Midnight Beauties (Grim Lovelies 2)

The world was so far below them that it made her feel dizzy, and she clutched the bar harder.

“What are you doing?” she cried.

“What we always planned to do, you and I.”

She sputtered in surprise. “We agreed to turn over power to the lesser orders, not kill them! Tell me you didn’t lie to me, Rennar. Tell me this isn’t a trick.”

Hesitation wavered in his eyes. His brows knit together. “Anouk, you knew all along what I planned. The Court of Isles is gone. The Coven of Oxford is dead. London is free for the taking. I’m the ruler of the Haute, which extends as far as the sun shines. I’m taking back what belongs to me.”

She felt like she was going mad. “No. You said you were tired of ruling. You said that power had been in the wrong hands for too long. That being a Royal meant knowing when to hold on to power and when to give it up.”

He took a hesitant step toward her. “I am tired. Tired of usurpers like the Coven of Oxford trying to take what is mine.” He ran a hand over his face and then held it out pleadingly. “Whose wrong hands did you think I meant, if not theirs?”

“Yours! You hold too much power!”

His lips parted. He took another step forward. “Anouk. I thought you understood . . . when I said I had to make difficult decisions about whether to hold on to power or let it go, I meant that I had to hold on. At all costs. Power belongs to whoever takes it. That is the way of the Haute. That is the way of the Pretty World. That is the way of everything.” He licked his dry lips, his hair whipping in the wind. “And it’s yours too. You are one of us now, Anouk. Princess. We rule the Haute together. This is why I wanted you at my side, because you would temper my ambitions. Even your misunderstanding came from a good place. We’ll take London together, but you can show me how to rule it fairly. Damn the terms of our marriage—?you can fall in love with that chauffeur if you must, but it won’t last. In the end, we’ll be faithful to each other, regardless of who else ends up in our beds.”

She gripped the rails of the Ferris wheel with white knuckles. Below, the Thames kept churning. She could still hear the lingering screams as the last Goblins drowned.

“This is never what I agreed to. You’re robbing this city from the Goblins.”

“The Goblins? They can’t be trusted to feed themselves at a reasonable hour! They’re barely more than children. It is our mandate to care for them. Show them what is right and wrong. We can do that together.”

Bile rose in her throat. “The Goblins survived being thrown out of their city. They built a new life in Paris. They didn’t have much, but what they had, they shared. So what if they make a few mistakes? What they do or don’t do isn’t any of our business, don’t you get that? They’re entitled to forge their own paths!”

There was longing in the way he looked at her. In a few steps he crossed the perilous framework of the Ferris wheel and crouched beside her. Impulsively, he touched her cheek.

His voice was a whisper. “This is why I need you. To show me the wisest course.”

She jerked her head away from his hand. “You’re killing Goblins who fought alongside you. You don’t need me to tell you that’s wrong.”

“I’ve lived centuries, Anouk. Do you know what that feels like? Of course you don’t. You’ve barely lived a single year.”

She narrowed her eyes. “And in that year I’ve learned more about the world than you have.” She paused. “Or maybe you knew once, but you’ve forgotten.”

His face turned grave. The wind whipped at their hair, threatening to push them off of the Ferris wheel. “Anouk.” His voice had changed. “Let’s drop these games once and for all. You are alive because of a spell I wrote, but you’ve proven yourself to be so much more than I ever envisioned. I don’t care what you started life as. I respect you all the more for how far you’ve come. You were never handed anything. You didn’t come from royalty, and yet here you are at the top of the world with me.”

He paused and then continued. “I’m no fool, like that bumbling chauffeur of yours. You think I married you because it would bring the other Royals in line? Of course not. I married you because I, too, have dreams late at night, dreams that I do not dare tell another living soul. Dreams of a girl with a broom in her hand who might one day touch me as she touches the ones she cares about, who might smile at me as she does those she loves. A girl who is capable of loving the witch who raised her, even if she was a monster. A girl whom I would fall to my knees for. Whom I would serve, as she has served others. Command me to sweep and I will sweep. Command me to cook and I will cook. How else can I tell you that I am yours, Anouk? Heart, soul, body, mind. All of it has been yours since the moment I saw you on the steps of Mada Vittora’s townhouse.”

Her palms were sweating. Below, the waves of the Thames rose and fell peacefully. It would be so easy to forget the boat he’d capsized. The bus he’d crashed. The innocent people he’d killed.

She closed her eyes. “It was you, wasn’t it? You burned down Mada Vittora’s townhouse. It wasn’t an accident.”

“And what if I did?” He spoke quietly.

She could imagine him standing on Rue des Amants, whispering a spark into the dry bushes in front of the house, blaming it on the Goblins and Viggo. He didn’t want her to have a home unless it was with him.

There’d been a time when she’d seen a possible future with him. Beau had still been a dog, would possibly never be human again, and Rennar had been by her side, telling her everything she’d ever wanted to hear. How easy it had been to overlook his ambition.

Below, Beau was standing on the bridge, waiting for her.

She jerked her head to the side. She knew what she had to do, but it didn’t make it any easier.

“Anouk.” Rennar whispered into her ear. “I’ve done so much to bring you into my world. To give you what you deserve: luxury, power, wealth.” He pulled back to meet her eyes. His were wide open, and for a second she saw the boy that he had been. “I’ll do anything you ask of me.”

But he wouldn’t. She knew it as well as she knew her own heart. He’d twist the truth; he’d find a way to install himself back on top, as he always had.

She squeezed her eyes shut. Drew in a deep breath, let it out, and then opened her eyes and looked up at him.