WAIT FOR LOVE (Lovemark #4)

10. Unity-2

“What?” Dori seemed confused. “I don’t have any children.”

Once again, we both glanced toward Olivander.

Grinding his teeth, he sighed and rubbed a spot on his forehead. “How about this?” He dropped his hand and glowered at both me and Dori, clearly not a fan of the way we were ganging up on him together and peppering him with questions. “How about you two stay in here for the night? I’ll take Unity’s bedchambers. And in the morning, we’ll start in with this again, answering everyone’s questions properly, alright?”

“Speaking of Unity,” I said, lifting my eyebrows with a stern arch. “Have you considered that whatever you’ve gotten yourself involved in here might possibly put her in danger, too?”

“Of course,” he muttered, sending me a testy glance, even as his emotions ratcheted with worry. “And I’ve already taken care of it.”

“So you’ve sent her a letter?” I pressed, thinking of all the drafts he’d written but wondering what the final missive had actually said.

His jaw tightened, letting me know he hadn’t sent anything. “I sent men to take her into hiding,” he finally told me.

“Oh.” Okay, that made me feel better. My kidnappers hadn’t been kidnappers after all. Thank goodness. “You asked your father to—”

“Good Lord, no.” Olivander frowned at me as if I were insane. “My father is who I most need to protect her from. His men would only kidnap and harm her. So my brother sent some of my men wearing his colors.”

Oh. Oh no.

“Prince Erick’s soldiers still use gold insignia, while the king’s men fly blue, correct?” I asked slowly, wincing.

“Yes.” He squinted at me curiously. “Why?”

“Well…” I shrugged.

So I really had almost been kidn*pped and probably worse. I owed Nalini big-time for saving me.

“What if your father also sends men, and they reach her before yours do?”

Fear lacerated his chest. I felt it so strongly that I would’ve thought the emotion had originated from me if I hadn’t known better. Olivander was very concerned about the king’s men reaching me before his did.

But he pinched his mouth tight before saying, “That won’t happen.”

“But what if it—”

“It won’t,” he snapped, unable to even entertain the idea because it scared him so much. “And I said no more questions until tomorrow.” Rotating away from me on his heel, he faced Dori and bowed respectfully. “I’ll return first thing in the morning. If you need anything, I’ll be in the next bedchamber over on the right.”

“I…” Dori eyed me curiously before she returned her attention to Olivander and shrugged. “Okay,” she said. “Sure. See you in the morning, bud. And have a good night.”

“You too,” he murmured, even as his gaze darkened when it slid back to me.

He didn’t have any parting words to give me, so I felt the extra need to say, “Sleep well,” in a saccharine voice as he turned away and opened the door, then left me alone in his bedchamber.

With a Graykey.

“Dude,” the earthling immediately murmured in wonder and then let out an impressive whistle. “With the way you two were throwing off sparks, I thought you were going to catch the whole room on fire.” I glanced her way questioningly, and she lifted her brows, nodding to confirm her words. “He was wholly into you.”

“I know,” I said, finally able to consider that completely. Olivander had been attracted to me. And the mark had clearly not been working on him. That meant…

The man had simply liked the woman, and nothing else magical had been forcing his attention.

I smiled at the other woman and pressed my hands to my cheeks as I sighed. “Wasn’t it amazing?”

“It was pretty intense,” she confirmed, only for a knit in her brow to grow. “But, uh, aren’t you even the slightest bit worried about his mate?”

“No.” Shaking my head slowly, I smiled and decided to tell her, “Because I am his mate.”

She blinked at me, clearly not understanding at first. But then her eyebrows shot sky-high. “So wait. Are you saying you’re—”

“Unity,” I told her with a big smile as I jabbed out my hand in welcome introduction. “Of House Maresca, true love mate to Prince Olivander of House Bjorn. It’s...very interesting to meet you.”

Dori’s mouth fell open as she glanced down at my extended hand. Slowly, she took it to shake with me, even as she said, “I’m so confused right now. So you’re Vander’s Unity? Unity-Unity.”

“I am,” I was pleased to admit. “Does this mean he’s talked to you about me?”

“Oh yeah.” She snorted and waved a hand. “We had an entire huge, long conversation about it. But how the heck did he totally not recognize you just now? I know it’s been years and you’ve grown up since then, but uh, did you really change that much? And I swore he’s said something about his tattoo being able to feel you when you’re near.”

“It does,” I explained. “But the woman who saved me from my kidnappers tonight somehow blocked me from his mark before sending me to him. And she gave me a glamour too, so he wouldn’t be able to recognize me.”

“A what-er?” Dori asked, blinking once.

“A glamour,” I explained. “It’s rare magic that helps transform someone into looking like something else. But they’re easily wiped away with natural elements, like water, wind, dirt, or fire.” To demonstrate, I dipped my hand into a nearby wash pan full of hand-washing water and brought up a palmful to my hair, dampening it enough to reveal a streak of bright scarlet.

“Whoa!” Dori edged close as she gaped. “You’re a freaking redhead.”

I nodded. “Yep. So you don’t have glamours on Earth?”

No, they wouldn’t, would they? Indy’s journal had said there was no magic on Earth at all.

