That should have scared me.
Did it?
I pressed a label onto a bottle and stared at it for a long moment.
No.
It didn't.
Maybe that made me reckless. Maybe I had hit my head somewhere between Earth and here and no one had noticed. But I knew dangerous men. I knew how they took up a room. I knew the way they watched to see what they could use. I knew the sweet voice that came before the trap closed.
Kazan didn't feel like that.
Whatever violence lived inside him, it wasn't pointed at me.
That was a strange thing to know about someone I'd known less than a week, but I knew it anyway.
A sound came from the loading door.
I went still.
It wasn't Kazan. I knew that before I turned around. Kazan didn't sneak. He couldn't if he tried. The man was built like a wall with hooves.
This sound was careful. A soft scrape. The tiny click of someone easing a door closed and hoping no one heard.
My stomach dropped. I set the bottle down and stepped around one of the big fermentation tanks. "Hello?"
A man stood by the side entrance.
Human. Thin. Pale. Wearing a slate-gray jacket that looked too clean for a farm and too expensive for anyone who belonged here. He smiled when he saw me.
I hated that smile immediately.
"You shouldn't be back here," I said.
"Maisie Declan?" he asked.
"Yes," I said, because apparently my survival instincts had taken a short break. I should have lied. I knew I should have lied the moment the word left my mouth.
His smile widened by a fraction.
Oh, I really hated him.
He pulled a thick envelope from inside his jacket and held it out. "Read this."
I didn't move.
His eyes flicked toward the door behind him. "Now." That was the voice of a man used to being obeyed.
My fingers were icy as I took the envelope. The paper inside was thick and formal, and covered with words that made my vision blur at the edges. I recognized the crest at the top before I read a single line.
James.
Of course.
Of course, he couldn't just let me go. Of course, the universe couldn't give me one full week before he reached across the stars and tried to drag me back.
The letter said I was in breach of promise. It said I had unlawfully abandoned my engagement obligations. It said James had authorized his representative to escort me home.
