AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No, but I know he left you. He said he didn’t care what happened to you. How can you choose him?”
The cat crouched in my heart. “When did he say that?”
“The night before the harvest party.”
Now he had my complete and utter attention.
“Tell me what happened.”
He shrugged, putting me off, back to his insouciant self. “Nothing you need to fret about, Lady Sorceress. Something between men.”
The cat’s need to act, already so close to the surface, flared and melded with my own high emotional state. “Fuck that shit,” I muttered to myself and lashed out a silver-white lasso of thought around Liam’s, holding him in place with the merest wish.
This became easier each time. I sifted through his memories of the past few days with careless ease, quickly finding the one I wanted. There. Rogue waking him from slumber, imperious, demanding—and on edge. Was that fear or anger? Making Liam swear to protect me with his last gasp and laying the onus on him. And giving him a goddamn message for me.
“Tell her not to look for me. If Falcon calls, she should ignore him. I’ll handle him. I don’t care what she does, as long as she stays safe—and well away from me. Tell her to remember what I warned her about. Protect my lady, Liam, or I’ll skin you and keep you alive that way.”
So odd to see Rogue through Liam’s eyes, the shine of wild magic around him, the flare of his cloak as he left again. I didn’t have to ask Liam why he hadn’t passed along the message. It stood in his thoughts—the disgust at my sluttish behavior, a bit of pity at me being cast aside, and the prurient hope that he might be the one to fuck me next.
I shook my head at Liam and let him go. He staggered a little, but I didn’t care. With nothing further to say to him, I turned my back and left him there.
Chapter 15
Juvenile Delinquents and UnexpectedAirlifts
‡
Magic seems to operate almost like a radioactive substance or other mutating agent. Which begs the question, who or what were the fae before theymutated?
~Big Book of Fairyland, “Rules ofMagic”
In the backof my mind, I registered the fact that I’d taken another step past whatever ethical code remained to me. The cat, however, didn’t care and she filled my head enough that the thought remained a minor note. Mostly we were thinking about Rogue’s blunt message.
Tell her not to look for me.
I brushed my fingers against one dangling lily earring. It was all I wanted to do. I plopped myself on the blanket and Starling handed me a plate and a glass of wine.
“I can have wine even though you think I’m pregnant?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Good enough for me.” I pondered while I ate. Remember what he warned me about? I could have devoted an entire chapter to Rogue’s ominously vague warnings, there had been so many.Whichdamn warning? The dragon’s egg weighed, null and lifeless in my pocket, complimented by the vial of blood on the other side. He’d warned me to be careful of who I received tributes from. A place to start, anyway.
“Larch—would the dragonfly girls know who gave me which tributes?”
He screwed up one side of his face in thought. “Might be. Most of ’em are pretty silly though.”
“You don’t know, right?”
“No, Lady Gwynn. I have no head for accounting.”
“When you’re done eating, would you find me one who might—wait, Larch, when you’re done—” But he’d already trotted off.
“Where did you go just now?” Starling eyed me with suspicious curiosity.
“Call of nature.”
“Hmph. I needed to go too.”
