Stay (26 page)

“Rona?” Cain whispered and I opened my eyes. Even hidden in my cloak he could see me, once again.

His uncle and Jude frowned and shared a look between them before Jude spoke up. “Yo, Cain, I already saved you a seat at Pop’s table.” When this was given no reply, he shuffled backward, hands in his pockets. “Okay then. Hope those meds he’s obviously taking don’t screw with your performance. See you later, Pop. I gotta warm up the crowd.”

Uncle Gregg waited
off to the side, watching us with interest as Cain approached.

I was frozen, held under that familiar azure gaze.
Conflicting feelings washed over me as Cain closed the last few steps between the staircase and my shadow-filled corner. Light rested behind his eyes as they swept over me. His fingers lifted to fiddle with the corners of my cloak. I cringed at the laughter in his voice.

“Why you got this old thing on again? Thought you didn’t need to be invisible anymore,” he said.

Something was different about him, I decided as he slipped his hand around my waist. There were no shadows in his soul or hovering above his head. He was at peace.

And
she gave him that.

But Lissa wasn’t here and Cain made the colors dancing beneath my skin recede and fade to a normal, human olive
tone. His forehead rested against mine and I let him draw me closer, even though the image of Lissa in his arms hours before was imprinted on my memory.

One last time, please,
I begged the inflictor of my curse,
just this one last time.

Cain’s breath brushed my lips as he spoke low. “I’m sorry about earlier. I should have told you about the baby and Lissa. I just—never realized how much I wanted a kid until I lost one. And I’ve hated her ever since for not giving me any choice. But that was no excuse for me to take it out on you.” His arms tightened until our legs
pressed together.

I took in a shuddering breath before replying, “You have both suffered much.”

He smiled and I tried to memorize the way his scar made the corner of his mouth lift slightly, how it stretched his whole face nearly in two, changed him from someone unapproachable to the loving soul he truly was. He reached up between us to clasp my neck in his hand and said, “You were right, about everything. I needed to forgive Lissa for the past, so we can have a future.”

But does he mean ours or theirs?

“You gonna introduce us, boy?” Cain’s uncle asked from behind him. Hidden by Cain’s solid chest and the corner, I could almost forget the rest of the world. Cain kept one arm around my waist and turned me with him. Somehow he managed to slip my cloak off my shoulders and bunch the fabric into his free hand.

“Sorry
, Uncle. This is Rona,” he said with pride.

Uncle Gregg brought his cane up to take another hobbling step and looked at me from deep-set eyes. His skin was a lighter shade of brown than his son’s, closer to Cain’s
roan shade. His black hair was nearly white, his face lined with wrinkles, but the slight tilt of his smile reminded me of Cain.

“So you’re the beauty who’s brought my boy out
of hiding again?” He supported his weight on his cane while holding out a hand to me. I reached out and accepted it without question, but was startled when he lifted it and briefly kissed my knuckles. “It’s a pleasure to know you, Rona.”

I smiled so deeply my cheeks ached, to keep the tears from escaping. I was not used to such gentleness, had never known such kindness, even among my own family. “And I you,” I replied. “You are the one who taught Cain how to be a good man.”

Uncle Gregg’s eyes widened a bit and he looked past me to his nephew. “I think I might have to steal her from you after all. Sorry in advance.”

Cain laughed and tugged me closer into his side. “Too late for that, old man. Already called first dibs.”

“You keep bringing up that old man business and I might have to prove which one of us can heat up that stage.” I joined in their laughter as we made our way towards the vacant corner table.

“Al
l right, all right, looks like we’ve got a real crowd cooking up tonight, ladies and gents!” Jude spoke into the metal stick and his voice echoed through the building.

Cain leaned in to whisper, “He’s using a microphone, babe. It connects to the speakers and amplifies the sound.”

I shook my head, unable to form a response that didn’t betray my age in front of Uncle Gregg. Yet when I glanced at the old man, I saw his eyes were once again watching me with veiled amusement.

I could feel Cain’s eyes on me still and turned to meet him. I narrowed my eyes at him when he tried to mask his laughter. Our noses brushed as he
teased, “Don’t mind him, he’s just jealous.”

“Not in front of these people.” I pulled back when he playfully nipped at my lips.

Cain glanced toward the stage and a secret grin stretched his handsome face.

“What?”

He pulled away from me and I turned to follow the source of his distraction. A beautiful voice poured through the microphone and out of the speakers to grace our ears. Instead of Lissa’s jewel-like eyes glittering on stage, I met a familiar pair of coal-black orbs, carefully lined with age. She was dressed in the same extravagant robes she had worn as she ushered me out of the apartment earlier that morning. Except now her short black hair was shaped into a tight net cap, complete with a diamond-studded feather standing up to the side. Her lips were painted ruby red and smiled as she fixed her gaze on me.

“Mrs. Nguyen?” I whispered to myself and started when I felt Cain’s attention once again. I held my breath when he leaned in to speak against my ear.

“She used to sing here regularly for years. Knew Uncle Gregg long before that. She’s the reason I found an apartment close by for so cheap,” he explained.

I nodded as Cain’s words resonated with everything I knew of her. Her watchfulness over him and knowledge of his family’s past all made sense now and her
sweet song gave me peace. My breath caught, however, when I felt Cain’s lips press to the skin just below my ear. Beneath the table he reached and caught my hand with his. Slowly as he pressed kisses and whispered unintelligible words to my neck, he spread my fingers and trailed patterns over my open palm. So simple a touch should not have me trembling and willing to throw all my careful plans aside. If he had been Seid, I would have expected him to offer some excuse and hastily retreat. But this was not my thunder spirit, a god among men.

