She knew he was going to react that way before she ever said anything. How could he not? He had known his men for far longer than she had been alive. They were his compatriots, his brothers and fellow soldiers, and he had already shown the depth of his commitment to them and to his people.
"Maybe it"s a horrible misunderstanding," she said. "Maybe he didn"t realize I"m on your side. Really, truly, I"m on your side. I"m helping you, and I want to help you. If we make that clear to them when they arrive, there won"t be an issue, right?"
He stared at her almost as if he hated her, and that look in his eyes really hurt, but she had the smallest inkling of what he must be feeling, so she sucked it up and took it.
"You said, what are the vulnerabilities we have that we do not know?" he said through tight lips. "Right?"
She nodded.
"What did the man look like?"
"I don"t know," she whispered.
His dark eyes snapped with anger. "What do you mean, you don"t know?"
"I mean, I do not know. Someone came up to me from behind, and he started choking me. We were inside the manor house. The only ones inside were you and your men, me, and Robin."
"Robin," he growled, looking around with fresh rage.
His expression was frightening. She pulled out of his arms, rolled to her knees, and stood. As she turned to face him, she found that he had stood as well. "Why are you so angry at Robin?"
"He interfered with your vision somehow. I don"t know what he did. He enhanced it, or he directed it. Maybe he twisted it." Nikolas snarled at the direction of the sitting room. "Come out here, you little b.a.s.t.a.r.d."
"Nikolas." She took hold of his wrists. "Stop. You"re reacting emotionally, and why wouldn"t you? My G.o.d, I"m reacting emotionally. I didn"t want to say those words to you, and I can only imagine how you must be feeling."
"Can you, really?" He confronted her fiercely. "Those men are my family."
"Okay," she said in a gentle voice, her fingers tightening on him. "It was a mistake. The vision went wrong, that"s all. We can let it go. I don"t know what Robin intended, but I do not believe he would intentionally hurt me." She raised her voice. "Would you, sweetheart?"
As if in reply, Robin crept into the kitchen. Giving Nikolas a wide berth, the monkey raced toward Sophie. When she held open her arms, he leaped into them. The puck buried his face into her chest, and she hugged him tightly.
Glaring at Robin, Nikolas started to pace like a caged, wild creature. "Tell me what you saw."
"No. It"ll only make things worse."
He rounded on her, his face blazing. "Tell me what you saw."
She took a step back while she searched his face for any sign of understanding or belief. He was reacting like a wounded animal, and G.o.ds, she didn"t blame him.
She told him, "I don"t believe this is the right time to have this conversation."
Nikolas opened his arms wide. "When else, Sophie?" he snarled. "My men are going to be here soon. We"re all alone, just you and I. Tell me, when else should we be talking about this?"
She looked down into Robin"s eyes. He looked so sad. Stroking the puck"s head, she said softly, "We were all in the manor house, and I knew we"d been looking for the answers to the broken pieces of crossover magic. It"s just background to the vision, that knowledge. It puts everything in place, you know? Then I was on my own, somewhere in a big room, or maybe a long one. I was really excited about something, but someone came up from behind, put his hands around my throat, and started choking me. I fought, but he was really strong, as... as I"m sure you can imagine. He was tall too, maybe as tall as you are or even taller. A big man, with big hands, not someone as small as a puck." She kissed the monkey and whispered to him, "It wasn"t you, was it?"
Ooh-ooh, the monkey mouthed, eyes wide and solemn. He shook his head.
Telepathically, she asked, Robin, why did you interfere with the vision?
She didn"t expect a reply. By then, she had stopped expecting Robin to answer anything she said to him, so it was with a sense of immense surprise that she heard a voice, dry like the rustle of autumn leaves, say in her head, Because you needed to know. Though he may not forgive Robin for it, he needs to know. Some of us are not who we seem, dear love. The puck patted her throat with both hands. Robin did not realize his interference might hurt you.
Some of us are not who we seem. What did the puck mean by that?
It"s okay, she whispered back. But don"t do it again.
His response was fervent. No, never again.
Robin, did you interfere with my first vision of Nikolas? As the monkey hung his head, she said, You did, didn"t you? What were you hoping for?
