Page 108 of Her Dreadful Will
Biting her lip, fists clenched, she waited, while the flood of beetles raced across the meadow, parted around her feet, and swept on.
Soleil scanned the trees. He was here somewhere.
“Soleil.” His quiet voice reached her across the field, and even though she’d been expecting him, she jumped anyway.
He wore a dark suit, neatly pressed and elegant despite the brambles clinging to the cuff of his pant leg. On his lapel gleamed a dark oval she took for a pin, until it scuttled away down his arm and dropped into the grass. A beetle then—she hoped it wasn’t a cockroach. The crisp points of his shirt collar jutted from the suitcoat, and a green tie dangled from his tattooed fingers.
How dare he look that good when she was mad at him?
“Why the hell are you wearing that?” she snapped.
He looked down at himself. “I came straight from the conference.”
“All dentists dress like that at conferences?”
“They do when they’re one of the speakers.”
“Oh.”
He had been one of the actualspeakers. Not just there to learn. And she’d interrupted him, first by intruding in his home, then by summoning him here.
She doused the flicker of guilt as soon as it appeared. She had every right to be furious with him. No matter what havoc she had wreaked in his professional life, it was nothing compared to what he’d done to her magical one.
He glanced around the clearing. “You really are alone,” he said, surprise evident in his voice.
“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Last thing I knew, you were poking around my home with a Convocation spy. I figured you’d be waiting here with a whole team of them. I’ve been expecting the gunshot from the second I got out of my car.”
“You—you thought I asked you to come here—so the Convocation could kill you?” She wasn’t sure whether she was more hurt or angry. “Why the hell would I do that? After we—after everything—how could you think that? I might kill you myself, but I’m not letting someone else do it.”
For a moment she thought he was about to smile, but his face remained grim. “If you’re itching to kill me, I assume you two found something.”
“Your laptop. Tarek hacked your Institute files.”
“You got lucky,” Achan said. “I almost took my laptop with me, but at the last minute I took the tablet instead. Lighter, you know, for traveling.” He took a step forward, his arms taut at his sides. “How much did you tell him?”
“What’s wrong with you? Don’t you have anything to say about—”
“Soleil.” His voice turned hard with worry. “I’m not the only one in danger here. My coven could be harassed, or imprisoned, or worse. How much did you tell Tarek? What does he know? Did he already contact the Convocation?”
“Shut up!” Her fingers curled into fists. “He knows nothing—remembers nothing, because I used La Voisin’s ring on him. I took the memories, and I covered the gaps as best I could. It seemed to work.”
He did smile then, slow and radiant. “You protected me.”
Yes.Yes.“No, I protectedthem. My new friends, the innocent people you’ve roped into your schemes. I protectedus.”
“Us,” he repeated, still smiling.
“Stop it. Why are you smiling?” She couldn’t stand the arrogance, the avoidance. It had to stop. “I know your secret.”
“You’ll have to be more specific. I have so many.”
“Don’t do that. Don’t call me that, don’t pretend you care about me when you came to this town tocorruptme—” oh hell, she was starting to cry— “toruinme, so I would be bound and restrained, so my dreams would bebroken. How could you? You pretended to hate the Convocation, but you want to beoneof them?”
“Never!” He spoke with such force that she flinched. “I will never be one of them. This charade is the beginning of a long game, Soleil. I’m not going to join them. I’m going to take them down. And I didn’t come here to ruin you—I came to recruit you. To convince you to join my side. Ever since I met you, I knew I had to have you in my coven. For years I pondered the best way to persuade you—”
“Wait. Stop. Just wait.” She pressed a palm to her forehead, trying to control the sobs rising in her throat. “Ever since you met me? You met me weeks ago, not years ago.”
