Starr’s eyebrows shot toward her hairline. “Uh, I thought you didn’t want him to know.” She nodded toward Jace.
“I told him. Because someone gave enough hints to make him question my relationship with you. And someone is giving enough hints now that if the first round hadn’t tipped him off, this encounter certainly would. Why are you doing this, Starr?”
“You’re okay with marrying a lesbian?” Starr directed the question at Jace.
“I’m not marrying a label. I’m marrying Aggie and everything that comes with her—past, present, and future.”
Starr shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Now isn’t that touching?”
“Don’t make me regret asking you to be here for me,” Aggie said. “I’ve been trying to hold on to pieces of my old life so I never forget where I came from, but maybe it’s time to let all that go.”
Jace stared at Aggie in disbelief. She wasn’t serious was she? Her past had made her the woman she was—the woman he loved. Would she change into something unrecognizable if she let it go?
Aggie chuckled. “Of course that would mean admitting my mother was right and that ain’t never gonna happen. So why are you really here, Starr?”
“I just came to check on you. If you need to talk to someone about the way he treats you, I’m all ears.”
“The way he treats me?” Aggie swiveled her head in Starr’s direction. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I just know how guys treat women like us. We are alike—you and I—and men see us a certain way. They treat us a certain way. Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, Aggie.”
Jace saw very few similarities between Aggie and Starr, so he wasn’t sure why Starr insisted they were lumped in the same category.
“Oh my God, Starr,” Aggie bellowed. “Are you fucking kidding me? You know he doesn’t treat me like his slut. I’d never put up with that bull. Now stop being a jealous bitch and pull your shit together.”
Starr’s jaw dropped, and for a moment Jace thought he was going to have to break up a cat fight, but then Starr laughed.
“You’re right,” she said and shook her head, sending her dangling earrings swaying. “You are right. I’m jealous. I am. I admit it. And I’m not jealous of Jace for winning you. I could have had you if I’d wanted you. I’m jealous of you for finding someone to accept you the way he does. Christ, he saved your life tonight, Aggie. Did you even thank him?”
Aggie glanced at Jace, who suddenly wished he was invisible. He didn’t need her thanks. He was just glad she hadn’t been hurt.
“Thanks, baby,” Aggie said and placed a rather platonic kiss on his cheek.
“It was nothing.”
“It wasn’t nothing,” Starr said. “I don’t have anyone who would stick their neck out for me like that.”
Jace tilted his head to the side. “I would.” He’d have shoved a perfect stranger out of harm’s way. It wasn’t a big deal.
“You would?” Starr squeaked.
“Of course he would,” Aggie said. “I’m not sure what you’re so worked up about.”
“Do you know how fucking rare it is to find a man like him, Ice?”
Aggie nodded and turned her head to look at Jace. “Yeah, I do. And that’s why I’ll never let anything come between us. Not you or anyone else; living or dead.”
The redhead is exceptionally attractive, Thomas’s voice sounded through Jace’s head unexpectedly. Do you think I could have a go at her?
“Where do you find a guy like him?” Starr asked. “You wouldn’t happen to have a brother, would you, Jace?”
Jace shook his head, answering Thomas and Starr simultaneously. But he did have an annoying ghost Starr was welcome to have.
“Let’s go back to the party,” Aggie said. “People probably think we’re fighting.”
“Most of them know better,” Jace said.
Aggie laughed. “Yeah, most of them probably think we bailed early so we could spend time dancing between the sheets rather than on the dance floor. No telling what Eric told them we were up since he was the one who checked on us.”
He’d love to be alone with Aggie dancing between the sheets. Unfortunately, they weren’t alone no matter where they went while at the castle. And Jace sure didn’t want Thomas and Katherine yelling in his head when he was pouring his heart out to Aggie the next day. The ghosts had to go and he had to be the one to make them leave.
“You two head on back,” he said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
Aggie’s eyebrows drew together. “What’s going on?”
Jace chuckled. “Voices in my head.”
Starr gave him an odd look, but Aggie nodded before kissing him gently. “Don’t keep me waiting too long. I don’t want anyone thinking I murdered you and buried you in the garden.”
He grinned. “I won’t.”
He watched her walk away with Starr, and then he sat on the ledge of Queen Katherine’s tomb.
“You still there, Thomas?” He spoke to the stone floor.
I am.
“Go after her. Go after Katherine. Don’t hesitate. Go now.”
She doesn’t want me.
“She waited for you for five hundred years. She wants you. She loves you. But you hurt her, so you have to fix it. You don’t want to spend eternity alone, do you?”
A deep sorrow settled in Jace’s heart. He didn’t know if it was his sadness or Thomas’s. An eternity alone? And he’d once thought a life lived alone was unbearable. He couldn’t imagine spending all eternity alone.