I returned his smile, bolstered by the vote of confidence. “You know it, Gargs.” Then, blowing out a breath and glancing across the mess on the table, “I just have to keep experimenting until I get it right. I’m a powerful blood witch, for fuck’s sake. Right?”
“Damn straight. And with all that Silversbane Darkwinter magickal woo-woo running through your veins? Hell,Iwouldn’t want to meet you in a dark alley.”
I picked up a vial of blood I’d drawn earlier, swirling it in the glass, watching it cling to the edges.
“If my Silversbane Darkwinter woo-woo is so special,” I said, “maybe the guys should be selling my blood instead of Devil’s Dream. Probably get more money for it. Maybe we could just buy our way out of this mess instead.”
“Your blood is not for sale, Miss Barnes.” Keradoc’s chilling voice echoed across the room as the warlord marched in uninvited. Then, plucking the vile from my fingers and replacing it in the rack on the table, “Your blood will turn our fortune in this war.”
“My blood and your malice.” I rolled my eyes. “Sounds like a winning combo to me.”
“I’ve come for an update on your progress. In all this time, I do hope you’ve made some.”
“Oh, and hello to you too, Keradoc! Hudson and I are doing just fine today, thanks for asking. And what about you?” I reached up and smoothed out the lapels on his impeccable military uniform, then tapped one of his many patches, which was probably completely disrespectful, but I didn’t care. “Did you have a good night spilling the blood of your enemies and setting their puppies on fire?”
“Yourprogress, Miss Barnes.” He reached up and fingered a lock of my hair. “Unless you’d like me to set you on fire as well?”
Hudson stepped between us and folded his arms over his chest, a warning growl rumbling through him.
“The skies have cleared,gargoyle,” Keradoc said with a sneer. “You’re needed back on the southwestern front.”
“Hudson.” I stepped out from behind him and glared at Keradoc. “His name is Hudson. And if you can’t remember that,fae, you don’t deserve to address him at all.”
The three of us stood like that for a long moment, locked in a battle of wills.
Finally, Keradoc backed off.
“Hudson,” he said—through gritted teeth, but still. “You’re needed back at your post. And Miss Barnes, I really would like to understand what you’ve been working on. So, if we might continue?”
“We might, assuming you can behave in a civilized manner for at least fifteen minutes.” I shot him a warning glare, then took Hudson’s hand and walked him to the doors that led out to the balcony. Stretching up to kiss his cheek, I said, “I’ll be fine, Gargs. Don’t worry. Just be careful out there and come back to me in one piece, okay?”
He looked over at Keradoc once more, then back to me, his eyes full of worry.
“Go!” I teased, swatting him on the very firm, very nice ass. “The sooner you leave, the sooner you can come home.”
With one more warning growl for Keradoc, Hudson finally took off, heading out the door and leaping into the sky, wings unfurling behind him.
Reluctantly, I dragged myself back to Keradoc. “So. This is my performance review? Because honestly, I’m doing a terrible job. You should totally fire me.”
Keradoc’s violet eyes darkened, and he turned to look out the glass doors, hands clasped behind his back, his spine ramrod straight. “What do you truly know of this realm, Miss Barnes? That it’s a prison? A form of hell? Or—what’s the term you and your kind are so fond of—a shithole? Not that I can disagree withthatassessment.”
Looking out across the dark expanse beyond the balcony, I felt oddly defensive of the place. “If you feel that way about Midnight, Keradoc, why are you so determined to slaughter everyone who tries to take it from you?”
“Ah, but if it were that simple.” He opened one of the doors and gestured for me to follow him out onto the balcony.
The air was cool, fresher up here than down on the streets, the din and squalor of the city muted.
“There are places on your realm,” he said, “where beauty and riches are found not in what the eye can see on the surface, but in what lies beneath.”
“Do you mean literally? As in gemstones and metals? Oil?”
He turned to me and grinned, his eyes twinkling in the moonlight. “All things the men of your realm pay great sums to acquire.”
“Or to have someone else acquire for them.” I glanced at the bloodstone ring on my finger, then met his eyes again, not wanting to draw too much attention to it.
“Or to steal it for them.”
“Or they just declare a war and take it.”
