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My heart began to beat faster as a stone dropped into my stomach.
I wasn’t foolish enough to ignore every possible sign…the bite, the prophecy, the fact that my magic didn’t work on her. Usually, that would mean a mating bond, but there was one critical problem: mates always, always, had comparable power levels, or the more powerful partner would kill the other. That was half the reason that blood sharing had become so taboo and why Bael had nearly drained Lonnie by sheer accident. Especially powerful Fae always formed bonded groups to share the burden of strength. None of my family could ever find true happiness, but if we could, we would never have been able to bond anyone as weak as a human without killing them.
Maybe it was just the dust, I told myself. I was out of my mind, and she did have my blood in her system…maybe that’s all it was.
“Where did all this come from?” I demanded of the madam, wanting to get all the information I could out of her before she lost her mind at Fort Warfare.
“We produce it here,” she said, sounding slightly proud.
I was going to be ill. They produced it and then drugged patrons and possibly now were smuggling this shit out of the city in the hulls of standard trading vessels.
On the floor, Lonnie moaned, and every hair on my body stood on end. I couldn’t wait here and interrogate Phillipa Blacktongue. Not now. The problem was how to make sure she didn’t leave this room until I could send someone back to retrieve her.
Stepping around the desk, I gave the madam a cold look. “Come here.”
Her back straightened, and when she walked, it was with clear discomfort, like she did not like taking orders. Months ago, I might have enjoyed this—breaking someone like Phillipa Blacktongue—but now, all I could think about was the whimpering woman on the floor and how this was not at all what I’d meant when I said I wanted her surrender.
I picked Lonnie up, cradling her in my arms, and immediately, a barrage of emotions flooded me. This could not work—I couldn’t touch her like this, or she’d ruin me all over again. I put her back down, but at least this time, she stayed on her feet.
Phillipa had watched us the entire time without a word, and now, I smiled at her, pleased, finally, that I’d thought of a punishment to fit the offense. “Get on the floor and lick all that dust off the carpet.”
She widened her eyes at me, and for a moment, it looked like she was considering it, not because I was demanding but because she thought we were going to stay here and watch. “All of it, Your Highness?”
“All of it. Now.”
I waited just long enough to make sure she was complying before I turned my back, ushering Lonnie toward the door. The key Blacktongue had used was still in the lock, and I snatched it, locking the door behind us just as the madam began to scream.
She might not need to go to Fort Warfare after all. A day or so alone in the room with no one to alleviate her mind-numbing lust would drive the effects of the dust from pleasant to hostile. She’d be madder than my uncle Penvalle when she emerged, if she managed to survive at all without tearing herself to sheds.
* * *
I lickedmy lips as Lonnie and I stepped out of the office into the hall. I could still taste her blood there, and I was sure it was still visible on my face from the looks I was getting. It wouldn’t matter if I hadn’t made sure everyone knew who we were—who she was.
Lonnie might not realize it, but she’d become equally recognizable when put in the right framing. Without a crown and out of the capital, most might not realize who she was, but the two of us together? We were about to be fighting an information war as much as a physical one.
This morning, the most important thing in my life was getting the information that would lead us back to Ambrose. Now, everything had narrowed to a point around the limp human woman hanging off my arm. I hardly gave a fuck that I’d only bought Cross five minutes.
The afflicted could destroy the continent.
My brother could have the damned castle.
Let the world burn.
The bar had grown too crowded, the upstairs brothel leaking downstairs into the main floor of what should have been advertisement only, and the scent of sex and noise of pleasure was making it no easier to focus. Still, I shook my head, forcing some reason back into my mind, and dragged Lonnie toward the nearest door.
“Scion?”
The sound of my own name startled me, and I looked down to find her staring up at me through wide, unfocused eyes. “What?”
“Carry me. These boots hurt.”
I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes. “I can’t. You must walk on your own.”
“Why?” She grinned.
“Because I don’t want to touch you too much like this.”
“But isn’t that what you love to do? You and Bael both, all you princes just love to drag me around.”
