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I moved slowly about the room, running my fingers over the books along the shelves. Many seemed to be unusual volumes from other provinces:The Fall of Nightshade Vol. I-IV,The Diary of Laertes the Unlucky,Druidic Teachings, andThe Accords of Underneath.Nothing in particular would have led me to believe I was standing in the office of the madam of the pleasure guild.
“Do you know Phillipa?” I asked.
“I know of her,” Scion replied. “We’ve never met. We would not get along.”
“Why?”
He paused. “The pleasure guild is mostly made up of succubi, who are dominant by nature. I will submit for no one.”
I bit the inside of my lip, a spark of awareness traveling through me like a flame. “Yet, you knew where the office was.”
He paused. “I sent Quill down this hall first. He went out the back door, which we would have encountered had we continued.”
I looked up, startled, from the title I’d been perusing,The Black Scroll: Waking Dreams.“Can you talk to him, then?”
“In a sense.”
I wondered now if every time I’d thought the bird was speaking to me, it actually was, or if I was losing my mind. “How? How does he talk to you? Can you hear him, or is it a feeling…”
I probably sounded like I was losing my mind. Gods, perhaps I was losing my mind.
“Why?” Scion asked, suddenly sitting up.
“Nothing,” I said too fast. “It’s not important.”
Flushing with an embarrassment I couldn’t quite explain, I made my way over to the desk and inspected it, opening the drawers and peering inside. Rude? Certainly. But then, so was barging into the woman’s office, so I supposed we were well past the point of no return. “I don’t see anything all that interesting.”
“What were you expecting?”
My flush deepened. In truth, I supposed I’d been expecting something more appropriate for a madam. A bed, maybe. Lacy underthings…ropes and whips and other things of that nature. It wasn’t that I was innocent, far from it, but I’d never been inside a brothel; I could only guess what was going on upstairs that might be different than in the hallways.
I crouched low, bending to open the final drawer. “I don’t know…I suppose—”
I broke off as I yanked the drawer open and a cloud of dust exploded in my face. Instinctively, my eyes slammed shut, but still, whatever it was coated me, penetrating my mouth and nose, burrowing deep into my pores. Everything tasted sweet, like burnt honey, and then the room was spinning.
For a split second, panic gripped me. Something was wrong. Desperately, acutely,wrong.
My vision narrowed to a point, the edges turning dark and everything around me going slightly fuzzy. My skin suddenly felt too hot, too alive, like I was humming, aware of every single goosebump, and all of them were buzzing with energy. My own heartbeat turned deafening, and my pulse quickened, thrumming low in my belly.
“Rebel?”
I looked up, wanting to say…something. What was it?
I lost track of my thoughts. Scion was in front of me, bending low to meet my gaze. He sounded upset, and I couldn’t fathom why. I felt wonderful—amazing—far better than any drink of wine or notes of fairy fiddles. A thousand times better and more potent than when Kaius had tried to glamour me.
“What is this?” Scion said from seemingly very far away.
He ran his fingers over my cheek, and I leaned closer, moaning at the feel of his skin on mine.
I blinked up at him, a bit dazed. All I could focus on was the feel of his hand on my arm and the lovely buzzy hum in my head. I’d forgotten what he was talking about before he was halfway finished with his sentence. I opened my mouth to ask, but what came out instead was “Your eyes are like the moon.”
He jerked back, his expression becoming one of abject horror. “Oh, fuck.”
I giggled, having no idea why he was so upset. His too-handsome face swum before me, and I couldn’t tell if it was him or me who was moving. I reached out to steady myself, and my hands landed on his chest.
“No, don’t,” he said, trying to inch away from me. “I don’t know how it works.”
“You’re so angry.” I laughed.
