Dark Harmony (The Bargainer, #4)

by Laura Thalassa

“You’re not bait, love. The fire is the bait. You’re an iron-manacled trap set to crush willful fairies.”

I glance over at Des, who’s beginning to pose frozen fairies like they’re Christmas reindeer, each position a little more compromising than the last.

“I love you so much. You’ll never really know.” His features sharpen, and the look in his eyes intensifies. “The way fairies love… It’s the same way we live. It’s immortal, violent, irrational, and unbendable. “I understand your words, cherub, because there are aspects of my love for you that are, simply put, unfathomable.”

“Remember those horcruxes in Harry Potter?” I begin to smile in spite of myself. “Are you seriously dropping an HP reference right here, right now?” I ask, glancing over at Des. “I have your undivided attention, don’t I?” “And all my love.” I mean, I knew he was soul mate material before, but this pretty much just sealed the deal.

The Bargainer gives me a look that should melt the panties from my body. “I bound myself to my soul mate. Would you say that counts?” I smile into my drink. “Are you admitting I have a piece of your soul?” His eyes dip to my curving lips. “More than a piece, cherub.”

Temper laughs gleefully. “Oh, you better sleep with one eye open, Desmond. I’ve seen this girl make men pay for less.” He’s still staring intensely at me. “That’s odd. For as long as I’ve known Callie, she’s the one who’s paid for my services. I admit, it’ll be nice to owe her for a change.” Temper snickers, appraising Des all over again. “Screw what I said about keeping one eye open. You better not close your eyes at all.”

The sun glares down at us through the haze, and on any other day, I’m sure this kingdom is a glorious sight, but right now, the place is like spoiled wine. Next to me, the Bargainer squints up at the sun, which now burns bloodred through the haze of smoke. “I’ve always hated this place,” he says. “Too bright for my taste. But this…” He shakes his head. “This makes me wish for those insufferably bright days.” He takes my hand, and with that, the two of us head toward the looming mountains.

“—is this thing between us one day going to fade?” The King of Night stops to take my hand, cupping it between his own. Then he backs up, pulling me along with him. “There are certain things in life that fade with time,” he says, his gaze locked on mine. “What we have, Callie, isn’t one of those things. Our bond will only strengthen over the years.” He pulls me along, the muted sunlight dappling across his skin. “I will always be here for you—when you turn thirty and when you turn three hundred.” “Don’t forget three thousand,” I say.

But it’s still a stupidly long walk, and now that Des and I have five billion guards hemming us in, our conversation is next to nonexistent. To be fair, I have been entertained. Des has spent most of the past hour plaiting one guard’s hair into at least fifty braids—he hasn’t yet noticed—and moving branches into another guard’s way. “Motherfucking trees,” the fairy mutters under his breath. “I swear they’re moving in my way.” “Lay off the spirits, Sythus,” another says.

It was the Thief who’d captured me after all, the Thief who wore the face of Julios when he snatched me from Des’s backyard. The Green Man had been dead when the Thief wore his body. Julios had been dead when the Thief wore his body. And that redheaded soldier, the one I interviewed, she had mentioned being lured away by her dead brother. Holy shit.

“Callie.” Des’s voice cuts through the screaming in my head. My eyes move to him. “What is it?” he asks softly. My eyes move from his to Janus’s. “The Thief of Souls can wear the faces of the dead.”

Janus follows his gaze. “Your human stopped an army?” Only now does the Day King truly study me. “Pray tell, how did that happen?” I narrow my eyes. Fairies as a whole think humans are beneath them. Even though I’m a siren and now a fae one at that, in many fairy’s eyes, I will always be a coarse mortal. “Cherub, perhaps you can give Janus a demonstration?”

“Seems your mate is not up to the task,” he goads. You know what? Fine. I set my drink aside and uncross my legs, rolling my shoulders back and letting the siren wake. She stretches out like a cat basking in the sun. My scales ripple to life along my forearms, and my wings itch to manifest. As soon as my skin brightens, Janus sits a little straighter, his gaze drawn to me. I rise to my feet, power rippling through my veins. “The great Day King,” I say, my voice harmonizing. “So very cocky. Stand for me.” Janus’s brows furrow as he rises to his feet.

