Gisele giggled, but Cora simply rolled her eyes. “Desperate much?” she muttered, earning a warning glare from Gisele. Maiya snorted a laugh.
James narrowed his eyes at Cora, then returned his gaze to Gisele. “Come with me tomorrow.”
Gisele chuckled. “He’s already in love with me,” she whispered to her friends.
Cora had other words to describe him. “He’s a creep.”
“He knows nothing about you,” Maiya added.
Gisele lifted chin. “You two are just jealous.”
“I know what would make you want to come with me,” James said, drawing their attention back to him. “If I showed you what I have waiting for you back at camp, you’d be impressed. And I promise you, there’s more where that comes from at our next stop. It would blow your mind.”
“Is that so?” Gisele waggled her brows, her gaze dipping to the surface of the pool that hid his bottom half. “I like having my mind blown by a handsome man.”
“It would blowallof your minds.”
That earned a sharp scowl from Gisele, but Cora gave a dark laugh. “I doubt that very much.”
“Have you ever seen a unicorn?”
Gisele’s expression turned perplexed as she whispered to her friends, “Is he still talking about what I thought he was? He’s referring to his…”
“If so,” Cora said, barely able to smother her laugh, “I daresay it’s a little lacking in girth.”
“I’m being serious,” James said, tone affronted. “Have any of you seen a unicorn before?”
“No one’s seen a unicorn, James,” Gisele said. “They’re fae creatures. They went extinct with the dragons and sprites and all the other mythical fae nonsense.”
“You’re wrong,” James said, eyes hard. “If I could show you…” He snapped his mouth shut, then turned his back on the girls with a shake of his head.
“Do you have any clue what he’s talking about?” Maiya asked.
“He never mentioned unicorns before.” Gisele cast a bewildered glance at her lover. “If he had, I probably wouldn’t have agreed to meet him here. He might be out of his mind.” The girls fell into a fit of stifled laughter, only to have it broken by a bellowing sound. They went quiet, whirling to face the entrance to the tunnel.
The sound came again, clearer this time. “James!” It was a male voice. Although it was distant, it echoed through the tunnel.
James cursed under his breath and scrambled out of the pool. “I wasn’t expecting them to notice I’d left,” he muttered. From the corner of Cora’s eye, she could see him shoving his legs unceremoniously into his trousers, then hastily donning his shirt and coat.
Again, Cora was reminded of the sigil, and of the fact that James’ companions undoubtedly belonged to the duke as well. And they were close. So close. She breathed deeply to reel in that itch for revenge, forcing it to dissipate. In its wake, something far more pressing remained—a sensation that made the skin prickle behind her neck.
A clairsentient warning.
Fully dressed, James raced to their pool and planted a kiss on the side of Gisele’s forehead. “I’m sorry our rendezvous is cut short but I must get back. Stay here for a while. Don’t…don’t come out yet.” With that, he stormed into the tunnel and out of sight.
Gisele stared after him. “What was that about?”
“I don’t know.” Cora rose from the pool and marched over to her clothes, her pulse kicking up. “We should go, though.”
“Why?” Gisele pouted. “There’s still wine left.”
Maiya didn’t hesitate to follow after Cora. She pulled her shift over her head. “Is it…a feeling?”
Cora nodded. “I don’t know if it means anything, but…I think we need to leave.” She was a little ashamed that she couldn’t elaborate. With offensive skills taking such a high place in her priorities, she’d neglected training her Art defensively. She knew how to shield, how to extend her senses to read others’ emotions, but there was so much more to clairsentience that she hadn’t valued enough to train. Ways to analyze feeling and sensation and know exactly what each subtle difference meant. For all she knew, she could be overreacting. Regardless, the skin continued to prickle at the back of her neck, bringing with it a dark and hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach. She at least knew enough to consider it a sign of danger.
“Oh, all right,” Gisele said, reluctantly leaving the pool and meandering over to her pile of discarded clothes.
Cora had on her shift and petticoats. She bent down to retrieve her bodice?—
