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“What’s kinky?” Tai asked her.
His sister had the good sense to look mildly apologetic. “Still think kissing is gross?” she asked him.
Tai didn’t hesitate. “Yep.”
“Then come ask me when you change your opinion on kissing because for now kinky would be gross too.”
“Ew.” The kid scrunched his nose. “Mom said you got a new electron microscope. Can I see it?” His scientific curiosity saved Alys from further awkwardness.
“Right this way.” She led Tai, Nita, and Yulia from the room, the kid asking questions about DNA exploration and hypotheses that Alexei barely understood. One problem solved. The bigger political one still to go. And Joelle? Whatever answers he needed from her would have to wait.
As if sensing his thoughts, she stepped forward. He hid the shackles behind his back until snagging a guard’s gaze so he could pass the damn things off. “Take these to Alys,” he told the man he’d known for years and trusted almost as much as Eddie. Well, more than his childhood friend in this moment when Eddie followed Joelle like the man had a right to be at her side.
Hell, perhaps he did. After all, Alexei had asked his most trusted friend to watch over her. What had he missed between these two while he’d been away? He glared at the man and the other security until they found something less dangerous to do than spying on him.
Joelle brushed her hand against Alexei’s, her magic brightening in flickering waves over her skin. “You’ve cut yourself again after I just healed you last night,” she said. “Been beating up more bullies from the Order?”
“Don’t.” He pulled his hand away and wanted to curse himself with the strongest witch hex when she looked hurt by his curt response to her teasing. He hooked his uninjured hand around her wrist before she could walk away, before Eddie might rush to comfort her. “I don’t want to get blood on your outfit. Is it new?” It hugged every curve and made him want to peel it off of her, trailing his mouth over every inch of exposed skin.
She eyed him with a cynical gaze. “You worry about messing me up when you wear white dress shirts and fancy slacks that seem resistant to stains and wrinkles?”
Pulling her closer, he lowered his voice. Perhaps he could get them back to her teasing playfulness. True, it wasn’t his nature, but he could change if it would make her smile instead of frowning at him. “My wardrobe knows of my fierce reputation. My clothes wouldn’t dare stain for fear of offending me.”
Her eyes lost some of the skepticism, and she curved the corners of her mouth upward. Not a grin, but less of the disapproving or hurt look of earlier. “Is that so? Do you go around terrifying everyone and everything?” She hadn’t mastered the art of deadpan humor. No, she practically giggled on the last. He didn’t have the heart to tell her she’d guessed at the truth. He hadn’t become powerful through being nice.
“Don’t I scare you?”Please say no.
She huffed a noise that sounded almost like a laugh. “Stop messing around, and let me heal you so you can get to whatever you have planned with Yulia.” Her lighthearted tone fell flat on the last. Could she worry that he was interested in the other woman? Other than as a political ally?
“Yulia and I are only talking potential alliances between our kingdoms in moving against the Order.” When Joelle lifted a skeptical gaze to his, he hurried to add, “Nothing else. You’re welcome to sit in for the discussions if you want.”
She didn’t answer, reaching for his hand. Her touch quieted his magic, but her powers took longer than they had last night to heal his paltry scratch. “How’d you get this?” she asked.
He didn’t want to answer, to chance upsetting her, but he wouldn’t lie to her. “The leg irons.”
Emotions flashed through her expression so fast he couldn’t read them. She hid behind the quiet peacekeeping mask that his sister had mentioned. “Like I said over dinner last night, I haven’t been able to heal the scars they left behind.” Her voice held no hint of feelings. “Something about them seemswrong. I don’t understand why you would want them here.”
“So Alys can analyze them for any clues that might help you find your family.”
“My family? I don’t understand.”
“Maybe your jailer chose them because of a connection to your bloodline. Perhaps they hold answers about where you come from. That’s the only reason I asked for them. Otherwise, I would’ve incinerated the damn things.”
“Why?” She sounded confused. “Why would you have cared?”
“Because they hurt you.”
She tipped her head, studying him as if he was one of the magical texts in his library. “You mean that, don’t you?”
“I don’t lie to you.” Except the part where he’d disavowed her publicly as a mate in front of her a few times now. Yeah, okay, so maybe he hadn’t been entirely honest.
Assessing him, she seemed to weigh his words for truth. He felt as if he was a man waiting for a jury to come back with a verdict of whether he’d face a firing squad. Denying her as a mate to keep her safe had been the safe option, but if he could make her stay, then screw safety. He would lock her away in a tower and show her dragon brother what scary powers really looked like.
“All right then,” she said. “You ready to begin your save-the-world meeting?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” He offered her his arm like some gallant knight in a storybook instead of the villain who might level the city with one disruption of his magic. “Shall we?”
ChapterSixteen
