Carve My Pumpkin (The Night Realm: Halloween Marked #3)

Chapter 26

TWENTY-SIX

MATEO

Dancers swirled around each other in happy circles in time to the beat of the music. I found how perfectly they all moved together to be highly agitating. They were all so content. The dance floor practically oozed with happiness, a happiness that I didn’t feel, nor did I think I ever would.

How could two people be so right for each other and yet everything be so wrong around them? In a matter of days, I’d fallen for Colette. In a matter of hours, I’d been frustrated with her. And in a matter of seconds, I’d been attracted to her. Even now the picture of my soulmate burned a hole in my pocket. I wanted to think of her as the solution to all my problems, but I was beginning to think she might be my problem with no solution. I knew Colette was right. It wasn’t fair for me to ask her to try to be with me, no matter how badly I wanted it. I shoved my way through the crowd of people to try and find a place to just hide out while the ball continued.

Normally, I was comfortable in The Pemberley Hotel. It was a second home to the Vauntero family. We were close with the Prescott family who owned it, and I’d spent years here at numerous events. They outdid themselves each time. Usually I would enjoy this, but tonight there was no enjoyment to be found. Even among the amazing décor I felt nothing. Fall leaves magically fell from the ceiling, disappearing before they littered the floor. Carved pumpkins were placed throughout the hotel in small arrangements with candlelight flickering within their carved faces. Fake spiderwebs hung in all the corners and around the pillars. Tiny fake spiders glided down on their webs, then climbed back up as though they’d been trained to do so.

Everyone was dressed in their best costumes, and even I had made the effort to wear one, though I couldn’t bring myself to wear the mask that I’d created with Colette. It only reminded me of how far apart we really were. I’d dressed as Prince Charming. It didn’t feel fitting, nor did I want to, but Josiah said it looked good and I just went with it, even though the pressed coat felt too tight and the buttons itched my skin. The red pants were also too itchy and uncomfortable. I was always comfortable in my own skin, but tonight I was out of sorts, and as much as I hated to admit it, it was because I wanted to be here with Colette. Even now as I searched for a hiding place, I kept an eye out for her. Would she be here? Would she speak to me? I wanted her to so badly. But after the way I behaved, I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t speak to me.

“Oh, excuse me.” Someone bumped into my arm, and I paused to look at them.

Will Bow stood before me in a black shirt, black vest, and boots. A swooping cape hung from his shoulders, and he held what looked like the Helm of Hades. I glanced over his shoulder and noticed all the other Bows dressed as other Greek gods in their long, flowing togas. They all looked so happy.

I turned away from them back to Will. “Will, I wasn’t sure if you’d make it.”

“I saw you at Boo at the Zoo,” he pointed out, and I had to think back to that without trying to think of Colette. It was impossible.

“Right. But we know you . . .” I stumbled over my words, and when I saw a flash of blonde hair, they trailed off.

“Something bothering you?” He ducked his head, catching my eye and drawing my attention back to him.

Where do I begin? I had a soulmate that I didn’t want, a perfect girl who didn’t want me, and no way to fix any of it. “I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“I understand.” Will glanced away from me, and his eyes followed a woman with bright-pink hair walking away from us. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was Indi, the jinn who seemed to have fully caught Will’s attention lately.

How could he possibly understand this moment? No one could. “Perhaps.”

He didn’t look away from me. He just kept staring after the pink hair. “Excuse me. I have to just?—”

“I bet you do.” I clapped him on the shoulder and let him go.

Will wandered away from me, and I was happy to see him go. I didn’t need to see another guy hung up on a woman that he would actually get. I turned and headed for the bar at the back of the hotel. I wound my way past the dance floor and through the crowd of people all dressed in costumes. I said hi, I shook hands and waved to people, but none of it mattered. I felt empty.

I was two feet from the bar when a flash of red and blonde caught my eye, and there she was—my every temptation, my every desire, literally the devil who I wanted to give my soul to . . . Colette. She wore a red dress with thin black straps and two slits that showed a flash of each of her thighs. Fingerless lace gloves ran from her hands all the way up to her arms. Red devil horns peeked out from her hair, and she held a golden pitchfork. She wasn’t wearing the mask we’d made together either, and I wondered if the thought of it hurt her the same way it hurt me. Susan, Sylvie, and Gertie all danced around her dressed as little demons in black with little horns of their own. They all swayed to the music, and she danced with them, or I should say she danced in the center of them while they all spun around her.

Gertie swayed to her own beat and twirled around in a glittery cape. She closed her eyes and hummed as Sylvie stood next to her tapping her foot and snapping to the beat. She wasn’t as expressive as Gertie, but the half-smile and the way she bobbed her head made me think she was having a great time. Susan leapt around her and flung her arms up in the air in wild dance moves. Colette smiled and swirled around with them. Yet the smile didn’t reach her eyes. There was a sadness to the way she moved, and I hated to think I put it there. When she spotted me, she froze and her cheeks turned a deep red. I froze on the spot, unable to move, unable to breathe.

She strolled over to me, and I held my breath watching each step she took. She gave me a little wave. “Hey.”

