"Ma'am, I've noticed that we have no next of kin listed in Mr. MacKeltar's files—"
"Oh, hush, just hush, would you?" Chloe finally managed, pushing past him. She was dying inside, and all he cared about was whether his bank might lose Dageus's money. It was more than she could stand. She left both box and bank manager without a backward glance.
She wandered the city for a time, pushing blindly through the masses of people, with no concept of where she was walking. Head down, she walked while the sun passed the noon hour, descended behind the skyscrapers, and slipped to the horizon.
She walked until she was too exhausted to take another step, then she slumped down on a bench. She couldn't bear the thought of going back to her apartment, she couldn't bear the thought of going to Dageus's penthouse. She couldn't bear the thought of being anywhere, or even being for that matter.
Yet… she mused, perhaps it would help. Perhaps merely being surrounded by his things, smelling him on his pillows again, touching his clothes—
Would be agonizing.
At complete odds with herself, she got up and began walking aimlessly again.
Night had fallen and a full moon graced the sky by the time Chloe found herself entering the elegant foyer of Dageus's building. She hadn't exactly made the decision to go there, she'd simply walked until her feet had taken her someplace.
So, she thought dismally, here I am. Ready or not. She trudged past the security desk, numbly waving the keys at them. They shrugged—they really should be fired—she thought as she keyed the elevator to the forty-third floor.
When she stepped into the anteroom, her legs got shaky and, in her mind, she was reliving it all over again. The first day she'd stood at his door, clutching the third Book of Manannan, calling the man she was to deliver it to every nasty name she could think of. Worrying that some bimbo might damage the tome. Scoffing over the gold hinges. Entering his home and seeing the claymore hanging above the fireplace—the artifact that had lured her to her destiny.
Getting caught beneath his bed. Pretending to be a French maid.
Being kissed by him that first time.
Oh, what she wouldn't give to be able to go back in time and live it all over again! She'd settle for any one of those days. And if she had it to do all over again, she'd never resist his seduction. She'd drink greedily of each moment.
But such a wish was futile. Neither she nor anyone else was ever going back in time again.
Drustan had told her that the night Dageus had disappeared, he'd felt the bridge in the circle of stones go dead. He'd said it was as if an energy he'd sensed all his life was simply gone. The next day, he and Christopher had discovered that the tablets that held the sacred formulas were also gone, as was their recall of the ones they'd committed to memory as part of their training.
Whatever Dageus had done that night, he'd accomplished one thing he'd wanted. The Keltar no longer bore the duty of guarding the secret of time travel. They were finally free of the immense responsibility and the temptation. Able, at last, to live simpler lives.
How Dageus would have loved that, she thought with a sad smile. He'd wanted nothing more than to be a simple man. To wear his clan colors again. And though he'd never said it, she known he'd wanted children. Wanted his own family as much as she had.
How could life have cheated me like this? she wanted to scream.
Steeling herself for the onslaught of yet more painful memories, she unlocked the door (wonder of wonders, he'd actually locked it when they'd left) and pushed it open. She went straight to the fireplace and ran her fingers over the cool metal of the claymore.
She had no idea how long she stood there in the dark, bathed only by the faint light of the full moon spilling in the wall of windows, but eventually, she tossed her purse to the floor, and dropped down on the sofa.
Later, she would brave the rest of his penthouse. Later, she would drag herself up to his magnificent bed and fall asleep, wrapped up in the scent of him.
Chloe-lass: If I'm not here with you now, I'm beyond this life, for'tis the only way I'll ever let you go.
And there it was. He'd said it himself in the letter he'd left her.
Chloe made a small, helpless choking sound.
And finally the tears came in a hot rush. He was dead. He was really, truly gone.
She curled into a tight knot on the sofa and wept.
* * *
Chapter 28
Chloe was awakened some time later by an unfamiliar, persistent noise. It took her several moments to pinpoint the source, to understand that the scrabbling sound was coming from the door of the penthouse.
Rubbing her eyes, she pushed herself into a sitting position on the sofa. She'd cried herself to sleep and her eyes were swollen, her face crusty with tears. She peered into the darkness toward the door and listened intently.