Help, the puck whispered. A puck was hoping for help. The Queen made him do things he didn"t want to do. Create fog, hide murders, dance like a monkey to her wicked whims.
"Hoping for help...," she murmured aloud, staring at him. Once her mind started piecing things together, it wouldn"t stop. "Robin, did you have anything to do with my car breaking down the night I found you on the road?"
Because it really was unusual for her technology curse to cause something as big as the car to stop working. And it was even more suspect that the car had started again perfectly, right afterward.
A puck was hoping for help, waiting for so long, Robin whispered. Waiting for someone to notice he was gone, taken and lost, but no one ever came. So Robin helped himself. When you arrived, no matter how the terrible rope fought and bit him, he broke free and threw the last of his strength at a Sophie.
He sounded so distressed she hugged him tightly. "n.o.body understood where you had gone, but you have help now, I promise. You"re not alone anymore."
On the other side of the table, Nikolas stood with his hands on his hips, staring at them. He carried so much bitter anger his Power felt like a volcano about to explode, all the more dangerous for that he had himself so contained.
"He"s finally talking, isn"t he?" Nikolas said abruptly. "He"s talking to you."
"The Queen forced him to do things," Sophie said. "When he created the fog, he did something more that must have interfered with my vision like he did just now. He said he was looking for help. He also made my car break down when I first arrived, and he threw the last of his strength into escaping."
As she spoke, it took a concentrated effort to meet the dark, forceful blaze in his eyes. She could no longer tell if Nikolas was her ally, and it was astonishingly difficult to confront that reality. She had grown so quickly accustomed to the rapport that had been developing between them.
"Robin, did you help the Queen"s Hounds find me that day?" Nikolas"s fury seemed to reach its peak. "Did you?"
Robin seemed to shrink in Sophie"s arms. Patting her throat again gently with his spidery hands, he whispered in her head, Robin tried to show you. Things are not what they seem to be. A brother is not a brother. A house that is broken might still hold the key. The strongest force might still yet win the day, and holding true can create and heal all worlds, but dear love, beware the false one who betrays. He looked sidelong at Nikolas. He cannot hear these words. He loves too well in the wrong places.
A brother is not a brother.
Beware the false one who betrays. Oh dear G.o.d.
As the heavy message in Robin"s words sank in, her arms loosened. Robin said in Sophie"s head, Robin must go to create a storm.
Just as Nikolas strode forward to try to grab at Robin, the puck leaped away and disappeared down the hall. "Stop," Sophie said to Nikolas. When he made as if to lunge down the hall after Robin, she threw herself in front of him and grabbed his arms. "Nikolas, stop it! Leave him alone! Robin didn"t have anything to do with how the Hounds found you. All he did was create the fog."
"How can you still believe him after the way he hurt you?" Nikolas snapped. He glared at her. "By all the G.o.ds, Sophie. You. Stopped. Breathing. What would you have done if you"d been alone?"
"That didn"t happen." Somehow she managed to say the words more or less steadily. "Nik, you may not believe Robin. That"s your choice, but I believe him. He didn"t mean to hurt me. It was a mistake, and he"s sorry. Listen-Listen!" As he shrugged off her hold angrily, she caught at him again. "He tried to influence the vision, but he wasn"t in control of it any more than I was. That"s the whole point of divination magic, do you understand? I don"t force my needs and desires to make up images. I open myself up to the images that come to me, based on the questions I ask, and the visions always carry some element of truth to them. Robin"s interference that first time might have made us see each other, which is definitely not normal, but it wasn"t false."
For a moment she thought she hadn"t broken through to him. The violent emotions thrumming through his taut body felt like an arrow, notched and pulled to its most taut point before being loosed in a killing shot.
Then the tension pulled back, and he stopped straining against her hold. In a low voice filled with reluctance, he muttered, "I hear you."
Relaxing slightly, she let her hands fall from his arms, and she realized for the first time that her neck actually felt sore. Clearing her throat, she said huskily, "I guess we accomplished something then."
But at what cost?
