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Kieran opened his mouth, then closed it. He started to turn away but then faced me. “You know I have questions about this, right?”
I sighed. “I do.”
“I’m going out on a limb and assuming she was unguarded.”
I shot him a droll look. “You’d assume correctly.”
Once more, he appeared as if he didn’t know what to say. “How? Why? What in the—?”
“I’m guessing she snuck out,” I cut him off. “And based on how far she got, I imagine this wasn’t her first time.”
“What in the hell was she doing at the Red Pearl?” Kieran asked.
Surprise flickered through me as a bird shrieked from somewhere above us. “That’s the question you’re going to ask? Not why we’re standing here without her?”
“Oh, I’m getting to that question next, but I’m just trying to wrap my head around why the untouched Maiden was in a private chamber at the Red Pearl, a known gambling den and brothel.”
She’d come to that chamber to learn what pleasure felt like.
She’d gone there tonight to live.
I still found that courageous and boldly innocent. And it was also private. Intimate enough that I couldn’t share it with anyone. Not even Kieran.
“That, I cannot answer,” I said, and Kieran’s eyes narrowed. “She just walked right into the chamber. I don’t know if she knew I was there.”
Kieran was quiet for a moment. “Is it possible she was expecting someone else to be there or went into the wrong room?”
Based on her inexperience—the innocent and hesitant but very eager responses—I didn’t think she was there to meet anyone in particular. I could be wrong, though. After all, I’d obviously been wrong about a few things regarding the Maiden.
“I don’t know.” I scratched my fingers through my hair. “Wasn’t like my presence there was known to many.”
Kieran appeared to think that over. “Well, there are only a couple of reasons why she would be there, and I doubt she would be willing to risk coming face-to-face with a guard. It had to be coincidental.”
I observed him, watching the corners of his lips turn down. “Except you don’t believe in coincidences.”
“Do you?”
“There’s always a first time.”
He shook his head. Another moment passed. “Why didn’t you take her, even with the risks involved?”
A muscle flexed at my jaw. “Because if I did, I would have had to quiet her. Used compulsion. And that wouldn’t have lasted long enough to get her out of the city.”
Kieran eyed me. “You sound entirely too reasonable.”
I did.
And yet, I didn’t.
Because that wasn’t my only reason.
It was also the fact that if I had taken her, she likely would have seen it as some sort of punishment for breaking the rules of the society the Ascended fostered and for stepping out of the cage I was no longer sure she willingly submitted to.
And for some reason, allowing her to have those all-too-brief moments wasn’t something I was willing to taint.
At least, for now.
NECESSARY SUPPLIES
Emil Da’Lahr was a motherfucker.
One either enjoyed being in his presence or spent the entirety of that time plotting various ways to murder him, something I truly believed brought Emil a perverse level of joy.
Either way, I routinely alternated between those two states of being.
But when push came to shove, the auburn-haired Atlantian had my back, and I had his. He was loyal, as quick with a sword and dagger as he was with his retorts, and although he had jokes for days, he was a beast if crossed.
He was waiting for us on the bank of a quiet lake nestled deep within the Grove, seated on a flat boulder.
And Emil wasn’t alone.
Crouched at his feet was a large, silver-and-white wolven. He rose upon our approach, nearly as tall as the boulder Emil sat upon. The wolven’s size alone would’ve stopped the heart of any mortal upon sight, so he would’ve traveled as a mortal, but I bet he’d shed that form the moment he could. None of the wolven liked to remain in their mortal forms for long stretches of time, even if it was by choice or forced by a situation.
“Arden,” I acknowledged, smiling.
The wolven trotted from Emil’s side, brushing against Kieran’s legs first and then coming to nudge my hand. I ran my fingers through the fur between his ears as Emil stood and gave an overly elaborate, sweeping bow.
“You’re not going to greet me with that handsome smile of yours?” the auburn-haired Atlantian asked as he straightened. “Flash those dimples?”
“Not now.”
Arden let out a low huffing noise that sounded like a laugh.
Emil pressed a hand to his chest. “You wound me.” He paused. “My Prince.”
I shot him a narrowed-eye glare, and the man’s smile deepened.
“Sometimes, I really think you have a death wish,” Kieran muttered under his breath.
Everyone who met Emil thought that.
Chuckling, Emil leaned back against the boulder. There was no sword on his hip. Dressed as he was in the dull brown breeches of a Solis commoner, a sword would’ve drawn too much attention. Still, I knew he had an armory of weapons beneath the plain black coat.
