“I should get back to the kitchen,” Lo said. “I do hope you won’t be causing trouble with Rilla.”
Kurtz looked up from his ale. “What kind of trouble?”
“What kind, indeed?” Lo raised an eyebrow. “She’s waited for you all these years. Always hoped you’d get off the island and marry her.”
“Marry Rilla?” Kurtz had never been the marrying type, but if anyone could have talked him into it, it would have been Loanna, not Rilla.
“You heard me. The day you got back, she stormed over here, furious. Wanted to talk to Mother.”
Kurtz shrank on his chair. He never should have kissed Rilla. No question. Yet things could’ve been worse. He thanked Arman for sending the watcher before disaster had struck.
His fingers drummed against the table. “Rilla and I had a moment. Nothing more. Truth is, I’m not sure how long I’ll be in town, and I wasn’t about to start something I couldn’t finish.”
Liar. That wasn’t at all the way things had gone.
Lo blinked. “Doesn’t sound like you,” she said, “but good. Rilla won’t like it, but she’ll get over it once you’re gone. Enjoy your drink, Kurtz.”
He watched her walk away, feeling raw. He turned back to his drink, only to find Zanna glaring.
“A moment, huh?” she said. “Then I guess Rilla has nothing to blame you for.”
“There’s nothing to blame,” Kurtz shot back. “It was a kiss. She started it as much as I did.”
Zanna pushed her chair back, the scrape sharp in the quiet room. “You play with fire, Kurtz Chazir. Don’t be surprised when you get burned.”
He couldn’t allow this woman to lecture him. “You have lots of rules, Zanna. Too bad none of them teach you to mind your own business.”
“Let’s just agree to finish this mission, then never speak again.”
“Perfect.”
Kurtz grabbed his blackbrew and moved to join Hargis by the fire. The old man greeted him with a warm smile.
“How’s the brew?”
“Delicious, as always.” Kurtz took a long drink, hoping to cool his anger.
Infernal woman. She could gut a man with words—with a look.
Yet when she headed upstairs, he couldn’t stop his gaze from following.
There was something about her.
A man had to be careful with poisonous creatures, he did. Didn’t want to get himself killed, eh?
Chapter 21
Cole
Cole had sung plenty of ballads about Ice Island and the villains trapped within—never once imagining he’d one day ask to be let inside.
He and Kurtz rode toward Cliffwatch, the larger of the two watchtowers guarding the prison. The stone sentinel loomed above, its walls weathered by salt and wind. Beyond it, the frozen sea stretched beneath restless drifts of snow toward Ice Island: a gray stone fortress, half shrouded in fog. No waves lapped the shore, no ships cut through the harbor, only silence and the bitter wind gnawing at Cole’s exposed skin.
“Try and lose the fear behind your eyes, eh?” Kurtz said. “That’ll give you away, it will. You have to believe you’re just a minstrel looking to visit your uncle.”
Cole swallowed hard and nodded. He’d always been a decent playactor, but the sight of the infamous prison had turned him inside out. A minstrel here to see his uncle. That’s who he was. Should be a simple request. Yet the weight of the sword at his hip felt foreign. He should be carrying his lute.
“What if he wants to hear me play?” Cole asked.
