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“She’s small to me.” Mios shrugged. His pleased smile had the wolf grunting in displeasure, not that he was wrong. While Ellie must be at least six feet tall, the lion shifter was one of the largest men she’d ever seen.
“Are all lions as massive as you?” Violet asked after taking a healthy swig of her beer.
“Every race has their own unique strengths. But my family, the Lionborn, are larger than most other lion shifters.”
The first throws were exhilarating as people from around the bar started hovering around their table. They were placing bets on whether the lion or the sorcerer would win. Were all these people exchanging money from hand to hand in a vicious cycle that left them all poor?
Violet hated gambling. It was exactly what had got her into this mess with Dargan. Her ancestors had bartered her life away. They’d paid a price for a soul that it wasn’t theirs to give.
Still, she had to admit to herself that seeing Gavin fire that knife with a precision that few people possessed dried up her throat, regardless of how much ale she drank. She clenched her thighs together to ease the ache that built with each thump of the blade hitting the wood. It sounded awfully similar to the way their bed had hit the wall last night while he was inside her, his entire body touching her own. She swallowed and placed her cool fingers over her feverish chest, tracking his moves.
He was good at throwing knives. She hadn’t seen him do it before. He preferred to use a short sword while training or in battle—or sometimes a long one, which worked well for his stature.
He was a much better shot than the wolf and had already beaten Mios in a couple of games. The two rich boys didn’t seem to care about risking their coin. She wondered if she should remind Gavin that he was now a fugitive, and that his family’s money was likely off limits, and his funds couldn’t be so easily replenished.
He took a sip of his drink, licking away the foam that stuck to his upper lip with his thick tongue, and met her gaze across the table. “Are you going to keep staring from all the way over there, or are you going to join in?”
“I don’t play with throwing knives. I aim, and I kill, you know that.” She sauntered over to him, plucking the blade from his fingertips.
“You’re always so serious. Why don’t you let loose today? Have fun for a change and show us—show me—what you’ve got.” His hand snaked around her waist, and he pulled her close enough that the heat of his body burned through her clothes. Meanwhile, the tip of his nose trailed a path of fire across her neck to her ear.
“Or maybe she’s afraid to lose,” Ellie said. She was leaning against the wine barrel beside the table. She hiccoughed loudly and half collapsed on a chair, letting her narrow chin rest on her arm. “Come on, show us what you’ve got!”
Perhaps she should relax a bit. Enjoy herself for a change. She placed the blade in Gavin’s open palm and stepped away. “Fine, I’ll bite. You get one game with me.”
Gavin’s knife cut through the air and lodged halfway in the white circle near the center of the board. Howls erupted in the background, and Ellie’s ale spilled over the rim of her cup and on top of her shoes as she clapped. He turned around with an uninhibited smile. “You think you can best that?”
In her assembly, Violet had been the master of knife throwing. But no one here needed to know that. She reached for her weapon, testing the weight of the handle in her hand without breaking their gaze. “What would I get if I did?”
His eyes sparkled. “Name your price.”
“What a rich man’s thing to say… What if I wanted something that can’t be purchased with gold?” She ignored Elliana’s guffaw and Mios’ laughter and dragged her fingers over his chest. She breathed around the butterflies that took flight in her stomach.
Gavin’s hand rested on top of hers, squeezing lightly. “Now I’m really curious to know what it might be…”
She lifted herself on tiptoes, close enough for her mouth to touch the shell of his ear. “I want all of you.”
“Lame! That can be bought with gold!” Ellie shouted, and laughter surged through the room.
Gavin held his breath, and his eyes lit up as he drank her in. He understood what she truly meant. It was his heart that she was after, fully and unconditionally. With a smile, she turned away from him. Her knife flew across the room with precise strength, hissing through the air before it embedded itself in the center. The force of the impact knocked Gavin’s knife from where it was half-lodged near the center, and it clattered to the floor.
Bullseye.
She turned to him, her smile widening as the room erupted with cheers and howls. Ellie banged her fist on the table, and her chair wobbled on the uneven floor. “Look at that. She has your ass now!”
Gavin’s cheeks were tinged red. He gingerly placed his empty pint on the surface in front of him. Then his arms coiled underneath her hips, and he lifted her up in one fluid motion before his pillowy lips found hers. She rejoiced in the intoxicating taste of his tongue, whimpering when he broke the kiss far too early. “I’m already yours, Violet.”
According to their laws, he was. After last night, the spell that had been cast upon them had been cemented, linking their magic together. They would always be able to find each other from this point on.
“Get out of here, you two!” Mios pushed Gavin with his massive boot, and he stumbled forward, his fingers digging into Violet’s ass as he sought some balance.
“Stay and show us how wild magic-wielders can be.” Ellie cackled at Mios’ face, a croaky sound more reminiscent of an old woman than a young one. The ambiance of the tavern reminded Violet of how things had been in her assembly, once upon a time. Back when she’d thought she had friends, before they’d betrayed her and sold her to the Crows. But the wolves wouldn’t betray each other like that. They weren’t like the sorcerers she’d known.
In this cheerful, wide room, not even the sudden nip of the cold could distract her from her joy. The scent of cooked pork wafted through the air, mixing with the warmer scent of Gavin’s skin. Still, she shivered as a current snaked up from beneath her feet as soon as Gavin placed her on the ground.
The feeling of eyes burning through her prickled at the back of her head. She craned her neck up and around, searching the room for its origin, freezing when she spotted a man by the front door. Everyone’s movements seemed too slow, their voices drowned out by the ringing inside her ears.
The warmth in the air leached from the room little by little, sucked away by the chill of his turbulent magic. His long white hair billowed around his head with a gust of wind. The red cape that hung beneath his large, mangled wings matched the color of Luelle’s tunic. An emissary of the Shadow God.
