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“Yes.” The resonance of his deep voice comforts me like a warm blanket of caramel. He puts his hand to the small of my back, the heavy weight of an anchor in the mess that today has become.
Darnell doesn’t take the obvious hint. “The armor you held earlier… where’d you get it?” He stands in my path, and I answer before Leander can impale him on a horn.
“Tauren the blacksmith.” I don’t offer more information.
Still, the warlock doesn’t move. “It seems odd that the attack targeted you. Makes me wonder if anyone knew you’d be at the armorer.”
“Bess suggested she see Tauren,” Leander answers.
Darnell makes an annoying clicking sound with his tongue. “Seems you might want to question your head heifer about any involvement she had in this fiasco.” He circles his finger to indicate the shattered sky, the smashed maze, the open ground. “Of course, you would know best, sire.” His tone twists the title into an insult.
“No,” I say. “Bess wouldn’t hurt me.” I refuse to believe it. Sure, she’d been adamant about me coming here, but we’re friends.
Leander shakes his head. “Bess doesn’t have access to magic. Unlike you, Darnell.”
The warlock lifts a shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. “True, but who knows what allies she has made in other dimensions? As the head of your staff, she has access to the portals for receiving household shipments. No one else does.”
I shoot a look at my minotaur, willing him to tell Darnell that he’s wrong, that somehow this was an accident and not a malicious attack. That the warlock has his witchy wires crossed.
“Why were you here, Darnell?” Leander asks instead. “You mentioned earlier that you wouldn’t be at the market, yet here you were when things went wrong. Explain yourself and what business you have with Belaya. I won’t have you hurting her.”
What? I hadn’t seen either Darnell or Belaya earlier. Of course, I’d been distracted with all the new people, games, flavors, and pretty wares.
Darnell shrugs again. It’s so irritating how he doesn’t commit even to a full lift and drop of both shoulders. “I found Belaya wandering unaccompanied and figured you would want someone with her. She’s crazy, not crippled.”
His horribly offensive descriptions make me so mad that the red of my face must match my hair. What century is this douchewaffle from? The nerve of that son of a—
Before I can say anything, Leander commands Darnell to stop, using his king voice that makes me think about asking him to boss me around in the bedroom with the same sternness. “Don’t speak of my people that way unless you want me to allow others to insult you. Now, remove yourself from my match’s path or I’ll remove you.” The menace in his voice makes me shiver, though not the scared kind. No, he’ll protect everyone he considers his. And right now, I’m happy that includes me.
Taking Leander’s arm, I sashay past Darnell like an empress, despite my ruined dress and flopping ripped sandals. Oggie hisses at the warlock, and I scoop up my demon kitten. Never mind that he can probably fend off a hundred warlocks. I cuddle him close and my minotaur closer.
The click of Leander’s hooves on the broken ground and the swish of my tattered silk soothe my nerves. I don’t want to admit how Darnell rattled me. Leander and I will return to my room together to avoid me getting lost in the castle. Then, I can see about working on my worries in a way that will be far more seductive and hopefully productive for the realm.
When he stops outside my room, I debate the best way to lure my match inside, except he cocks his head, his horns scraping the door. “Someone’s coming through magically.” He pauses with his hand on the knob, looking at me. “Were you expecting company?”
“I don’t have sorcerer friends.” I crowd behind him, not ready to face death again today. “You first.”
He charges inside, ready to do battle. I wait in the hall, letting Leander deal with whatever problem lurks in my room.
Theo’s angry voice has me jolting. “Explain why I shouldn’t invoke the penalty clause and pull your match out now, minotaur.”
11
LEANDER
“It’s been a hell of a day,” I tell Theo. “And you have no justification for breaking the contract and stealing my match from me.” The dealing demon would have plenty of reasons if Meg or I had told him about the market, but we haven’t.
“No justification?” Theo booms through the mirror. For a moment, his human glamour slips, leaving an angry demon with horns as big as mine staring back at me. “You must be joking. I felt the disturbance in your realm what had to have been hours ago, your time. I’ve attempted to contact Meg nonstop, and no one has answered my calls.”
“She’s unharmed.” I force the lie past the lump that has been stuck in my throat since I watched her fall into a crack in my world. “There was an accident at the market today.”
“Is that what you call the seismic shift that set off every sensor I have monitoring your realm? Shit, Leander, I knew your world was unstable, but I can’t let a match stay—”
Meg rushes into the room, lovely in her fury, even dressed in torn rags with the damn winged cat tucked under her arm. “You can’t make me leave. We still have time on our contract.” Dirt mars her cheek, covering her adorable freckles, and I want to rub the filth away with my thumb before kissing her for refusing Theo.
In the mirror, the dealing demon fortifies his glamour, appearing all handsome human and hiding the pointy ears and red skin. “What happened to you?” he asks my mate, and I wince. There’s no way she can answer that won’t have him teleporting her out of here.
“I fell,” she says.
