Page 300 of Sorrow & Strangers

“I do the printing,” he says, puffing his chest out a little.

“And what a wonderful job you do, but who is feeding you these stories?” I ask, my voice deepening seductively, and I can tell it’s working.

“I know that Mr. Bleaker is out right now meeting with Dimstraeux.”

“You never query the validity of these stories?” I ask, quirking a brow.

“That’s not my job, miss.”

“That’s too bad. Thank you for your time, Norse,” I say, slowly sliding my tongue along my bottom lip and looking him over hungrily before straightening and turning away from him.

“Perhaps you could stay awhile? Mr. Bleaker goes out for hours when he meets any of the council members.”

I glance at him over my shoulder. “These council visits. Did they occur before the death of the regent?”

He frowns, thinking. “Never. In fact, I had planned for the press to be closed for the next couple of weeks, but we’ve never been busier.”

“I heard a fire destroyed the one at the other end of town tonight, so I guess you’re going to get even busier.” I wink at him as I leave.

I felt the stranger’s impatience and annoyance the whole time I was in there, and it’s not hard to track the anger trickling off him to a nearby alley. There is only one way I will be able to calm him down, only one way I will be able to mute this anger, and it’s not one I’m completely opposed to. We have established rules against this, but his jealousy can be explosive, and we’ve already made enough of a stir here. I walk straight to him and slam my lips to his. He growls against my mouth but doesn’t miss a beat before he kisses me back. The glamour disappears from around his mouth, and we fall back, landing in my bed.

I start to lose myself in the kiss. I shouldn’t have done this, and it takes everything in me, but I manage to pull back and roll off him, much to his dissatisfaction. We pant as we lie side by side, staring up at the ceiling. It takes a few moments, but when I finally catch my breath, I roll to face him. I can still feel the annoyance radiating from him, so I shift to lie on top of him, stacking my hands on his chest and resting my chin on them.

“So . . . I got intel.”

He looks at me and immediately softens.

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Four

Summer

After saying goodbye to the stranger, I go to Alice’s room and knock on her door. She sniffles, dabbing her eyes as she opens the door.

“What’s up?” she asks, frowning as her nose twitches. “You smell weird. Like smoke.”

“We need to talk, Al.”

She steps back to let me into her room, and I take her hand, leading her to the bed.

“Sum?” she asks, and I can feel her unease.

“I lied to you.”

Alice’s whole body goes rigid. “What?”

“When I told you I was going off realm for a project.” I take a breath, my stomach knotting. “Well, I did go off realm, and it was for a project, but it was more of a personal one, not an academic one.”

“Okay . . .” Alice frowns, and I look away.

I hold out the folded flyer to her. She sniffs but doesn’t immediately take it.

“Smells like Drãculea,” she says, eyeing it warily.

“I went there.” I grimace. “Twice,” I say, still not looking at her but knowing I need to give her the whole truth.

Alice takes the flyer but still doesn’t open it. “Summer, you cannot go there. Not without me. Not ever,” she says, though there isn’t as much anger in her voice as I expected.

“Stranger came with me the second time,” I say, glancing at Alice. She glares at me but finally opens the flyer, her eyebrow lifting as she reads.