His lips returned to my ear to whisper, “Have to get backstage. Mrs. Nguy
en promised to look after you till after the show.”

I frowned and turned to face him, only to feel his mouth against mine one last time. Then he was gone.

-kate

Chapter 23

Being
Human

I recognized Derek in the crowd. He was dressed in a suit that smelled like the finest qualities of cashmere and high count threads. My father often dealt and traded in cloth in an age when it was considered an art. I still recalled the better years, when he took me with him to inspect the latest cargo. I was better than a son, he had said in secret to me then. Only later did I realize he had said this because I would bring him even greater profits when he sold me to my husband.

Derek smelled like these men, like my father and my husband. His dark hair was slicked back and his perfectly structured profile gleamed handsomely in the low light. He was sitting at the table beside mine and to my horror, Lissa was draped on his arm just slightly behind him.

I could feel my skin begin to burn and threaten to burst with my fury. After everything I had done, everything I was willing to sacrifice again, she was going to throw it all away?

My fingernails dug into the tablecloth and I felt the curse boil beneath my breaking point of control. Now that Cain had left again, there was no telling how long I could last. After accepting the curse it felt unnatural to contain it bottled up inside me, unless Cain was at my side.

“Agatha!” Uncle Gregg exclaimed from beside me.

I jumped when a cool, wrinkled hand rested on my shoulder and turned to face her scrutiny. I couldn’t say how I knew Mrs. Nguyen had joined us. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew her song had ended and the band taken over during transition
, much as I knew she was going to be disappointed in me. But I saw it in her glittering eyes, that other kind of knowing so few humans were capable of. This woman saw deeper than most, as I had.

“
Gregory,” she answered finally without taking her gaze off me, “it’s been a long time.”

“Too long, honey. But I hear you’ve been looking after my nephew well enough. Figured I owed you one last performance before we both hit the dirt,” he replied and laughed with her.

She turned her head to speak with him, though her fingers squeezed my arm slightly before letting go. It was enough to remind me she was watching.

I couldn’t resist one last look to Derek’s ta
ble, however. Lissa noticed my scrutiny this time. She worried her lip before forcing her attention back on the stage.

“Can I get you anything, Pops?” Jude suddenly appeared at his father’s side and wagged his eyebrows at me.

While Uncle Gregg was diverted, Mrs. Nguyen dragged the edge of her chair closer to mine and smiled wickedly. I pretended not to listen when she began to speak. “You know, once I was just like Lissa.”

I cocked an eyebrow at her and couldn’t help my disbelief. Despite what she hinted of her tainted past, I found it hard to believe.

“It’s true!” she hissed, grimacing as she wheezed. “Listen,” she said while snatching my wrist in her vice-like grip. “I took the wrong path and it wasn’t till I met Gregg here my life took a better turn. That girl you been glaring at has a second chance at the good things in life, just like you.”

“I thought you hated her,” I replied.

She shrugged and relaxed her grip before reaching in her pocket for a cigarette. “Sorry, ain’t had a smoke in three hours and it’s killing me.”

I eyed the foul
-smelling stick dubiously but listened in spite of the anger still rolling off me in waves. It was becoming more and more difficult to ignore the tangled web of emotions and images, the luminous connections surrounding me. And I sensed it was important to listen.

“I recognize brokenness when I see it,” she continued
as she lit the white stick. Nearby Jude had returned with a fresh drink for his father and was speaking in hushed tones with him. Mrs. Nguyen spoke loudly, without a care for who heard her then. “There’s too much of it in the world, you know. Too many lost souls wandering around with no port to call home.” She took a drag and eyed me speculatively. “Don’t you think it’d be better to help them instead of letting them stay lost forever?”

Jude leapt out of his seat the next moment, as the band ceased and the crowd began to clap. Mrs. Nguyen turned to Uncle Gregg and cackled at jokes only the two of them could understand. Within seconds Jude had reappeared in front of the spotlight and began to speak. “Give another big hand for our band, folks!” He paused and the claps echoed in my ears. I barely heard his next words, still stuck on her cryptic words.

“Next up we have a real treat for you. Another returning member of our old school and my cousin, Cain Burkett.”

The stage was clear, curtains dancing slightly on some unseen draft behind him as Jude disappeared from view. The instrument players had cleared out during
his short speech. As the lights dimmed and the spotlight returned, Cain appeared, as though he had been sitting there all along. His instrument was clutched in his arms, pressed against his chest. Without lifting his eyes to the crowd he strummed the strings of his guitar and the sound amplified through the speakers to my ears.

As he played I could almost imagine the rest of the world had faded. Lost to his music, I could picture us together in his apartment
, when his song was ours, when he belonged to me.

Tonight he played for himself as a way to let go of his past. His smoky aura reflected the tone of his voice. Rather than listening to the words, I listened to the urgency in his fingers as they plucked the strings, the expressions crossing his face I had never seen before. I felt him letting go of his sister Amy and the deaths of his parents, his baby. This song was his exorcism of the specter
s that had haunted every step of his life.

And then I realized this was never about me finding love again. It was about Cain healing from his wounds, about Lissa remembering who she truly was.
My presence in their lives was meant to drive them together, not tear them further apart. My mission transcended my happiness. It was time I started living like it.

Derek’s frame shifted in the corner of my vision and I turned my head to follow his ascent. He wrapped a firm hand around Lissa’s arm
and pulled. Her lips twisted into a scowl and she hissed a protest. He coaxed her with smoother touches and kisses to her neck. Her eyes drifted reluctantly to Cain one last time and I could see it then, the cord binding them together. The rope burned so brightly that tinier threads of energy occasionally escaped and brushed the others spread across the room in a silver web. But Cain and Lissa’s connection, their love for one another was brighter.