“Collins!” Marco crowed, and clapped the boy on the back. “What brings you out on such a fine day, eh?”
Puffing out his chest, the young man adjusted the collar of his uniform. All crisp edges and ironed lines. “I’m here with a message for Captain Rawlings, soldier,” he said, eyes straight ahead. “Step aside.”
“Well, as you might be able to see,” Marco replied, “his pending lordship is otherwise occupied. If there’s a message I can pass along—”
“I need to speak with Captain Rawlings!” Collins all but howled, cheeks pink. Dappled with anxious sweat. “It’s an emergency! I haven’t the time to fuss with low level footmen, peasant, now do as you’re told, and move aside!”
“Low level”—Marco spluttered, hand to heart, he staggered back as if dealt a deadly blow—“peasant?”
Tension ignited at my back. In my blood. And with hardly a moment’s hesitation, the captain was up and moving, barking, “Report,” at the boy as he surged forward.
Leaving me coiled inches from Carina. No visible tether to keep me in check, but the one I’d never be able to escape.
My head tilted to the side.
Carina’s chin tucked back. A tiny flinch that might have gone unnoticed by one not watching the way I was watching. Seduced by the delicate thrashing of her pulse. Hungry for any fleeting scrap of information that couldn’t be gleaned by gifts I’d sold to my enemy.
She remembered.
Our last encounter.
How easy it had been for me to swallow her mundane, tasteless energy.
Somewhere deep, packed away in the reptilian part of her brain, where primal fears lurked and the nameless things were banished. Recalled only in the darkest hours.
Even if she couldn’t say why, her hind brain lit up with the knowledge that she sat before a predator far more deadly than she. One who didn’t know the rules of the complicated political games she played, and wouldn’t have followed them anyway.
I wasn’t a player.
I was the renegade.
A healer corrupted by a destroyer.
“He can’t control me forever,” I whispered, and let her see just a hint of my teeth. “You’re hardly worth the effort, but for you”—I wet my lips with a slow, ridiculous sweep of my tongue—“for you, Carina? I’ll make an exception.”
She scoffed, haughty and bold. But her cheeks paled. Going bloodless the longer she looked.
“Oh, he’ll punish me,” I added in a reedy whisper, watching her without a blink. “I’m sure it’ll be awful, even if it’s just for the onlookers you so love to preform for. But I wonder… do you think he’d kill his famed golden priestess?” I sucked at my teeth. Tongue clicking. “A Caledonian wife with good breeding is a far more… common commodity, after all. Easier to replace, especially when the suitors come to him with the offers and the gifts and the empty wombs thirsty for his seed.”
“You little bitch.”
I hummed, nodding as my lips quirked around a tiny, cruel smile. “I’m learning from an adequate teacher, I suppose. Not the best, certainly. But…” Lifting one shoulder, I shrugged. Already bored with my new toy. “There’s a price for everything, Carina. Even if you can’t afford it.”
The crunch of boots at my back signaled the captain’s return. “It’s time to go, Mila,” he said, a brown, manilla envelope clutched and crumpled in his fingers. A mighty scowl etched deep into the lines of his face.
Carina cleared her throat. Taking several deep breaths, she coughed again, standing in a swirl of elegance that was just slightly unbalanced. “Asher,” she said, straightening her hair, “darling, what’s happened?”
“Urgent business,” he replied without bothering to glance her way. “An emergency at the house. Nothing that concerns you.” He reached for my hand, helping me to stand, as he murmured, “Mila,” beneath his breath.
For one extra long beat, I watched Carina breathe.
And then, with the confidence of one who had no reason to feel shame and cared little for the consequences of her actions, I fell back into my roll as house-broken pet.
I curtsied before the woman I’d marked for death…
… and plucked the bottle of Tritan summer wine from the blanket.
She spluttered, rushing after us as Asher guided me into the coach then followed me in. “Asher!”
