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The person in the clearing wasn’t Odette, but it was an assassin. She stood near a bush, picking berries. The youngest. The girl who had pretended to be a servant in his family's household for months. Zoya always spoke of her with a spark of sadness and more than a little hate.
She jumped when she saw him, looking like a fawn about to be devoured by a wolf.
Rothbart had no compassion for her. He refused to deal with this one. “Go get Odette.”
The girl nodded and scurried off.
Rothbart paced around the clearing while he waited, rubbing the raised spot over his chest where the swan sigil resided under his skin. Even through his robes and cloak the rigid edges scraping over his palm.
He was glad he’d worn the sigil that night of the assassins’ attack. His mother had been a powerful sorceress. The swan was the symbol of her line, and she had passed down the protective charm to Rothbart. For most of his life, he’d worn it as a reminder of his mother, but it had proved more than useful against the assassins.
Taking half of the sigil was rash. But it was the only way to protect himself from the swans, ensuring that if they killed him they’d be cursed forever. But it had also tied him to Odette, the one who carried the other half. During that first hour, when he had placed the sigil inside of them both, he could have extracted it safely and stopped the curse. But now, removing it from either of them was impossible.
He’d risked it all by placing half the charm under his skin, and if he lost Odette, he’d lose everything.
At least as the caster, he didn’t have the same requirements for breaking the swan curse that Odette did. It wasn’t Rothbart that was cursed.
A rustling of the brush brought him to a standstill.
He turned. Odette stood at the edge of the clearing, the leaves framing her figure as if she was some goddess of the woods.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“You know what I want.”
Her eyes narrowed as she stared defiantly up at him, her gaze as shadowed as the elegant ebony swoop that bent along her brow. The mark of the swan curse.
The skirts of her dress clung to her legs, the wind rustling her dark curls that fell around her shoulders. His hands drew into fists as he glared back at her, not to be drawn in by her seeming unthreatening appearance. Taking in the violence in her expression. An anticipation sparked in him, so tantalizing it burned on his tongue. Every encounter with her was like going off to war. And for some reason, he couldn’t get enough of it.
He despised the way his skin heated around her. The way every part of him was aware of her when she was near. The sway of her hips, her lithe body moving like a predator, silent and stealthy. The way his mind kept wondering what she looked like under that thin white gown.
She was beautiful. Beautiful and deadly, as all lovely things were.
Rothbart hated her.
And wanted her.
Which made him loathe her even more.
“What will it be, Odette?” he found himself growling, his voice coming out low and gruff.
She let out a sharp hiss, but then her shoulders lowered and her battle ready stance softened. “We will help you.”
His heart skipped a beat, and he took a step toward her. “You will tell me everything?”
She cast him a glance that rivaled that of the queen he just met with, as ifshewere grantinghima favor, instead of doing what she had to in order to save her own skin. “We will tell you what we know.”
Chapter 5
Odette
“That’s all?” Rothbart demanded. The disappointment on his face bothered Odette more than it should have.
The six other assassins sat at the edge of the pond in their white dresses while Odette and Rothbart stood in the midst of them. To his credit, he didn’t seem at all nervous to be surrounded by a gathering of elite killers. Although perhaps she shouldn’t be surprised, considering that if they murdered him they’d be stuck as swans forever.
“The knowledge that this was going to be our highest paying job doesn't help?” Odette asked.
“I already deduced that the killer must have means.” He stalked around the small space like a caged animal. “And I suspected you were targeting my sister. I was hoping you’d give me something more.”
