“The women didn’t try to find you?”
“Oh, they did. I can only imagine their initial response. But the servants’ network takes care of its own sometimes. We hid in Gildon, as I said. I started doing odd jobs, tutoring Lucian. A questionable opportunity fell in my lap, and I parlayed it. It gave me access to grimoires, to knowledge, to cultivation techniques that the gilded keep tight. Eventually I earned enough money, gained enough power, to take revenge—to put their club down. Either by bleeding them dry or ruining them socially. I made sure they stayed ruined and poor...all except the High Lady of Steelcrest and Nightshade, who hid in her veiled kingdom, behind a shield even I couldn’t pierce. I just made sure she stayed there and that every servant on the estate knew they had a way out.”
He absently rubbed the wooden token on the band that I had removed in order to touch the marks that were his. The world shifted as he rubbed the surface and sparked the charm. With what he had just shared...with how the magic of the tokens always felt so familiar...
My fingers curled against his chest as I thought of every tavern, every street corner, every working man and woman I’d seen wearing the plain wooden charms. Protection they could afford. Protection on simple charms that wouldn’t invite a thief.
Protection from people who could bind you with a touch, force a contract, take what they wanted because they had power and you did not.
Powerful people who could do to them what had been done to him.
My throat tightened. At the revelation of what had been hiding in plain sight this entire time. At the scope of it. Not just helping me, not just his network of favors and information—Gabriel was protecting an entire class of people who couldn’t protect themselves.
Protecting them with the same power that I was surrounded by now. His protection. His magic. In his sheets and every part of me he touched.
“You were very brave.”You were magnificent.
“Bravery had nothing to do with it. I survived.” He drew lazy patterns on my back.
“They underestimated you.”
“Most people in the upper classes think anynonor estate-lacking mage can never rise. They deliberately hoard knowledge to make it so. They underestimated you, as well. Practicing the magic that you naturally feel in a place where you are free to do it has made you stronger. You will take them by storm when you return.”
“It is doubtful I will return.” And who would want a partner who could make herself or others forgettable? Society was about golden feathers spread wide.
“They will clutch you against their generous bosom as soon as your brother is released. You’ll be able to have anything you desire as long as you grab it quickly—society is nothing if not fickle.”
“What if I don’t want to grab some fickle fate? It has held me powerless for so long.”
“Take the opportunity when it presents. Always. And societywillpresent one. A marriage proposal or five wouldn’t surprise me. Take the control when you can in a situation where you are otherwise at the whim of others.”
I chewed my lip. “Am I at your whim now?”
His fingers skittered across my back. “Are you?” he asked instead of answering.
I turned my cheek so I could meet his eyes. “Yes, I do believe I am.” I pressed a hand against his chest as he moved to rise. “Bending me to your will is a pleasure I will never deny. Do not read into it what I do not intend.”
His gaze turned unreadable. Had I lost him? The second turned into two. His eyes switched back to the watchful, slightly wary look he had worn for so long, but there was something else there too that I couldn’t read. Trust?
“Then bend me to yours,” he said. “Show me the pleasure you won’t deny.”
I blinked. “I don’t know how.”
“Do you not? Come. Make my body yours, Marietta. Make me obey your will.”
“But…” I bit my lip. “Won’t that be—”
“No. Didn’t you say it is the will that is important? The intention behind the action. Pleasure, not guile? If I put myself in your hands, I trust you to take care of me. When I look in your eyes, I see you too.”
Shock, love, something wild and immense worked up my throat.
“You will go back to society, and things will change, but tonight…tonight is ours.” He rubbed his thumb along my cheek, directing my movement as I leaned in. He abruptly snatched his hand away as if burned. “Do you see? It is hard for me. Second nature to try and take control. Take it away.” He moved beneath me. “Free me.”
Love me.
Everything culminating in this one moment, I reached for him, my hand heavy and trembling.
