Page 54 of Midnight Queen

“Mmm,” I mumble against her skin. “You can keep telling yourself that, my love, but my answer will always be the same.”

“Okay,” Quincey relents. “I can be patient.”

“And you call me stubborn.”

We fall silent, each of us captivated by different things. The violinist holds her attention, her fingers tapping softly against the brick as she keeps beat with him. And while she does that, I continue to caress and nuzzle her neck. A neck that will look perfect wearing the gift I had made for her.

While she’s distracted, I pull the gold chain from my pocket. The jeweler’s work exceeds what I had originally imagined when I requested he make it. Delicately, I place it around her neck so that the pendant is perfectly positioned between the bandages on her chest.

The clasp locks together at the base of her neck, and my lips curl at the knowledge that the only way it can be removed now is by a key that is in my possession. And I have no intention of ever removing it.

Quincey’s fingers brush against the pendant and she gasps softly. “A sun.”

She spins in my arms so that she can look at me.

“My sun,” I correct. “Mon Soleil.”

It’s roughly the size of a silver dollar, and it’s made of yellow gold. In the center of it is a larger round diamond, and in each sharp point of the sun’s rays are smaller diamonds.

“You are part of my world now, Quincey.” My head shakes and I correct myself, “No, you’re more than that, you are mywholeworld now, but my world isn’t kind to people like you. It’s dark, and its shadows corrupt and decay any light.” It swallows people alive and when they finally surface, they’re not the person they once were. “You have to promise me you won’t allow my darkness to corrupt your light, and that you will remain my sun always.”

She fists the necklace in her hand. “I promise, Silas. I will always be your guiding light out of the shadows.”

For years, Ira was my moral compass, but when he died, he left that job to Quincey. I know she will correct me when I wander too far off path, just as he did.

I cup her face in my hands and kiss her. It’s not a carnal kiss like we often share. It’s simply a promise to be what each other needs.

Her arms wrap around me and her head rests on my chest. Softly, we sway to the soft violin music coming from below. “Be my light, but still dance with me in all my darkness.”

And for the next hour, that’s what she does.

“It was a bus this time, sir,” one of my guards in charge of maintaining the scene tells me. “Fifteen humans are dead, ten are on route to the hospital now. Two of those are children.”

My hand tightens on my phone at this information.

A bus explosion, while notable news, isn’t something that would usually concern me. But when said bus explodes in front of my tech company’s office and passengers on board were employed by me, my attention is needed.

The attacks haven’t stopped all week and now they’ve started to affect other people’s businesses.

Bria DeLuca and I have an agreement. I allow her to move product in and out of the ports I control here, and in return, her family allows me to use the ones located up north around New York in return. It’s an agreement that’s served us well for many years, especially seeing as her merchandise is different than mine and we are not competing for business.

We haven’t had any problems until this week when the men in charge of offloading her shipment were found dead. Similar to how my own staff were found dead in one of my cargo containers, hers were eviscerated and left on top of the container for the birds to pick at.

And now a bus exploded in front of Blackwood Technologies and more innocent lives were lost.

“Find out what kind of explosive it was and if it matches the one used on my vehicle,” I instruct tightly. If it’s the same as the one used on Duke and me, it will confirm that Gideon is still somehow playing games with me from inside his box. “I’m going to put a stop to this.”

Bring Quincey here,his request replays in my head. At the time, it had been an unacceptable answer, but each day that I don’t have the name of his partner, more lives are being lost.

I end the call and slam the device onto the surface of my desk in frustration. The glass cracks from the force and the metal bends, but I don’t care. I can have a replacement waiting for me in an hour.

I care that I’m going to have to do something I vowed would never happen. It’s unfair that this would even be asked of her after everything she’s endured, but I don’t see another option.

Leaving the broken phone behind, I stalk out of my home office and follow her scent through the house. They never lived here, but the house still feels too quiet from the absence of Della and Duke. I’m accustomed to hearing Della milling about, either busy in the kitchen or finding the one speck of dust on a bookshelf somewhere. Duke is always so lively no matter where he is and always finds something to laugh at.

Dealing with these attacks makes the weight of Duke’s absence even heavier. If he was awake, I wouldn’t have to bring Quincey to Gideon, he would be able to see the piece that I’m missing.

When I find her sitting on the stone bench in the courtyard, I come to an abrupt stop in front of the French doors.

---