“How dare you—?” “Stop,” I say. He freezes. “This is—” “What I do,” I say. I step in close as he flashes me a hateful look. “I am a siren. I glamour people—and now, thanks to the lilac wine Des gave me, I can glamour fairies as well. “I can glamour you.” My eyes drop to his lips. “It doesn’t matter that you’re a king or a powerful fairy. Even you can fall under my thrall.” He frowns at me. “This is how I stopped an army without killing them all.”

Janus staggers back a step. “Gods above.” Hastily, his wings disappear. “That was…” “Horribly invasive,” Des says. “I know. Isn’t my mate exquisite?”

“How do you even live with such a creature?” Janus asks, his gaze sliding back to me. Despite how shaken he is, he looks halfway interested. I smile, baring my teeth at him. “I try not to piss her off.” I guffaw at that, my skin dimming. “All right,” the Bargainer concedes, “I do try to piss her off, but only because she has especially twisted ideas of revenge.” Janus shakes his head. “You two are a fucked-up pair.”

Des tilts his head downward. “Do you want to know a secret?” “Hmm?” He takes my lips in a kiss. “Sometimes I hold out on you simply because I enjoy driving you mad with need. It makes me feel less out of control from being in love with you.” “That’s not nice.”

“What do you have against queens anyway?” Des asks. I sigh. “I just want to be a normal girl with a normal job who lives a normal life.” I don’t want to worry about an entire kingdom. The Bargainer rolls us so he can stare down at me. “Callie, you’ve never been a normal girl, and you’ve never lived a normal life, so I can see the appeal of wanting that. But normal is overrated. Trust me, it’s overrated. I’ve made deals with thousands of miserable normal people.” I frown up at him. “And I’m sorry,” he continues, “but if you think I’m going to let you settle for normal, you’ve got a fight on your hands.”

“I love you, Callie, down to every feather and scale. I love your darkness, I love your mind, I love your humor and your most coveted dreams. And I love how you love me—wholly, deeply, passionately. “You’re not normal; you’ll never be normal. I’m so sorry to tell you that. You are so blindingly extraordinary that it physically hurts me sometimes, and I’ll never stop pushing you to believe this.”

“Why did you bring me here?” I ask. Out of all the places in all the worlds, he chose to bring me here. Des has the universe in his eyes. “Because I love you, and this is where you’re happiest.” That’s not true. Happiness isn’t a place, it’s a person—more specifically, the one across from me.

“That first night I returned to you,” he says, “you cannot know what it felt like, lounging on your bed, knowing you slept in it. My mind was a mess.” His mind was a mess? It was my mind that was a mess. The wicked, untouchable Bargainer was back from realms unknown, come to collect his debts and break my heart all over again. I was the bumbling schoolgirl, and he was the aloof, mysterious one. “I’ve wanted to sleep with you here,” he continues, “your body tucked against mine… Gods, how badly I wanted to insert myself into this life of yours.”

“Marry me,” he says. Time slows and my breathing stops. Marry me. A second ago I was mad with lust, and now…now… “It’s not enough to be mated to you,” he says, “I want it all, if only you’ll have me.” My hands begin to tremble where they grip him. I can barely hear my thoughts over the pounding of my heart. “Marry me, and I will cherish you forever, cherub.” Marry me. We’re already bound by unbreakable forces. The supernatural world sees us as soul mates, as does the Otherworld. Marriage is for humans.

“Yes,” I say, my voice hoarse with emotion. I nod, and once I start, I can’t seem to stop. I smile fully, and it feels like that smile touches every inch of my face—every inch of this room. A happy laugh slips out. I’m going to marry Des! Life flushes through his face, brightening his features, and I’m sure the world has no use for suns with a smile as bright as his. It spreads across his whole face, his eyes crinkling from the action. “You’re going to marry me?” I nod again, and I’m smiling so hard, my face is beginning to hurt.

“You’re going to marry me,” he says again, processing it. “You’re going to be my wife.” He lets out his own disbelieving laugh.