"I need some air," Nikolas said. Not looking at her, he turned and walked out.
The cottage felt strange after he had gone: bigger, colder, and emptier. At a momentary loss, Sophie looked around at the scattered stones, the magic-embroidered cloth on the table, and the brandy bottle still sitting on the counter.
She took a hit of brandy straight off the bottle and glanced out the window as, in the distance, Gawain walked a wheelbarrow full of firewood into the manor house. Then she swept up the stones and put them back in their velvet bag, folded the cloth, and went back to the bedroom.
Her nerves were shot, and a fine tremor ran through her hands. Unable to stay focused on anything complicated, she concentrated on the mechanics of the tasks in front of her.
Washing clothes. Packing. Stripping linens off the bed, she stuffed the bedding in the washer too. Checking up on her what the f.u.c.k list.
Just when she thought she was full up on crazy, something else happened. She was beginning to get a glimpse of something bigger than she had ever imagined. They were all caught up in a web of events, and none of them were in control.
What a terrible word, betrayal.
Robin was right. She couldn"t say that word to Nikolas, and he couldn"t hear it. He was too loyal. He had given everything he had to those men. It was admirable, really, and in this case tragic. How would she feel if she had found out Rodrigo had betrayed her and had tried to get her killed?
It was unthinkable. Her gut tightened, and tears filled her eyes as she remembered the urgent care Rodrigo had given her before the ambulance had arrived, his face raw with fear and concern.
Gah, she felt overwrought, wrung out. She was too tangled up in what was happening, too emotionally involved. How did she get here in just a couple of days? When did having (tremendous, mind-blowing, screaming, utterly fantastic, wildly pleasurable) s.e.x with Nikolas somehow turn into making love in her head?
She knew better than to fall in love with him. She knew it before he had ever warned her, so why did she feel so twisted up inside? Was she really going to step into that manor house with a group of men, most of whom she didn"t know, and one of whom would try to kill her, because of how she felt about Nikolas?
The Mini had enough gas to get her to Shrewsbury. She could grab Robin-if he wanted to go-and they could just leave and take the first plane she could book back to the States. How would she get a puck on a plane? Would they let him sit on her lap for the flight, like a baby?
Then she thought of the taut, furious anguish on Nikolas"s face, and she knew she was squandering her imagination and energy in telling herself a story that simply wasn"t true. She wasn"t going anywhere, not as long as he needed her help. He might not like her for it-he might not thank her for it-and he might not trust her any longer, but she couldn"t leave him.
Not until he asked her to.
In an act so gloriously dysfunctional she couldn"t believe she was admitting it to herself, Stupid and Crazy had struck again. She knew better than to fall in love with Nikolas, but she had gone and done it anyway.
"Why are you built like this, you stupid woman?" she muttered as she stomped into the bathroom to collect her toiletries and fold the clothes in the dryer. "There is something wrong with your head. How did you know to zero in on the absolute very last man on the planet you should get involved with? There are so many men in the world, Sophie Ross. So. Many. Rodrigo, for example. Why couldn"t you fall in love with your good, loyal, available buddy Rodrigo?"
While she was b.i.t.c.hing to herself, she tried to make sense of the piece of black clothing she held in her hands. What was this? She didn"t own anything like this.
Not only was it too big, it was inside out. As she finally got the cloth turned the right way, she made sense of what she was holding. It was one of Nikolas"s black shirts. She had automatically put his clothes in the same load as her own.
For some reason that struck her terribly hard. It was funny, or awful, or something, she didn"t know what. Crumpling the shirt in her fists, she started beating the heels of her hands against her forehead in time with the words running through her mind.
Sophie. Sophie. Sophie. Sophie.
This. Is why. You don"t. Kiss a.s.sholes. He gives you an o.r.g.a.s.m, and all of a sudden, you"re washing his clothes.
She hadn"t known him for very long. Maybe she was only a little bit in love with him, like catching a cold instead of the flu. That would mean she could get over him quickly, wouldn"t it?
Something, some change in the air or some subtle noise, caused her to lift her head. In the corner of the bathroom mirror, she could see Nikolas standing in the doorway. She froze, watching his reflection sidelong. The expression on his face was raw and heartbreaking.
