Rhapsodic (The Bargainer, #1)

by Laura Thalassa

“As for the four houses, I rule the Kingdom of Night. My people know me alternately as His Majesty Desmond Flynn, Emperor of the Evening Stars, Lord of Secrets, Master of Shadows, and King of Chaos.”

Or I could leave with Des. Des, who guarantees nothing. Des, who left me all those years ago only to come roaring back into my life. Des, who doesn’t want to change me. Des, who’s offered me nothing but hope and heartache. Des, my friend. Des, my mystery. Des. Des. And there is my answer. Eli is someone’s dream, but…but he isn’t mine.

He catches my hand. “It’s not good manners to taunt a fairy. We have notoriously thin skin.” Despite the threat, his eyes spark with excitement. “I’m sorry,” I say. “Your ponytail is very masculine. I feel like I’m going to grow a beard just looking at it” “Mouthy thing,” he says endearingly.

“Haven’t you ever heard the expression ‘Don’t mix business with pleasure’?” A sly smile spreads across my face. “Aww, are you suggesting I’m the pleasure?” My heart is thumping way too loud. He frowns severely at me. “I’m definitely rubbing off on you.”

“Cherub,” he says, his voice serious, “I will always come for you.”

“You have over three hundred favors to repay me. By the time we’re done, you will realize that Eli and all those other men were just a dissatisfying dream. That this, and only this, is real.”

“You know,” I say, “I missed you. Every day.” It was an ache that lasted seven years. It should’ve dulled, but it never did. He’s quiet for a long time. Finally, he confesses, “I missed you too.”

I wind my arms behind his neck. “Truth or dare?” His eyes are heated, a smirk spreading across his lips. “Trying to play my—” “Truth: had you bothered to stick around, I would have given you every single one of your wickedest desires.”

“How did you feel, leaving me?” I ask. He holds my gaze. “Like my soul was ripped in two.”

He breathes heavily against me, leaning his forehead against mine. “You want to know a real secret?” he rasps. I nod against him. “I want to wake up to you every single morning.”

“Do you want to know a truth of mine?” “Always,” I say, turning my head to better face him. He takes my hand and presses it against his chest. Beneath my palm, I feel his heartbeat racing. My eyes move from his chest to his face. “It does that whenever I’m around you,” he says.

“That also happens to be why the Night Kingdom is considered the most romantic of realms. Not only do lovers meet under the cloak of darkness, darkness is the most eternal of all things. To declare your love until the end of night is the most sacred and undying of vows.” More quietly, he adds, “It’s the oath I will take when I bind myself to my queen.”

“I am the scariest thing out here. And if anything tries to touch you, they will reckon with me.”

I didn’t fall for Des because he was handsome or because he knew my secrets but because he stuck around when I was least lovable. Because he was a man who didn’t try to take anything from me even when I lay next to him but instead gave me peace and comfort. Because each one of those nights, he saved me all over again, even if it was from myself.

“Finally, after the longest seven years of my life, I was able to come back to my love, my mate. The sweet siren who loved my darkness and my bargains and my company when I was no one and nothing more than Desmond Flynn. The woman who took fate into her own hands when she spoke those ancient vows and declared herself mine.” A sly grin lifts first one side of his mouth, then the other. “Callie, I love you. I’ve loved you from the beginning. And I will love you long after the last star dies. I will love you until the end of darkness itself.”

“And mountains may rise and fall, and the sun might wither away, and the sea claim the land and swallow the sky. But you will always be mine.” He runs his knuckles over my cheekbone. “And the stars might fall from the heavens, and night might cloak the earth, but until darkness dies, I will always be yours.”

My eyes move to Des. “Teach me again how to be someone’s nightmare.” I need to feel dangerous, powerful, traits I lost somewhere along the way. A hint of his wicked smile appears, and cloaked in his shadows, it’s menacing. “With pleasure, mate.”

“Let our enemies come,” Des says, his silky voice lethal. “They have a reckoning waiting at the end of my blade—and my siren’s vengeance to deal with.”

“Let our enemies come, and I will kill them all. So long as you’re at my side, cherub, I have something to fight for.”

“I’ll be at your side,” I promise, “till darkness dies.”