“Years I have waited for this,” he says, “anticipated it. My wife.” He thrusts back into me. Again and again, he moves out and in like the tide, each deep, rolling stroke a brand, as though he wants to make it known to everyone and everything that we are real, we are together, we are one.

“Cherub…there’s something I’m forgetting…” He snaps his fingers, and from the ether, a ring appears between his thumb and forefinger. “I believe this is yours.”

Des slips off me so he can take my hand. After pressing a kiss to my ring finger, he slides the piece of jewelry on. The stone set into the band glows faintly; it’s no diamond. I’m not one to care about rings, but this one has me mesmerized. “What is it?” I ask, staring at the glowing stone. “I made a deal with the stars…” A deal—of course he did. I smile a little. “It’s captured starlight,” he explains, squeezing my hand. “I figured the Queen of the Night should carry a piece of her kingdom with her.”

“You already had the ring picked out…” It’s such a ridiculous statement. Obviously, he picked out the ring some time ago; it’s not like he interrupted sex to make a deal with the stars on the spot. Des grins, and the sight of it just slays me. “Cherub, it would frighten you how long I’ve carried that ring around.” Yeah, I’m sure frightened is not the word I’d use. “I’m going to marry you.” I get a little zing of excitement just saying the words. “I’m going to marry the shit out of you,” he agrees.

“From flame to ashes, dawn to dusk, for the rest of our lives, be mine always, Desmond Flynn.” He kisses my lips. “Until darkness dies.”

It’s as I’m relishing the sight of him that I notice the claw marks scouring his back. I hiss in a breath. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, my claws came out to play earlier. Des turns around, instantly alarmed. “What is it?” I nod to his back. “I hurt you.” He casts a glance over his shoulder. I know he can’t see the markings, but he must recall them because he smirks. “If you’re feeling truly terrible about it, Callie, I’m sure we could work out a way for you to repay—” “Des!” That’s what I get for being thoughtful.

He toes the box. “Think I should pay these guys a visit?” I doubt they’d survive it. The Bargainer doesn’t have the same issue with death that I do. Still, I smile at the thought of the King of Night in his leather pants and vintage T-shirts, dropping in on these men so he can wreak a little havoc—and all because they pissed his mate off at one point in time. I thread my fingers through his. “Marriage with you is going to be fun.”

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

“You were a queen this morning. I saw it, my people saw it, and the Thief saw it.” Of course, he brings this back to me being a queen. “I also heard you outfoxed Malaki.” Des’s eyes practically dance at the thought. “He wanted to hide me away like some fainting maiden.” “The audacity,” he says.

“Do you like your wedding gift?” he asks from behind me. “Wedding gift?” I turn to face him. Des’s silver eyes gleam. I glance around again. “Wait, are these…?” “Our new rooms.” He slides his hands into his pockets, stepping up next to me to survey the chambers. “It’s no ocean—I’m afraid there are limits on what I can do—but I figured my wife needed a place for her siren to unwind.” Our new rooms. I’m still stuck on that. He did this all for me—for us.

“I could never imagine this,” I say. “Not in my wildest dreams could I imagine what life with you would be like.” He cups the side of my face, his gaze moving to my lips. “It gets to be like this; for the rest of our lives, we get to have this: the sweet moments, the confessions, the laughter, the magic—we get to have it all.” His thumb strokes my cheek. “Cherub, you’re every wish of mine.”

I run my palms over his biceps, his tattoos catching my attention. There’s that somber angel and the rose. I touch them with my fingertips. That’s when I notice for the first time the ribbon of inked black beads coiling up his arm. My fingers pause. “Is this new?” His eyes seem to be smiling. “I wanted to wear a piece of you on me always.”

his father uses the distraction to appear in front of me, weapon raised. “You will not be my downfall, slave,” he vows. I don’t even try glamouring Galleghar. Instead, I do what any sane woman might—I kick that fucker in the balls. Hard. The reaction is immediate. He doubles over, releasing a choked hissing noise.

I love you, I want to say. More than worlds can hold or words can convey. You are everything that has ever mattered to me. Have faith and strength. You’ll be all right.

