and tumbled over the edge to land on my ass, my head slamming against a cabinet. Stunned silly, my ribs most definitely bruised from the force of the water, I barely recognized Roselle when she squatted in front of me, holding my chin up. Her worried gaze darted back and forth between my
eyes while I sucked much needed oxygen.

There was actually a silvery white light shining throughout the room. I blinked, shaking my head, and realized I wasn’t seeing things. Suddenly I could hear Leric shouting at the top of his lungs, his deep, menacing baritone holding none of its purr as it literally shook the ground under me and rattled the cabinets and windows. “
You fucking arrogant cunt!
You never touch one of my people!
” A pause before the floor and walls started shaking again. “
And my God, right in fucking front of me!
”

“What’s happening?” I asked nervously, still gasping for air as I tried to stand. I slipped back to the floor —the water had not only drenched my entire front, but the floor as well, and the food wasn’t just on my back, but also all over the floor. Roselle gripped
my elbow tight, her lips pinched in unexpected care as she evaluated me, but she helped me to stand after a moment, steadying me in the mess. Clutching my ribs, the sight I found as I straightened didn’t help my breathing issues, and I felt dizzy all over again. “Oh, good Christ. That’s not good.”

It appeared that everyone and everything except the spirits in the room had been frozen in time.
Like, literally not moving in whatever action they had been doing, except they were still breathing and blinking. Almost everyone was still sitting at the table, their expression frozen in shock as they stared at King Collins. The elemental King stood frozen, his arm extended, and even a bit of blue water shot from his palm frozen in time. His own stilled expression was furious. Queen Ruckler was
standing where she must have stood, as was Queen Cooper, her body glowing a dim gold. Both of their shocked miens were on the mess at the breakfast bar. King Zeller was closest to King Collins, apparently having been using his speed, since his robe was pulled back like a wind had been whipping at it. Sin was also standing and staring at the bar, one foot forward as if he had been rushing.

Reese
was sitting comfortably in his chair, tapping his fingers on the table and appearing as if he was greatly enjoying the show.

And the show would be Leric.

He was glowing, for one thing. I could do that too, but his skin’s glow rivaled the moon’s in its whiteness, while his eyes glowed bright silver. He stalked back and forth in front of King Collins, his expression entirely violent. Then there
was the awe-inspiring crown on his head those at the Temple had only ever heard about through hushed secrets whispered behind closed doors. It was a thin ring with mini-spikes, like a King’s crown of old. It floated about his head, as deep and as black as space, with actual stars and planets, and suns and moons glittering from within — life as we knew it here on earth somewhere hidden within its
depths.

He stopped directly in front of King Collins, putting his violent face directly in front of King Collins’s furious, frozen one. I had to reach out a bracing hand to the bar as he began shouting again, shaking the room worse than an earthquake. “
Was your fury at the loss of your secret worth your fucking life?
” And Christ, he actually glowed brighter, making me squint. “
You should have
never touched her! Never my people! Never my goddamn, fucking people!
”

Sucking in a harsh breath, realizing he seriously planned to kill King Collins, I ripped my arm out of Roselle’s hold and stumbled around the bar. I patted the air gently — even as it felt like the whisper of the stars around me — while I held my ribs with the other arm. Moving next to them, trying not to stare at Leric’s
crown, I stated clearly and calmly, “Leric, I don’t want him dead.”

I held completely still as those silver eyes shifted in my direction, staring down at me with such intensity it threatened to steal my breath. He hissed, “He attacked you after he blatantly touched you, even knowing what you could do.” His gaze flicked down to where I was holding my ribs, then back up to my eyes. “And he hurt
you. I can’t let that pass.”

I tried again to get through to him. “Yes, you can. I’m the offended. And I say he didn’t do anything to warrant his death.”

Ever so slowly, he bent toward me, and I had to lock my legs to keep from backing up as his glowing gaze came closer, bringing that frightening crown with him. His nostrils flared when his nose was a mere inch away from mine, and he bared his
teeth at me, growling quietly, “I am the One, in case you have forgotten.” He paused. “I witnessed the offense.” He paused again. “So whether you want him dead or not is moot.” His lips curved cruelly, showing the killer inside who relished his work. “He harmed my people, and I want him dead,” he hissed, “as is my fucking right.”

My own nostrils flared as he lifted slowly away from me, returning
his attention to King Collins. He lifted his hand toward him as he began to shine more brightly.

“Dammit, Leric,” I growled, fear and fury twirling inside me as I put a hand behind my back. “I seriously didn’t want to have to do this.” And the briefest moment later, I had my gun pressed to his cheek, safety switch off. “I can’t allow you to harm him.” I didn’t blink, my voice void of emotion
as the part of me that didn’t mind so much killing the bad guy peeked out. “Put your hand down so we can talk reasonably before I have to put one of these silver bullets through your skull.”

Instant. “Roselle, Reese, stand down.” I could see them glowing in my peripheral, each with their own gun aimed at me. “Sprite, you almost just died.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.” I pressed the gun harder
against his face. “Lower your hand, and I’ll tell you my simple reason why you can’t kill him.”

He actually chuckled quietly. “You should know by now I don’t take orders.” His hand stayed stationary, not moving up or down. “But I’m more than willing to listen to your reason since you’ve put your life in danger for this man.”

I inhaled heavily and figured I was fighting a losing battle with the
hand issue, but since it wasn’t touching King Collins yet I guessed that would do for now. “All right.” I licked my lips and stated very slowly, “The simple reason is: I’m not your people. I didn’t choose the Temple. I chose this. Whatever happens between King Collins and myself is none of your concern, therefore you actually have no right to kill him. It would only be murder.”