Right now, though, he looked like he was regretting every life choice that had brought him here, which simply would not do. I wasn’t about to have my fun cut off early, even when the beer was warm and the food…I glanced at the still-full plate beside me.
Unidentifiable.
“Just so we’re clear,” he muttered, setting the rune-etched cards face down in front of him, “if Anaria kills me when I get back to the palace, I’m haunting you forever.”
“You can’t,” I said, fanning out my cards. “Shifters don’t believe in that sort of thing.” I paused, looking at my hand one last time before I threw five more gold pieces into the center of the table. “Do they?”
“In your case, I think the gods will make an exception.” His mouth twitched. “You’re thirteen kinds of trouble, little one. And I’m out.”
Two card sharks sat in with us—Kellan and Maelis, if memory served—both with fast hands and too-bright smiles. The kind of people who’d sell your bones as souvenirs to any unwitting tourist as relics of the Old Gods.
I laid my cards down. “Three moons and a crown,” I waggled my eyebrows. “Top that, and all of this is yours.” I indicated the absolute mountain of gilder beside me.
Dead. Fucking. Silence.
Kellan’s chair scraped back. “That’s…no. That’simpossible.”
Maelis stared at me like she was deciding where to stab first, like I hadn’t already seen that blade half hidden up her sleeve. “Seven hands in a row. Nobody is that lucky. Nobody.”
“I’ll take that as…I win, youlose.” I scooped the gold toward me with both hands. The pile was gorgeous. Obscene. Clinking like a symphony of infinite possibilities.
“And maybe,” I added sweetly, “you’re just really bad at this.”
“Oh, dear gods,” Tavion made a low sound that could’ve been laughter or a prayer not to get him killed. “Ariel.”
“Yes?”
“Stop antagonizing the lowlifes.”
I blinked at him. “Why would I ever do that?”
“Because I’m not paying your bail,” he warned. “Again.” His gaze lifted over my head, keen wolf eyes squinting through the smoke before a look of relief washed over his face.
“Oh, thank the gods, I’m saved.”
The tavern fell silent, every bit of conversation disappearing as two sets of booted footsteps rumbled behind me across the soft wood floor, people folding deeper into their cloaks, hoods pulled up to hide faces. My heart sank.
“Youdidn’t,” I hissed at an unrepentant Tavion. “I was just starting to have fun.”
“You were just starting a bar fight and I have no wish to get my nose broken.Again.” Looking past me at the two approaching males, Kellan’s pupils dilated down to pinpricks, Maelis clutching her grubby glass like a lifeline. Or another weapon.
“Go ahead,” Tavion jerked his head toward the backdoor. “You two still have time to make it out in one piece. Better hurry before things get ugly.”
They were gone before I started stacking my winnings, victory tasting a bit sour, now that my night was ruined.Unless…
I whirled around, a smile plastered on my face that could melt the coldest, more hardened heart. “Finally. Tavion said you’d be coming. Now we can really have some fun.”
Raziel and Zorander filled the entire one-room tavern, heads brushing the beams, shoulders blocking out the firelight. Two big, dark-haired males every single patron in here recognized, because unlike us, they hadn’t made any attempt to disguise who they were, and the whispers were already starting.
Well, fine. I was done anyway.
I scooped the gold into a leather bag at my side.
Raziel stalked to one end of our table, Zor the other, murder in their eyes, thankfully not directed at me, their sweet, innocent charge, who’d been dragged out and corrupted by… “Tavion Montgomery, we’ve fucking talked about this.”
I set my elbow on the table, looking all innocent as I took a sip of my shitty beer.
Tavion didn’t flinch. “Evening. Didn’t expect to see you two tonight.”
