I raised an eyebrow, even though I knew he couldn’t see my face. “Protection? You don’t strike me as someone who’ssafe, my lord.”
“So is that what you want?” he countered. “Safety?”
My brow furrowed slightly. I had never thought about it. I supposed my own safety hadn’t always been at the top of my priority list. I was always focused on answers, on getting what I needed to survive.
“No,” I said. “I…I want tolive. And that doesn’t always mean safety.”
He twisted me in his grasp so I faced him once more. His answering smile was slow and full of dark promises. It felt like I had passed some sort of test.
“Then perhaps wecando something for each other.” He leaned in closer, lips grazing my temple. I suppressed a shudder when he whispered, “I’m hosting another gathering tomorrow night. Something more…intimate.”
The song ended, and he backed away, looking down at me with a gleam in his eyes. “You’ll come, yes?”
I swallowed. “Is that an invitation or a request?”
He slowly reached for my hand. “I won’t offer it a second time, Miss Nyte. You’ll be there.” He placed a kiss on my knuckles, his thumb rubbing across my skin before he released me. “Eleven o’clock. I’ll tell the guards to expect you.”
Triumph glowed in my chest, and I nodded as he melted into the crowd.
I wanted to sigh in relief, but I knew I was still being watched. Knew he’d be listening, waiting for anything he didn’t like. I wouldn’t even let myself find Nox among the guests, as much as I wanted to.Herepresented safety. A tether to my real reason for being here. An anchor to keep me from getting swept up in the heady lust of this music and wine.
I spent the next hour mingling with guests and dancing with strangers, being sure to catch Scarven’s eye once as another man twirled me across the dance floor. It was all a game to him. The thrill of the chase, the power play, the back-and-forth.
This was just the beginning. Asuccessfulbeginning. I was the bait, and he’d taken his first bite, exactly as we’d planned.
But it would take a lot more to reel him in completely. And while I knew what the end goal was, I also knew the inevitable would come.
Because the bait always bleeds first.
32
Nox
The nightmares came back that night.
This time, I was running through the forest with Sage the night we escaped. We were almost to the mountains separating Drakorum and Tenebra, where we could seek safety among the Shadow Wielders. But the moment we started up the mountain, Sage was killed.
The scene played on a loop in my dream—the same thing, every time. Except for the way she died. That was always different. In one dream, she was shot through the heart with an arrow. In another, a sword cut her head clean off. Still another, a pack of wild dogs ripped her limbs from her body.
In each of them, I was forced to watch. My muscles locked, unable to do anything as she was violently murdered formyindiscretion. I felt the searing pain as if it were my own. My throat was raw, my head pounding, my mind weak with anguish as I stood there. Over and over. Helpless.
A couple of times, I thought her dark hair blurred into bright red, but it was gone when I blinked.
The scene started up again. Sage and I sprinted over fallen tree limbs, freedom within sight as we approached the base of the mountain. She ran ahead of me, and I reached out an arm to stopher. A dagger whizzed past my hand and embedded itself in the back of her skull.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“No!” I roared, my claws bursting from my skin.
Tap. Tap. Tap.“Nox,” a voice whispered.
My breath faltered. “Sage?” I called out to her lifeless form, slumped on the ground with blood and bone sticking out from her wound. This…this hadn’t happened before. She neverspoketo me in this dream.
“Nox, please. It’s Devora.” The muffled voice cut through the nightmare like cold water.
My eyes snapped open.
I was in my bedroom at the Keep. The sheets were shredded beneath my claws, blood dripping from my quickly-healing wounds as I bolted upright in bed.