“Well, if you aren’t the devil to tempt all.” I tried for lighthearted, but I knew it sounded forced.

“Yea, Gertie picked it out and I kind of just went with it.” She motioned to the ladies all dancing around.

I took a step back and looked her up and down. “It was an excellent choice.”

Her cheeks turned that lovely shade of red, and she tucked a strand of hair behind her pointed ear. “Thanks.”

We stood there in awkward silence. I hated every minute of it. “I?—”

“Listen—”

We’d spoken at the same time, cutting each other off.

She motioned toward me. “You go.”

I shook my head. “No, you go.”

“I, um, I don’t want to fight with you anymore.” She bit her bottom lip. “I want you to be happy.”

“I want you to be happy too.” I knew I could make her happy.

“I know that once you find your soulmate, all of this . . .” she motioned between the two of us “. . . you and me . . . It’ll be a distant memory. And I want that for you.”

“You want to be forgettable?” There was no way. “Because you never could be.”

She gave a nervous chuckle. “I mean, after our arguments, I’d like to think I left some kind of impression. Maybe not a bad one.”

“Well, you know I like a little pushback.” I licked my lips. “I hope I wasn’t too difficult for you. I just, Colette, I just I don’t want to?—”

“This is for the best.” She swiped at her cheek.

I shifted from one foot to the other. Maybe this was for the best. Maybe she was right. Maybe if I finally did meet my soulmate, I would forget how profoundly she affected me. In this moment, the moment when she so clearly was leaving me, I wanted it. I wanted for this pain to go away. “At least one of us thinks so.”

She sucked in a sharp breath and glanced around awkwardly. “At least you won’t have to see me in the office.”

I flinched back. “No, you deserve more. You deserve any job you want. I’ll see to it.”

“No.” She shook her head and sent strands of hair flying around her face. “Everything happens for a reason. And I have to believe that. I don’t belong there anymore.”

“You don’t have to work with me. You could work with Kallahan or Orson. Either of them would be lucky to have you, and I can arrange it.” I wanted to help her, and I wished she would let me.

She shook her head. “It’s time to move on.”

“Move on to where?” The Island wasn’t that big, and she’d never left on her own before.

“I’m going to travel.” She gave me a wistful smile. “See the world like I always wanted to.”

God, I wanted to go with her. “By yourself?”

She nodded. “If I keep waiting for things to be perfect, you know the perfect job, the perfect guy, the perfect life, then I’ll never go. And I’m tired of waiting for never.”

Her words stuck something so deep in me she nearly stole my breath away. “Colette, I?—”

“Good luck, Mateo. I hope you find what you’re looking for.” She turned away from me and walked back toward her group of friends. But it felt like she was walking away forever. She was leaving, and with every inch between us, I felt her slipping a lifetime away.

“If this is what love looks like, then I don’t want it.” My brother Kallahan moved to my side and pressed his hand to my shoulder, giving it a little squeeze before pulling me away.

I felt like he was dragging me away from her, and I had to let him. We walked over to the bar. I leaned my elbows on the countertop and hung my head. He sighed. “I mean, I really don’t want it.”

“When love comes for you, I hope it hits you like a bus.” I grabbed a glass of the blood champagne off the bar and downed it one drink.

“Not a chance in hell.” Kallahan chuckled. “I wouldn’t be that stupid.”

“You are that stupid if you think you can avoid fate.” I turned and glanced at Colette across the room. “You’ll take care of her now.”

“What?”

I turned on Kallahan and wrapped my fingers in his shirt. “She deserves that job, and you’re going to make sure she has it.”

He peeled my fingers from his shirt. I curled my hand into a fist and dropped it to my side.

Kallahan shook his head at me. “Yeah, I’ll make sure she’s okay.”

“Swear it.”

His eyes widened and his face turned grave. “I swear.”

“Problem, brothers?” Constantine appeared right beside us, and I dropped Kallahan’s gaze and sagged back against the bar.

“Not at all.” I scrubbed my hand down my face.

“He has his soulmate and he’s losing his damn mind.” Kallahan grabbed another glass of blood champagne. “Maybe you can talk some sense into him. He’s losing it over a girl that’s not even his. You’re old. Give him some sense.”

“And you’re an infant, and you have none.” He flicked his hand, giving him the go away motion, and Kallahan raised his glass to me and walked away.

“Thanks for that. I don’t know how much more I could’ve taken from him.” I glanced toward Colette. “He did have one point though.”

“Which is?” Constantine arched his eyebrow at me.

“I do have a soulmate, and maybe, just maybe, she’ll drown this all out, and I’ll end up fine.” I forced my eyes away from Colette. “I’ll ask Bash for help, and I won’t stop until I find her. I’ll do anything to just not feel this anymore.” To stop this hurt. I turned back toward Colette, and this time I couldn’t look away.

Constantine stepped in closer to me and lowered his voice for only me to hear. “You better find your soulmate and pray she’s half as dynamic as Colette, otherwise your life is about to suck.”

“Tell me something I don’t already know, Brother.”