“My sister betrayed our father!” My fiancé’s fury blazes through the air, catching on the leftover fumes of Patchenkov’s pungent cologne.
Vance folds his lips tight to rein back a retort. “Then you’ll be happy to learn that your general isn’t plotting your downfall.”
“Of course he’s not plotting my downfall!” Konstantin rages, ripping his hand from mine to toss it in the air in exasperation.“He hates my enemies with a vengeance that surpasses even mine.”
I bite the inside of my cheek to keep quiet on the matter. Even though I have no reason to doubt Salom, I can’t help but think of Costa Regio. He was loyal to the Crows…until he wasn’t.
“Please get out of here,” Konstantin growls, pulling out a chair and dropping onto it. “And make sure my general never finds out that Aodhan sent you to spy.”
Vance nods. As he makes his way toward the door, he paints the sigil for invisibility on his forehead and melts back into oblivion, and then he paints another sigil to slip through the door.
Konstantin sits and reaches for me, easing me onto his lap.
He winds his arms around my middle and nestles his face in the crook of my neck. “Stay with me until Aodhan arrives?”
I twist my fingers through his hair. “Of course.”
He inhales deeply, and then his head is rearing back. “What the fuck happened to your arm?”
“Nothing.”
“I smell blood.”
“It’s just a scratch.”
He gently props my arm up and parts my leather sleeve with two fingers. “Who fucking scratched you?”
“I’ll heal in no time.”
“That’s not what I asked!” Clouds of rage gather in his expression. “If this is Sofiya’s doing, I will?—”
“You’ll do nothing. You’ll preserve her as a mole.” I pull my arm out of his grip, then palm his ticking cheek and press a kiss to his rigid lips. And I don’t pull away until his mouth has softened and other parts of him have hardened.
After a stretch of tranquility, he disconnects our mouths. “I know you want to go home, but could you stay in Glace a while longer?”
“When does winter commence?”
“True winter? In two months’ time.”
“Then I’ll stay for a few more tomorrows.”
The relief that washes over him is so potent, it seems to drain him of anger. “Thank you.” He kisses my throat, then murmurs another hoarse, “Thank you.”
I skim his ear, making him shudder. “You have a train behind the vault door?”
“Are you trying to seduce state secrets out of me, Miss Ríhbiadh?”
“Absolutely.” I smile.
With a devilish grin of his own, he stands and sets me on my feet, and then he tugs me around the glass table, spinning the metal wheel with a flare of magic. The vault’s locking pins disengage with a series of soft metal clanks. Another bolt of air makes the heavy door groan on its thick hinges.
As we step over the raised threshold, Konstantin gestures to the dusky tracks that gleam like twin blades against the dark earth beneath, and the long chrome tube sitting beside them on another row of tracks.
“My grandfather built this escape hatch during his reign and filled it with sleighs on wheels. That’s where my father first got the idea for trains. I used to fight him on the construction of the tunnel system because of the toll it took on the human workers, but I’m the first to admit that it was visionary.”
“Where does this tunnel lead?”
“To a top-secret hub inside one of our mountains.”
