“Izzy?”
A keen man indeed.
“Yes,” I said, and let my form return to my nymph self.
“You’ve gotten good at that in a very short time.” His gaze slid to my grandmother. “But I suspect you had a good teacher.” He rose and bowed to Olinara. “Inamora Eofine,” he said with reverence.
“Always nice to meet a fan,” she said, brushing off the formal greeting. My grandmother’s reputation preceded her, it seemed.
Svokol righted himself. “Rook has been laying low in my residence. I’ll escort you.”
The dwarf led us from his office to a moderately sized house in the nobles’ residence area. I once again hid myself. And while we walked, I marveled at how things had progressed in less than a week. This man had been the one who’d taken me from the human realm. It said a lot that I didn’t think of it as “earth” anymore. I’d been terrified of Svokol then, furious at being kidnapped and taken from my life. I’d been even angrier — certain Svokol had something against me — when he hadn’t stepped in to stop Saldrea from assaulting me in the middle of his class.
But now… I knew the lay of the land. Svokol hadn’t been able to speak out against Saldrea, no one could, not without repercussions. And from everything Rook had said about the man, he seemed like a decent and fair master, if not one who tolerated fools.
And here he was helping me now.
I shook my head at the strange contradictions of this world.
Svokol’s house looked small, but only a small portion of it was above ground. Dwarves lived below the earth, and the main floor of his house was a large and well-lit sitting room for receiving guests, but the rest was underground. We descended into halls exactingly cut from stone, clean and spacious.
We found Rook in a large workout and training room. He was stripped to the waist, sweating, throwing himself at fire-proof practice dummies, striking with fists and fire in equal measure. I’d never seen the man fight, and he seemed to be going all out, working out some deep aggression. When I’d first met him, he’d been steamy and tempting. I’d learned since then that he could be soft and warm and friendly. But this was a new side to him: dangerous and deadly… and damned hot!
As an incubus he probably sensed my momentary spike in arousal. He stopped suddenly and turned toward us with a surprised twitch before we announced ourselves.
“Izzy!” he breathed, and his entire aura shifted from sexy, sweating warrior to sexy, sweating playboy.
I’d reverted to myself once we were safely inside, and his gaze landed squarely on me when he’d turned. A shiver thrilled over his skin, making all the little hairs on his body stand on end… But then he blinked and growled, mumbling something to himself, before shaking his head and looking away. When he looked up again, he made a point ofnotlooking at me.
“Master?” he said, addressing Svokol. “What is this?”
I sensed his unasked question:what isshedoing here?
“Izzy needs a team for dominion. I know you’ve never played, but she wished for you to join her.”
Rook’s jaw dropped, eyes wide: a deer in the headlights.
When he finally blinked himself back to reality, he looked at me again. “You want…?” He tore his gaze off me, back to Svokol. “Won’t that expose you? I can’t go directly against Saldrea. I… we’ll… it’s a death sentence.”
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
“I can talk my way out of it,” Svokol said. “Tell everyone Izzy seduced you.” He eyed Rook and me. “Something tells me that’s not far from the truth. I’ll have to distance myself from you, but only in public.”
Rook seemed heart-stricken to hear that. He really did appreciate his master, it seemed.
“No… I can’t leave you… you’ve been so good… You’ve done so much for me.”
Svokol’s voice and demeanor turned hard, a default for the dwarf. “I have been good to you, and nowI’masking you to do this. Will you denyme?”
Rook was completely taken aback.
I was surprised myself. I had no clue why this dwarf was putting himself out there for me. Though, from what Safir had told me about the man, he had a good heart. He wanted freedom for the dwarves and other races.
“No… master,” Rook said, defeated. “I’ll do it.”
Wow, what a resounding acceptance.
My anger rose. What was it with Rook? Why was he suddenly so distant? Had I done something? Why did I get the feeling he didn’t want anything to do with me? Had myexplosive outburst the other night truly pushed him away? Maybe that was it.
