“And then?”
“We find the murderer and set your brother free.”
Unspoken, echoing, was the question:And after that?But she said nothing, her fingers gripping my hip. Neither of us uttering promises that could be broken.
Tomorrow was a new and unknown day. Today had been difficult enough without worrying about where I would be, where she would be—wherewewould be—tomorrow. I needed to think through some things, while others I didn’t want to face at all.
Some thingsdidneed to be said, however. “High Lady Steelcrest made a list. My father is trying to locate two men on it.”
“And the rest of the visit?” she asked hesitantly.
“She was her normal, lovely self.”
“She didn’t...do anything?”
I laughed darkly. “She can’t do anything.”
“Oh.”
She was silent, but her curiosity was palpable. “What do you want to know, Marietta?”
She ran two fingers along my unmarked wrist, then slid her protection token off to touch her marked one. She pressedlightly to one of the stars and the push echoed, the sensation looping to me then back to her. Her breath caught. “So many things. My exhaustion is gone. And this—does the vow mark feel this way for everyone?”
“No.” I pushed at the knot of the vow, tracing where it had moved from a more guarded place to one nestled closer to my heart. “It depends on the relationship between the caster and the spelled.” A horrible thing, to be on the receiving end of a bad mark. “And your exhaustion is gone because we...shared magic. Shoring up weak points and smoothing out vulnerabilities is part of the loop. The feedback between two people can grow so strong that weakness disappears altogether. Or so they say.”
She swallowed. “Confluence.”
The complete and permanent weaving between two people. “Yes. Profound shared power. That was not this.” Not yet. The thought should have scared me more.
“Most don’t choose it. Not even the power couples in the gilded. They choose a slighter merging instead.”
“It’s a true vow. Unbreakable. Most people find merging more than adequate for high level power transfers—and they can be done with multiple people.” Not so confluence.
She stroked my wrist. “When did you start?”
“Start what?”
“Doing this.” She pressed the stars on her own again, sending another throb through us both. I grew hard with it—with the desire to press into her and complete the circuit.
I drew two fingers along her leg. Her breath caught, but she captured my fingers before I could continue.
“Not that part. When did you start, and how did you get to the point where people would spend ten thousand gold for your services or offer you three future favors?”
I ran my fingers along her side and stared at the ceiling, willing my body back under control. That hadn’t been thequestion I thought she would ask. I didn’t know if it was an easier or harder question to answer, the topic dancing along the edge of the darker issue.
“It didn’t start with ten thousand gold or the favors.”
She nodded, waiting for me to continue.
“I ran from the Steelcrest estate, as I’m sure you’ve deduced. Took Lucian with me.” I took a breath. “We hid in Gildon for a while. We had nothing to our name, but we had contacts, knowledge. I started with a smile and the comprehension of how to work with the different classes. Desperation breeds other types of knowledge as well. Something that was very useful at the Steelcrest estate and later.”
Darkness hovered at the edges, but it was lighter than it had been, less thick.
“I did a few favors, introduced people who could help each other, that type of thing. I didn’t realize how useful that talent was or what I could do with it until later.” My fingers skimmed her hip. “I had earned some money by then, a lot of contacts. I took a chance and charged fifty gold to a man who could well afford to pay. He did. It was the beginning. I just kept moving up. Kept growing.”
I trailed my fingers over her stomach.
“Soon I was able to easily charge whatever I needed. I had the network in place to get nearly anything done or discovered.”
