My darkness unfurls, surging to life with unrestrained glee. In this moment, I am the epitome of a femme fatale, I will bring these men to their knees, I—
“I’m ready to fucking bark.”
What...?
“Don’t youdare, Sai,”Ezekial growls. Oh my. It’s not quite a bark but it’s… something.
I can’t let them know I can hear them, but damn, this is going to be hard.
I straighten in my seat, pretending I’ve held the silence, not sat here willing Sai to make good on his words.
They’re all looking at me, waiting, their gazes so intent I can feel where they land—everywhere.
When I lean over the table, they tense, each of them. Their grips tighten on the arms of their chairs, eyes tracking my motion, and I know what they’ll see.
From this angle, Sai will have the clearest view of the fine silver chain, and what’s resting between my breasts. When his eyes dart to it, a pulse of energy rolls across my skin. His gaze locks onto the small, black rock—his power—that I’ve fashioned into a necklace.
“Don’t read into it,” I say, quieter than planned. “It’s a means of escape. That’s all.”
Sai flinches, and I force myself to ignore the cold slice that hits. The awful feeling of regret bubbles, doubling when his gaze loses its glow and flickers away.
Fuck. I didn’t expect to feel likethatwhen I said it.
But I have to keep this up, I have to continue my plan, enact my revenge.
I play my next move, finally placing the small vial at the centre of the table. I don’t say another word as I sink back into my seat, folding my hands in my lap.
They study the vial, the dark green liquid that Kacey hastily made. She said it wouldn’t be as potent as the one I’d ingested, hers hadn’t been spelled by a mage, but it will still have some effect. Even a placebo will work.
“Is that—”
“Truth serum,”Julien answers Sai, but doesn’t look at him.
I’m about to lay out the rules for this game, ready to watch as they frown, refuse, argue over having to take—
Sai reaches out, snatching the vial from beneath Ezekial’s fingers. He grins.“You snooze, you lose.”Then pops off the top and drinks.
I still.
I didn’t expect them to just... drink it. I thought they wouldn’t, that they’d argue, try to manipulate, or persuade me with an alternative so they could feed me more partial truths—
This is fine.
Sai is an enigma, he isn’t like the others. Ezekial was trying toremovethe vial to stop their loose-cannon fae before he did exactly this. Sai just beat him to it. Now Ezekial will logically explain why this isn’t needed, how I can trust them, and—
There’s a soft clinking as Sai rolls the re-capped vial over the table, until it falls off the edge, landing in Julien’s awaiting palm. He studies me briefly, before removing the lid and drinking.
Right, well… Sai and Julien are close. Sai drank, so of course Julien would for moral support. They’ve drank it before, they know the effects, it means nothing. Now, it’ll be thrown away.
But when Julien re-seals it, he doesn’t put it away. He holds the vial out to Ezekial who takes it. Right, now he’ll dispose of it. He’ll say there’s no need for this—
He’s drinking it. He… they…
They don’t even know what it is? Not really, because they didn’t even ask. What if it’s poison? Are they insane? Did they even think about that? They’re immortal, not indestructible.
Ezekial then throws the vial over the table, and Kane catches it in one hand. Shit. Why was that so attractive?
No. Keep expressionless. Lock all feelings down. He won’t drink it anyway. There’s no way. He’ll just put it in his pocket like he did the first time he made me drink—
