It wasn't hard to figure out where Thomas is staying after seeing him at that meeting. As always, Lady Tasso's Château d'Automne is the main centre of acommodation for the hunters gathered in Boulder for the semi-formal. And to plot their greatest and most daring mission on the Fae Realm, of course.
"Wait here," I tell the Lycans as I prepare to exit the car and head for the hotel's entrance. "Don't interfere, unless I call you. I've got your numbers on my emergency list, so you'll be notified the second things turn ugly. Even in that case, keep in mind that you're heading into a hotel of hunters so no shows. We don't need another trial, Asher."
"Yes, ma'am," says Hayder in a mocking tone and I flung a swearing at him. Chase and Asher only nod when I meet their eyes and I take a deep breath before opening the car's door.
Asher's hand catches mine and pulls me to him, catching my chin with his free hand and kissing my lips softly. I kiss him back, lingering in that moment of peace and comfort because I was nowhere ready for leaving him. I wasn't ready to head into that den of vipers, or to meet with the worst of them all, but I had to remind myself that my time is rapidly passing by and that I have a myriad of things to solve before Hy-Brasil.
Our lips part and I gaze into Asher's piercing green eyes, now clouded by worriness. "Come back to me," he asks in a whisper and my heart shrinks a little at the words.
"I will," I assure him. "I will always fight to come back to you, until the day I die." I tell him, the words mindlessly spluring out of my mouth. And they shocked him too, because his mouth was half-opened and his eyes gazing at me like he was seeing me for the first time. I figured I said too much so I hurried out of the car and ran to the hotel's entrance.
A grim, autumn rain started ever since we left the pack's borders and by the time I got to the reception, my hair was soaking wet and I was shaking under the army green overcoat I was wearing. In the foyer, a few known faces crooked their noses upon seeing me, but none dared to question my presence there. I walked to the main desk and addressed the bored girl there.
"Is Thomas Lane staying here?" I ask and the girl carefully analyses me, before saying.
"We don't offer confidential..."
"Cut the mundane crap," I tell her and she frowns at my words. "My name is Adeline Thrussell-DeGrey, check it."
She does so, a superior grin appearing on her face at the results. "Miss Thrussell, it appears that you're still a trainée, even if your rehabilitation period is over. I'm sorry, but only full-fledged hunters can access confidential records."
"It must be a mistake, check again." I usher the girl but she closes her laptop with a thud and smirks at me like a devilish viper.
"How about you leave before I call security?" She asks, and I know she already called it. But I couldn't care less, as I grab her collar and spit the venomous words in her face.
"How about you quit this show and tell me what I want to now, before I lose my patience and make you my training target?" I carefully stick an arrowhead at the base of her neck, pushing it against her main artery. "Call off your gorillas, or I'll cut your throat before they even get the chance to walk through the main doors."
I see a group of bodyguards approaching the perimeter, but a notification on their watches makes them retreat back to the Jeeps they arrived in. After the cars were long gone, I let go of the girl and she falls right on her chair. She put a hand over her throat, then used the other to grab me a card from her desk.
"Room 314, east wing. He just asked for breakfast," she tells me and I grab the card from her trembling hand.
"Tell them to leave it before the door and not to knock. I'll make the special delivery."
I walk to the lift, and as the girl makes a call to the room service, I draw a look to the hunters laying casually in the foyer. As highly-trained as we are, I'm sure they were aware of the show I pulled, but none bothered to help the girl I was threatening. Not even those that don't know me and have no idea if I'm a hunter or an ordinary sociopath. Nor they care. The disgust on my tongue makes me crook my nose, just as they did when I walked into the hotel. And we're supposed to be the good guys...
The lift stops on the third floor and I walk to the only room that had an abandoned room service trolley in front of the door. The freshly-made food smelled fantastic and I didn't stop myself from scooping a mozzarella stick, as I knocked on Thomas' door.
"Room service," I say as the door is opened and the Elf's early-morning grumpy face turns into a cheeky grin upon seeing me.
"I know I've chosen the extra package, but I didn't know that it included such lovely morning visits," he says, dragging the trolley to his room and motioning me to enter the room.
"Oh, it does includes visits, but not lovely ones. They are more like the prison-type, fast and never-happening again." I correct him, but he only giggles at my words.
"So it's a conjugal visit?" He jokes and I roll my eyes at the witty question.
"I'm here to talk about what happened the night after you tried to kill Asher," my voice nearly breaks at the last words, but I keep myself steady. Thomas' smirk disappear when he hears me and walks to the trolley to pour himself a cup of tea from the antique-looking pot on it.
"What about it?" He asks like I was questioning him about what he ordered for breakfast, not how he deadly-stabbed my mate.
"I don't remember the whole thing," I say, frowning at the words as I try to describe the very last thing I've seen before waking up in Kale's garden. "I remember crying my eyes out, trying to listening to Asher's fading heartbeats, but your yelling was making it more difficult than it already was. I wished to get him somewhere safe and somehow, the next moment I opened my eyes, I was in the pack." I lift my eyes and his angry features make me swallow the anxiety building in my gut. I gathered all my courage, and continued talking. "How did I get there? I couldn't even lift him off the ground, but carry him for some many kilometres. Still, he's alive and well. How did I do that?"