"You didn"t see the man who was choking you," he said.
Wordlessly, she shook her head.
"You never questioned if it might have been me."
She blinked. "Of course not. I know it wasn"t. You-you wouldn"t do that to me."
"Because you trust me."
The emotion behind that was laced with complexity, unreadable. Was he thinking about how he had trusted his men for so long? In comparison, she had known him for such a short amount of time, but that didn"t change her conviction.
Dropping her attention to his shirt that she still held, she nodded. "Yes. Because I trust you."
He walked forward, put his arms around her from behind, and buried his face in her hair. The blood was coursing through his body so fiercely she could feel his heart beating against her back. He was breathing hard, and he felt slightly damp with sweat as if he had been running.
"It isn"t Gawain," he whispered. "It can"t be Gawain. I don"t believe it of him. He"s not capable of that kind of betrayal. He would rather cut off his hands than hurt you."
Betrayal. Nikolas believed her. He trusted her, and he came to that word all on his own. Her chest squeezed tight with compa.s.sion.
Leaning against him, she reached to cup the back of his head. "I can"t believe it of him either," she whispered back as gently as she knew how. "His heart is too good."
He lifted up his head to pull the long, curling length of her hair aside, then he put his face into the warmth of her neck, skin to skin. "When we go into the house, you stick with either Gawain or with me, you hear? You don"t go anywhere by yourself, not even to the privy."
This was no time to take a stand over free will and issuing unwanted orders. He needed rea.s.surance, so she gave it to him. "I won"t go anywhere alone, I promise."
He held her so tightly she felt the pressure of it in her bones, but she didn"t protest or try to pull away. After a moment, he muttered, "I think I know who it could be, and it isn"t just about what you saw they would do to you. It"s more than that. I think it"s about the Hounds" attack two weeks ago. It might even involve the Hounds" attack on the pub a few nights ago. The G.o.ds only know how far this goes."
She hadn"t been expecting that, and surprise thudded through her. When she tried to twist around to face him, his hold loosened enough to allow her, then tightened again. "Oh no."
"I might be wrong," he said. "Thinking that any of them could do this is wrong, but for one of them, the timing of certain conversations and events would fit."
"You can"t live with this doubt always playing in the back of your mind," she told him. "You can"t trust someone to have your back in combat if you think they might have tried to have you killed."
"No," he agreed. His eyes were still reddened and raw, but the lines of his face had hardened. "So we"ll set a trap, and we"ll see if he takes the bait. You won"t ever be alone, not for a moment, my Sophie. I swear to that, but-we can make him believe that you are. Will you help me?"
"Of course," she said instantly. "I"ll do anything you need."
As her words hung in the air, she listened to what she had just said and inwardly winced. Well, s.h.i.t. That had quite a ring of truth to it.
He stroked the back of his fingers down the side of her face, his gaze turned inward. "I"ll have to tell Gawain so he understands why you can"t be left alone when the others arrive, and so he can help to set the trap."
"That"s going to be a hard talk," she whispered, rubbing his back. "Nik, I"m so sorry you"re going through this."
He snapped into focus, and he looked at her as if he was seeing her fully for the first time. Cupping her face, he caressed her lips with both thumbs. "You have nothing to be sorry about. If it weren"t for you, who knows what further damage this man might cause. It"s hard to believe you came into our lives only a few days ago. Already you"ve helped to restore my hope, and now you"re reshaping us. Walking away from you last night..." Suddenly he bent his head to cover her lips with his. He said almost soundlessly against the shape of her mouth, "Walking away from you last night was one of the hardest things I"ve ever done."
Then why did you do it?
The outcry of hurt feelings echoed in her head, but she wasn"t ready to hear the reason, so she didn"t put voice to them. She didn"t want to hear him weigh the relative worth of staying with her versus leaving. She felt too raw and exposed, and she already knew that she hadn"t come out of that a.s.sessment on the winning side.
Instead, she flung all of it aside-hurt feelings, insecurities and all-and wound her arms around his neck to kiss him with all the strength of her pent-up feelings.