“Uh, no,” she confirmed. “Why did you want to disguise yourself, though? Why didn’t you just tell Vander who you were?”

“Because when his father’s men came for me tonight, I realized he was in some kind of trouble. And if he’s in trouble, I wanted to be here to help him, except I knew he wouldn’t approve of that idea. He’d probably want to tuck me away somewhere safe and far away.”

“Yeah, he does,” Dori agreed with an agreeing bob of her head.

I nodded too. “And so Nalini and I decided—though it was mostly Nalini—that I should come to him incognito, and so…” I spread my arms and grinned at her. “Here I am.”

“Holy s**t,” she murmured, studying me intently. “Yeah. Here you are.”

“Are you going to tell him who I really am?” I asked.

Her gaze roved over me as if scrutinizing my value. Then she said, “You know, I don’t think I will. In fact, after the conversation we had about you, I think this just might be the best way to help ease you guys into reacquainting with each other after being apart for so many years. There can’t be any preconceived biases of him thinking of you as his ward. It’ll be like you can both just start from scratch.”

“I was thinking that very same thing,” I said, growing excited. “And he won’t constantly be worried about seeing to my safety first this way, either. Which reminds me...” I squinted at her. “You seem nice enough, but I should warn you, if you do anything to hurt Olivander, I’ll be forced to eliminate you. Got it?”

“Um…” Dori swallowed loudly. “Okay. That sounds fair. I guess. But I don’t plan on hurting anyone.”

I sighed dismally. “I have a feeling most Graykeys never plan on ever hurting anyone.” My gaze shifted to her bare arm. “May I see it again?”

Her brow furrowed. “See what?”

“The brand of your curse. I’ve never actually seen one in real life on anyone before.” I paused before realizing, “Probably because I’ve never met a Graykey in real life before.”

“Oh! Right. That. Sure.” She flipped her arm over and showed it to me openly without an ounce of concern that she bore it. “Though are you really sure I’m susceptible to this curse since I’m not from this world and I’m clearly not a Graykey?”

“I’m not sure why you would get the mark if you weren’t susceptible to the curse, though,” I murmured, hesitantly reaching out to touch her tattoo. It was so harmless and normal-looking. I looked up, eyeing her in concern. “Do you feel different now? Like cursed?”

“Well…” She shrugged. “I did recently get hit in the head in my old life and was sucked here against my will into a completely foreign time and place, so yeah, I’d say I’m feeling pretty cursed right about now. But physically, no. I feel the same as always.”

“So you don’t feel like, you know, killing me right now or anything?” I felt the need to clarify.

She blinked at me without speaking for a moment before clearing her throat and quietly saying, “Yeah, that would be a no.”

“Oh.” I exhaled a deep breath. “Good deal.”

Yawning, she nodded. “Isn’t it, though?”

She wasn’t taking her curse seriously at all. That relieved me as much as it concerned me. It was nice to know she didn’t feel any urges to go on a killing spree, but she needed to exercise some caution. I didn’t know how much warning a Graykey got before they were gripped with the bloodlust.

Then again, there had only been eleven reapings since the beginning of the curse, so it wasn’t like the bloodlust happened all that often.

Thank goodness she wouldn’t be sleeping in the same bedchamber as Olivander tonight; I’d never get any rest, worrying if she would s*******r him in the wee hours.

I wasn’t all that comforted about the idea of sleeping under the same roof as her myself, but at least I would take the proper precautions to safeguard myself.

“How about you take the bed, and I’ll sleep on the couch,” I offered.

“Oh! Oh no, that’s okay,” Dori said, shaking her head. “This is your mate’s room. You have more right to the bed than I—”

“I insist,” I told her with a firm nod. “You’re the guest here. And the guest should get the bed.” Besides, I needed to be on the couch, which was much closer to the fireplace where the fire poker was leaning against the wall, just waiting to be used as a protective weapon in case Dori turned feral before dawn.

She finally gave in, and after letting me take a handful of pillows and a blanket from the bed—one of the cushions larger than the others, like maybe Olivander might’ve had a Unity pillow all these years—I made up a little area on the sofa and crawled under the covers after Dori did the same across the room.

“Do you mind if I sleep with a light on?” I asked.

“That’s fine,” Dori told me on another yawn. “I’m so tired right now, I think I could sleep through anything.”

I watched her settle down, and then I listened until her breathing changed and she was fully out. Then I snuck from my sofa and crept over to look down at her.

She really did look quite innocent and harmless. Let’s just hope she stayed that way.

Nodding in reassurance to myself, I started to turn away, only to spot something familiar sitting on the nightstand next to Olivander’s bed.

My lips parted in awe. But my God. It was Indigo’s journal.

It had been years since I’d last seen it and snuck it out of his pack to read. It looked thicker now as if he’d filled in quite a lot since I’d last poked through it.

Well…

Tonight was as good a time as any to get caught up on everything I’d missed over the years. Since the war with the Graykeys to dethrone them in Lowden had started soon after he’d escorted me to the academy, I’m sure he’d added plenty, too.

I was used to staying up late, studying for a big exam at the academy or the like, and besides, I hadn’t planned on sleeping much tonight anyway.

I opened the front cover.