My question is left unanswered, as Thomas only presses his lips and turns to stare out his immense window. But I insist, my mind set on getting the truth of him, somehow. "The other day, I almost died." My words catch his attention and I could've sworn that he looked mildly concerned for a second, before becoming cold and unimpressed once more. Or maybe I like imagining that he still cares.
"The vampires caught me wandering on their territory and almost made me their dinner, but somehow I escaped them." My partly-healed leg twitches at the mention of those events and I seat on the nearest armchair. Even if Kale's treatment made me heal faster than normally, I'm still a human that has been thrown around like a puppet by those vampires. It'll take a few more days until I'll completely recover, but at least I'll be in peak condition by the time my mission starts.
"Just like that time I saved Asher, I closed my eyes and the next thing I know, I'm somewhere safe. How did it happen, Thomas?"
He barely even looks at me by the time I finish speaking. He was avoiding my gaze like I was Medusa and I could turn him to stone if he dared face me. "You can either answer me, or let me go and ask the vampires. Even if I'm sure they'll be more interested in chewing my bones than helping me."
"There are certain things you shouldn't know yet, Adeline," he simply states and I cross my arms across my chest.
"There are many things you wish I wouldn't know, but unfortunately for you I do," I smirk as he frowns when he senses the threat. "And before you ask what I'm refering to, I've seen your true face that day, at the Yeti Institute. It was for a blink of a second, but I recognised those soulless black eyes and evil running through your veins. I couldn't ever forget that face of yours."
He knew what I meant. I was there when he was sentenced to the Wild Hunt for high treason. I witnessed how they stripped him of all his titles and heirlooms, contained his magic inside an enchanted locket necklace and shunned their only living Prince. I cried and screamed for someone to help him when I heard the dogs approaching, but there wasn't a soul who could've saved Thomas then. The Wild Hunt appeared, an army of nuckelavee running towards us and shields of white magic raised to protect everyone, but Thomas. He barely survived the cabaline-human monsters, before a dreadful Cheval Gauvins walked right to him and scooped him from the ground. An unseen force brought him on the saddle and tied him to the demonic horse. He started riding and lost himself among the other cursed hunters and I could've sworn that was the last time I'll ever see him. But I was mistaken...
"And what do you intend on doing with this information, love?" He mockingly asks and comes closer to me, which instinctively makes me want to sink myself between the cushions of the armchair. But he stops as a safe distance and I dare to speak.
"To blackmail you into answering my questions, love," I reply, my stare as sharp as knives ready to draw fresh blood.
But he only laughs as I speak, stepping closer again and stopping in front of me, leaning casually by the wall and blocking my path to the exit. Cold sweat runs down my spine and I try to remember myself that everything is going to be fine. I'm no longer alone in this fight against Thomas, I'm no longer a fly in his wicked web, I'm stronger than he ever was.
"For how long do you intend to keep punishing me?" He asks and I frown at his words. "I know this whole war you're raising against me is part of my punishment for betraying you. But I think I've suffered enough in the Hunt, don't you?"
"You brought this upon yourself, Thomas. You didn't only betray me that day, but your kind. And if I was stupid enough to forgive you many times over, they couldn't." My words anger him, but I don't stop. "I'm glad you found a way to escape, but you're not free. You don't seem to be remotely scared of presenting yourself in public, but you're still a fugitive—"
"How did this conversation become about me?" He yells, fury escaping through every pore and rage-filled waves of power make me clentch my hand on an arrow.
"If you're not interested in answering questions about me, I figured you'd be willing to tell something about your self-absorbed persona."
"Don't believe you're that smart, Aline. Those mind-games may work on your neantherdal pet, but not on me."
"Dare make me stupid agai—" My threat is not continued because he takes me by surprise when one of his hands catches my neck, while the other rested on my thigh. I managed to scoop out one of my arrows, but he caught it before I could use it against him. Those darkened eyes were full of mischief, watching me like I was a prey he was enjoying taunting a little before ending it all.
"I've missed your short-lived bursts of courage," he slyly says, his lips kissing my reddened cheeks. "Always so misdirected, futile and childish."
"Let me go Thomas or..." I try not to appear scared, but he knows me. I'm petrified under his tight clench on my neck and panic storms my body when I start fighting for air with every breath.
"Or what? You'll call the three musketeers parked outside?" My eyes grow big because of the surprise, but also because of the lack of air in my lungs. "Of course I know about them, people tell me everything around here. Especially things concerning you, my princess."
"I c-can't breath!" I use my remaining air to yell at him just as starry dots begin blurring my view like a mantle of unconsciousness.
I feel myself being freed and I inspire deeply, coughing as the wave of fresh air invaded my oxygen-deprived lungs. My whole body was shaking and I was bending over the armchair, trying to gather myself. Thomas was staying right in front of me, watching my distressed face without an emotion crossing his features. If I wasn't feeling so dizzy, I would've punched him right away.
"I won't tell you anything, Aline." He tells me, his hand grabbing my chin and forcing me to stare into his soulless eyes. "Because you'll find out anyway, very soon. Until then, enjoy your last days with the mongrels."
He sits up and walks to the other end of the room, stopping in front of a double door. "See you on the other side."