The room goes quiet, people waiting on me for further instruction. I don’t wear a crown, and I’m not here by choice, but for once, I feel…queenly. Too late for Des to see it.

“Where’s the Pit?” Temper asks, looking around. “Up ahead…My Great Goddess of Fuckery and Other Magical Things.” He mumbles the last part. “Speak up,” I command. His eyes shoot daggers at me. “I said, it’s up ahead…Oh Dark Queen Who Thinks I’m a Douchebucket of the Most Epic Proportions.”

“What’s your name again?” she asks him. He curls his lip at her. “Callie?” Temper says, calling for a little assistance. “Answer her,” I order. He grinds his teeth. “Galleghar O’Malleghar, King of Asshats, Killer of Boners, Wannabe Emperor Who Needs to Eat a Bag of Dicks and Die.”

I’ve never been more certain of my own mortality than this moment, stepping inside the palace of the King of Death and Deep Earth. It feels like I’ve moved too far from the land of the living. But then, my heart throbs, my bond with Des giving a soft tug, and I nearly fall to my knees. Letting out a soft gasp, I press my hand to my chest. I feel him. It’s weak, but I feel him. My Bargainer. The world stopped turning the moment he disappeared. Now I can imagine it moving once more.

I’ve only taken a step or two when Des appears several feet from me. I stop, and I don’t dare breathe. This feels like a spell, one that will be broken the moment I move. We stare at each other for one beat, then two. And then the spell is broken. Des disappears, only to reappear right in front of me. The Night King crushes me to him, and it is everything I need. I gather his shirt into my fists as his lips find mine. Suddenly, it feels like I can breathe again, like the world has colors and purpose and joy because Desmond Flynn, King of the Night, is alive and in my arms.

“You’re real, right?” I whisper. “I’m real.” The Night King is giving me that gaze of his, the one that makes me feel like I’m worthy of worship. “I thought I lost you—” My voice breaks. He curves up the corner of his mouth, and he looks at me so tenderly. “There are many uncertainties in life, but this one thing holds true: I will always come back to you, cherub.” Des is not just darkness. He’s moonlight and stardust; he’s wishes and adventure and a love as vast as the night sky. And he’s here, alive.

“I love you, cherub,” Des murmurs. “More than any fairy has a right to love anything.” He sweeps away my tears with his thumbs. I nod against him. “I’ll add a whole row of black beads to the bracelet—several rows. Just please stop crying. I can’t bear the sight of you sad.”

The Bargainer’s gaze sweeps over the pool. The waters are still humming, the sound pricking my skin. His eyes drop to me. “You’ve never been more fearsome than when you took down the Thief,” he says. I remember my magic singing through my veins and the thrill of watching my victim bend to my will, a god whose immortal life I stole because I ordered him to die.

“How could you be sure the prophecy was about me?” I ask. The corner of Des’s mouth curves up. “Shadows are not the only creatures who tell me secrets. There are pixies and diviners and all sorts of other fae with secrets to share.” So my mate learned I was destined to stop Galleghar. That truth sits heavy in me. I was fated to be a killer centuries before I was even born. I try not to shudder at the thought.

“Power is sentient—it can make decisions for itself.” Des and I knew that better than most. It was what kept us apart for seven years. “The shadows are part of that sentience,” Des continues, “and they’re what Euribios derives his power from—as do I. “And that was the Thief’s fatal mistake. The god forgot our power comes from the same source, a source with its own free will. So the shadows and I—we tricked him.”

“I spoke to the darkness during the only times I knew the Thief wasn’t listening—when you dreamed of him.” All those sick dreams—Des couldn’t stop them from happening, but he could use them against the Thief. “The shadows told me everything I needed to know, and it was them who helped me strike the deal with Euribios. And when the time came, the shadows severed the Thief’s hold on me.”

“Euribios brutalized them just as he brutalized the fae. He abused them into submission eons ago, until the God of Light defeated him and freed the shadows. But then my father unleashed Euribios, and the shadows were forced to cower before his power once more. “It’s not in the nature of shadows to be disloyal—even to terrible creatures—but they learned what it was like to exist outside of fear, and that’s not something you can forget.”