“Things. Are. Wild.” Amma dropped down beside him, pushing a drink across the small table that she explained was mead made from sweet tree sap. She fell immediately into a diatribe about the locals. Apparently, the apple harvest wasespecially good in the last season, one of the Palmers had married a Thornton, putting an end to a decades-long family feud, no one had heard from the Rimespelts in about a week which was odd since they were usually so social, and the litany of people having affairs was seemingly unending.
Damien listened, but he also stared, watching the curve of her mouth when she snickered, the darting of her tongue with a particularly tawdry bit of information, the expressiveness of her brows when she playacted being shocked as she delivered a twist in her tale. All of it amounted to very little, but that wasn’t the point. They had been together all day, they had walked streets arm-in-arm, they had shared a meal, they had conspired without immediate, impending danger, they had laughed, and Amma was happy.
“And of course there’s a rumor about skeletons down south, but no one’s that worried about it.” Amma chuckled and took a long drink, but when she pulled the stein away, she looked somber. “And I realize none of that really helps us at all.”
“No, it does,” he said quickly. “There was that bit about the apples, and that’s probably something?”
Amma shook her head. “I didn’t even find someone I thought could be trusted to ask about the temple, let alone that star chart.”
“Amma, what you’ve done—” Damien swallowed, thickness in his throat. “You’ve no idea how helpful you’ve been.”
She shrugged and drained the rest of her mead. “I’ll get us another.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” He put a hand on her stein, keeping her from returning to the bar. “You don’t hold your alcohol well.”
“How would you know?” She smirked at him, leaning in, and he simply stared back at her, waiting. Her grin faltered. “How would you know, Damien?”
He considered her, the intensity in her gaze as nerves pricked at the edge of it, and decided it would do little harm in telling her the truth. “After we stole the Lux Codex, you got so drunk I nearly had to carry you to bed, though I’m not surprised you don’t remember.”
She swallowed, sitting back, clearing her throat. “No, I remember that. Sort of. I remember the headache after anyway.”
He cocked a brow. “You remember how inquisitive you were?”
Amma wasn’t looking at him, her interest suddenly in Vanders as he chewed through a crust of bread on the table. “Maybe.”
“Go on, then, regale me.”
Amma’s mind was working, he could practically see it, and she tried to take another drink, but there was nothing left in her tankard. Just like back in that tavern. Adorable. She scrunched up her nose at him. “It couldn’t have been that bad.”
Damien hid his grin behind his own stein. “No, I suppose it wasn’t. That time you only asked to kiss me.”
Her eyes went wide, color flaring in her cheeks. “No, I didn’t,” she insisted as if he’d suggested something much more salacious. “Not back in Faebarrow. Youhatedme.”
“I never hated you, Amma.” Damien scoffed at the idea. “And really, your simple request—which I did not oblige, by the way—was nothing compared to the karsts. You remember that vivid dream you had in the vampire’s den?”
The offense chased itself off her face, and her features went all mushy as she giggled. “Oh, yeah, I definitely—wait, how doyouknow about that?”
He tipped his head to either side, reveling in her surprise.
“Was it…was itnota dream?”
“Well, you did come to my chamber.”
“Okay?”
“Wearing a very revealing dress.”
“Uh huh?”
“You climbed yourself onto my lap.” He grinned deeply at that memory in particular. She hadn’t blinked for a long moment, fingers grasping her stein tightly, and he leaned in. “And you finally did kiss me.”
Amma’s mouth fell open. “But you acted as ifnothinghappened!”
“That was quite the challenge. Especially since you also asked me to do all sorts of other things to you too.”
She covered her face and squealed into her hands. “Oh, my gods, stop it!”
“That’s not what you were saying when you were shoving my hand between your thighs.”
