Understanding dawned on me. “Maz. That’s where you met him. He has the same scar.”
Aiden nodded. “He arrived a few months after me. We shared a cell.”
Suddenly, many things made sense. Why he hated being shackled more than beaten. That he’d been in darker places than the tunnel. Why he and Maz were so close.
I pressed my hand over the scar, the bird in flight. “Did the Dags give you this tattoo after you escaped?”
“Yes. Maz has a bear—the chosen animal of his Yargoth clan—over his scar. It was our way of commemorating our victory in survival.”
I traced the wing tips of the falcon. Aiden sighed deeply into my hair, but he didn’t stop me.
This must be another of his reasons for hating my father. Being imprisoned and forced to work in a mine. Why had they put him there?
And why hadn’t Renwell mentioned the connection? Surely he had noticed during his “thorough” interrogation. He would’ve known what this scar meant, having been to the mine many times.
Unless Aiden was lying.
But something deep in my gut told me he wasn’t.
I couldn’t promise him revenge as he had done for me upon seeing my scars. He’d already avenged the one across my chest. But I wanted to give him something. A moment of peace. As he’d given me.
I leaned forward and pressed my lips to the middle of his scar, inhaling his warm, spicy scent.
His body tensed around mine. His hands fisted in the towel separating our skin.
I pulled back. The dark, hungry look in his eyes made my heart take flight.
“Be careful what you steal, little thief,” he growled. “Or I might take back what’s mine.”
A shiver ricocheted down my spine. My breath turned ragged once more. But this time, it was a wild excitement rather than fear. A desperate desire.
Perhaps destruction wouldn’t feel so terrible with his lips on mine.
Our noses brushed together. Our mouths were a few frantic breaths apart.
A loud crash shattered the moment.
We jerked apart as a clamor of voices entered the bathhouse.
“Do you have to be such a gods-damned bumbler?” a male voice grumbled. “If you broke a single one of my jars?—”
“Eh, quit your griping, old man. Your precious oils are intact. You’ll still smell like a peach in summertime for your wife.”
The men kept sniping at each other as they splashed into the water.
I looked at Aiden and clapped a hand over my mouth to keep a hysterical giggle from bursting out. His eyes brimmed with mirth as he grinned back at me.
He looked so beautiful in that moment it made my heart hurt.
“I should get dressed,” I whispered.
He nodded. “I’ll move to another alcove so we don’t get banished for... touching.” My cheeks burned. “I’ll wait for you outside.”
He gathered his clothes and slipped around the curtain.
I tied my hair into a knot on top of my head and dressed myself in moments. After shouldering the bag full of my dirty clothes and making sure my knives were hidden under my cloak, I stepped out.
Neither of the two men soaking in the pool looked up as I walked past.
