and didn’t put himself in danger by becoming the Phantom again. He’d promised, right?
Delmare and I were working on a project in the library late one evening when Stefan came striding in. It was around nine or so. I’d only managed to get rid of Ethan because he had hockey practice. I’d reassured him nothing would happen to me in the bowels of the school here in the library, and he’d relented, but it hadn’t been without a lot of cajoling.
Stefan, apparently, had skipped practice. He took a chair and turned it around, sitting on it backwards as he leaned in to whisper to us. At this hour, we were the only people in the library, but he still kept his voice down.
“Okay, I know you can’t duplicate yourself,” Stefan said to me. “You aren’t that far along in your education. Spill.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Delmare dressed up as the White Rose to attack me. Gabby said if I didn’t fool Ethan, she was going to hurt him. But he thinks the White Rose is someone else now, so no harm done.”
Stefan leveled me with a flat stare. “Do you really think that’s going to work long-term?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “It’s working for now. I’m making it up as I go.”
“Look, the only way we’re going to deal with Gabby and Elijah is if we work as a team.” Stefan said. “We can’t take them down with all these secrets, all these lies. Their coronation is coming up. You should confess to Ethan before then, so we can have a solid plan to stop them.”
“I can’t, Stefan,” I argued. “We still don’t know what makes Gabby so powerful. Until we do, revealing myself to Ethan is a risk.”
Stefan scowled, while Delmare gave me a sad frown. “I feel so guilty,” Delmare admitted. “I stabbed you, bitch.”
“You did, and you should be proud of it,” I told her. “I think Ethan might be considering stopping his Phantom work.”
Stefan let out a scoffing noise. “You don’t know your mate very well. Ethan’s got a thick head. He doesn’t give up.”
My stomach wiggled in anxiety. “He promised me.”
“Did he promise you to stay out of trouble, or to stop being a vigilante?” Stefan asked. “Because in his mind, those are two very different promises.”
My heart fell. Ethan wouldn’t look for a loophole in his promise to me... would he?
“Look,” Stefan started. “You’re Ethan’s mate. You have an obligation to tell him everything. He owns your heart, and you own his.”
“So sorceresses are owned by shifters? Are they property?” I questioned.
Delmare shook her head. “It’s not like that. Ownership wouldn’t be the right word. The term belong to would be more appropriate. A Companion is his mate’s, and she is his. And they have a responsibility to each other to protect that bond and sanctify the union. It’s a complete surrender of yourself in love, nothing else.”
Delmare sighed. “Or at least, it’s supposed to be. We all know it doesn’t always work out that way.”
“It still sounds creepy.” I wrinkled my nose.
“Well, think of it like this. If Gabby was to come up and grab Ethan’s junk, what are you gonna do about it?” Stefan drolled.
My ears started fuming. It was almost like I could feel steam gushing out of them. “I’d tear the bitch’s head from her shoulders.”
“Precisely,” Stefan said, like that explained everything.
Delmare rolled her eyes. “It’s hardly like that. Dragons have useless and violent allegories.”
“It got the point across, didn’t it?” Stefan asked.
I mused over their words, thinking of how strange this world was. It was nothing like the one I’d come from. The Arcanea could be backwards sometimes, even sexist.
But there was a certain beauty to the mating laws that were truly captivating. The idea of true and undying love, regardless of circumstance or fate, was more than breathtakingly romantic. It was an incredibly risky thing to do. To place yourself fully in someone else’s hands like that, and trust that they wouldn’t break you, would remain loyal only to you until their last breath was beautiful.
I hoped that was what bloomed between Ethan and I... true love. Yet how could that kind of love grow with all these secrets?
“While you two are bickering,” Delmare said, and she gathered up her things, “I need to talk to Professor Jacosta. I’ll see you later, Em.”
Delmare wandered away. Stefan’s eyes were glued to her ass as she left the library— I watched him.