Baz didn’t look back at her, holding my eyes instead. “For now.”
“Wow. Thanks. So encouraging,” I said.
“Perspective,” Aziza called from behind his back. “The perspective is all messed up here. She’s an assassin.”
We ignored her.
“It’s…” I huffed. “I don’t know. It’s just how I am. I was rebirthed this way.”
“What way?” Aziza said. “Bitchy?”
I shook my head to rattle my collar.
She hissed again.
“I’m definitely not a sorceress,” I told Baz. “But if Mauldrene’s been spelled, then she was probably enchanted to support the Tulon bloodline to some degree, right?”
Slowly, he nodded.
“It would make sense. As far as I know, she was built by the Tulons. And I’m part of that line. Rafaela is my sire. If any of us have a chance of affecting Mauldrene’s spell, it’s me. But…” I held up my unbound hand. “If I find a way to get through to her, and we retrieve the emperor, the price is my freedom.”
“No,” Aziza, Edwidge, Night, and Félix said at the same time.
“If you get him back unharmed,” Baz said, “then, yes, I agree to your terms. I’ll grant your freedom.”
Aziza gasped. “Baz!”
“You can’t,” Edwidge said.
“Not right,” Night said. “She needs to pay.”
Félix’s eyes narrowed by a slight fraction.
Baz nodded at me. “You get him back safely, and you don’t harm him yourself after”—Shit, it’s like he’s inside my head—“then I’ll guarantee your freedom. At least, until you do something else to get yourself locked up.”
Was that … a smile playing at his lips?
Before he could change his mind, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. The rope hung loosely, but all it would take was a quick tug and I could have it wrapped snugly around his neck.
His friends lunged for me. He stopped them with an upturned hand.
I didn’t look at them, only him. “Allow my goblin Marina to accompany me, safe and unharmed, and we have a deal.”
“Deal.”
I kissed him on the mouth. He was parting his lips for our tongues when I pulled back.
“The deal’s sealed. Now, tell me every single thing any of you know about Mauldrene—and fast. She might be listening.”
Chapter 11
Love Is as Dangerous as the Damnable Castle
Baz was fully aware he shouldn’t want to impress his prisoner. His body might regularly forget how close—much too fucking close—she’d come to stabbing him in the heart, but he didn’t. He didn’t need his friends to remind him she was as great an enemy as anyone in the entire Opalese could possibly be, so off-limits she belonged on another world. He bloody well knew it.
He didn’t lose sight of the fact for an instant—not even while picturing himself curled over her back, his chest and legs pressed against her, taking her from behind like a beast.
He couldn’t help himself. He’d been trailing her all over the blasted castle, as far as the Rillis rope would allow, which, as it turned out, was the exact distance he needed to get a perfect view of her perfect ass. No woman this off-limits should look so fine, so enticing … so scorching irresistible. It was such a cruelty that, while Velle wove through hallway after hallway, searching for Junot or some way to communicate with the castle or break the spell cast over her, he briefly pondered if Mauldrene might somehow be responsible for bringing her into his life.
